Connecting research with startups to realize deep-tech innovation for markets, says Prof Loganathan
Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at IIIT Hyderabad has announced the onboarding of 4 startups for the 14th cohort of Avishkar Deep Tech accelerator which focuses on honing the business plan, team and overall strategy of the startups and getting the startups business investment ready.
“Connecting research with startups is a key need to help realize deep-tech innovation that can succeed in the markets. Happy to see yet another cohort of Avishkar commencing,” Prof. Ramesh Loganathan, COO CIE-IIITH, said on 29 Dec 2021.
The selection committee has shortlisted 4 startups for the programme from a pool of 150. The accelerator offers IIITH’s research support, business mentorship, market access and Rs.40 lakh seed fund.
Avishkar is a 6-month cohort-based accelerator programme facilitated jointly by CIE, IIIT Hyderabad, Co-creation Consulting, and SucSeed Indovation Fund. It brings together the deep-tech expertise of IIITH’s research labs and the opportunity of working within the ecosystem of IIITH Foundation while engaging in in-depth business mentoring from Co-creation consulting and Investor connections from SucSEED Indovation Fund.
The program focuses on honing the business plan, team and overall strategy of the startups and getting the startups business investment ready. It facilitates the startups’ journey from a seed level to a VC/Angel level readiness.
The startups in this cohort are:
• Hirex.ai, a cognitive voice-bot solution for automated hiring interviews.
• CometLabs, an AI-powered solution for hiring deeptech developers by competitive development events and bootcamps.
• Embedsense, an industrial IoT company providing remote monitoring, process optimization, and predictive maintenance in moulding manufacturing setup.
• WebNyay, an online dispute resolution ecosystem end-to-end digital platform for the resolution of complaints and disputes in an efficient, speedy, flexible, and inexpensive manner.
Avishkar, through the six years, has enabled a number of alumni Avishkar startups. That have since raised external VC funding. Revos (US$4 million), Instoried (US$8 million) Scholr (Acquired by Edtech giant of India, Byju’s), Paymatrix (Acquired by Muthoot) among others.
CIE@IIITH, also known as CIE (Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship) is a DST approved incubator operational since 2008. CIE@IIITH has so far supported around 400 startups and has seed- funded 19 startups, 80% of which are cash positive. CIE@IIITH was also instrumental being the kiln of the initiatives that culminated into the foundation of T-Hub.
Along with developments in AVISHKAR, CIE@IIITH is also focusing on turning a new leaf in terms of infrastructure facilities, programmes and startup engagements focusing towards building a deeptech startup ecosystem. New working spaces are launched, seed funding programmes, structured workshops and mentoring opportunities and technology transfer facilitation are also being deployed now.
The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH) is an autonomous research university founded in 1998 that focuses on the core areas of Information Technology, such as Computer Science, Electronics and Communications, and their applications in other domains through inter-disciplinary research with great social impact. Some of its research domains include Visual Information Technologies, Human Language Technologies, Data Engineering, VLSI and Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, Wireless Communications, Algorithms and Information Security, Robotics, Building Science, Earthquake Engineering, Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IT in Agriculture and e-Governance. fiinews.com
