Huddle Global 2026 concluded in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday with investments worth Rs 8 crore announced during the three-day startup event, which brought together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and technology companies from India and abroad.
Organised by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the eighth edition drew 10,000 participants, according to a statement. The event brought together more than 4,000 startups, over 150 investors, 200 high-net-worth individuals, more than 300 mentors, over 200 corporates, 150 exhibitors and 300 speakers.
More than 200 startup-investor meetings were held during the event, while over 27 products were launched. The programme included participants and exhibits across edtech, healthtech, fintech, life sciences, spacetech, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, robotics, augmented and virtual reality, the Internet of Things, greentech and e-governance.
Among the announced deals, deeptech aerospace startup Tessat Space raised Rs 1 crore in an angel round from Xylapay, a blockchain-powered cross-border payments platform. The two companies began discussions through the Connect funding programme at Huddle Global 2025, with the deal announced at this year’s event, the statement said.
TIRF, or Tevanova Incubation and Research Facility, based in Palakkad, will invest Rs 50 lakh in the seed round of Bustler, a Kerala-based startup developing a skill identity platform. The Group of Technology Companies, an industry body representing technology firms in the state, also issued Expressions of Interest for funding to four startups during the Cheque Mate investor pitch session. The startups are Leadmetrics, Cloudpositive, Zeev, also known as ZSS Technologies, and Spacetime 4D.
Three other startups — CDISC Technologies, Sixdots Design and Kalqy — were selected at the Tiger’s Claw pitching session. They will receive free participation at the GITEX Dubai expo. The event also included the first Student Unicorn Cohort for student entrepreneurs. Team BharatWorks won the first prize of Rs 1,50,000, followed by Eldora with Rs 50,000 and Tattvic Labs with Rs 25,000.
Chief Minister V D Satheesan inaugurated the event on November 12. Industries, IT, Future Technology and Startups Minister P K Kunhalikutty and Electronics and IT Department Special Secretary S Suhas also attended. Ramanan Ramanathan, a member of the Mission Governing Board of the India AI Mission, said in his valedictory keynote that entrepreneurs should be bold in building solutions with artificial intelligence, which he described as a capability rather than only a technology.
The expo featured humanoid robots, autonomous drones, sustainable energy solutions, biomedical devices and smart city technologies. KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika said Huddle Global had become the state’s flagship technology conclave and that the mission would work to develop it into one of the world’s major events in the coming years.
