65 Indian start-ups have signed up so far for Dassault Systèmes’ Global Entrepreneur Programme, which is aimed at providing an impetus to the growing start-up community in India.

The company expects over 50 per cent of these start-ups to continue using SOLIDWORKS and turn into customers, said Gian Paolo Bassi, CEO, SOLIDWORKS, Dassault Systèmes, the 3D design software unit of Dassault Systèmes.

“The Global Entrepreneur Programme is open to all the Indian entrepreneurs and it is very successful as we understand that young entrepreneurs need the access to powerful technology to make their dreams happen...If they need technology and they have ideas, we can have them,” Bassi told BusinessLine . He added that this programme is good for the business as well because if these start-ups like creating products using SOLIDWORKS’ technology, they can choose to continue with it afterwards.

Currently, Bassi said that on a global level, the company sees an average of 30 per cent of these companies mature beyond the ‘start-up status’ and become commercial customers.

“We are very sensitive to people that need access to technologies and don’t have the means, for instance, for students, entrepreneurs and start-ups,” he said.

The programme

The company had announced the availability of the Global Entrepreneur Programme for Indian start-ups, entrepreneurs and makers in October 2018. It is aimed at helping Indian start-ups by leveraging Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform, applications, online services, mentors and industry professionals.

Globally, around 3,000 start-ups have signed up with Dassault Systèmes. “The growth is 400 per cent year-over-year,” Bassi said.

Under this programme, the SOLIDWORKS’ portfolio is provided free of cost for up to a year, along with the provision of mentorship. After one year, there is an option for start-ups to become commercial customers by buying or renting the license, while an option for an extension also exists, said Bassi.

With its Global Entrepreneur Programme, Dassault Systèmes is working with Indian incubation centres with SOLIDWORKS licences such as Science & Technology Park, Pune, SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Center, IIT, Kanpur, SINE Business Incubator, IIT Bombay and others while supporting Indian start-ups.

21 incubators have signed up so far with the programme, and these incubators have, on an average, 10 start-ups in themselves. Right now, SOLIDWORKS is in the process of streamlining and simplifying the process to access this programme.

SOLIDWORKS has also partnered with around 1,500 colleges in India that uses the SOLIDWORKS software. Apart from the need to push it to high schools too, Bassi said that there is a need to expand this further into community colleges and vocational schools in order to “cover the diversity of the population”. “I think that the biggest strength of India is a very sharp focus on engineering, it's truly amazing,” said Bassi.

New product

Dassault Systèmes also announced the creation of 3DEXPERIENCE.WORKS, a new portfolio of industry-aware application, on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform that is tailored to meet the needs of SOLIDWORKS customers as well as small and mid-sized companies.

This was announced during the SOLIDWORKS World 2019 event held in Dallas, Texas.“This profile of customers is important for the Indian market, for several reasons. First of all, India as a country is very much focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. I think the vast majority of engineers in the world comes from India, from the prestigious institutes like IIT and so on. And this fosters a culture of entrepreneurship. We at SOLIDWORKS work very closely with entrepreneurs and students. So this vast amount of the student population focused on engineering is a perfect match for us,” said Bassi.

(The writer is in Dallas at the invitation of of Dassault Systèmes)

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW