DST, Intel and SINE collaborates to foster growth of hardware and systems startups
In tune with Narendra Modi’s Digital India vision, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Intel Technology, and Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), which is the business incubator of IIT Bombay, have collaborated to launch the Collaborative Incubation Programme for Hardware and Systems Startups.
With the aim to foster entrepreneurship, this programme will support hardware and systems-based startups through mentoring, training, lab facilities, hardware kits, prototyping, business services, funding, and other relevant challenges. The programme intends to address the gaps in the hardware and systems startup ecosystem that companies face in product design, development, commercialisation, and creating scale for their solutions.
Twenty startups will be supported for six months on-site at SINE, IIT Bombay or Intel India at Bengaluru. The startups will also have the opportunity to meet and showcase their solutions to investors and industry players at a demo day, post which, the Programme will extend virtual support for another six months.
Participating startups will be incubated through intensive training periods, one-on-one mentoring, technology-related support from Intel experts, business service support from SINE, as well as prototyping and manufacturing support.
The programme will facilitate ideation, design thinking, prototyping workshops and manufacturing support through industry experts.
The call for applications will be announced this month. Professor DevangKhakhar, Director of IIT Bombay said,
“The collaboration with Intel will bring in corporate expertise to give new hardware and systems companies in India a vital competitive edge and fast-track to growth. SINE has so far focussed on startups from IITB. This new initiative, supported by DST, will extend SINE's role to help startups across India and increase IIT Bombay's contributions to the ecosystem.
Overview about hardware and systems startups
The scope of hardware and systems startups have not been completely mapped yet, but it is expected to show a rapid growth in the next few years. According to IESA and Nasscom, IT and ESDM will bring 25 percent of India's GDP in 2025.
Over the last few years, several hardware and systems startups have been founded. Based on Nasscom's 2015 startup landscape report, over 30 hardware startups and 35 players in the IoT space are currently present. MangoMan Consumer Electronics, Lechal, Tesseract are some of the startups in this sector.
