Shoma Patnaik
Panaji
The pace of growth in Goa’s start-up ecosystem has increased with the state seeing an over five-fold rise in the past four years. A total of 615 certified Goan start-ups are presently registered with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) from 110 units in November 2021.
Moreover, the state has achieved its target of creating 500 new start-ups under the Goa Start-up Policy, 2021, whose term ends in August this year. With an average of 10 employees per company, the newly established start-ups are estimated to have created 5,000 jobs.
According to officials in the Start-up Promotion Cell, 25% of the recent start-ups are in the field of information technology (IT) and IT enabled service industry, while 18% are in food and beverage, 15% are tourism-based, 12% in medical technology and the remaining 30% work in mixed sectors.
The officials said that start-ups that made a difference to the government’s efforts to make Goa an IT hub include Spintly India Pvt Ltd, Fatorda, a wireless, smart access control platform that was provided with a grant of Rs 10 lakh and went on to raise Rs 50 crore from investors; an e-bike company BLive, which raised around Rs 45 crore from investors and Contractzy, a software start-up that has also raised funds from investors.
The new start-up policy, which is under preparation, is expected to focus on making the state the creative capital of India. The policy will target creation of 1,000 new start-ups and generation of 10,000 jobs over a three-year period. The policy will also aim at attracting few prominent IT companies that could help in building the state’s start-up ecosystem.
The department of IT is setting up a design centre in the electronic manufacturing cluster (EMC) at Tuem. This centre will work with multiple partner-companies. The EMC lacks a four-lane road connecting it to the National Highway 66. However, units that have acquired plots in the project have been asked to use a side road.
Of the 17 industrial plots in the EMC, seven have already been allocated till date. In the micro industrial zone, which comprises 33 plots and is a key part of the EMC strategy to support smaller and mid-sized enterprises, 10 plots have been allocated. The micro zone has 13 plots remaining for allotment.
