Guwahati: Over 80 startups across India, primarily from the Northeast, were given an ideal platform at the “Kickstart 2.0 Industry Conclave” hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati (IIT-G) BioNEST.
The event was organised with the aim to create a unique template in Northeast India to explore avenues for market creation, technology transfer, product commercialisation, thereby helping the startups promote their market reach and business expansion.
The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) sponsored BioNEST at the IIT Guwahati Technology Innovation and Development Foundation of Research Park and Free Flow Venture Builders hosted the start-ups who showcased their products to investors, healthcare providers and enablers.
During his inaugural address, Dr Siddharth Singh, commissioner and secretary, Assam, emphasised the need for technologies and innovations in the field of healthcare accessibility, besides management of patient load at hospital OPDs and availability of products that can optimise the efficiency of hospital ICUs.
Speaking during the event, guest of honour Sherry Lalthnagzo, economic advisor, North Eastern Council (NEC) Shillong, expressed the huge potential the Northeast has to offer in terms of biodiversity and human resources and stressed on the need of building a strong startup ecosystem.
Girish Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of Tata Medical and Diagnostics Ltd (TATA MD), enthralled the audience during the plenary talk where he showcased TATA MD’s initiatives in point-of-care diagnostics and solving healthcare accessibility problems in the Indian system.
Speaking during the event, Prof. Parameswar K. Iyer, officiating director, IIT Guwahati, outlined the institute’s incubator network and explained the cutting-edge infrastructure that could be pivoted for product development and build the next-generation startup ecosystem in the Northeast.
Prof. Dipankar Bandyopadhyay, head of Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Science and Technology and principal investigator for IITG BioNEST, said that he was impressed to see the huge participation by startups from Northeast and across India at the conclave and encouraged them to collaborate with IITG and region’s ecosystem.
The key attraction of the event was the startups pitch battles. The conclave hosted 20+ India’s top investors, both venture capital and angel investors, including Hyderabad Angels, Mumbai Angels, GenVantage, Encubay Angel Network, Dextor Angel, FAAD, Realtime Angel Fund, WeFounder Circle.
Notably, the number of unique intents for the startups was over 80 with a cumulative investment intent being upwards of Rs 120-plus crore via the equity and debt routes.
Along with it, a Doctors’ Conclave was also held as a part of Kickstart2.0 involving six specialists, professors, and one head of the department at Guwahati Medical College Hospital, one from TATA MD and one from Apollo Hospitals Chennai.
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During the interaction with health tech startups and researchers, the doctors spoke about the existing technology gap between what was required and what was available and identified some of the major areas, which would define the progress of health sciences in Northeast India.
Twenty such areas were identified through vibrant discussion and interactions and they will now be further followed up by deep-dive discussions in the interdisciplinary environment that has been created.
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