5 Nov 2009
: NASSCOM, today announced that the IIF which has been promoted by NASSCOM and IKP has achieved its first closing corpus of Rs 40 crores.
IIF is structured as a Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) registered fund with the fund corpus being created through institutional contributions from firms representing the targeted investment areas of the fund. IIF is being managed by the IKP Investment Management Company (IKPIMC).
A unique feature of the IIF model is the collaboration of large, diverse institutions as anchor investors who not only provide the capital but more importantly provide the investee companies with market access and technology development guidance. It is also the first public-private partnership of this scale providing funding to entrepreneurs. The anchor investors of the IIF at the first closing are TCS, IKP Trust, Department of Science & Technology (GoI) and Bharti Airtel.
IIF, a first of its kind national initiative, is an early stage fund and has been created to promote Intellectual Property (IP) driven innovations in frontier or emerging technologies through patient investment. IIF will also endeavor to encourage technology entrepreneurship to enable innovative start-ups to reach a stage of self sustenance and growth. The fund is targeted at early stage companies in the ICT and Life Sciences sectors.
IKPIMC has appointed former NASSCOM President Mr Kiran Karnik as the chairman of its board. The board also comprises of Dr Bala Manian, a renowned serial entrepreneur with several successful start-ups in the US to his credit and Ms. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, MD & CEO, IKP. The investments of the fund will be overseen by an investment committee constituted with eminent Industry experts such as Dr. Jai Menon, Director Technology & Customer Service Bharti Airtel, Mr Sharad Sharma, former CEO Yahoo R&D India, Dr. Shrikumar Suryanarayan, Director General ABLE (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises), Government of India’s r and other investor representatives.
As of now, the following sectors have been identified as the key focus areas for investment by IIF:
- Automotive Infotronics & Intelligent Transport Systems
- Telecommunication Technologies
- Drugs and Pharmaceuticals
- Medical Devices
- Information technologies with multi sector application
These sectors have been identified based on the need for disruptive technology innovations to meet the increasingly sophisticated domestic demand in these areas and the potential for India based innovations to acquire a global footprint.
Mr. Som Mittal, President NASSCOM said “We recognize that the customer needs, services and business models are constantly evolving and therefore, innovation becomes a key driver to sustain and enhance India’s future competitiveness. We are excited with the progress of IIF which will provide the much needed boost to talented startups through timely availability of seed capital.”
“In its effort to nurture the ecosystem for innovation in the Indian IT sector, NASSCOM has put into place a number of initiatives ranging across areas like funding, research, education, recognition awards and collaboration with various stakeholders. IIF is one of the key initiatives in this direction,” he added
Mr. N Vaghul, Chairman IKP Trust said “Sustaining India’s economic growth trajectory will require that we address many if not all of India’ pressing social problems in healthcare, education, unemployment, financial inclusion and climate change etc. Given the scale and complexity of these issues, technology will have to be a key enabler in the solutions. For these technologies and their applications to deliver results, they will need to be appropriate and affordable for the Indian context. This is not going to be easy and will require innovations on a vast scale. Therefore we need to create an ecosystem which encourages entrepreneurs to take higher risks and focus on creating game changing innovations. IIF is an important path-breaking initiative towards enabling an Indian innovation ecosystem which encourages relevant innovations in frontier technologies”.
Mr Kiran Karnik, Chairman of the IKP Investment Management Company, said, “The Indian IT-BPO industry has grown ten times over the last decade and is today an important driver of India’s overall economic growth. Innovation will be the next great enabler for the competitiveness of the Indian IT industry. To continue this growth trajectory and attain newer heights, Indian firms, irrespective of size or nature of activity, will have to develop new competitive advantages and increasingly focus on value capture through relentless innovation. While the larger firms have the wherewithal to invest in innovation, start-ups and young firms in India (with innovative ideas) often fail to take off due to the lack of timely availability of seed capital. This situation is further exacerbated in the context of firms who focus on IP creation in emerging technologies, which often are high-risk and have long gestation periods.”
“IIF has been established to address this serious issue of lack of seed capital. The fund will focus on start-ups involved in IP creation in both IT and life-sciences. It is a source of great satisfaction that some of India’s best known corporate brands and leading innovators in their respective industries - TCS, IKP and Bharti Airtel – along with the government’s Department of Science and Technology have collaborated to create this initiative,” he added.
Ms. Deepanwita Chattopadhyay,MD &CEO IKP Knowledge Park and Director, India Innovation Fund said “Creating new knowledge is not easy and requires not only perseverance and creativity from young innovators but also an enabling ecosystem. A lack of seed capital and mentorship has often been the major inhibitors for Indian innovators to realise their potential and often compels the innovators to move away from disruptive innovations to focus on easily realizable products and services. The pipeline of applications that we have generated is a testimony to the fact that technological innovation is happening in various pockets of India. With careful nurturing of these ideas we hope to realize tremendous economic and utility value. We need to ensure that impediments in the path of the innovators are removed and India becomes a hub of global innovations. IIF addresses the key challenge of availability of seed capital and will hopefully provide a light-house effect for several such initiatives in India.”
For further information, please write to innovation-fund@nasscom.in
