IAN-BIRAC partnership launches India’s 1st BioTech-focused Angel Funding Network BioAngels; To Support 100+ Startups in 3 Yrs

• BioAngels Network “BioAngels” to combine governmental support and private angel investments in a dynamic synergy


• To facilitate early-stage private capital to accelerate the growth of startups operating in biotech, medtech, agritech, water & sanitation cleantech, etc.

In a bid to unlock the immense potential of Indian biotech, BIRAC , in partnership with Indian Angel Network (IAN), has announced the launch of BioAngels Network “BioAngels” at the Global Bio India 2019. The platform aims to be the single largest national platform for biotech angel investing.

[caption id="attachment_138258" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] IAN BIRAC - BiAN Launch Release[/caption]

The announcement comes at a crucial juncture for the Indian biotechnology industry which is being driven by a level of dynamism that only a few other sectors have been able to achieve globally. Over the last decade, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a non- for profit Public Sector Enterprise, has led the industry to cross multiple milestones. Worth USD 50 billion in 2018, the Indian bio-economy currently comprises over 600 + core biotech companies as well as  2700+ startups, accounting for a 3% share in the global biotechnology industry. 

The merging synergies of the country’s largest angel network and the innovation-focused industry-academia interface supported by the government are set to bring about the much-needed transformation by triggering the sector’s next phase of evolution. 

By combining the power of regulatory vision and angel investment, such  initiatives aims to strengthen assist BIRAC in accelerating the growth of the Indian bioeconomy, enabling it to surpass USD 100 billion by 2025. The first-of-its-kind focused funding program will accomplish this by facilitating budding innovators with access to capital, mentorship, and growth opportunities.

“We are extremely delighted to collaborate with BIRAC to set up India’s first BioAngels Network “BioAngels” powered by IAN. Through this institution, our aim is to provide a leg up to innovators who are dedicated to resolving critical pain points in the country’s healthcare ecosystem. BioAngels will also enable us to leverage the domain expertise of leading investors outside of IAN who are supporting biotech ventures across sub-verticals including medtech, agritech/irrigation, water & sanitation cleantech, among others. With their help, we will be able to build a pipeline of well-curated and diligenced deal flow for our members.” said Digvijay Singh, COO, IAN.

Dr. Manish Diwan, Head- Strategic Partnership & Entrepreneurship Development, BIRAC commented, “Biotech start-ups are focused on creating a transformational impact in India before they disrupt global markets. They hold the key to unlocking a healthier, tech-driven future for India along with the unparalleled potential of digital healthcare.  As an ecosystem enabler committed to seeding and breeding Indian innovators in this space, we are pleased to create a unique opportunity to mobilize equity investments for start-ups in this sector. IAN would facilitate greater growth opportunities to biotech startups on the back of early-stage private capital.” 

Such a consortorium of 50 + Angels, HNI’s, Early Stage VCs,  will enable us to bolster our strategies by integrating invaluable insights of industry leaders. The Network’s reach and strong industry connect will also help us to support biotech startups across wider geographies,” he added.

Anchored by IAN, the initiative will be driven by a robust operational focus, frameworks, processes, and governance, and powered by an inclusive group of ecosystem stakeholders. These include HNIs, angel investors, family offices, strategic investors, corporates, and VCs. The platform will facilitate the expansion of BIRAC’s empowering policies, mentoring, and market access to biotech innovators across India and overseas.

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 11 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK.  The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members. Some of its marquee investee companies include WebEngage, Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure amongst many others. 

Indian Angel Network has been a pioneer in the seed and early-stage investing. It has now launched a ₹450 Crores VC fund making it now, the single largest platform for seed & early stage, where entrepreneurs can raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores (with co-investors), thus making IAN the platform of choice!

About BIRAC:

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India as an interface agency to strengthen and empower the emerging biotech enterprises to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing high unmet need through development of globally competent  affordable product and technologies.

BIRAC is playing a transformative and catalytic role in nurturing Biotech Innovation Ecosystem in the country towards  building $100 Billion Bio- economy by 2025. 

C-CAMP and Japan's Beyond Next Ventures Launch Hub to Fund & Mentor Indian Life Sciences, Bio-Tech Startups

The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), India’s premier bio-innovation hub recently signed an Letter of Intent (LOI) with Tokyo, Japan-based venture capital firm Beyond Next Ventures (BNV), which is also one of the leading independent accelerators in Japan dedicated to incubation investment in technology start-ups.

The aim of this collaboration is to encourage and promote the best deep science innovations in the field of Life Sciences and Biotechnology in India.

The two organizations intend to create the C-CAMP – BNV Innovation Hub (CBIH) which will largely focus on facilitating Japanese investment of up to 5 million USD in Indian start-ups working on exciting technologies in the Life Sciences and Biotech domain.

This hub also aims to support start-ups in both the regions through exchange of human resources and technologies and through other facilitation programs and events to connect skilled talent, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in both regions.

C-CAMP has over the last few years interacted with over 500 start-ups and supported over 100 of these through funding, incubation and mentorship.

Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO & Director, C-CAMP said “C-CAMP has been identifying and supporting the most exciting early stage innovations and now looks forward to nurture many more such high-risk high-return innovations at an early stage through this collaboration with Beyond Next Ventures. This will be a fantastic start to build Indo-Japan collaborations for high-end innovations.”

Mr. Tsuyoshi Ito CEO, BNV said “We are very excited to jointly launch the “C-CAMP Beyond Next Ventures Innovation Hub” (“CBIH”) in collaboration with the top incubator in India C-CAMP. As the top accelerator and VC in Japan, we look forward to combining our experience and extensive network with C-CAMP to support new innovations in Japan and India. Through this collaboration, we plan to make full-fledged venture investments into the life sciences field of India and contribute to the industrial and economic development in India in the future."

Established in August 2014, BNV is an independent accelerator dedicated to incubation investment in technology startups. It is one of the few leading companies in the field in Japan with a wealth of investment experience ranging from support for commercialization of university seeds to venture investment, growth support, and excellent operation results, and JSTs university new industry creation program. It has been recognized as a business promoter at (START) and EDO's R & D venture support project. The first fund established in February 2015, and the second fund established in October 2018, totals less than 15 billion yen, operating as the country's largest fund as an accelerator, and will be invested in a large number of technology startups, supporting its commercialization and
growth.

