Bhubaneswar: National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela’s Foundation for Technology Business Incubation (FTBI), which was founded with the vision of being counted as a global centre for promoting innovation and nurturing entrepreneurs, has proved to be a successful endeavour by facilitating 31 startups in the last three years.
The startups have already notched a combined annual turnover of about Rs 21 crore. The FTBI, established in 2016, presently houses 31 companies besides 18 teams in the pre-incubation stage, with above 90 founders and co-founders, said NIT-R Director Prof Animesh Biswas.
The startups, generating employment for over 200 youth, are involved in activities ranging from innovation, creation of green-tech solutions, manufacturing and engineering to e-commerce activities. They are mostly run either by the alumni or present students of NIT-R, he said.
FTBI seeks to encourage budding entrepreneurs to translate their innovative thoughts into impactful ventures, said Professor-in-charge of FTBI Rajeev Kumar Panda.
“All startup companies are less than three-years-old. Prominent among them are Clavictory Academy, Yarev Technologies, Spunik Technologies, Phoenix Robotix, Estinno Energy, Penny India, Fastech Fashions, Awalk Innovation and Book Mediz,” he added.
FTBI assists with soft infrastructure, technical and expertise services, market research, consultation, seed funding and additional use of Intellectual Properties of NIT Rourkela. It now holds the status of a recognised incubator under Startup India and Startup Odisha campaigns.
The incubation policy of NIT Rourkela, under Category I, allows pre-incubation projects from the faculty, academic staff and students to help commercialise a novel idea through a technology-based business enterprise, reports The New Indian Express.
In Category-II, technology-driven start-up companies promoted by first generation entrepreneurs or other outside promoters, are supported for a period of three years.