AIC-CCMB gets ₹5.25-crore grant by DST to support life sciences start-ups

The Atal Incubation Centre-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (AIC-CCMB), Hyderabad has been awarded the NIDHI-Seed Support System (Nidhi-SSS) grant of ₹5.25 crore by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Department of Science and Technology, GoI.

The scheme aims to ensure timely availability of seed fund to deserving start-ups. Start-ups can get up to ₹25 lakh, and in exceptional cases, can be awarded ₹1 crore.

Development of Covid solutions

AIC-CCMB has successfully supported over 40 life science start-ups in the last three years, all working in the areas of human and animal health as well as industrial biotechnology. Start-ups at AIC-CCMB played a pivotal role in developing Covid-19 solutions for diagnostic, therapeutics and food supplements.

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“Life-sciences is a very capital intensive field, especially because the development time is longer than any other sector. The time and money required for various validation and regulatory clearances for even bringing a product to the market puts a huge pressure of the entrepreneur. In the past three years of our operations, we have seen many life sciences start-ups struggling to raise funds just to stay afloat. The Nidhi-SSS grant will support the productisation efforts of the start-ups and ensure that their leads reach the market, ” said N Madhusudhana Rao, Chief Executive Officer, AIC-CCMB.

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“It is important that we set structures for funding the deep tech start-ups such as in life sciences. At CCMB, we are very hopeful that this will motivate many companies to work with us at AIC-CCMB. This will also help bridge the much lacking communication between academic researchers and industries,” said Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB.

Science, Tech, Innovation

Anita Gupta, Head NSTEDB, DST, said: “Funding has always been a stumbling block for start-ups during the initial phases. DST through Nidhi seed support initiative is attempting to bridge the gap by providing hassle free financial support. Emerging incubators like AIC-CCMB are now empowered with DST’s NidhiSSS to further harness the true potential of science, technology and innovation driven by new age innovators, entrepreneurs and start-ups.”