BNV is actively working on commercialization support other than funding, "BRAVE acceleration program", for researchers / entrepreneurs such as universities and research institutes aiming to commercialize innovative technologies, matching with management human resources candidates, knowledge and human resources for commercialization realization We provide network and growth funds. In addition, a program called “Blockbuster TOKYO” That supports contracting from Tokyo and supports entrepreneurship in drug discovery and medical ventures and growth of drug discovery and medical venture companies also operates.

In February 2019, as a base to provide start-up companies in the life sciences area with support for commercialization including research and development, BNV launched the share lab / wet lab “Beyond BioLAB TOKYO” in Chuo-ku, Tokyo.

From March 2019, BNV started to provide a co-founder matching platform "Co-founders" specialized for technical seeds and researchers at universities(URL:https://co-founders.team/)and by providing the online matching opportunities and real support, we are helping to create a strong founding team.

Bengaluru Startup Pandorum Bio-Engineers Cornea Tissue for Scar-Less Regeneration & Vision Restoration

Pandorum Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a tissue engineering and regenerative medicine startup company, announced the development of bio-engineered cornea tissue that can promote scarless healing of corneal wounds through bio-inspired regenerative approach.

Scientists at Pandorum have successfully formulated a novel hydrogel that can encapsulate and deliver corneal stem cells to the wound site, to stimulate scarless regeneration. Pandorum’s cell laden hydrogel can be directly applied in a minimally invasive manner as ‘Liquid Cornea’ to corneal wounds and perforations, and can also be 3D bio-printed as corneal lenticules for lamellar keratoplasty. This research study was presented at the prestigious annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO-2019) held in Vancouver, Canada.

Dr. Tuhin Bhowmick, co-founder of Pandorum who holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, and is an alumnus of European Molecular Biology Labs (EMBL), said, “Being able to bio-engineer critical tissues such as the human cornea is a significant milestone.” The work is currently in the stage of animal studies, and the team is preparing to move towards pilot human studies in 2020.

“According to the World Health Organization, corneal disorders are one of the major causes of blindness worldwide. Though surgically replacing the opaque tissue with a clear corneal allograft is usually effective in improving vision, there is an acute shortage of cadaveric human corneas available for transplantation. In India alone, there are over a million people suffering from bilateral loss of vision due to corneal disorders, and at least a few folds more from unilateral corneal blindness. At Pandorum, we are working to close this gap using bio-engineering approach- through stage-wise development of a platform, which is ultimately aimed to liberate us from the dependencies on human donor cornea,” added Dr. Bhowmick.

Pandorum is developing these bio-engineered cornea tissues in collaboration with the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), one of the world’s largest eye institutes that has served more than 26 million people. Cornea surgeons Dr. Virender Sangwan and Dr. Sayan Basu, and scientist Dr. Vivek Singh, at LVPEI, have been playing a crucial role in translation of this technology. Dr. Sangwan, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awardee, renowned for the development of a novel surgical technique- Simple Limbal Epithelial Transplantation (SLET), was one of the early visionaries of this collaborative project. In his view, “Pandorum’s Bio-engineered Cornea is a transformational technologies and could lead to scarless healing of corneal injuries with rejection-free corneal graft. In a way, such platform technology addresses the need for the repair of corneal injuries and perforations, and also meeting the requirement for partial or total replacement of cornea.”

To recall, in 2015 the startup first gained popularity for developing India's first artificial 3D printed liver tissue

Pre-clinical studies involving clinically relevant corneal wound models in rabbits are presently underway, led by Dr. Singh and Dr. Basu. According to Dr. Singh, a cornea and stem cell expert, “The technology can be a game changer in the field of regenerative treatment of corneal wounds, after the safety and efficacy have been successfully established.”

Pandorum’s investors include Binny Bansal, Sachin Bansal, Sunil Munjal, T.K. Kurien, Indian Angel Network (IAN), 021 Capital, Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital (KITVEN), Kotak Investment Advisors and 500 Startups.

“It is a proud moment for all of us to present our breakthrough innovation at the ARVO-2019 meeting,” said Arun Chandru, co-founder of Pandorum Technologies. Founded in 1928, ARVO is the largest eye and vision research organization in the world that includes nearly 12,000 researchers and clinicians from over 75 countries. “Such innovation at global level has been possible due to the excellent government backed biotech startup ecosystem, the support of our investors and our exceptional multi-disciplinary team. Yes, translation of such living tissue-based therapies from lab to clinic is an arduous and expensive task involving comprehensive animal and human studies,” added Mr. Chandru. “More importantly; we are excited about our potential to impact millions of lives.”
About Pandorum Technologies

Founded in 2011 by academic entrepreneurs, Pandorum Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a biotechnology startup with distinct synergy of life science, engineering and clinical competencies. The company works on design and manufacturing of functional human tissues- cornea and liver; for medical research and therapeutic applications. Pandorum is supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and has received ‘Bio-Excellence’ award from the Government of Karnataka in 2016.

In February last year, Pandorum had raised $3.6 million in a series A round from Indian Angel Network Fund, 021 Capital, 500 Startups and the Karnataka government backed Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital (KITVEN) fund.

Vishal Doshi's AUM Biosciences Licenses its 1st Novel, Highly Selective Anti-Cancer Drug 'ETC-206'

AUM Biosciences, a Singapore-based oncology-focused biotechnology company founded by Vishal Doshi, has has licensed its first novel, highly selective anti-cancer drug, ETC-206, from A*STAR’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC). The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is Singapore's lead public sector agency that spearheads economic oriented research to advance scientific discovery and develop innovative technology.

AUM has licensed the global rights to develop, commercialise and manufacture ETC-206 in all indications. ETC-206 was discovered and developed through a collaboration between A*STAR’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre (ETC) and Duke-NUS Medical School (a partnership between Duke University School of Medicine and the National University of Singapore). It advanced into first-in-man trials in December 2016. Initial clinical studies suggest that ETC-206 is very well tolerated and could be used as a therapy across a range of liquid and solid tumour types.

