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Avishkar, the start-up accelerator programme comes in with good news for start-ups in the time of turmoil. Avishkar is an initiative of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) The programme picked three companies whom it will support. The idea is to encourage entrepreneurs who are determined to solve deep-tech problems.
IIIT-H received about 140 applications globally. The 3 companies that were selected are supposed to form the first batch of the 6 month long programme. Avishkar team and the three startups will work in collaboration along with the faculty members of IIIT-H labs and other partners for the next six months. The progress achieved in this time will be used to get in more investment to take the initiative to the next stage.
Komal Prajapati, Founder, Fabulyst said, “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.”
Sastra Robotics made it to the first batch of Avishkar programme. Aronin P, Founder of Sastra Robotics 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.”
Avishkar was assisted by IIIT-Hyderabad Foundation, Co-Creation Consulting and 50K Ventures. The objective is to select 10 startups in the first year and provide each of them with `10 lakh seed funding.
“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,” said Prof. Vasudeva Varma, Dean (R&D).
Following startups were selected in 1st batch:
- Fabulyst: It comprises of a core team of data scientists. They are working on providing a enhanced and personalised search experience to women with the help of advanced machine learning and AI technologies which will prove to be very advantageous for the online fashion market.
- Sastra Robotics: It was started at Startup Village, Kochi and aims to develop high-precision robots to automate and redefine hardware testing practices. They have successfully mimicked the human hand capabilities.
- Endless Robotics: It was founded by the students of BITS Pilani, and has designed intelligent wall painting robots to reduce cost, provide efficiency, high-precision and make the process faster for real estate owners. They are improvising the system by implementing deeper image processing capabilities to their robots.
