Chennai: IIT Madras joined hands with deep-tech venture studio, IndusDC to boost start-ups in decarbonisation technology to curb carbon emissions and to propel India at the global forefront of decarbonisation technology leadership.
The collaboration was started to meet the target of cutting down 40 gigatons of CO2 emissions per year which requires energy transformation to the tune of a massive $4 trillion per year globally.
“This can be made possible by bringing to the forefront the latent innovations and a large number of IP in the decarbonisation sector, which sit in research labs of India’s top institutions,” said the institution in a statement.
“The first phase of commercialisation is currently underway with IndusDC, founded by IIT Madras Alumni Dr. Kushant Uppal, collaborating with The Energy Consortium, a Centre of Excellence set up at IIT Madras under the Institute of Eminence initiative,” it said.
Three Intellectual Properties (IP) have already been on-boarded, namely next-generation cooling, carbon neutral consumer wear and advanced grid scale storage, while three more are currently under evaluation.
“The vision of this initiative is to replicate this model across institutes in India and take it to a global level” said the IIT.
Elaborating on this partnership, IIT Madras Alumnus Dr. Kushant Uppal, Founder and CEO, IndusDC, said, “This is a pivotal IP, technology development and start-up incubation agreement with IIT Madras. We are also actively forging partnerships with other esteemed universities in both India and the U.S. Guided by a technical Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), we navigate from tech demonstrations to prototypes while maturing the technology to TRL7/8.
“Concurrently, we also define the commercial benchmarks around performance and economics. We expect this partnership to bring to market decarbonization start-ups that will redefine the energy transition landscape for India” he said.
Dr. Kushant Uppal further added that, “IndusDC is also setting up its first fund of US$ 6 Million (Rs. 50 Crore approximately) to invest in five cutting-edge decarbonisation startups with prime focus on energy efficiency. This dedicated fund will invest in 15 promising ideas and incubate 5 startups, driving them to the coveted Product Market Fit (PMF) stage.”
Highlighting the vision behind this collaboration, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras, said, “Decarbonization is the greatest need of this hour. This initiative is very timely and will bring together our alumni to serve a greater global cause in a sustainable fashion.”
Speaking about how this can be replicated across India and globally, Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula added, “Our vision is to see venture studios like this take root in many other spheres of global importance while working with several of our global partner institutions.”
