Prassana. He praised the
efforts of Biotechnology
Industry Research
Assistance Council
(BIRAC) in supporting
startups in India.
Following the panel
discussion, the BEST
success story ‘Pandorum
Technologies’ presented
the milestones achieved
by the company since its
inception. Later the five
best potential student
teams/fresh startups
selected through national
competition presented
their pitch notes to
investors present among
the audience. Among the
startups that pitched for
investments were Azooka
Life Sciences, BugWorks,
Innov4Sight, and
Weinnovate BioSolution.
The second half of the
event witnessed individual
presentations from the
established startups.
Elixsys, Aspartika, Quest
Combio, Shree Biocar
and Molbits. It was
followed again by the
panel discussion ‘How
to fund startups?’ where
the experts discussed
various issues concerning
funding route of startups.
Starting the discussions,
Ms Deepanwita
Chattopadhyay, CEO,
IKP Knowledge Park,
Hyderabad talked about
various efforts to reach
out to the potential
startups. “It is interesting
to see the BIRAC getting
into the equity based
funding model,” she said.
As per Taslimarif
Saiyed, Director and
Chief Operating Officer,
C-CAMP, “It is important
to have clear goals and
understand the needs
of current investors for
startups.” He gave details
about the programs at
C-CAMP such as BIG
Grant, BIRAC Seed Fund,
MSME Ministry’s fund
besides the NITI Aayog’s
Rs 2.5 crore funds.
“Fund raising should
be done with goals and
startups must come up
with a clear business
plan,” added Mr Mads
Bjornvad, Director-
Research, Novozymes.
Supported by the
Department of
Biotechnology, Ministry of
Science and Technology,
Government of India, the
BioInvest 2017 offered
a forum to startups and
investors to engage in a
meaningful conversation.
The ABLE along with
the DBT have been
spearheading many
new initiatives towards
achieving $100 billion
industry by 2025. In the
past decade, ABLE has
played a significant role
in catalyzing the growth
of the biotech industry
by facilitating advocacy,
collaboration, investment
and e ncouraging
entrepreneurship.
While the
enthusiasm of the
young startups and
aspiring student
entrepreneurs was
much visible, they
and the experts
both felt that
private funding for
early stage Indian
biotech has not
been encouraging
and explored
on the ways to
generate interest of
venture capitalists
in the promising
biotechnology
space and help its
growth.
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