Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platform (C-CAMP), an initiative of department of biotechnology (DBT), government of India is now supporting IIM Ahmedabad’s technology business incubator, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) which has launched its Healthcare Accelerator 2016 in partnership with The Dasra Girl Alliance.
The three-month long programme is being launched as a part of CIIE’s Bharat Innovation Fund and is backed by C-CAMP and InnoVen Capital. The programme aims to identify potential startups that are embarking on breakthrough routes towards healthcare industry’s advancements, particularly in the areas of medical devices, healthcare IT, and biotech.
According to Salim J. Vali, vice president (investments), CIIE there is a wide gap between demand and availability of quality healthcare services and innovative entrepreneurship models will play a key role in realizing quality healthcare for all.
The startups that are trying to fill in the gaps of India’s healthcare industry face stark conditions. At early stages, the startups encounter the critical and inhibiting risks of scarce capital and non-availability of intensive mentoring. This Healthcare Accelerator endeavours to create a positive environment for the start-ups and consequently empower the surrounding ecosystem.
The accelerator programme will offer mentoring and individualized guidance through its programme mentors who are industry experts. The programme mentors include eminent experts like Prof. K. V. Ramani and Prof. Piyush Sinha of IIM Ahmedabad.
“Our portfolio of startups with their disruptive enterprise models are bringing equitable healthcare in India. For instance, Forus Health, a CIIE supported enterprise, with its low cost ophthalmic screening device has touched more than a million eyes in rural India and has a potential to prevent 29 million cases of preventive blindness. Our healthcare accelerator is an initiative to provide a platform to nurture such startups,” said Vali.
CIIE has been a frontrunner in fuelling entrepreneurship since its inception and has designed this mentorship-driven accelerator based on its experience of accelerating more than 500 startups. Interested entrepreneurs and startups can apply online via http://healthcare.ciie.co by March 20, 2016.
The accelerator programme will culminate into a Demo Day, wherein the programme startups present their startup to India’s leading investors to raise funds and build business relationships. Alongside, CIIE will also offer a seed investment commitment of up to Rs.70 lakhs to start-ups (maximum of two startups) that will meet CIIE’s criteria of ‘investible’.