Maker Village hosts Hardware Startup Contest

Electronics incubator Maker Village here will host the India finals of the AlphaLabGear Hardware Cup on March 27.
Promising early-stage hardware startups stand to win exciting prizes, a chance to get an acceleration program in the US as well as compete for a USD 50,000 grand prize, at thecompetition that is being conducted in India for the first time, a press release said here today.
The AlphaLabGear National Hardware Cup is an annual pitching contest conducted in seven cities in the US to identify and nurture talented early-stage startups that have created at least one physical product.
The fact that India has been chosen to host the first such competition outside the US is a sign of the growing global interest in the country as a source of hardware innovation, especially given the government's current thrust on boosting ESDM (Electronic Software Design and Manufacturing) as well as flagship programmes such as Make in India and Digital India, said Maker Village Chief Consultant Prof S Rajeev.

Kerala StartUp Mission CEO Jayasankar Prasad said the support from Kerala government to IT sector over the past years has transformed the state into an emerging technology innovation hub.
Prestigious startup support programmes like the AlphaLabGear Hardware Cup coming to Kerala signal the maturing ESDM environment in the state, he said.
Maker Village, a project funded by the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT and state has facilities in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram to incubate and supports startup companies in electronics.