IKP to start incubation centres to fuel science-led innovations

Hyderabad, July 1: Hyderabad-based IKP (formerly known as ICICI Knowledge Park), a not-for-profit science park and incubator in India, is looking to fund innovative companies and aspiring start-ups to develop a techno entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. IKP is planning to open three incubator facilities in addition to its Hyderabad and Bengaluru centres for fostering technology-led innovation programmes.

IKP works in partnership with The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) an dD F ID, government of UK as funding partners to run the innovation programmes.

IKP was set up in 2000 having a mandate to incubate companies working on science-led innovations.

“Having supported over 200 innovative companies through the science park, incubator and funding programs, IKP is looking to promote high impact technology innovations in a broad range of sectors including healthcare, bio pharmaceuticals, medical devices, diagnostics, new materials, communications, robotics, IoT devices, hardware and renewable energy,” Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, chairman and CEO, IKP, explained.

“We are planning to set up three more incubation facilities in India in the next three to four years as we run funding programmes along with various partners. We have funded over 103 projects ranging fro mR 50 lakhsu pt oR 1.5 crore,” she said adding that there is also apropos alto pick equity in the companies as well. Acting as a bridge between the industry and academia, IKP started Engineering, Design and Entrepreneurship Network( I KP EDEN) last year, claimed to be the largest maker space in India with its first centre in Ben ga lu ru and has invested in over 250 entrepreneurs.

“With IKP-EDEN we want to create the butterfly effect and usher in an innovation product revolution. We are sure that the ripples created by EDEN in Bengaluru will translate into a storm in various corners of the country in the near future,” said Chattopadhyay.

Acting as a facilitator, IKP has invested about R5 crore in the Bengaluru incubator. It is in talks with a few more state governments and public institutions to form more such incubators. “We are in talks with strategic investors and government agencies such as the Department of Biotechnology who can fund the start-ups in this facility, she added. “We felt that Bengaluru has the best ecosystem for engineering and industrial design and inspired by the Tech Shops and Fab Labs of the US, we decided to set up such a center in Bengaluru.

Further, IKP-EDEN is also in talks with medical technology companies for industrydirected acceleration programmes for the start-up community. “We are now starting a medical accelerator programme in partnership with Becton Dickinson, UC Berkeley and the Department of Biotechnology for focussing on industry-led mentorship and leapfrog innovations,” she said.

The I KP Trust was formed in 2007 to provide future direction and propel growth in science innovation. The IKP Trust holds 81.9% equity in I KP. The I KP group consists of IKP Trust as the holding Trust and IKP Knowledge Park, IKP Investment Management Company (IKPIMC), IKP Centre for Technologies in Public Health (ICTPH) and IKP Centre for Advancement in Agricultural Practice (ICAAP) as subsidiaries.