JNU ‘incubator’ to help startups
Moving a step towards India’s growing entrepreneurial community and startup ecosystem, the Jawaharlal Nehru University is all set to establish its own incubation centre within three months. This initiative is aimed at converting the research projects of its faculty members into commercial ventures as well as startups.
Out of the 30 proposals the university received from its faculty members, eight projects have been selected for incubation and each of these will be given `5 lakh annually for its further development.
However, in order to get more support and funding for the exceptional projects, the incubation centre will tie-up with various investors as well as technical experts.
“As of now, two venture capitalists have shown interest to associate themselves with the JNU Incubation Centre,” Rupesh Chaturvedi, director of JNU’s Research and Development Department said.
The varsity plans to have equities in those startups that do well commercially and thus help the institute fund more such ideas at its incubation centre.
“By August, eight projects will get into the incubation centre. As of now these projects are just by the faculties. But, gradually students’ projects will also be incubated at the centre,” he added. The eight projects that have been selected in the first phase range from health sciences to language translation platforms. “The projects at the centre will get all kinds of support, right from development stage to marketing the product. Our aim is to incubate 20 projects at a time,” Mr Chaturvedi said.