Kochi: The state-of-the-art Digital Hub occupying two lakh square feet of built-up space, set up by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), was inaugurated by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here on Saturday.
Housing a design incubator, healthcare incubator, Center of Excellence (CoE) for Mouser Electronics, co-working spaces, design studios, investors hive and an innovation center, the Digital Hub is conceived to emerge as one of South Asia's largest product development centers for technology startups, authorities said.
The digital hub is the latest addition to Startup Mission's Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ) as a global innovation hub for several technology sectors.
"As a destination for designing and prototyping, the hub will be open for international organisations and institutions to build world-class products," KSUM Chief Executive Officer John M Thomas said at a press meet the other day.
The hub has the capacity to support 200 startups, besides the 165 startups hosted in the adjoining Integrated Startup Complex.
"The CoE aims to groom shelter-related ideas and innovations, and will function as a one-stop center for all product-design and development activities for software and hardware components. These include all sectors and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, augmented reality/virtual reality, internet of things and natural language processing," the Startup Mission said in a release.
Initially, the Hub will accommodate 200 startups giving direct employment opportunities to 2,500 talents, KSUM CEO said. "The zone aims to create world-class infrastructure facilities for multi-sector technology incubators to incubate their startups and to support homegrown enterprises," John M Thomas said.
KSUM as the state's 2006-founded nodal agency for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities, has been primarily designated to establish and operate the TIZ as a global innovation incubator hub for various technology sectors. The Zone comprises Incubators, Accelerators, built-up start-up modules, COEs, high-end fabrication labs, R&D lab facilities, office spaces and amphitheatre among other facilities.
