Guwahati: Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati BioNEST successfully hosted the second edition of the ‘Kickstart Industry 2.0 Conclave‘ on February 14 and 15 to create a single template in North East India to explore avenues for market creation, technology transfer, product commercialization, thereby helping the Opening across India by promoting its market reach and business expansion.
BIRAC sponsored BioNEST at the IIT Guwahati The research park’s Technology Innovation and Development Foundation and Free Flow Venture Builders hosted more than 80 Startups across India, mainly from North East India, who showcased their products to investors, healthcare providers and facilitators.
The esteemed presence of Dr. Siddharth Singh, IHIDMS, Commissioner and Secy, Government of Assam, as the main guest graced the event. Sherry Lalthnagzo, IES, Economic Advisor, NEC Shillong, and Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO dr tatathey honored the event as Guests of Honor.
During his inaugural address, Dr. Siddharth Singh, IHIDMS, Commissioner and Secretary to the Assam Government, emphasized the need for technologies and innovations in the field of healthcare accessibility, organizing the patient load in hospital OPDs and products that can optimize the efficiency of hospital ICUs.
Speaking during the event, Guest of Honor Sherry Lalthnagzo, IES, Economic Advisor, NEC Shillong expressed the enormous potential NE has to offer in terms of biodiversity and human resources and emphasized the need to build a strong startup ecosystem.
Meanwhile, Girish Krishnamurthy, CEO of TATA MD, wowed the audience during a plenary talk showcasing TATA MD’s initiatives in point-of-care diagnostics and troubleshooting healthcare accessibility in the Indian system. .
The key attraction of the event was the startup field battles. The conclave hosted more than 20 of India’s leading investors, both venture capitalists and angel investors, including Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels, GenVantage, Encubay Angel Network, Dextor Angel, FAAD, Realtime Angel Fund, WeFounder Circle. This was achieved through partnership with a boutique start-up partner, FreeFlow Ventures, which was also responsible for managing the cumulative investment intent of the visiting delegation. Notably, the number of unique intentions for startups was over 80 with a cumulative investment intention of over Rs 120 crore through equity and debt routes.
Describing the institute’s network of incubators and explaining the state-of-the-art infrastructure that can be targeted for product development and building the next generation startup ecosystem in NE, said Professor Parameswar K. Iyer, Chief Executive Officer, IIT Guwahati.
Prof. Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, Director of the Jyoti & Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences. and technology. and Principal Investigator of IITG BioNEST added that “it is very encouraging to see a large participation of startups from the North East and across India and encouraged them to collaborate with the IITG and NE ecosystem.”
FreeFlow was able to engage with a group of over 600 Indian startups and founders, including 30 startups pitching in front of 25 esteemed investors representing various investment sensibilities.
Along with this, a parallel Doctors Conclave was also concluded as part of Kickstart2.0 involving 6 specialist teachers and HODs at Guwahati Medical College Hospital, one from TATA MD and one from Apollo Hospitals Chennai.
During the interaction with startups and health technology researchers, the doctors discussed the technological gap between what is required and what is available and identified some of the main areas that will define the progress of health sciences in the future. NE India and India as a whole. 20 such areas were identified through vibrant discussions and interactions, which will now be followed by in-depth discussions in the interdisciplinary environment that has been created.
Dr. Muralidharan, Apollo Hospitals Chennai and Dr. Taslimarif Sayed, Director and CEO, who joined Online, CCAMP engaged the audience during their plenary talks. A delegate from the Indian Army visited during the event and interacted with startups with product ideas and innovations that could be implemented in the Armed Forces.
The delegate interacted with 15 selected startups working on drone technology and point-of-care healthcare. There were engaging panel discussions on business planning and GTM strategy, brand building and public relations, and business sustainability issues and strategies, where hardcore panelists put into perspective the key attributes of entrepreneurship and how to strategize for any innovation journey. from MVP to marketing and building. a successful brand and build customer trust.
In addition, the panelists had a session on sustainability and incubator challenges, and the sustainable grassroots ecosystem, where the discussion focused on how to bridge the gap between the grassroots entrepreneurship ecosystem and the general market and how it can be built a successful revenue model for an incubator. .
