With the intent of cutting down a whopping 40 gigatons of CO2 emissions every year as mandated by global agencies, IIT Madras will be boosting start-ups in decarbonisation technology in partnership with deep-tech venture studio IndusDC.
The urgency to cut down CO2 emissions requires energy transformation to the tune of a massive $4 trillion per year globally. “This can be made possible by bringing to the forefront the latent innovations and a large number of IP in the decarbonisation sector, which sits in research labs of India’s top institutions,” stated IITM officials in a release.
The initiative is geared towards taking ideas straight from research labs to create change in the real world by enabling a wave of hardware innovation. The first phase of commercialisation is currently underway with IndusDC, founded by IIT Madras Alumni Dr. Kushant Uppal, collaborating with The Energy Consortium, a Centre of Excellence set up at IIT Madras under the Institute of Eminence initiative.
The urgency to cut down CO2 emissions requires energy transformation to the tune of a massive $4 trillion per year globally. This can be made possible by bringing to the forefront the latent innovations and a large number of IP in the decarbonisation sector, which sits in research labs of India’s top institutions.
IIT Madras
Three Intellectual Properties (IP) have already been on-boarded, namely next generation cooling, carbon neutral consumer wear and advanced grid scale storage, while three more are currently under evaluation. The vision of this initiative is to replicate this model across institutes in India and take it to a global level.
Elaborating on this partnership, IIT Madras Alumnus Dr. Kushant Uppal, Founder and CEO, IndusDC, said, “This is a pivotal IP, technology development and start-up incubation agreement with IIT Madras. We are also actively forging partnerships with other esteemed universities in both India and the U.S. Guided by a technical Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), we navigate from tech demonstrations to prototypes while maturing the technology. Concurrently, we also define the commercial benchmarks around performance and economics.”
IndusDC is also setting up its first fund of US$ 6 Million (Rs. 50 Crore approximately) to invest in five cutting-edge decarbonisation startups with prime focus on energy efficiency, he added.
Highlighting the vision behind this collaboration, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “Decarbonization is the greatest need of this hour. This initiative is very timely and will bring together our alumni to serve a greater global cause in a sustainable fashion.”
“Decarbonization is the greatest need of this hour. This initiative is very timely and will bring together our alumni to serve a greater global cause in a sustainable fashion.”
Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula
IndusDC will onboard and match ‘Entrepreneurs in Residence’ (EIR) to the lab-stage ideas and mature it to achieve a market-fit product — a process that has been honed by the IndusDC team over decades with experience as founders, executives, and venture investors.
Coming in as a co-founder with each of these start-ups, IndusDC empowers start-ups from inception to growth stage through IP discovery, product management, channel/OEM collaborations, dynamic marketing, streamlined supply chain, pilot production, capital investment, and dedicated fundraising support.
Highlighting how such initiatives can help India build a sustainable future, Prof. Satyanarayanan Seshadri, Faculty Head, The Energy Consortium, IIT Madras, said, “Research intensive institutes in India like the IITs have core technology IPs that require a focussed effort to build ventures. Venture studios like IndusDC can create scalable ventures backed by such technologies thus unlocking significant value for these institutions.”