With a focus on creating a globally leading AI and Robotics Innovation ecosystem out of India, Bangalore-based not-for-profit foundation, AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) has launched an Innovation Program in India. ARTPARK Innovation Program(https://www.artpark.in/artpark-innovation-program) or AIP, completely blends with ARTPARK’s mission to promote AI and Robotics based technology innovations and translations into new products and services. A $100 Mn venture fund focused on AI & Robotics will further help the startups to take up more risks and challenges.
The objective of this program is to bridge the “Translation Gap” that exists between research innovations developed within leading universities globally and their conversion into products and companies focused on problems in India. While many incubators have been set up in these universities, there is still a lack of a coherent and strategic program that can systematically help convert good academic research into innovative market ready products and services for the future. ARTPARK Innovation Program is designed to fill these gaps. It will nurture these ideas, help to productize technology, get external co-founders for the companies who have market, product design and selling expertise and also provide seed investments to get them started.
Speaking on the development, Subhashis Banerjee, Co-Founder & CIO, ARTPARK said, “We have rolled out this Innovation Program for a technology-led economic growth and innovation in the startup ecosystem in India that can further add to the vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat. I am delighted to share that we have already selected six companies in the first batch of ARTPARK Innovation program. We will be working with them so that they emerge as future deep technology unicorns out of India. We also have a globally connected investment committee allowing us to pick up and support companies that can be not just competitive in India, but in global markets as well.”
Under AIP, four major programs are designed which include ARTPARK-Spark, ARTPARK-Ignite, ARTPARK-Turbo, and ARTPARK-Boost. The non-profit organization’s innovation program selects different startups, under each category, based on their grooming needs and aims to help them scale up globally.
While ARTPARK-Spark is a 6-month starting-up program for recent pass out and young faculty, ARTPARK-Ignite is an Incubation program of 6 to 18 months for bringing together senior faculty or deep technologists and experienced entrepreneurs, where capital along with data, domain, talent and research is provided. In the ARTPARK-Turbo program ARTPARK funds existing startups around ARTPARK goals and objectives and leverages them in mission projects. Under the ARTPARK-Boost program, ARTPARK supports existing companies who are building critical technologies without any investment.
In the future, ARTPARK is looking to create a societal impact in healthcare, education, mobility, infrastructure, agriculture, retail, and cyber-security and focus on problems relevant to India and the developing world.
