Third ‘Huddle Global’ Begins on Thursday; CM to Inaugurate Asia’s Largest Tech Conclave

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Asia’s largest tech conclave, ‘Huddle Global’, organized by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), will get underway here tomorrow, bringing together startup founders, mentors, industry leaders and heads of government departments, opening up vast partnership opportunities for the startups in the state’s robust ecosystem.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the two-day conclave at The Leela Raviz, Kovalam, at 10 am, and release Kerala Startup Ecosystem Report 2022 on the occasion.

Dr. K M Abraham, former Chief Secretary and Chief Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Dr Rathan U Kelkar, Secretary (Electronics & IT), Government of Kerala, and V K Mathews, GTech Chairman, will attend the inaugural session.

Tamil Nadu IT Minister Mano Thangaraj will address a session on December 16.

More than 3,000 participants, from India and abroad, seeking business, investment, and partnership opportunities will attend the meet.

The conclave offers immense opportunities for the startups to pitch their ideas and products before industry leaders and investors looking for homegrown technologies and willing to provide financial and institutional back-up for nascent firms to take off and scale up.

The winner of the ‘Grand Kerala Startup Challenge’, a highlight of the event, will be declared before the meet concludes. The winner will get Rs 50 lakh as prize.

The event features keynote sessions, leadership talks, tech talks, startup demo, fireside chat, speed dating with investors, industry challenges, startup pitching and other business and investment-oriented activities. It will have the presence of more than 3,000 startups, around 200 mentors, 70-plus investors and more than 50 exhibitors.

The meet billed as India’s biggest networking platform for entrepreneurs aims to build an ecosystem that enables entrepreneurs from even rural areas to convert their ideas into technology-based ventures.

As part of the event, KSUM has also organized a Round-table discussion focusing on promoting socially relevant startups.

The focus sectors at the conclave are Augmented Reality (AR) /Virtual Reality (VR), Fintech, Edutech, life sciences, space tech, health tech, Blockchain, IoT (internet of things), e-governance and Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML). The first day of the meet will see 100 startups pitching ideas.

KSUM, the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state, has been organising ‘Huddle Kerala’ since 2018. The previous editions saw the country-wide participation of more than 5,000 startups, besides investors, government officials, academia, and business community.