11th cohort of Avishkar deeptech accelerator and 5th cohort of the OJAS Medtec accelerator
The startups, selected from over 100 applicants, will get strategy, business and research mentoring
Hyderabad, NFAPost: CIE-IIIT Hyderabad, a tech incubator with a decade of rich experience in fostering deep-tech communities that create and scale technologies, announced the onboarding of two startups Machstatz and eSkindoctor.
The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH) formed Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) to manage innovation, entrepreneurial and technology outreach efforts. The selection of the two startup is made under 11th edition of Avishkar DeepTech Accelerator cohort and 5th edition of OJAS MedTech Accelerator cohort.
Avishkar DeepTech Accelerator is a 6-month cohort-based accelerator for emerging technology startups and OJAS MedTech is an accelerator for startups in life sciences, biotechnology, diagnostics, point of care devices for healthcare along with cutting edge emerging technologies facilitated by CIE.
The accelerator brings together the deeptech expertise of IIITH’s research labs and technology mentoring opportunities that help startups build quality product/features within shorter timelines. The startups also go through a structured strategic business mentoring from co-creation Consulting, customer introductions and investor connect for follow-on round of investments.
Medtech startups also get access to both local and global medtech consortium which includes clinicians, hospitals, pharma, biotech and manufacturing companies. Investment readiness of the cohort startups is a key deliverable for the 6-month programme. A number of other ecosystem partners of IIITH also contribute towards the programme with business development services and tools.
Expressing happiness over the development, CIE-IIITH Chief Operating Offier Prof Ramesh Loganathan said nurturing and growing early-stage tech startups has been our focus since we started CIE in 2008.
“Over the years we have had 400 startups in the incubator and about 20 in our Accelerator programmes,” said CIE-IIITH Chief Operating Offier Prof Ramesh Loganathan
According to CIE-IIITH officials, seven startups pitched for OJAS accelerator programme and nine startups pitched for the Deeptech accelerator programme. The Investment Committee panel included professors, clinicians, angel investors and other ecosystem partners.
Commenting on the overwhelming approach from startups, IIIT Hyderabad OJAS Medtech BioNEST Head Dr Sonali Khanra said the accelerator is happy to onboard eSkindoctor Healthtech Private Limited.
“eSkindoctor is focused on dermatology and is using artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms to address the gap in the availability of doctors by improving the accuracy and efficiency in triaging skin condition,” said Dr Sonali Khanra. eSkindoctor is founded by Arun (Graduate from IIM Ahmedabad), Naveen ( Graduate from BITS Pilani) and Anand (Graduate from XIM).
She also adds that skin diseases pose significant threat to patients’ well-being, mental health, ability to function, and social participation, a measure of disability defined broadly by the WHO. “Technology interventions in early screening and diagnosis in low resource setting towards delivering high quality care are essential in improving the burden of skin diseases,” said Dr Sonali Khanra.
Started in 2017 by the founders Sameer Patnaik, Pruthviraj Subudhi and Srikant Gupta, Machstatz provides end to end solution in Industrial IoT. They use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to provide predictive and process analytics solutions to manufacturing industries. Their solutions are being implemented in manufacturing industries which increases production efficiency, reduces downtime of industrial machines and eliminates defects in real time.
IIITH is an autonomous research university founded in 1998 that focuses on the core areas of Information Technology, such as Computer Science, Electronics and Communications, and their applications in other domains through inter-disciplinary research with great social impact.
Some of its research domains include Cognitive Science, Visual Information Technologies, Human Language Technologies, Data Engineering, VLSI and Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture, Wireless Communications, Algorithms and Information Security, Robotics, Building Science, Earthquake Engineering, Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IT in Agriculture and e-Governance.
CIE-IIITH is a Department of Science and Technology (DST0 approved incubator operational since 2008. CIE@IIITH has so far supported around 400 startups and has seed- funded 19 startups, 80% of which are cash positive. The centre was also instrumental in forming of T-Hub.
Along with developments in Avishkar DeepTech and OJAS MedTech accelerators, CIE@IIITH is also focusing on turning a new leaf in terms of infrastructure facilities, programmes and startup engagements focusing towards building a deeptech startup ecosystem. New working spaces are launched, seed funding programmes, structured workshops and mentoring opportunities and technology transfer facilitation are also being deployed now.
OJAS BioNEST at CIE-IIITH was founded in 2018 with the support by Depart of Bio-Technology (DBT) and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). OJAS- BioNEST helps companies building products at the intersection of technology and medicine in areas such as disease prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and wellness. OJAS welcomes entrepreneurs working on futuristic, bold and innovative ideas, harnessing digital technologies in healthcare practice.
