Visitors flocked to the expo organized as part of the start-up festival Huddle Global 2024 in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram. Humanoid robots greeted visitors, showcasing the futuristic products developed by the 100-odd participating startups. These ventures represent a wide range of innovative sectors, such as edutech, augmented reality/virtual reality, fintech, life sciences, spacetech, healthtech, blockchain, IoT (Internet of Things), eGovernance, and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning.
Ventures started by women entrepreneurs have also been generating a lot of interest at the event. Leading the way are start-ups incubated under Digital University Kerala’s Women Incubation, Start-ups, and Entrepreneurship (WISE) scheme, which aims to promote a women entrepreneurship ecosystem. These enterprises have developed learning apps that provide interactive educational content and a networking platform that connects mentors and mentees from around the world.
Kerala start-ups at innovation forefront
Led by project coordinator Elizabeth Sherly, the WISE project currently supports three start-ups working on apps that offer mental healthcare support, combine sports with psychology and athlete wellness, and provide an accelerated composting system. The start-up expo also had separate zones for deep tech, showing future potential through practical experiences and advances in energy, healthcare, digital media and entertainment, food and agriculture, and space.
The event features various start-ups testing new methods for treating biomedical waste. Products from homegrown robotics company Genrobotics are on display alongside those of other robotics giants like Toboid, Automate, Freeman Robotics, and Inker Robotics. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) stall tells visitors about Chandrayaan and Gaganyaan projects with models on display.
Other start-ups showcased at the expo include those focused on reducing carbon footprint and creating sustainable energy sources, AI-based assessment platforms, AI-based educational apps, mobile septage treatment units, and biosensors using graphene.
