The International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIT-B) has been at the forefront of research related to digital technologies, driving innovation for the greater public good. The IIIT-B Innovation Center is powered by the institute’s research capabilities, bringing together academia, innovation and entrepreneurship, while also fostering collaboration with government and industry.
Dr. Lakshmi Jagannathan, CEO of the Innovation Center, believes that incubation occurs not inside the four walls of the incubator, but outside where connections are made. “Once a startup can find a market, everything else falls into place,” says Jagannathan, who feels that incubators can play an important role in this regard.
In The Hindu, she talks about how innovation centers are differentiating, why Bangalore is poised to become the country’s deep tech capital, and how companies are opening up their R&D labs to deep tech startups. We are sharing our thoughts on how we can help.
How does the IIIT-B Innovation Center bring together the strengths of IIIT-B to build a robust deep technology ecosystem?
The Innovation Center’s mission is to support emerging companies with innovative ideas, provide mentorship and market access, and promote IP on campus for translational research potential. This is not called an incubation center because we also believe in promoting innovation and working with companies to foster innovation.
Anything related to digital is IIIT-B’s specialty. The Innovation Center focuses on supporting innovation and startups in the digital space. That’s part of it.
Secondly, IIIT-B has around 8-10 labs/centres of excellence, managed by faculty members and supported by various governments including Government of Karnataka and Government of India. We want to work closely with them to see how we can align with their work, have them mentor their startups, and commercialize their research.
Incubation at innovation centers falls into three buckets. One is pre-incubation, a six-month customer discovery program for early-stage startups. The second step is hatching, which takes two to three years. We offer deeper engagement to support startups through mentorship, technology support, customer access and investor connections, and micro-funding through grants and government programs. Acceleration is for late-stage startups. We help them get more business and money.
A little about some of your programs
We are an incubation partner of RBI Innovation Hub and run pre-incubation programs for around 30 fintech startups.
We are also running a pre-incubation program for 6-7 startups that are building digital solutions for Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in Karnataka.
At Nimhans, we are trying to hatch them. We have launched a program in the field of mental health and brain health called the Deep Engagement and Enrichment Program for Agile Startups (DEEPAS). We are currently hiring 5-6 startups that will work closely with Nimhans. They agreed to have clinicians work with the startup to test and validate the idea. Some of these solutions will be tested at the Karnataka Brain Health Initiative (KABI) clinic. In the next stage, we want to take problem statements from Nimhans and identify innovators who can build solutions to them.
Last year, we implemented two acceleration programs. One was around digital health, where we supported around 12 startups. The other was about machine intelligence and automation and was called Industry 4.0. This may be one of the first few industry-driven programs of its kind. We have partnered with the Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry and all members, including TVS and Bosch, among others, have agreed to mentor the startup.
Start-ups come to innovation centers primarily for two purposes: funding and market. We at the Innovation Center are considering whether we can tap into those markets. This market could include companies like TVS and Bosch or hospitals like Nimhans. Once a startup can find a market, everything else falls into place.
How does the Innovation Center differentiate itself?
There are nearly 1,000 incubators in India. There are over 100 incubators in Bangalore alone.
Bengaluru is very well positioned to become the deep tech ecosystem of the country. Deep technology requires a lot of intensive R&D, academics, patents, and is long-term. For this reason, the academic world is also gradually coming into the spotlight. Startups understand that they need researchers and academia to help them develop the intellectual property needed to build deep technologies.
Bengaluru’s deep tech ecosystem is vibrant. You will receive pro bono guidance that you cannot find anywhere else. And as digital permeates every aspect of life, IIITB is perhaps the only institute in Bangalore that can make the most of it.
At the Innovation Center, we talk to companies that are interested in innovation and want to work with startups. If startups need to differentiate and add value, this can only be done by finding a business for them. Today, capital is not a big issue. Market access, market validation, customer connections, and the ability to do real business are important. What we’re looking at broadly is whether we can bring these markets into the incubator.
What is the share of IIIIT-B startups in the Innovation Center and how do you see opportunities for translational research?
The proportion of IIIT-B startups at the center will be around 1-2%. We will also map research from IIITB to external startups.
Start-ups need funding, and businesses want to scale quickly. On the other hand, you might be a professor who is primarily interested in research and not business-savvy. Perfect for combining them. If there is research available on campus at the POC or MVP stage, why reinvent the wheel?
We currently have a VC looking at co-creation opportunities. Interest in academics is increasing among startups and investors. Opportunities like this did not exist in academia many years ago. The rise of deep technology is accelerating the process from research to commercialization.
We are currently looking for companies that want to collaborate with us for digital innovation in areas that have the potential to impact society. It could be health, education, hygiene, sanitation, women empowerment, etc…
Approximately 70% of India’s land area is rural. And there are fundamental issues to solve, such as water, health, hygiene, hygiene, women, and the environment, pollution, and sustainability. This also makes it a very good market for society-centric technology solutions.
MSME is also an interesting area for us. Many MSME companies are building smart solutions for smart manufacturing, but they may not be very good at communication, PowerPoint, or Excel. Start-ups, on the other hand, are very tech-savvy. We both wanted to get married. That’s another of our priorities.
What are the areas that need improvement for startups and incubators?
One of the big challenges is early validation and traction.
There is currently a large amount of government funding available to startups at a very early stage. The cumulative subsidies from DST, DBT, Elevate etc. can be up to ₹50 million. So you can build up to the MVP stage, but after that, many startups struggle due to lack of funding. Therefore, you should always talk to your customers and validate your ideas in the early stages.
For example, many companies build healthcare solutions without consulting with doctors or clinicians. When you finally put it on the market, it will be rejected. They said that of the 60 solutions that NIMHANS ran for validation, only eight were relevant. So there are 52 people building things that are not going to be used by people in mental health and neurology. A lot of time and resources are wasted.
The second part is leveraging existing infrastructure and research facilities. The Karnataka government has now come up with a very good GCC policy. Of the over 1,700 GCCs in India, many are located in Bengaluru and have very strong research capabilities. If R&D laboratories in these Gulf countries and companies are able to open up their research capabilities to startups, the latter’s design, prototyping, and small-batch manufacturing could take place in these facilities.
One of the biggest challenges for deep tech today is access to research and development facilities. They do not require capital infrastructure. They need access to capital infrastructure. The bulk of the funding from the government’s plans for incubators is earmarked for building capital infrastructure. This is not required.
Rather than everyone creating a lab, we need a centralized facility that all startups can use. Or contact companies that are ready to open their facilities. I believe businesses are ready to open up. This could solve a big problem with deep tech startups. A lot of that, especially building products and hardware, goes to China or Taiwan for things like chip design and low-volume production. However, these facilities are available in corporate bodies here. Many companies are also now considering how they can work with startups to align with their own businesses. We have to take advantage of that.
Incubators also need to go out more actively and build more connections. Hatching does not occur within the four walls, but outside.