The drug promises a more targeted approach by inhibiting the Mnk enzyme in cancer cells, which is a key player in promoting cancer growth when activated. This could lower mortality rates for cancer and improve quality of life for cancer patients compared to traditional chemotherapy, which kills cells in a less specific fashion and affects more than just the cancer cells.

“Due to low efficacy and steep costs associated with many cancer treatments, the demand for more precise anti-cancer treatments has become imperative. AUM’s small molecule and biomarker driven approach allows us to implement innovative trial designs enabling “multiple shots on goal”, in cancer treatment,” AUM’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Vishal Doshi said.

ETC-206 is the first in AUM’s pipeline of novel targeted therapies with the potential to be developed both independently and in combination with other therapies. The drug’s ability to isolate and target only cancerous cells promises a breakthrough opportunity globally.

“ETC-206 is a prime example of how A*STAR has been able to translate R&D into positive outcomes to create economic growth and enhance lives for Singaporeans. We look forward to working closely with more Singapore based enterprises such as AUM Biosciences as we continue to leverage our drug discovery and development capabilities to support the growth of the local biotech ecosystem in Singapore.” Said Dr Damian O’Connell, Chief Executive Officer of A*STAR’s Experimental Therapeutics Centre.

“Duke-NUS scientists and researchers have led many discoveries with great potential for the welfare of people in Singapore and beyond,” stated Dr. David Epstein, Director of Duke-NUS’ Centre for Technology and Development (CTeD), and the School’s Vice Dean for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, who is also an associate professor of the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme. “ETC-206 is an important accomplishment exemplifying Duke-NUS’s mission of facilitating the translation of basic research into commercial entities and products. We are proud to partner with A*STAR in realizing this enterprising venture that was 'Made in Singapore' and is being taken forward by AUM, a Singapore-based startup. We look forward to more startups creating entrepreneurship opportunities in the sector."

ETC-206’s licensing by AUM not only puts Singapore on the map, but also enables the company to be at the forefront of emerging oncology trends. This is a significant step towards its vision of “Asia to global” by accelerating the development of innovative and affordable medicines.

“We are now speaking with investors to accelerate ETC-206’s development and our broader molecule acquisition roadmap. AUM will fund further clinical development and will be responsible for regulatory filings, and for clinical studies for this and future drugs,” Mr. Doshi commented.

As a future roadmap, AUM has a strategic focus of acquiring and developing promising small molecules targeted oncology assets to unlock their potential, including those that are de-prioritised or not progressed by their originators due to strategic and financial limitations in the healthcare industry. Its mandate of “No biomarker, No drug” serves to increase the probability of success.

Cancer prevalence in Asia is estimated at 17.4 million in 2018, with about 8.8 million new cases every year, accounting for about half of the new global cancer cases. The number of new cases in Asia is expected to increase from 8.8 million in 2018 to 11.8 million by 2030 creating a huge unmet medical need in Asia.

AUM Biosciences (AUM) is an oncology-focused Asian biotechnology company committed to developing affordable cancer therapies. Dedicated to unlocking the value in innovation, we aim to create value for patients, physicians and our partners by harnessing the power of precision medicine, and digital health. AUM Biosciences focuses on early-stage development of innovative medicines for the treatment of cancers prevalent in Asians but has the potential to address global market.

AUM develops potent and highly selective therapeutics in oncology, with an aim to change the drug development paradigm by implementing a holistic approach to developing drugs. AUM Biosciences is led by a highly-experienced management team with over 50 years of high-quality oncology drug development experience combined.

Headquartered in Singapore, AUM is strategically positioned to work with, partner and collaborate with leading research institutes, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies globally. AUM will have a specific focus on indications which have high unmet medical needs in Asian patients with global potential.

IIT Delhi Shareholding Startup Clensta Raises Funds from IAN and IAN Fund

Delhi-based Clensta International, which is a biotechnology startup having shareholding with IIT-Delhi, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN) and its maiden VC Fund, IAN Fund, led by IAN members - Rishabh Mehta, Founder & CEO LOCAD Pte Ltd., Pradeep Gupta, Co-Founder IAN, Anirudh Agarwal and Sajiv Dhawan. Rishabh Mehta will be taking the board seat in the startup.

Other investors who participated in this round include Ajai Chowdhry, Co-founder HCL, Arvind Singal, Founder & MD of Technopak Advisors, Bikky Khosla, CEO of Trade India, Chairman of ASSOCHAM, Jaideep Mehta, CEO of VCCircle, Raman Roy, Chairman of NASSCOM, and Anand Ladsariya, Founder of Everest Flavours.

Founded in 2016, by IIM Calcutta alumnus Dr. Puneet Gupta, Clensta provides waterless personal hygiene space hygiene solutions and other innovative products. The company envisions at providing innovative and easy solutions for day to day health and hygiene related problems while aiming to reduce the ever increasing problem of water shortage.

Currently offering its producs in B2B segment, the funds raised will be utlized by Clensta to launch its products in the B2C space and develop newer products in the personal hygiene category.

By introducing its so called “Waterless Technology”, the startup claims to have saved nearly 6 million litres of water in a short span of time.

Also Read - Manipal Student Wins Prize for Designing Waterless, Odourless Loo for Railways

All products by Clensta are specially designed "for India" and "in India", and are alcohol, SLS & Gluten free. The producs adhere to all guidelines provided by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) & Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Clensta, which is housed at the Biotechnology Business Incubation Facility at IIT-Delhi, is already offering its
products through Government E-Marketplace (GeM), which in turn are being supplied both to government and private hospitals and have also been considered to be patronized for Indian Defense and Paramilitary Forces.

The company also has its additional office in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Dr Puneet Gupta, founder & CEO, Clensta International, said in a statement to Economic Times, "We endeavour to bring science and technology to introduce advanced personal hygiene products which can improve existing standards of Personal Hygiene and hence address a huge unaddressed market of close to Rs 11000 crore. Apart from the monetary benefit from this funding, IAN also brings aboard a wide range of experience as well as opportunities from its Individual Investors which we believe will ensure Clensta’s exponential growth."

