Culturing the start-up DNA

Amit Kumar Vernekar and Sarah Pearl D'souza are all of 22. Batchmates at the B.V. Bhoomaraddi College of Engineering and Technology at Hubli, Dharwad, both have chosen not to take lucrative job offers to float their own company, Biosyl Technologies, with an initial investment of Rs 1.5 lakh.

Established in July 2012, the start-up offers research equipment for institutions and companies in the biotech/life-sciences industry. Their Anaerobic Workstation aims to provide researchers a quick and easy way to culture anaerobes, which are potential producers of several industrial products.

Anaerobic means “without oxygen.” Anaerobic bacteria are able to survive and grow in environments devoid of oxygen and could possibly react negatively and may even die in the presence of oxygen.

“I realised most research institutes and educational organisations did not have an anaerobic station and students couldn’t carry out culturing work. Initially, we took up the project as a hobby. From there we scaled it up,” said Amit.

Anaerobic research

Discarding a junior researcher job offer from biotech major Biocon, Amit, who graduated in June 2012, realised that he wanted to do something on his own. Some years down the line the anaerobic station could well be used at Biocon’s research labs, he says with a chuckle.

“The market has been growing the last several years, but in India, only a few industries and institutions have access to anaerobic chambers. Many pharmaceutical products are not produced due to lack of facility and it being a tedious process to cultivate,” added Sarah.

Saying no to a job offer from Navya Biologicals, a research oriented institute, was easy for Sarah, who had a clear intention to “try something out on my own.”

Due to unavailability of such equipment, research into anaerobic processes and anaerobic organisms is only explored up to 10-15 per cent, say the couple. With the advent of the duo’s cost-effective Anaerobic Workstation, it would aid industries and institutions to carry out further research.

Biosyl Technologies is in its start-up phase, but has already contracted 10 per cent of its first year’s projected sales.

The University of Dharwad has shown interest as have some dental colleges and the pathology department of the Karnataka Medical College.

The company is hoping for Rs 50 lakh in funding to power the growth ahead.

Dosa craze

Eshwar Vikas, who is in the final semester of SRM Engineering College, near Chennai, is least bothered about attending lectures. Eshwar has a bigger task at hand: Selling his table-top automatic, multiple-variant dosa-making machine.

The proud owner of Mukunda Foods, with two other friends as directors, Eshwar is looking to design automated food equipment for use in the retail segment.

“The idea has been germinating in my mind for three years. I worked in a couple of start-ups in Chennai and realised there is no product in the food industry other than a grinder and a microwave,” said Eshwar.

Participating and winning a competition at National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, in March 2012 gave him the required funds to float the venture. “We have invested Rs 6 lakh. Around Rs 3 lakh came from parents, while the rest was won through competitions,” said Eshwar. Another Rs 50 lakh in funding is necessary to move to the next stage.

National conference

On January 21, IIT-Madras held a unique initiative to boost student start-ups. The start-ups of Amit-Sarah, and Eshwar were among the 11 selected among the top 29 promising ventures. These start-ups are to receive professional mentoring from entrepreneurs and exposure to venture capitals (VC) and angel investors.

The two-day national conference hosted by IIT-Madras was a Tata First Dot initiative powered by NEN, India’s first national recognition and mentoring platform for student start-ups. Six winners of the Tata First Dot Judge’s Choice competition were felicitated as were five winners of Tata First Dot People’s Choice competition.

The top 29 ventures were selected from a pool of over 400 entries from across sectors such as education, manufacturing, IT/software, hospitality/travel, retail, and pharma/healthcare.

The awardees

Awardees included Laundry24, an initiative by Vaibhav Jain and Raghav Singhania, from IIT-Bombay; Wegilant Net Solutions, a cyber security and forensics start-up by Toshendra Kumar Sharma from IIT-Bombay; and The Pilates Studio, which is a simulated altitude-training room by Namrata Purohit, from Jai Hind College, Mumbai.

An online beauty store Fragume.com by Pratik Tiwari from MET’s Institute of Management was among the winners, as were personalised gift store Concept Artz by Mithlesh Jain from MET’s; and Around The Globe Holidays, which focuses on organising industrial visits for colleges and tours for corporates by Tejas Wani from the Thakur Institute of Management Studies. Other winners include start-ups dealing in experiential learning tools for educational institutions, mobile app testing platforms, search engines for e-commerce, and online courses.

>amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in

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