Hyderabad :
At a time when most of the startups are focusing on solving fairly shallow problems, Avishkar, the start-up accelerator programme of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) on Friday took three companies under its wings to encourage entrepreneurs who are into solving deep-tech problems.
Screened from about 140 applications across the world, the top three companies are all set to form the first batch of the six-month long programme. The selected startups will now work closely with the Avishkar team and the faculty members of IIIT-H labs and other partners over the next six months to get to a level of investment-readiness that will launch them to the next stage of their journey.
“We are a four-month-old company trying to build a virtual personal stylist for women. Through our app, we want to offer all the services that a stylist offers to women. In other words, we want to create artificial intelligence (AI) of a personal stylist. The best part about Avishkar is that unlike many accelerators, the programmes here are personalised for each and every startup and would be helpful for us to grow faster,” Komal Prajapati, founder, Fabulyst, said.
Aronin P, founder of Sastra Robotics, which made it to the first batch of Avishkar programme, said,“Our aim is to build next generation robotics arm that has special abilities and for that we need a fully equipped R&D lab and experienced people to guide us. Also, as this is an ambitious project, we need financial help at some point or the other. Through this programme, both these concerns are addressed.”
The programme facilitated by IIIT-Hyderabad Foundation, Co-Creation Consulting and 50K Ventures, aims to select 10 startups during the first year and each of the selected startups will receive `10 lakh seed funding.
Prof. Vasudeva Varma, Dean (R&D) said, “The Start-up ecosystem in India is currently very vibrant. However, most of these ventures cannot survive and be successful unless they have huge differentiation in terms of technology. With Avishkar, we will give these companies a massive edge by providing the required base of technology, mentorship, and talent on a need basis in addition to initial funding.”
Startups selected in 1st batch Fabulyst:
A start-up with a core team of data scientists, working on providing a superior and personalised search experience to women using advanced machine learning and AI technologies, thus creating a unique advantage in the online fashion market.
Sastra Robotics: Initially incubated at Startup Village, Kochi, the startup develops high-precision robots to automate and redefine hardware testing practices and has been successful in mimicking the human hand capabilities.
Endless Robotics: Founded by a team of students from BITS Pilani, this startup has already built intelligent wall painting robots to provide cheaper, faster and high-precision solutions to real estate owners. They are now working towards providing deeper image processing capabilities to their robots.
Deep Tech Accelerator
The programme focuses in the areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Intelligence (IA), and Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR). The onus is on improving human comfort using cutting-edge technology.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by V. Nirupa Sathya Sree / by Express News Service / May 28th, 2016