A dedicated sports-technology incubation centre will come up in partnership with German football club Borussia Dortmund Photo | Express illustration
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Tamil Nadu to launch first sports-tech incubation centre

A formal agreement will be signed at the Tamil Nadu Global Startup Summit 2025 in Coimbatore on October 9 which Chief Minister MK Stalin will inaugurate.

Express News Service

CHENNAI: In a bid to link the state’s startup ecosystem with the global sports economy, Tamil Nadu will launch first dedicated sports-technology incubation centre in partnership with German football club Borussia Dortmund. The initiative, to be implemented by StartupTN –the state’s startup mission, follows discussions during a June visit to France and Germany by a delegation led by MSME Minister M Anbarasan.

A formal agreement will be signed at the Tamil Nadu Global Startup Summit 2025 in Coimbatore on October 9 which Chief Minister MK Stalin will inaugurate.

Speaking to reporters in Chennai on Friday, Anbarasan said the number of registered startups in Tamil Nadu has jumped from just over 2,000 in 2021 to more than 12,000 today, over half of them founded by women.

Under the DMK government, the state has risen from the bottom of India’s startup rankings to the top spot, he added.

StartupTN chief executive Sivarajah Ramanathan said the state is targeting 15,000 registered startups by 2027. He said global geopolitics and US tariffs have made a dent in funding flows. However, he did not disclose the size of the decline.

Ramanathan said eight memorandums of understanding will be signed at the summit, three of them in the presence of the CM. He highlighted a shift beyond IT: women-led startups are expanding rapidly in value-added food, cosmetics and lifestyle sectors.

Tamil Nadu also plans to launch a space-tech incubation centre at Anna University this financial year and is scouting a site. Similarly, plans are on for a startup hub in Thoothukudi focused on space technology.

Since 2021, the state has rolled out 17 industrial estates across 13 districts and is developing 16 more, offering subsidies worth Rs 2,133 crore and facilitating Rs 5,491 crore in bank loans to MSMEs, creating over 66,000 new entrepreneurs, Anbarasan said.

The Global Startup Summit – billed as India’s first such event – is expected to draw over 30,000 entrepreneurs from 39 countries, with 264 delegates, 1,000 exhibition stalls and more than 300 programmes. About 500 investor pitches are planned to ease fundraising and global market access, alongside 11 exclusive masterclasses by global names such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Zoho, Harvard Innovation Labs and Venture Studio Forum.

Since 2021, the state has also launched funding and incubation initiatives, including TANSEED, TANFUND, support for space-tech ventures and village innovation centres, and a design studio network in educational institutions.

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