Source - Economic Times

[Top Image - Puneet Gupta, CEO & Founder of Clensta]

C-CAMP Launches New Startup Initiatives including An Incubator and CoE in Agri-Innovation

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), which is India’s largest incubator to boost life science research, innovation and entrepreneurship, has recently launched of three of its initiatives - Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50, Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Agri-Innovation and Technology Business Incubator.

The launch was conducted in the presence of Shri K. J. George, Hon’ble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka and Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka, along with Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT & S&T, Govt. of Karnataka, Shri Gaurav Gupta.

Notably, C-CAMP is a Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India initiative to provide platforms for technology development and nurture innovations in the area of life sciences. C-CAMP is also a member of the Bangalore Life Sciences Cluster (BLiSC) with a mandate to enable cutting-edge life science research and innovation and promote life science entrepreneurship.

In line with C-SAP, C-CAMP in association with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS) and Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) has also initiated a 1 year equity based mentorship and capacity building program for startups based out of Karnataka, the Karnataka Startup Advancement Program (K-SAP) BIO 50.

The main objective of this program is to meaningfully engage and work closely with Karnataka startups to enhance their odds of success and to enable startups achieve faster traction in their key milestones”, explained Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO, C-CAMP.

Till date, C-CAMP has incubated over 30 innovative startups and entrepreneurs working in different areas of Life Sciences and Biotechnology. Its incubatees are currently working in the fields of drug discovery, molecular biology, transgenic model systems, biomaterials, synthetic biology, upstream & downstream processing, agricultural sciences, nutraceuticals etc

“The scientists in our country are doing a wonderful job. The government of Karnataka is very happy to join hands with C-CAMP which is an initiative of Government of India. We are happy to help you out in your ventures and you have our full support”, said K J George, Hon’ble Minister of Large & Medium Scale Industries, IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka while addressing the audience during the inaugural ceremony.

“In the agricultural system, there are a lot of missing links. Although we are focusing on production we are not giving enough importance to processing and marketing. We need to work on this. C-CAMP as an incubation centre can provide with few solutions to address such problems. There are so many innovations happening in India that can be applied in agriculture”, stated Shri N. H. Shivashankara Reddy, Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture, Govt. of Karnataka during the inauguration.

In last couple of years, Biotechnology startups scenario in India has improved tremendously. In a 2017 study by Association of Biotechnology Led enterprises (ABLE) revealed that Indian biotech startup ecosystem is booming with 1022 bio-technology startups and it has managed to fetch investments of over $2.8 billion (Rs 18,700 crore) in five years i.e from 2012 to 2016.

In April this year, Swiss multinational healthcare firm Roche informally announced that it is looking for startups in India that will help the company bring evidence-based medicine in India through its proprietary technology

However a life sciences or medical product company is yet to make it big in India, despite a startup culture that is now almost two-decades years old.

Last October, Union Minister of Science and Technology launched Women Bio-tech Incubator at Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society during International Science Congress, 2017 in Chennai.

In 2016, Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) made waves in the Indian startup ecosystem when it launched an Innovation Hub (iHUB@CCMB) in its medical biotechnology complex there. Last year, it even selected 4 biotech startup companies for this incubator.

Source - Bio Spectrum India

[Top Image - foto-basa.com]

India, World Bank Sign $125 Mn Agreement To Invest in Bio-Pharma and Medical Device Innovations

The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a $125 million loan agreement to support India in developing an innovative biopharmaceutical and medical devices industry, which is globally competitive and addresses the country’s major concerns around barriers to affordable healthcare.

The Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project (I3) will support Government of India’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Program (BIRAC), set up five years ago to support innovative start-ups and collaborations through strategic partnerships.

This project, will nurture next generation technical skills; provide companies with advanced shared facilities to conduct clinical validation; link clinical trial sites with networks of expert advisors and international bodies; and strengthen all institutions involved in the facilitation and adoption of global innovations, technologies, and licensing models.

The agreement for the Project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; Mohd. Aslam, Managing Director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC); and Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank

BIRAC will now scale-up its efforts across the industry and focus on providing the ingredients that are currently missing in India’s biopharma innovation ecosystem. It will facilitate a more collaborative research and development environment (R&D), leverage the expertise of local and international players from both the public and private sectors, and make India more competitive. It will also help create an ecosystem that facilitates development of a continuous pipeline of products in the health sector. This will help India emerge as a low-cost healthcare provider for the world.

World Bank arm IFC (International Finance Corporation) has already backed quite a few Indian startups like Byju's, Lenskart, Bigbasket and Blackbuck, with ticket sizes upwards of $5 million at Series-B stage and onwards.

The IFC has, of late, been bullish on expanding its venture capital portfolio, with its venture investment portfolio standing at around $500 million till mid-2016. Over the past five-to-six years, IFC has made investments to the tune of $700 million both in direct venture investments and in venture capital funds across 15 countries.

Takeaway for Startups in India from This Agreement

As BIRAC came into existence for motive of supporting early and late stage startups in the field of bio-pharmaceuticals and medical device segment, the capital it will receive from World Bank can be accessed by startups in the form of grant-in-aid by enrolling its assistance programme and incubation it offers.

Additionally, it is to be noted that there's exclusive fund called "Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Fund" ("SEED Fund") of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) hosted by Entrepreneurship Development Center (Venture Center), which is supported by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

Startups, working in areas of can get capital from one of the source mentioned above to access the $125 million fund from World Bank.

Source: The World Bank

India, World Bank Sign $125 Mn Agreement To Invest in Bio-Pharma and Medical Device Innovations

The Government of India and the World Bank today signed a $125 million loan agreement to support India in developing an innovative biopharmaceutical and medical devices industry, which is globally competitive and addresses the country’s major concerns around barriers to affordable healthcare.

The Innovate in India for Inclusiveness Project (I3) will support Government of India’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Program (BIRAC), set up five years ago to support innovative start-ups and collaborations through strategic partnerships.

This project, will nurture next generation technical skills; provide companies with advanced shared facilities to conduct clinical validation; link clinical trial sites with networks of expert advisors and international bodies; and strengthen all institutions involved in the facilitation and adoption of global innovations, technologies, and licensing models.

