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The Tamil Nadu government plans to launch a mega incubator for startups focused on design, marketing and sales, said Sivarajah Ramanathan, Mission Director, Startup TN.

Established in 2021, Startup TN is the Tamil Nadu government’s initiative to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in Tamil Nadu and establish the requisite ecosystem components within the state.

In the last two years, Tamil Nadu has seen a nearly four-fold growth in the number of startups, and has risen from the last rank to the first rank in the states’ startup ranking, said Ramanathan at Tamil Nadu Story 2024, YourStory’s flagship event in the state.

The state today has 8,952 startups, and the Tamil Nadu startup policy aims to take this number to over 15,000 by 2028.

Stressing the importance of incubation, Ramanathan said, “Although there are 124 incubation centres in the state, only 20% of them are creating real meaning. Sometimes we need to accept the truth to go to the next level … We need to create the depth required for an innovative scalable startup.”

The government’s proposed incubator aims to achieve that.

Startup TN is studying the ecosystem in the state to understand how many enterprises have the potential for innovation and scaling up. The objective is to ensure the Tamil Nadu government does not have an “illusion” regarding what constitutes a startup and clearly understands the difference between micro-enterprises and startups, said Ramanathan. 

This is where incubation will play an important role, he added.

“Startup TN is coming out with a sector-agnostic incubator that will help companies to design, market and sell their products.”

Ramanathan is not a fan of the concept of ‘unicorn’—ie billion-dollar valuation companies—and said the focus should be on creating “fundamentally strong” companies.

Addressing the challenge of income inequality in the country the Startup TN mission director highlighted the Tamil Nadu government’s efforts to promote inclusivity in the startup ecosystem through initiatives like SC/ST equity fund; funding for women entrepreneurs, self-help groups, micro-enterprises, and women-led startups; and funding for transgender and differently-abled people.

He also spoke about the state government’s initiative to offer GST and incorporation support to enterprises and efforts to build startup hubs in cities such as Madurai, Tirunelveli, Cuddalore, Salem, Hosur, and Thanjavur.

“We want to encourage entrepreneurs from campuses too,” he said.

Emphasising the need to build ground-breaking startups with world-class products, solutions and deeptech innovation for the global market, Ramanathan said the vision is to position Tamil Nadu among the top 20 global startup ecosystems in the next 10-12 years.

He said a global startup meet will be held in Chennai early next year on a “high budget” with international pavilions showcasing the best startup ecosystems, accelerators, investors and incubators from around the world.