Kochi, April 20 : In what could be termed a trend setter in the IT sector of Kerala, three home-grown tech service companies have joined hands to become one to form a consolidated, more capable technology provider to meet the growing global demand. Sinergia Media Labs (Simelabs), Goodbits, and Logiticks came together in the wake of rising global demand for technological talent in sectors such as finance, healthcare, education and art, a release said on Wednesday. The merger gains significance as it is first of kind consolidation of Kerala companies with an aim of serving global demands. The increased demand for technological talent will result in a massive digital transformation with a series of technological advances in Mobility, Cloud, IoT, Robotics, AI, Blockchain, Metaverse. India is expected to address a significant part of that demand and Kerala will be one of the leading players this time around. Software space in Kerala has been thriving for the last couple of decades. There are more than 900 software companies in Kerala employing around 1.5 Lakh people. Of these only a few companies scale up and become large companies; the rest become lifestyle businesses with around 50-100 employees or are acquired by larger software companies looking to expand operations to India. The merger will strengthen hiring, training, IP development, sales, and marketing process enabling the group to reach out to quality clients and helps the group to reach a critical mass for aggressive growth, and large and long-term customer engagements, Prakash Bare, Chief Evangelist, Simelabs, said. The group will have over 250 employees after the consolidation and plans to grow it to 1000+ by the end of 2023. The group, which has the experience of working with leading global brands under Fortune 500 companies. It has initiated the plan to raise private equity funds and targets to go public in the next few years. The group will also have a widened spectrum of skills and technologies (AI/ML, IoT, Robotics, Industry 4.0, Blockchain, Metaverse, etc) to deliver delightful solutions to even complex problems. The merger helps the group cover markets of US, Europe, Australia and Asia. Even after the merger the group will continue to use all three brands – Simelabs, Logiticks, and Goodbits, with Simelabs, being the primary brand for future opport ties. The changes have effect from the beginning of the financial year 2022-23. DS GNK