The agreement for the Project was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India; Mohd. Aslam, Managing Director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC); and Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank

BIRAC will now scale-up its efforts across the industry and focus on providing the ingredients that are currently missing in India’s biopharma innovation ecosystem. It will facilitate a more collaborative research and development environment (R&D), leverage the expertise of local and international players from both the public and private sectors, and make India more competitive. It will also help create an ecosystem that facilitates development of a continuous pipeline of products in the health sector. This will help India emerge as a low-cost healthcare provider for the world.

World Bank arm IFC (International Finance Corporation) has already backed quite a few Indian startups like Byju's, Lenskart, Bigbasket and Blackbuck, with ticket sizes upwards of $5 million at Series-B stage and onwards.

The IFC has, of late, been bullish on expanding its venture capital portfolio, with its venture investment portfolio standing at around $500 million till mid-2016. Over the past five-to-six years, IFC has made investments to the tune of $700 million both in direct venture investments and in venture capital funds across 15 countries.

Takeaway for Startups in India from This Agreement

As BIRAC came into existence for motive of supporting early and late stage startups in the field of bio-pharmaceuticals and medical device segment, the capital it will receive from World Bank can be accessed by startups in the form of grant-in-aid by enrolling its assistance programme and incubation it offers.

Additionally, it is to be noted that there's exclusive fund called "Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Fund" ("SEED Fund") of the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) hosted by Entrepreneurship Development Center (Venture Center), which is supported by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

Startups, working in areas of can get capital from one of the source mentioned above to access the $125 million fund from World Bank.

Source: The World Bank

Human Organs On-Demand Startup Pandorum Raises $3.6 Mn Via 021 Capital, Karnataka's KITVEN

Bengaluru based biotech startup Pandorum Technologies, which is famous for developing India's first artificial 3D printed liver tissue, has raised $3.6 million (~ ₹ 23 crore) in a series A round from Indian Angel Network Fund, 021 Capital, 500 Startups and the Karnataka government backed Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital (KITVEN) fund, according to filings collated by Paper.vc.

The funding round also saw participation from existing investors Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal besides new investors like Hero Enterprise chairman Sunil Kant Munjal in his personal capacity and IAN’s angel network too.

"The current fundraise is to help us to make the transition from advanced prototype to market ready product stage. This will include capacity enhancement in key areas including team, tech, infrastructure, scale up and regulatory compliance," said Tuhin Bhowmick, co-founder of Pandorum Technologies, to a business daily.

Arun Chandru along with Tuhin Bhowmick, researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, founded Pandorum in 2011. Later, the next year the startup moved into a Bangalore based biotechnology incubation center – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms in the Bangalore Bio-Cluster, to access state of the art experimental facilities and to do research and development. Since then the team has received several notable awards and recognition.

In 2016, the startup had raised $311K (INR 2 Cr) from Flipkart founders - Sachin and Binny Bansal. Prior to this, Pandorum had also raised grants from the govt of India backed Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

Pandorum’s vision is to make personalised human organs such as lungs, liver, kidney and pancreas on demand.

The startup is presently working on bioengineering human cornea that can potentially be implanted. Its 3D-printed human tissues can be used for drug development and medical research.

To recall, BIRAC, which is one of the backer of Pandorum, has signed an MoU with Indian Angel Network to invest in India's biotech startups and bring the biotechnology startups closer to angel investors.

According to a study called “India’s Biotech Startup Ecosystem”, published by Association of Biotechnology Led enterprises (ABLE) in 2017, Indian biotech startup ecosystem is booming with 1022 bio-technology startups and Bangalore has the most number of biotech startups hosting 190 of the 1022 biotech startups formed in the last five years.

In last August, biotech startup Roivant Sciences has secured whopping $1.1 billion equity investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. Riovant is founded by an Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.

In October '17, a women exclusive Bio-tech Incubator was inaugurated in Chennai during the last concluded International Science Congress - 2017.

Post Flipkart, Softbank Invests $1.1 Bn In Indian Origin Entrepreneur’s BioTech Startup

Biotech firm, Roivant Sciences has secured $1.1 billion equity investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. This investment, which includes existing shareholder participation, is intended to accelerate the launch of new subsidiaries within and beyond the biopharmaceutical industry.

Commenting on the development, Akshay Naheta, Managing Director of SoftBank Group International said, “Roivant has attracted world-class talent in its pursuit of developing and commercializing drugs that target large unmet medical needs. We are impressed with the ambition and track record of the Roivant team and look forward to supporting them in the next step of their journey, as they look to effectively harness technology and leverage big data across all aspects of their business.”

Founded by 32-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Roivant Sciences Group focuses on developing and commercializing novel therapies through subsidiary ‘Vants’. It focuses on five different subsidiaries areas which includes Axovant (neurology), Myovant (women’s health and endocrine diseases), Dermavant (dermatology), Enzyvant (rare diseases), and Urovant (urology).

Ramaswamy who is originally from Kerala has co-founded and served as president of Campus Venture Network, a technology company in 2007. The firm was later on acquired by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. He then worked at hedge fund QVT Financial from 2007 to 2014, where he was a partner and co-managed the firm's biotech portfolio.

“I admire SoftBank’s long-term vision and I believe they will add significant strategic value to Roivant in the next phase of our growth,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, Founder and CEO of Roivant.

Roivant is dedicated to transformative innovation in healthcare. Roivant focuses on realizing the full potential of promising biomedical research by developing and commercializing novel therapies across diverse therapeutic areas. They partner with innovative biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions to ensure that important medicines are rapidly developed and delivered to patients.

Roivant also plans to launch new companies operating outside of traditional biopharmaceutical development. Datavant, a new technology-focused subsidiary, will be the first company in the Roivant family to operate outside of traditional biopharmaceutical development. Datavant aims to dissolve barriers between siloed healthcare datasets in order to unlock novel insights and reduce the time and cost of delivering innovative medicines to patients.

