“Prof. Jhunjhunwala didn’t take greater than quarter-hour to inform us what was incorrect with our marketing strategy,” says Sachdev, now the co-founder and CEO of conversational automation platform Uniphore.
The remainder, because the cliché goes, is historical past. Uniphore, at present, is a $2.5 billion unicorn, or a startup valued at $1 billion or extra. “He (Jhunjhunwala) was one in all our first mentors who taught us to be prudent and resourceful; confirmed us methods to construct a enterprise; develop know-how, and (advised us) to by no means be complacent,” says Sachdev.
In 2010, Jhunjhunwala arrange the IIT Madras Analysis Park, a primary of its form non-profit organisation in India, to advertise industry-academia collaboration and commercialize analysis and improvement (R&D) efforts, significantly, round deep know-how—deeptech companies typically innovate on the convergence of cutting-edge applied sciences and fields that may embody superior supplies and superior manufacturing.
Uniphore grew to become the primary startup to arrange workplace within the park.
5 years later, in 2015, two tech entrepreneurs—Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain—each alumni of the division of engineering design of IIT-M, uncorked the bubbly at the exact same analysis park. That they had simply acquired a $1 million seed funding from Flipkart founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal for his or her prototype of an electrical scooter with a lithium-ion battery. We all know this startup as Ather Power at present. The corporate is now inside putting distance of being a unicorn, having just lately raised about $50 million in October, a funding spherical that valued it at $700-800 million, in keeping with regulatory filings sourced by enterprise intelligence platform Tofler.
Uniphore and Ather Power are well-known. There are scores of unknown ones right here. About 280 startups have been incubated on the incubation cell of the IIT Madras Analysis Park, up to now. The park can be house to greater than 100 R&D corporations, and 9 centres of excellence (COEs).
About ₹500 crore has been invested within the park until date. It acquired a seed funding of ₹100 crore from the IIT-M alumni in addition to a subsidy from the federal government. Remainder of the capital was borrowed from banks—the establishment has paid it again. Right this moment, it’s debt free and money constructive.
The park began with simply 10-15 corporations. Right this moment, it has three buildings and no room to spare. Such has been the demand. The cumulative income of all of the startups within the park is at the moment estimated at ₹1,600 crore, whereas their whole valuation is greater than ₹33,000 crore.
That is the story of a spectacular success, and one which rode on one man’s zeal to press the accelerator on an ecosystem that fosters deeptech corporations. The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), a Silicon Valley non-profit that helps startups, even conferred on Jhunjhunwala the title of ‘Dronacharya’.
Deeptech at play
Jhunjhunwala is president of each the IIT Madras Analysis Park and the IIT Madras Incubation Centre. V. Kamakoti, director of IIT-M, can be on the board of administrators of the park, unfold throughout 11.42 acres and with over 1.2 million sq. ft of workspace.
Jhunjhunwala commutes to the park from the far finish of the IIT-M campus, one constructed round a forest—it is not uncommon to identify deer frolicking alongside college students.
However Jhunjhunwala is fast to level out that the 2 establishments are separate. “We’re not located on the campus of IIT-M. Round 2007, we determined that we’d like a spot the place {industry}, academia and kids can innovate. However we additionally needed a spot that was a biking distance from IIT-M in order that we will foster industry-academia collaboration,” he says.
A bridge connects IIT-M with the Park. It’s properly generally known as the ‘Business-Academia’ bridge, underlining the robust bond between the 2 establishments.
Right here’s an instance. When researchers from the IIT-M just lately developed a brand new touchscreen show know-how that enables a consumer to really feel the textures from photographs because the finger strikes throughout the contact floor (in contrast to present touchscreens that may solely sense the placement of the finger contact), they wanted to take the product to market from the R&D stage. Merkel Haptics, a startup incubated on the IIT Madras Analysis Park, stepped in to transform the prototype right into a product which will resemble a pc mouse, and improve consumer expertise.
Equally, the prototype of the ePlane was developed by the ePlane Firm, once more incubated on the IIT Madras Incubation Cell. Co-founded by IIT-M professor Satyanarayanan Chakravarthy, the aircraft is a compact electrical vertical take-off and touchdown (eVTOL) plane with a five-metre wingspan. It’s 5 metres from nostril to tail and is a two-seater. But to be commercially launched, it’s designed to be India’s first electrical flying taxi.
Different startups incubated right here embody Stellapps, co-founded by Ranjeet Mukundan. It’s the nation’s first dairy web of issues (IoT) startup—it really works at optimizing the provision chain for dairy farms and cooperatives. Planys, co-founded by Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, is constructing a sensible underwater inspection answer. Agnikul Cosmos, based by Srinath Ravichandran, is creating satellite tv for pc launch autos for a payload capability of as much as 100 kgs. In July, the startup introduced the launch of Rocket Manufacturing facility-1, which it touts because the nation’s first-ever rocket facility devoted to 3D printed rocket engines.
