?IKP plans to setup 5 startup incubation hubs in tier-II cities of Karnataka

Hyderabad-based IKP Knowledge Park is planning to establish five startup incubation hubs in tier-II cities of Karnataka. Already, it has created an incubation facility in Bengaluru with an investment of Rs 8 crore, raised from Karnataka government.

IKP is in the process of raising Rs 31 crore from the state government and other sources to setup these satellite centres over the next six months, IKP chairman and CEO Deepanwita Chattopadhyay said.

The premier science park and incubator had so far raised around Rs 108 crore from various investors including Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, US Agency for International Development, the Department of International Development of the UK, and the Department of Science and Technology.

Chattopadhyay informed, "Over 60 per cent of these funds have been deployed to boost the biotech, healthcare and life science startups across the country in the past five years. We have supported more than 100 entrepreneurial ventures at their early stage, out of which 20 startups were focusing primarily on tuberculosis care. We have invested Rs 10 lakh - Rs 1 crore in each startup depending on the requirement and scale."

Earlier, IKP had established India Innovation Fund (IIF) with a corpus of Rs 40 crore in partnership with industry body Nasscom. The IIF has been invested in funding early stage start-ups and it is closed. Now, it is planning to start venture capital funds with Nasscom. This will be open to global investors and the funds will be used for collaborative research and innovation in bio-pharma, life sciences, medical technology and healthcare, according to Chattopadhyay.

To encourage startups and promote innovation, IKP had initiated Grants Management Programme, and conducts grand challenges and other innovation scouting programmes. BIRAC Regional Innovation Centre (BRIC) is another ongoing programme by the IKP to study the innovation capacity in a region and recommend policy interventions. Under this programme, it is focusing on four life sciences clusters in south India - Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai-Vellore and Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi regions. In the first phase, BRIC has impacted 1,656 innovators and startups directly or indirectly. For the second phase, IKP has identified six life sciences clusters in central-west and eastern parts of the country -Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bhopal-Indore, Bhubaneshwar and Visakhapatnam. By January 2018, it will cover ten life sciences clusters all over the country, she said.