Roivant’s long-range mission is to reduce the time and cost of developing and delivering new medicines for patients.“

“Roivant has come a very long way in a relatively short period of time,” said Dan Oren, President and CEO of Dexcel Pharma, a member of the Dexxon investor group which is both an initial investor in Roivant and a participant in this financing. “Since 2014 they have formed a diverse array of companies with many promising therapies in development. We supported Roivant at the very beginning and we continue to support them as they scale their operations and pursue new opportunities," he added further.

Prior to this investment, SoftBank has invested $2.5 billion in the homegrown e-commerce firm, Flipkart marking the biggest private investment in the country’s consumer technology sector. The SoftBank invests globally in the businesses and technologies that will enable the next stage of the information revolution, and make tomorrow’s world leading businesses possible. The fund invests across all technology sectors and geographies, including computational biology, data-driven healthcare, and technology-enabled pharmaceutical businesses

Indian Angel Network Signs MoU With BIRAC; Plans To Invest In Biotechnology Startups

Indian Angel Network (IAN) has announced the signing of a MoU with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). This partnership brings the biotechnology startups closer to angel investors, who apart from money will provide invaluable mentoring and global market access.

BIRAC a Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Government of India, is an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprises in India. BIRAC enables enterprises and startups to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.

Commenting on the partnership, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN said, “The Indian Biotechnology industry breeds very innovative technologies with the potential to have a high impact on our citizens. However, these are usually long gestation investments. Over the years, IAN has promoted and nurtured ground-breaking technology startups in India bringing in patient money. We are delighted to partner with BIRAC. Indian biotech companies surely have the potential to go global and IAN could well bring a catalytic effect to these ventures.”

Despite challenges like intense capital and high-end infrastructure requirement for startups, the biotech market has a lot of potentials. According to the latest research data brought out by IBEF, India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and ranks third in the Asia-Pacific region. The Indian biotech industry holds about 2 percent share of the global biotech industry and is expected to be valued at $ 11.6 billion in 2017.

"BIRAC has catalyzed a significant transition in the Indian bio entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are very pleased with our partnership with IAN. We hope that the 500 startups that BIRAC has supported can leverage this partnership especially IAN's expansive network to move to the next level & bring cutting edge products & solutions for national & global challenges”, said Dr Renu Swarup, Sr. Adviser, Department of Biotechnology and MD, BIRAC.

Over the last five years, BIRAC has been at the forefront of a mission to transform the innovative index of the country especially in the area of Biotechnology. Through its efforts and along with its partners BIRAC has been able to create a pan-India presence supporting over 700 Biotech companies, SMEs, Research Institutes, which include around 500 startups and entrepreneurs. To provide launchpads for start-ups BIRAC has supported 24 Bioincubators across India.

Not only this, BIRAC has been playing an important role in the implementation and delivery of the flagship programmes of the Indian Government especially ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-up India’ and has a crucial role in the transformation of the Indian Bioeconomy to US$ 100 billion by 2025.

Established in 2006 to foster entrepreneurship with a prime focus on nurturing and mentoring new generation entrepreneurs, IAN brought the concept of angel investment to India and has been instrumental in bringing India’s startup ecosystem on the global map. With investors from 10 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded startups across 17 sectors in India and 6 other countries growing global footprint companies. IAN has already invested in several biotech startups like Vitas Pharma, Transcell which are also BIRAC supported companies.

Govt To Include 8-10 Years old BioTech, Medical Devices Cos As Startups

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has moved a cabinet note and suggestion that the maximum age for classifying a biotechnology or a medical devices firm as a startup be raised to 8-10 years from the current five years.

The DIPP has suggested these changes to be incorporated under Startup India Action Plan, a Narendra Modi led flagship programme to nurture startups and entrepreneurship in the country.

This suggestion note to increase the age of Biotechnology and Medical Devices companies to consider as startups is made on the very fact that the companies in these two sectors take long development process to mature. To promote biotech firms, the government already offers Rs 1 crore to bio-incubators under the Biotech Equity Fund. A total of 20 bio-incubators have been supported by the department of biotechnology so far. Nearly 350 startups have received benefits from these bio-incubators under programmes such as Biotechnology Ignition Grant, Industry Innovation Programme on Medical Electronics (IIPME), Sparsh, Grand Challenges and BioNEST.

Related Reading - A Glimpse of Indian Bio-Technology Industry And Its Hottest Startups

Notably, in a recent study called "India's Biotech Startup Ecosystem" by Association of Biotechnology Led enterprises (ABLE) revealed that Indian biotech startup ecosystem is booming with 1022 bio-technology startups and it has managed to fetch investments of over $2.8 billion (Rs 18,700 crore) in five years i.e from 2012 to 2016. Bengaluru, with 190 Biotech Startups, is the capital of India's biotechnology industry.

Additionally, in order to ease processes for startups, the DIPP has also written to the corporate affairs ministry to notify startups as ‘fast track’ firms, which will allow them to wind up their business within 90 days. So far, the DIPP has recognized 713 startups out of 1,835 applications it received.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

A Glimpse of Indian Bio-Technology Industry And Its Hottest Startups

The Indian biotechnology sector has grown significantly in past few years. In this article we will discuss about the current scenario of this industry all along introducing to some of hottest biotechnology startups in India.
Over the years, the Indian biotechnology industry has grown fast! We all should feel proud for the Indian biotechnology industry as it holds a share of two percent of global biotech industry. If it keeps progressing with same pace, it will surely become a prominent player in the global biotech industry very soon.

Over the years, the Indian biotechnology industry has grown fast! We all should feel proud for the Indian biotechnology industry as it holds a share of two percent of global biotech industry. If it keeps progressing with same pace, it will surely become a prominent player in the global biotech industry very soon.

Figures Altering Biotech Industry

The biotechnology segment is the fastest growing segment in India. It is valued about $11 billion currently and it will touch the $ 100 billion mark by 2025 as per the forecast of the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE). Furthermore, the Make in India website mentioned that the bio-tech industry size is expected to go up to USD 11.6 Billion by 2017 and it is expected to grow at 30% growth rate every year. The increased demand for healthcare services, R&D activities, clinical capabilities etc. will help this sector to witness fast growth in the future. It is believed that the ecology and the population both factors play a key role in the overall growth of biotech industry because they made India the most preferred country for clinical trials, research and development of biotech products and outsourcing of many other related contracts etc.

