Kochi: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) has tied up with Unity Technologies, USA, to develop an augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) ecosystem in the state by opening a centre of excellence here.
The centre would come up in the newly-inaugurated integrated startup complex at Kalamassery, a press release from the KSUM release said Wednesday.
Through the centre, Unity Technologies would support startups developing products, services and games on platforms, including mobile, PC, and various AR and VRhardware, the release said.
The centre would also have special focus on providing different levels of training on AR and VR developer tools to students and professionals, it said.
"The AR and VR market is expected to witness huge growth globally in the next 5-6 years, the release said.
The growth would be accompanied by the sprouting up of a new set of businesses, it said.
"The centre of excellence for AR and VR developer tools with Unity Technologies is a step taken by the government of Kerala towards creating an ecosystem for new businesses to grow and cater to the global demand,'' the release quoted secretary to Department of IT and Electronics, government of Kerala M Sivasankar as saying. Sivasankar said the ICT Academy of Kerala and Centre for developing of Imaging Technologies (C-DIT) have an important role to play in the creation of the ecosystem.
"Unity Technologies is at the centre of the AR and VR ecosystem, powering more than 60 per cent of all content. We see this industry growing significantly over the next few years," the release quoted vice-president (Asia Pacific) of the US company Hubert Larenaudie as saying.
Talking about the tie-up, chief executive officer (CEO) of the KSUM, Saji Gopinath said it was committed to creating an enabling ecosystem for young ventures working on various emerging technologies.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) between KSUM and Unity Technologies was signed by Gopinath and head (Asia Pacific) of Unity Education and Centre of Excellence Initiatives Anumukonda Ramesh.
The MoU was inked in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the sidelines of the inaugural of the largest Integrated Startup Complex in the country two days ago.
KSUM is the nodal agency of government of Kerala for technical entrepreneurship.