"What do you need to start a business? Three simple things: know your product better than anyone. Know your customer, and have a burning desire to succeed" rightly stated Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's. It's always fascinating and inspirational to hear about startup and entrepreneur success stories. But what about the sweat and fret they have experienced? In this article, we'll look at the top startups in Kerala and the journeys they have gone through.
Agrima Infotech, a Kochi-based startup, is considered one among the top startups in Kerala with two highly successful products. Recipe Book, an intelligent recipe discovery platform and Psyight, a dedicated computer vision platform for recognising raw, cooked and packaged food items to make recipe finding and cooking easier. A semi-stocked fridge, hungry flatmates and minimal cooking skills made three young techies reverse engineer this problem. They have raised almost Rs 4.5 crore in funding so far.
About : Recipe App & Food Recognition Engine
Founders : Anoop Balakrishnan, Arun Ravi, Nikhil Dharman
Industry : Software, Artificial intelligence
Total Funding Amount : 4.5 crores
Entri is a learning app for jobs in India founded in 2017 by Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh. For job seekers, the app delivers learning resources in local languages. It also gives mock/adaptive tests, flashcards, video courses, and much more.
They raised $1.4M from Good Capital, Boston-based edtech accelerator LearnLaunch, and a group of investors. Covid-19 impact and the lockout increased their user base to 3M, 90k being paid subscribers.
The success of Entri comes from the realisation that online learning concepts are the most effective when done in the native languages. Entri is surely one of the most promising and top startups in Kerala.
About : Vernacular language learning platform for teachers and students.
Founder : Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh
Industry : E-learning, Education
Total Funding Amount : $4.3 Million so far
The energy required to support water transportation is quite large. Solar ferries are the most practical answer to this problem, but are costly. To fill the gap of price and efficiency, NavAlt Solar & Electric Boats built India’s first affordable solar ferries, the world’s most cost-effective ones.
Sandith Thandasherry, a naval architect with a wealth of knowledge and experience is behind the startup, NavAlt. Nothing worked for them as per the plans, initially. Constant cash flow, government regulations, technology; the problems they faced provided them opportunities for learning.
The solar boats have finally hit Kerala waters finally and the Maharashtra government too is following the suit. The company has emerged as one of the top startups in kerala.
About : Solar and Electric Boats
Founder : Sandith Thandasherry
Industry : Boat Manufacturing, Solar Energy
Total Funding Amount : Supported by investors and governments
Four young engineering graduates took their love for science and Iron Man to a new level with Genrobotics and Bandicoot. They decided to end sewer deaths and clean up manholes with Bandicoot, a spider-shaped robot created in their startup company Genrobotics.
Bandicoot uses ML and AI to calculate the unclogging required and in 45 minutes can finish work that would take 3-4 hours to complete manually. Genrobotics has raised Rs 2.5 crore in a pre-Series A investment headed by Unicorn India Ventures and is considered among one of the top startups in Kerala.
About : Manhole monitoring system
Founders : Vimal Govind MK, Arun George, Nikhil NP, and Rashid Bin Abdulla Khan
Industry : Robotics & Defence Engineering
Total Funding Amount : Rs 2.5 crore in pre-series A round funding
Shihab Muhammed came up with the idea for SurveySparrow, a customer experience platform, because he found himself putting off surveys because the unimaginative questionnaires failed to engage him. This led to SurveySparrow, a better platform for surveys that is more engaging with higher survey completion rates of 40%.
The platform has a built-in automation system that allows organisations to create and share mobile-first surveys through SMS or whatsapp. Creators can manage customer experience surveys, employee pulse surveys, and market feedback surveys with a Conversational User Interface.
SurveySparrow has raised $1.4 million in seed funding from Prime Venture Partners and is indeed one of the top startups in Kerala.
