A Thillai Rajan, a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, has created a platform to help start-ups reach incubators at the Indian institutes. He has created a business called ‘YNOS Venture Engine’ that would help catalyse deep technology start-ups and adoption of technology and Innovation in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Faculty members from different institutes would be part of the YNOS platform, which would enable entrepreneurs across India or even globally, to identify faculty member(s) they would like to work. Once an entrepreneur expresses interest in interacting with a faculty, YNOS would facilitate the interaction.
Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor, IIT-Madras, said, “Prof Thillai Rajan has been publishing the much-acclaimed annual reports on Indian venture industry for a decade now. YNOS Venture Engine has developed a new platform for the entrepreneurs to leverage the expertise of the academic and research community in the country.”
A total of 128 faculty members from IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIIT Bangalore, BITS Pilani, IIT Hyderabad, IITDM Kanchipuram, IIT Ropar, IIT Mandi, IIT Palakkad, NIT Trichy, NIT Warangal and NIT Raipur have so far joined hands in this initiative.
Speaking about the benefits of this initiative to the Indian startup community, Thillai Rajan, said, “There is a strong potential for institutes of higher education to engage with startups over and above to what is currently being done. While many institutes have incubation cells to encourage faculty and students to create startups, there is tremendous scope for helping startups that are outside of their institutions with their expertise and help them in bringing their innovations to market. Delphi has a tremendous potential to contribute to an important area of India’s economy by providing a direct interface between the start-ups and academia.”
While many faculty members may choose not to start on their own, they may be interested to provide oral consultation or opinion on the interesting problems that many of the startups are working on.
Thus, the platform is expected to catalyse the creation of more deep tech or deep innovation start-ups and adoption of technology and innovation in SMEs.