With the presence of some top biotechnology companies like Biocon, Panacea Biotec, Serum Institute of India, Wockhardt, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Novozymes, Indian Immunologicals , Shantha Biotechnics, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Bharat Serums and Vaccines Limited, India has got the chance to come as a leading player in the list of global biotech industry. All these companies are using India’s advantages like cost effectiveness, high population and skilled manpower to become recognized players worldwide. The industry is in great position and more money is being funneled by innovative ideas in biomedical, environmental, food and agriculture segments. Immuno-oncology, Stem cell therapies, 3D bioprinting, personalized medicine – theranostics, biomarkers and gene therapy are some of the upcoming segments. The cities like; Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad are hubs of Biotechnology companies. The agencies which have been supporting biotechnology’s R&D majorly include Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and many more.

Notable Amendments

India’s biotech industry is the 3rd largest company in Asia-Pacific region and has all set to enter in a new era. Many Indian biotechnology companies are in outsourcing of R&D services and have gained recognition worldwide with numerous export contacts. The areas like genetic research and drug development & designing are also gaining prominence speedily. All this is possible because investments are done by the government and non government bodies at every level. These efforts also helped to improve the biotechnology startup scenario to create tremendous opportunities in every segment. The government’s initiatives like DST, DBT, CSIR and BIRAC are also supporting entrepreneurial individuals to establish startups. Whereas, emerging Bio-Technology parks have well established infrastructure and equipments for startups help.

Key Segments

The Indian bio- tech industry can be divided in to five major segments – bio-services, bio-agriculture, bio-industrial, bio-pharma and bio informatics. Bio-services generally refer to clinical trials, manufacturing and research contracts. Under Bio-agriculture segment scientists work on biopesticides, biofertilisers and genetically modified seeds that help to modernize the traditional agriculture applications. Biopharma deals in biopharmaceuticals including drugs, proteins, antibodies which are useful for therapeutics and diagnostics. Bio-industrial segment includes the research work related to yeast-based products, enzymes and amino acids etc. the remaining segment Bio-informatics represents bioIT services.

Some Well Known Biotechnology Startups in India

A number of startups have started their research and development operations in different parts of India and are performing well. The list of biotechnology startups is never ending. However some of them are explained below:

1. Ganit Labs - Bangalore based Ganit Labs was founded by Dr. Binay Panda and Dr Vijay Chandru in 2010 for prevention and cure of diseases through genomics application & informatics technology. The company is involved in the oral cancer genes’ mapping and their study. It uses analytical tools to ensure effective analyses.


2. Achira labs - It is another populat biotech startup from the Bangalore city. It uses cutting-edge micro-fluidics technology to make fast and affordable medical tests and treatment accessible for patients around the world.


3. FIB-SOL - Chennai based FIB-SOL was launched in the end of 2013. It aims to promote eco-friendly way of living. It develops technical solutions to solve agriculture and healthcare sector burning problems.


4. Forus Health care - Another notable innovative startup based based out of Bangalore. It develops technologies for prevention of ophthalmic care. 3nethra Royal and 3nethra Classic are its flagship products that help in pre-screening for five ophthalmic ailments.


5. Navya Biologicals - Founded by Vinay Konaje, Navya Biologicals has developed YeXtreme & ItensiMAb platforms to enable low cost production high quality biologics. It is headquartered in Hubli, Karnataka and deals in bioprocess and biologics. Notably -- while a 'drug' is manufactured through chemical synthesis, i.e by combining specific chemical ingredients in an ordered process, a 'biologic' is manufactured in a living system such as a microorganism, or plant or animal cells


6. Yaathum Biotech - It is a molecular biotech startup based out of Chennai and specializing in development of real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) diagnostic kit for helping in the diagnosis of various diseases. The startup is incubated at IIT Madras Bioincubator.

Apart from these names, there are numerous other startups working in biotechnology area. As this segment requires huge money to start a company or research lab, most of the times people avoid taking risk. Some startups have their own research setups and some of them are using others. Some has started with developing a small microbiology lab and succeed to build it as a successful venture within 2-3 years.

In Conclusion

No doubt India has a huge potential to become a leading bio-tech hub, however, it needs to take more concrete steps especially toward setting up of R&D labs and other institutes. It needs to tackle the gap at funding and policy domains so that talented professionals of Indian origin can start their research centers easily in the country and become a part of the cutting-edge research at world level. Medical science institutions and other educational and training institutes also need to work closely with each other to give a boost to this sector.

Bangalore's Theramyt Is A BioTech Venture Developing Tech Platforms To Generate New Class Cancer Therapies

Theramyt Novobiologics is a biotech venture started by Sohang Chatterjee and Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues in July 2013. Theramyt is developing technology platforms that can generate a completely new class of therapies for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis as well as diabetes. Theramyt is based on fundamental R&D with a much larger value proposition in the drug development life cycle.

This is Sohang's second biotech venture after Inbiopro Solutions. Inbiopro Solutions was established in 2007 by Sohang with Kavitha and Aditya Julka. Inbiopro was strategically invested in to by Strides Arcolab in 2010 and acquired fully in November 2012. At Inbiopro, they were developed biosimilars which were then licensed out to large Indian Pharma companies for marketing the products.

"When we started Inbiopro in 2007, there was a clear market opportunity for biosimilars as the traditional pharma companies were looking to enter biotechnology market and were looking for a partner who could shorten their entry time to market. We were one of the early players then. Since then, the industry has matured and now there are many more players working on bio-similars. This rush has been precipitated by a large basket of biological blockbusters going off-patent between 2015 and 2020,” adds Sohang.

Now, with Theramyt, they want to be ahead of the pack. "We need to differentiate ourselves and we want to be a game changer not just in the Indian biotech industry but the global scenario. Ours is a capital intensive industry with long incubation period for a product to come to market. With relatively limited funding (compared to a US or UK) we had to innovate our strategy. So, we decided to look at existing innovator's products and explored areas with scope for improving on them. That became the premise for setting up Theramyt," says Kavita. In fact, they are listed as the only Indian company in the Biobetter Innovation field by Global Industry Analysts’ 2014 report 'Biobetter Trends' (Report No. 146053).

