To encourage the niche industries, the Product Council of IT industry lobby body has introduced the second batch of the Nasscom DeepTech Club. This is a program intended to promote the creation and evolution of world class DeepTech companies which have been identified and will be recognized, nurtured and promoted by the industry body through its various programs, platforms and events, said the Nasscom. The industry body claimed that 22 companies have benefited from this program for 3-months and they each received 1:1 mentoring, connects and exposure to enterprises, investors and the global ecosystem.
According to Nasscom, the DeepTech would involve working with artificial intelligence, machine learning, immersive technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, robotics, natural language processing and similar such other technologies. DeepTech is a futuristic area and requires a lot more attention as compared to a conventional tech startup. Resources and expertise need to be provided to DeepTech startups in both the theoretical knowhow and their practical handholding to ensure their success.
The second batch of the DeepTech Club includes diverse set of companies that have amalgamated multiple deep technology areas such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, immersive technologies, Internet of Things, computer vision and quantum computing and have built phenomenal use cases for several verticals including healthcare, manufacturing, marketing and customer experiences, cyber security, public safety, transport infrastructure, eGovernance, said Nasscom.
Nasscom informed that this program was conceptualised by Subinder Khurana, MD, Sage Accelerator and member of the Nasscom Product Council and is now co-led by Milind Hanchinmani, Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, Developer Relations, Intel Technologies and member, Nasscom Product Council and Anupam Saronwala, mentor and advisor to many startups and former Country Leader, Business Development of IBM Research under aegis of Nasscom Product Council. The program is chaired by Atul Batra, CTO, Manthan systems.
Milind Hanchinmani said, “It was fantastic experience working with a diverse set of companies and such unique and innovative technologies and more than that it was an amazing learning experience interacting with the founders themselves. It is going to be an exciting phase for startups in India over the next 5 years and we will continue to engage with them and be part of this journey.”
Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom said, “Prowess in deep tech and artificial intelligence will be one of the main drivers of economic competitiveness in the near future and deep tech startups will drive innovation & spearhead the broad structural transformation of the economy. The DeepTech Club reaffirms efforts in evangelizing and mentoring India's latent, untapped talent in emerging technologies. We will continue its drive towards catalysing deep tech start-ups, build category leaders and support start-ups to create not only for India but also scale up and solve for the world.”
Anupam Saronwala, mentor and advisor to many startups and former Country Leader, Business Development of IBM Research under aegis of Nasscom Product Council said, “I am delighted to engage with innovative companies that are leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to build products for global markets. It is an excellent initiative by the Nasscom Deep Tech Club to engage mentors who share their rich experience and mentor startups by strengthening their technology offerings, shaping go-to-market strategies and sharpening their fund-raising proposals. We have had key successes with the first batch of companies and are looking forward to launching the next batch of 22 deep-tech startups.”
Subinder Khurana MD, Sage Accelerator and member of the Nasscom Product Council has found the Deeptech Club to be an enriching experience for himself and said, “It has been such a pleasure working with bright and enthusiastic founders working on innovative solutions. I learn about new technology developments in every interaction. Engaging with the startups and watching them progress rapidly has been a very satisfying experience.”