“We’re centered on deeptech startups, since there are only a few within the nation. As you succeed, different establishments will attempt to emulate you,” says Jhunjhunwala.
Certainly, in March 2018, the federal government accepted organising of eight extra analysis parks—one every at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Gandhinagar, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru.
Making the minimize
How do entrepreneurs attain out to the IIT Madras Analysis Park if they need their startup to be incubated there?
“You possibly can attain out to us in a proper and even casual method,” says Tamaswati Ghosh, CEO of the IIT Madras Incubation Centre.
The centre, subsequent, evaluates what the founders do, the enterprise thought, and whether or not it’s scalable. Can or not it’s commercialized? “Each quarter, we get about 300-400 purposes. About 20-25% of the purposes get transformed into incubation,” Ghosh explains.
Ghosh factors out that the park not solely homes the startups, but in addition about 9 COEs which are run by IIT-M college members. About 80 small, medium, and enormous multinationals have arrange their R&D centres on the park. They’ve all helped create an innovation ecosystem that’s distinctive.
“The important thing situation for anyone eager to lease area is that they should work with the academia. Some form of collaborative work with the campus neighborhood—be it working with college, or working with college students of IIT-M, and even their very own staff taking on programs at IIT-M. All that is measured all through their keep within the park,” says Ghosh.
One firm within the park is public sector large Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL). It has accomplished over 60 initiatives, 33 of which have been applied commercially.
India’s largest IT providers exporter Tata Consultancy Companies collaborates with IIT-M on knowledge centre energy discount, decreasing vitality consumption in buildings, and creating a sensible water community. Saint Gobain Analysis India has undertaken 22 R&D initiatives with IIT-M college and college students, 20 of which have been launched as worthwhile merchandise and options out there. Titan Industries Innovation Hub’s partnership with the IIT on materials characterisation and coating, and so forth., has resulted within the era of 5 patents.
The COEs, alternatively, embody the Centre of Battery Engineering and Electrical Automobiles (C-BEEV); the Centre for Expertise and Coverage (CTAP); the Centre for NEMS and Nanophotonics (CNNP); the Centre for Computational Mind Analysis (CCBR); the Well being Care Innovation Centre (HTIC); IIT Madras Bioincubator and the Robert Bosch Centre for Information Science and Synthetic Intelligence.
One of many foremost areas of focus for C-BEEV, as an illustration, is to give attention to battery know-how and battery engineering to go well with Indian circumstances. The E-rickshaw, developed by the centre, is a working example. It’s a testing prototype by Lohia Auto, a Delhi-headquatered maker of electrical autos and is fitted with a battery developed at CBEEV.
CCBR, in the meantime, is creating an answer to review the mobile structure, connectivity and molecular structure in human brains—an effort supported by the Indian authorities together with contributions from Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, and likewise an alumnus of IIT-M.
HTIC, too, is a multi-disciplinary R&D centre and a joint initiative between IIT-M and the Indian authorities’s division of biotechnology, to develop healthcare applied sciences for the nation.
One more COE focuses on machine instruments and manufacturing applied sciences. It has “recognized 11 initiatives which, if developed in India, will enhance the capital items sector”, stated the COE spokesperson. The centre, as an illustration, is creating a hydrostatic bearing know-how, which can be utilized as a high-pressure machine instrument for auto parts. At present, India imports these machines or imports the ideas wanted to construct this know-how.
Manner ahead
Jhunjhunwala, in the meantime, is just not prepared to relaxation on previous laurels. Round two years again, the board of IIT Madras Analysis Park “challenged us to make new plans for 2030″, says the professor.
“We do 45 incubations per yr. The goal is now 1,000 incubations. This appears not possible. So how do you do it? You are able to do it by not limiting your self to IIT-M. We now plan to strategy 50-100 engineering schools, deliver them right here, and make them as profitable as those we now have right here,” he explains.
The subsequent goal, he provides, is to press the accelerator on areas the place India generally is a chief. What are these? Applied sciences for local weather change or web zero emission; assistive applied sciences; fintech for inclusion, since 85% folks on this nation have earnings lower than ₹25,000 a yr.
Jhunjhunwala additionally desires to establish and nurture 500 know-how leaders yearly. “We name them Ranchos (the nickname of Aamir Khan within the Hindi film 3 Idiots) and make them the world’s finest,” he says.
Jhunjhunwala seems to be a cinephile. His present inspiration is 2 dialogues from Shah Rukh Khan’s hit movie Om Shanti Om. Right here’s one in all them:
“Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho … to puri kaynaat usse tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai (In the event you actually need one thing, the universe works that will help you obtain that aim)”.
As for the “not possible” targets that he and his board have set, Jhunjhunwala concludes: “Many of those objectives seem not possible however we are going to get someplace, no matter whether or not they occur in 2030 or later. We have now nothing to lose.”
Obtain The Mint Information App to get Every day Market Updates & Dwell Enterprise Information.
Extra
Much less
Supply: Live Mint