[caption id="attachment_98174" align="aligncenter" width="700"] (L-R) Sohang Chatterjee & Kavitha Iyer Rodrigues, Founders, Theramyt[/caption]

Their 27 member strong science team can make them a global power in the bio-pharmaceutical industry. They are a non-traditional organization that thinks fun and serious science can be a healthy mix towards a high performing, purpose driven industry leader. As a startup, they recognized very early the importance of Organizational Development. "Therefore, we have a structured program with various OD activities in addition to the obvious knowledge and skill development programs," adds Kavita. They plan to expand to 50 members soon.

As their first initiative, they are developing our proprietary gene knockout platform for glycosylation modification on monoclonal antibodies. "This would address the Fc portion of the antibody, that responsible for effector function," says Sohang. Their second initiative is developing a proprietary protein library that can be used to screen various disease targets and the selected protein can then be combined with our high-potency Fc portion of the Antibody. To make this commercially viable, they have another program in mind to combine the Knock-out cell line with high expression elements.

"A part of our earning from selling Inbiopro has gone back in to the initial operation of Theramyt," says Sohang. In addition, we have received Rs.27.5 crore VC funding from Accel Partners, IDG Ventures, Aarin Capital and Karnataka state government-backed KITVEN. Most of this capital has gone in to setting our state-of-the-art research labs in Yeshwantpur (Bangalore) and initial proof of concept data of our science. Their immediate plan is to raise a second round of funding in 2 years' time. "That should take us to an inflection point when we decide to either remain a R&D and product development company or become a fully integrated biotech marketing company," says Sohang.

They would be partnering with large global biotech drug development and marketing companies in a couple of years’ time, once they have developed proof of our technology and filed all the necessary patents. "We have already filed 2 provisional patents and our target is to file 5 patents under PCT by 2015," he adds. As a message for future entrepreneurs, they say, "We constantly question ourselves whether we are doing enough. Always think what can be done differently and not just follow benchmark set by others."

IIT Madras Launches 'Bioincubator', An Incubation Cell For Biotechnology Startups

Biotechnology startups in Chennai have a reason to rejoice. IIT Madras on Thursday inaugurated its bio-incubator on Thursday. The IIT-Madras Bio-Incubator will help the startups with ideas related to biotechnology in getting easy facilities and funding to expand their research and innovation.  The incubator was inaugurated by Bhaskar Ramamurthy, IIT Madras's director.

This initiative by IIT Madras is being supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIARC), which is a body of the central government.  BIARC has established several new and world-class incubators all around the country under the Bio-Incubator Support Scheme (BISS). Addressing the startups at the launch, Bhaskar said, “Even existing and less used technologies can be uplifted and rebranded to utilize it more.”

IIT-M's bio-incubator will provide office and lab space, scale-up facilities, centralized utilities, high-end equipment and technical support to these startups for the process development so that their technologies can mature and attain commercialization.

The Government of India has allocated Rs.10,000 crore for the development of entrepreneurship in the country. The startups that register with IIT-M for research in biotechnology will be provided with a seed funding of Rs.10 lakh along with the mentorship and training programme. They will also be provided with information on how to apply and obtain legal patents for their research.

The incubator will act as a platform for researchers with nascent ideas, who want to develop and commercialize their product. It will also act as an R&D base for companies that want to try new technologies. Through this platform, researchers will be able to realize their business opportunities and entrepreneurs will be able to gain technical advice from experts.

Currently, four companies have been enrolled in the programme. The companies have been screened by the IIT faculties and selected on the basis of their content and determination for research. Of these selected four, three of the founders are alumni of Indian Institute of Technology. Pirius Nanosystems Pvt Ltd., Vital Bioscientific Solutions, Yaathum Biotech and Fib-sol Life Technologies are the selected four startups.

According to Guhan Jayaraman, coordinator at IIT-M’s Bio-incubator, “The innovation space in biotechnology has expanded considerably in the last few years in the areas of computational and synthetic biology.”

IIT Madras Launches 'Bioincubator', An Incubation Cell For Biotechnology Startups

Biotechnology startups in Chennai have a reason to rejoice. IIT Madras on Thursday inaugurated its bio-incubator on Thursday. The IIT-Madras Bio-Incubator will help the startups with ideas related to biotechnology in getting easy facilities and funding to expand their research and innovation.  The incubator was inaugurated by Bhaskar Ramamurthy, IIT Madras's director.

This initiative by IIT Madras is being supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIARC), which is a body of the central government.  BIARC has established several new and world-class incubators all around the country under the Bio-Incubator Support Scheme (BISS). Addressing the startups at the launch, Bhaskar said, “Even existing and less used technologies can be uplifted and rebranded to utilize it more.”

IIT-M's bio-incubator will provide office and lab space, scale-up facilities, centralized utilities, high-end equipment and technical support to these startups for the process development so that their technologies can mature and attain commercialization.

The Government of India has allocated Rs.10,000 crore for the development of entrepreneurship in the country. The startups that register with IIT-M for research in biotechnology will be provided with a seed funding of Rs.10 lakh along with the mentorship and training programme. They will also be provided with information on how to apply and obtain legal patents for their research.

The incubator will act as a platform for researchers with nascent ideas, who want to develop and commercialize their product. It will also act as an R&D base for companies that want to try new technologies. Through this platform, researchers will be able to realize their business opportunities and entrepreneurs will be able to gain technical advice from experts.

Currently, four companies have been enrolled in the programme. The companies have been screened by the IIT faculties and selected on the basis of their content and determination for research. Of these selected four, three of the founders are alumni of Indian Institute of Technology. Pirius Nanosystems Pvt Ltd., Vital Bioscientific Solutions, Yaathum Biotech and Fib-sol Life Technologies are the selected four startups.

According to Guhan Jayaraman, coordinator at IIT-M’s Bio-incubator, “The innovation space in biotechnology has expanded considerably in the last few years in the areas of computational and synthetic biology.”