The sea at Kovalam has not changed. The conversation on the stage beside it has.
I was last here in September 2019, for what was then called Huddle Kerala, only its second edition. I filed a couple of stories from that beach. One was about a big-tech executive urging the industry to fix the gender imbalance online. The other was about an all-woman panel arguing that girls should be encouraged to pursue tech from a very young age. Kerala then had roughly 2,200 startups, and the question in the air was simple: can this state build startups at all?
Seven years on, the Government of Kerala invited me back for Huddle Global 2026 (in full disclosure, that is how I am here). The name has gone global, and the state now counts more than 9,200 startups.
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Listening to Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan open the event on its first day, I realised the question has changed. Kerala no longer asks whether it can build startups. It is asking whether it can build big ones. That is a far harder question, and an honest one.
Finally, a government that talks about working capital
I have sat through enough ministerial speeches across India to know the script: a big number, a bigger ambition, a fund with a ribbon on it. Satheesan’s speech had some of that. But one line made me put my phone down. “A great idea should never die for want of capital,” he said.
Plenty of politicians say that. What caught my attention was what came next. Beyond expanding the state’s fund-of-funds programme, which he said has put close to INR 250 crore (about US$28 million) into Kerala startups through 14 partner venture funds, and raising the limits on innovation grants and seed loans, he talked about working capital.
The government will form a consortium of the Kerala Financial Corporation, the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and investment banks to build debt instruments for startups with real customers and real revenue. The point, he said, is that founders should not have to give away equity simply to grow.
This is the most important thing I heard all day, and I suspect it will get the least coverage. Founders I have interviewed from Jakarta to Bengaluru tell me the same story: they did not run out of ideas, they ran out of cash between a purchase order and a payment. Selling a slice of your company to fund inventory is the most expensive money there is. Southeast Asia has learnt this the hard way, which is why venture debt is now reaching smaller startups.
My worry is speed. State lenders are built to avoid losses, not to underwrite a 30-month-old company with lumpy revenue. If this consortium takes six months to approve a loan, it will be a press release, not a product. Kerala should publish how many startups it lends to, how fast, and at what rates. That is how we will know.
Kerala’s grandparents may be its smartest startup bet
The idea I keep coming back to is the one that sounded least like a startup pitch. Kerala is one of India’s fastest-ageing states, and Satheesan said it is the first in the country to set up a dedicated department for the elderly, backed by new legislation. He wants startups to build for this “silver economy” and to tap retired professionals as mentors and managers.
Most ecosystems treat ageing as a cost. Kerala is trying to treat it as both a market and a talent pool. Every Malayali family I know has a retired engineer, banker or doctor with decades of judgement and too few people asking for it. Pairing them with 25-year-old founders is not charity; it is cheap, experienced management. Investors in Singapore are already testing appetite for the ageing economy, and Kerala has a head start on the demographics.
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I was less moved by the deeptech ambitions, not because they are wrong but because I have heard them in every capital. The state wants to link research institutions and incubators into one network, and officials put the target at 100 deeptech companies worth INR 100 crore (about US$11 million) or more. Good. But Asia’s incubators too often produce polished pitches and too little funding, and deeptech founders face more than one capital problem. A network of incubators is not a pipeline of customers.
The port down the road is the real story
The moment Satheesan won me over was when he told delegates to stop staying inside the hotel. Go out, he said, watch the sunset, taste the food, and look at what is being built a few kilometres down the coast.
He meant Vizhinjam International Seaport, which became the fastest Indian port to cross 2 million TEUs (20-foot container units), within roughly 18 months of operations. In 2019, there was no such thing on this coast for a startup to sell to. Today there is a deep-water transshipment hub that needs maritime software, logistics tools, predictive maintenance and trade finance. That is not a vision. That is a customer.
“For eight years, Huddle Global has brought the world to this beach,” he said. “Our next step is to take Kerala’s companies to the world.” I agree. I would only add that the world has now parked a port on Kerala’s doorstep, and the first export market may be just down the road.
Belgium offers a door. Kerala still has to walk through it
The other speech worth unpacking came from Belgium’s Ambassador to India, Sophie Karlshausen. Her opening comparison was clever: Kerala and Belgium are both compact regions with few natural resources, which built their prosperity on trade, knowledge and talent instead.
Her pitch was practical. The partnership between Kerala’s startup ecosystem and Brussels dates to a 2023 memorandum, renewed in 2025. There is already a Kerala startup centre in Brussels, where founders lean on an established Malayali community for networks and talent. A 12-week acceleration programme for 2027 is being explored, to help selected startups work out regulation, financing and market entry.
She also had numbers: Belgium invests about 3.3 per cent of GDP in research and development, ranks first in Europe for R&D investment in biopharmaceuticals, and offers an 80 per cent payroll tax exemption for researchers. Brussels, she argued, is Europe’s testing ground. Clear Belgian and EU standards there, and the rest of the bloc opens up.
The timing is real. Last week, India and the EU concluded negotiations on India’s association with Horizon Europe, the EU’s €93.5 billion (about US$108 billion) research programme, with India expected to join from January 2027. For Kerala’s deeptech founders, that means direct access to European grants and partners for the first time.
Here is my caution, from years of watching Asian startups try Europe. A memorandum is not a market. Regulation in health and digital products is heavy, sales cycles are long, and Europe is not one market however neat the map looks. The accelerator will be worth something only if it is selective, honest about who is not ready, and judged on revenue earned in Europe, not delegations flown to Brussels.
What I will be checking when I come back
I do not want to be churlish. In 2019, Kerala was trying to get on the map. In 2026, it is arguing about debt instruments, export markets and research consortia in Europe. That is what a maturing ecosystem sounds like, and governments across our region, from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, are using fines and funds to force their digital economies forward. Kerala is right to want a seat at that table.
But festivals flatter. The inaugural session alone produced a string of memoranda, with partners ranging from a payments company to an IT services giant. The only hard money on display was a Rs 18 crore (about US$2 million) round for mistEO, a Thiruvananthapuram climate and weather intelligence startup. That is a good start, and a reminder of how far the state still has to go.
So here is my scorecard for the next time Kerala invites me. First, has the debt consortium actually lent, and how quickly? Second, has the silver-economy idea produced real mentors in real companies, not just a register? Third, has the Brussels accelerator sent founders to Europe who came back with customers?
And one more, carried over from 2019. The panels I covered back then were about getting more women into tech. The scale-up plan I heard this week was silent on that. If Kerala wants global companies, it cannot afford to leave half its talent on the beach.
The sea at Kovalam will still be here. I hope the conversation keeps moving.
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