Free incubation by Kozhikode IT collective for startups

The Calicut Forum for Information Technology (CafIT), a unique collective of 40 small software companies based in Kozhikode, is offering free incubation to startup entrepreneurs.

“Each of our members will take in two young entrepreneurs, mentor them for six months and provide them access to our ecosystem so that they can prove themselves,” Charles Thomas, President of CafIT, said. “This is part of our objective of promoting Kozhikode as a sought-after IT destination and to provide guidance to startups.”

MT Ramakrishnan, CEO of CafIT, said the select would-be entrepreneurs would be hand-held by veterans, would have access to ‘100 man years of collective expertise’ for funding opportunities, guidance to business basics and opportunity to attend industry events. Desk space for six months would be free.

CafIT, born in 2008, is a rare form of cooperation and mutual help in the cut-throat world of IT. Back then, a few young entrepreneurs got together to share their ideas, exchange notes, seek collective guidance and comfort each other in times of failures and setbacks.

“It was not a club, not a trade union, not an association, but just a collective of young professionals ready to help each other,” said Thomas, who runs Ontash India Technologies. Nasscom views the collective as a role model.

Six years later, 12 member enterprises are moving into a common 30,000 square feet space called ‘CafIT Square.’ Each of these companies would have independent office space, but there would be a lot of common areas, facilities and amenities for fostering the cooperation of the entrepreneurs, professionals and staff. The number is expected to go up to 20 in a year. Initially, the 12 companies would host two young startup entrepreneurs selected by a screening committee.

Ramakrishnan notes that the collective has helped members to develop business, source markets, handle the ticklish issue of dealing with government agencies at various levels, find export orders and technical help. “If I get a work offer and my firm cannot execute it, I immediately put it on our group mail so that one of our members can lap it up,” Thomas said. “But, there is a strict no-no on poaching either of business or staff,” Ramakrishnan insists. But there is healthy competition, too.

CafIT organises events that benefit its own members as well as outside technology entrepreneurs. Recently it conducted a seminar on ‘Technology business opportunities in Malabar.’

Thomas feels that the opening of CafIT Square, the dream collective space, will be a turning point in Kozhikode’s IT scene. There are around 100 software companies in the area — mostly doing under ₹5-crore business a year — who will all want to join the collective. Kozhikode is now home to a talent pool of IT professionals and thousands of them are working in Bangalore. The opening of the huge Uralunkal Cyber Park and a government IT park later is expected to woo many back from Bangalore.

CafIT, which is a non-profit organisation, would be moving closer to its objective of ‘building a conducive ecosystem for technology entrepreneurship in Malabar’ with the free startup incubation programme.