International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT Hyderabad) has chosen three start-ups for the first batch of its accelerator program Avishkar. It will be a six-month program, where the start-ups will work closely with the Avishkar team, the faculty members of IIIT-H Labs, and other partners to get a level of investment readiness by the time they graduate from the program.
The program of the research institute’s accelerator has been launched in partnership with 50K Ventures, H-Hub, and Co-creation Consulting.
Prof Vasudeva Varma, Dean of Research and Development at IIIT Hyderabad said in a statement, “Start-ups cannot survive and be successful unless they are hugely different in terms of technology. Avishkar will give these companies an edge by providing the required base of technology, mentorship, and initial funding.”
Each of the three start-ups will receive a seed funding of Rs 10 lakh in the form of a convertible note wherein the IIIT Hyderabad Foundation and 50K Ventures will co-invest Rs 5 lakhs each. IIIT-Hyderabad proposes to further select up to ten start-ups over the period of the next year, who will be working in the field of deeper technologies.
The selected start-ups include Fabulyst, Sastra Robotics, and Endless Robotics. Fabulyst is a team of data scientists, which targets the online fashion indulgence market by trying to provide a personalised search experience to women.
While Sastra Robotics develop robots that are capable of mimicking human hand capabilities, Endless Robotics makes products for automating painting in the construction and real estate industries.
Endless Robotics has also raised a pre-seed fund of $100,000 on Chennai based startup investment platform TermSheet.io. The funding round saw the participation from individual investors and angel investment firms from the US, Singapore, and India.
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