Thiruvananthapuram, April 30 : The Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the nodal agency of the state government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities, has provided Rs 25 crore as innovation grant to startups in the past five years ever since it was set up. Since 2017, KSUM scouted more than 8,000 innovative ideas from tech startups, including student startups. Among them, 2,000 startups made their final pitches and a total of 550 innovations won KSUM innovation grants. The innovation grants serve as the first tranche of seed capital for a product startup in Kerala, which intends to pursue an innovative technology idea and translate it into a full-fledged venture. Of the total amount of over Rs 25 crore sanctioned as grants, around Rs 17 crore has already been distributed to startups through various schemes like Idea Grant, Productisation Grant, Scale-Up Grant, Women Productisation Grant and Startup Research Grant. Commenting on the significance of grants, KSUM CEO John M. Thomas said these initial rounds of funding have served as the core capital for a large number of startups to set up their ventures. "Startups are getting funds in the form of venture capital and angel funds. We are proud that KSUM acted as the core capital provider for these startups and entrepreneurs in their crucial formative stage," said Thomas. /IANS