Ideation, innovation, and incubation might not be all it takes to become a successful startup, location and access to resources also play a big role, according to
Ajit K Chaturvedi, director,
Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
The search for industry contacts, connections with investors and the right audience have brought the IIT-R’s incubation centre to Delhi-NCR. The institute has launched an extension centre of business incubation centre cum society — The Technology Innovation and Development of Entrepreneurship Support (TIDES) at
Greater Noida.
The entrepreneurs dreaming of a new venture would be provided with funding, office space, mentoring, field visits etc. The facilities, however, will not be limited to students of the institute, but anyone with an innovative idea can apply here. TIDES would shortlist candidates based on composition, sector, stage of the product, understanding and experience in the startup space. The selected startups would be incubated by TIDES for two years, based on need and market conditions; the incubation duration can be extended to one more year. The centre has received grant worth Rs 5 crore under the NIDHI (National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovations) initiative. The centre has capped funding up to Rs 25 lakhs per startup and would give more preference to tech-based initiatives.
Currently, eight startups are under TIDES’ mentorship, out of which three have been shortlisted to shift their base to the new extension centres where they would be given office space and mentoring. The three innovations to be shortlisted include — Aeva — a home automation system with smart switches which work on touch, remote, application and voice-based commands. Other innovations include MacBot, a smart device which can reveal the need of an automobile and prevent them from being worn-out, and TBS Planet, a venture which releases comics across digital and physical platforms based on Indian superheroes, mythology etc and would release its first movie on August 15.
Devanshu Mishra, CEO, Aeva and Civil Engineering graduate from IIT-R, says, “We have set-up an office in the centre. Since we are a hardware-based startup, arranging components, connecting with clients etc was a great challenge for us. We were in touch with many industry players while in Roorkee, but things have started looking up now.” Delhi-NCR has many incubation centres including one by IIT-Delhi.
Azam Ali Khan, CEO, TIDES says, “We work in the niche area, the sectors which are unexplored and untapped in this vibrant market of Delhi-NCR. One of our major focus would be on sustainable construction.” He adds, “We are going to introduce an accelerator programme wherein we will incubate 10 tech-based startups for 6-8 months and will provide them with intensive mentoring and support.”
Representational Image
