Coimbatore : Out to help Small and Medium Business (SMB) build their digital foundation and become globally competitive, Cisco on Wednesday launched its new version of Cisco Start here.

Tamil Nadu, particularly Coimbatore,eing a major SMB hub, the company chose to launch this version here as the State contributed about 9 per cent to the country’s GDP, Cisco India and Saarc managing director commercial sales Sudhir Nayar told reporters here.

The initiative was aligned with Cisco’s commitment to accelerate Tamil Nadu’s digital transformation and show case how digitisation could fuel economic growth, world class innovation, sustainable competitiveness and prosperity, he said.

Housing nearly 2.18 lakh SMBs across sectors like auto, IT, engineering and e-commerce,Tamil Nadu SMB could make good profit by using the Start, investing $70 per year, as 70 per cent of SMEs were offline now. Nayar said that by this enhanced Start, SMBs could add 10 per cent more to the GDP.

Cisco, which has launched Start (earlier version) in 10 cities in 2017, had 30,000 customers, which would be increased to 90,000 in the next three years, he added.