KL University creates over 300 entrepreneurs

Hyderabad: With an objective of creating and nurturing entrepreneurs, KL Deemed-to-be University, Vijayawada Campus hosts state-of-the-art Research and development (RandD) Labs and Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). The CIIE was established at the varsity in the year 2015 with a vision to create 100 startups by 2021 and 300-400 startups by 2025.

To achieve this vision, CIIE with its two separate entities KLTIF (KL Technology Incubators Foundation) and ACIC (Atal Community Innovation Center) KL Startups Foundation supported by Department of Science and Technology and NITI Aayog of the Government of India shall achieve its target by offering financial support to around 100 startups in the coming few years through various seed fund schemes and other business support services.

"Till now, the CIIE has mentored the creation of over 125 startups and 300 entrepreneurs, investment of about Rs 20 crore and five technology commercialisation. The university has filed and published more than 350 patents thus far," Dr Krovi Raja Sekhar, Additional Director at CIIE and Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering at KL Deemed to be University, told Bizz Buzz in an exclusive interview.

He said, "Around 20 startups are in the market, executing their business operations and generating direct employment for 50 people while 300 are employed indirectly. Among them, 10 startups are in information technology (IT) and IT enabled services (ITeS) including product and services, three startups in agri/ food business, two in apparel/ fashion sector, another two in health care/ pharma sector with one startup getting support through the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) with financial backup. While three startups are in home automation with artificial intelligence (AI) /data science support services, and two more are in edtech and allied services."

Raja Sekhar further informed that ten startups were supported financially by KL Deemed to be University with a total seed fund of Rs 50 lakh including nominating three startups to represent global entrepreneurship events in the US and Europe. Six startups have also received Rs 22 lakh seed fund supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India through the Technological Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) 2.0 scheme.

One of the startups Fopple Drones Tech Pvt Ltd got an investment of Rs 50 lakh through external investments. Fopple Drones is currently generating revenue of Rs 2 crore per year with a valuation of Rs 20 crore and it is expected to reach unicorn status by 2025, going by its current market value and business opportunities in drone technology.

KL University's CIIE promotes entrepreneurship through various activities including intellectual property (IP) and technology support services, seed fund, business/ market analysis, finance and auditing, internship support and mentoring. It also arranges several events and programmes like aspiring entrepreneurs meets (AEM), entrepreneurship development programs (EDP), hackathons, boot camps and ideathons in the campus to motivate and inspire students to become potential entrepreneurs and increase the number of startups.

The CIIE has collaborated with a few government and non-government agencies to support its incubated startups. Some of these agencies include the DST, MeitY, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises (MoMSME), The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) AP Chapter, T-Hub, AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), AP Innovation Society (APIS). Also, institutes such as IIM Visakhapatnam, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras have collaborated with the CIIE.

There are five academic incubators and two private incubators operating in the State with the support of one of the government-funded incubation schemes of DST, MeitY, DBT, AIM and MoMSME. Out of these seven incubators, KL University's CIIE is the only incubator supported by four Central government incubation schemes of DST, MeitY, AIM and MoMSME. These government-funded schemes are allowing the establishment of a well-equipped incubation center with state-of-the-art infrastructure and modern equipment to support technology startups, manpower, capacity building programmes and seed fund support.