About : Conversational Experience Management Platform (Chat like surveys)
Founders : Shihab Muhammed, Subin Sebastian
Industry : SaaS, Information Technology, Market Research
Total Funding Amount : $ 1.4 Million
Inntot comes next in the list of top startups in Kerala. Music, photos, and movies can now be streamed via a home network. Currently, there are various companies in this sector that serve millions of people all over the world.
Digital media receivers are expensive, with the retail price increasing as new capabilities are created. The company also provides services in the areas of consumer electronics and the IoT.
About : Cost effective next generation digital media receivers
Founders : Prashanth Thankappan & Rajith Nair
Industry : Consumer Electronics, Digital Media, Internet Radio
Total Funding Amount : Rs 150 Cr in first funding & plans to raise Rs 400 Cr in second round
CareStack is a cloud-based dental practise management, patient interaction, and data analytics software. CareStack allows customers to manage all primary operations of their practise through one straightforward platform, with fully integrated modules for scheduling, clinical, billing, patient engagement, and business administration.
CareStack is a Florida and Thiruvananthapuram-based dental care startup. CareStack had raised $28 million in 2019, and with this fund raise it has raised a total of $60 million. As per crunchbase.com, the total funded amount so far is $74.1 Million. The good news is that Carestack has given exit to 12 of its early-stage investors. This demonstrates progressive growth of the startup and reestablishes investor faith and confidence in the ecosystem.
About : Practice management platform for dental groups
Founders : Abilash Krishna, Mark Huzyak
Industry : Dental, Healthcare, SaaS
Total Funding Amount : $74.1 Million
With its tiny remotely controlled drone, Kochi-based startup EyeROV makes it to the top startups in Kerala list for offering data-driven reporting and ease-of-use in marine inspections.
Ecommerce or entertainment have nothing to do with marine robotics. It's not something you hear about every day. However, the industry's importance cannot be undermined. Besides hardware, EyeROV has created a data analytics and visualisation platform to share detailed information from underwater surveys undertaken by its clients. Owners of underwater assets can make faster and more effective decisions due to the intuitive platform, which is backed by AI and machine learning.
About : Underwater drone to perform Visual inspection/survey of submerged structures
Founders : Johns T Mathai and Kannappa Palaniappan P
Industry : Drones, Robotics, Marine Technology
Total funding Amount : $70K
Paysack comes next in the list of Top 10 startups in Kerala. It is a Fintech firm that assists businesses in taking better care of their employees by reimbursing expenses in a simple and convenient manner online. Employees can make payments using a mobile wallet and a card provided by the company. All expenses are documented, and employees can save a lot of money on taxes.
About : Mobile wallet for enterprises which ca track employee benefits
Founders : Nicky Jacob, Ricky Jacob, Vivek Vinod
Industry : Fintech, Banking, Financial services
Total funding Amount : $100K from friends, family and angel investors
Sastra Robotics is yet another Robotics company in our list of top ten startups in Kerala. It's a robotics startup dedicated to developing innovative robotic solutions and technologies. The company is in favour of people and robots coexisting. They also seek and receive assistance from various research institutions in order to further advance their progress. The company was founded in 2012 and was named one of the top ten startups in the Startup Village incubation centre in 2012.
About : Consumer, Industrial & Academic research robots
Founders: Aronin P, Akhil A, Achu Wilson
Industry : Industrial automation and Robotics
Total funding Amount: $161K from angel investors
The list compiles the top ten startups in Kerala and all these top startups had very humble beginnings with hardships in funding, expertise and technology. They never gave up, though. They had a compelling mission, a clear vision, an unwavering commitment to success and on top of it all, a multi-billion dollar IDEA.
Are you someone who has a life changing idea or concept with you? You should focus on why perhaps you can, and be one of the exceptions. The way to get started is to quit thinking and begin doing.
Come and join us for a heart to heart talk. The professional startup consulting team at Zartek technologies can help you with whatever way you need. With our knowledge and expertise, we can help you through your difficult times. Please contact us right away. Send us an email at info@zartek.in or give us a call at +919176107417.