IIT Hyderabad to collaborate with Hong Kong Firm to establish global network of Venture Ecosystem
Hyderabad: Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad is going to collaborate with New Frontier Capital Management, a financial firm based in Hong Kong with offices in Tokyo and Singapore, to establish a global network for ventures as well as to create a venture ecosystem. The core objective of this partnership will be to promote innovation, research and incubation.
An MoU was signed by Prof B.S. Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad and Mr. Shigeki Usuki, Chief Executive Officer, New Frontier Capital Management, to facilitate this collaboration. This MoU will also enable New Frontier Capital Management to establish an office at the IIT Hyderabad campus.
Speaking about this collaboration and its benefits to innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem at IIT Hyderabad, Prof B.S. Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said,“IIT Hyderabad incessantly encourages the entrepreneurship ecosystem with its unique BTech minor in entrepreneurship and it’s tech incubators like i-TIC and CfHE. With a surge in start-up culture globally, we have taken a major step forward and have signed an MoU with an established venture capitalist, New Frontier Capital Management (NFCM), which has a worldwide presence including in Tokyo and Singapore. Joint innovation centre in Tokyo and IITH campus along with an office for NFCM at IITH campus will provide a global platform for IITH incubatees. This will indeed strengthen the distinctive bond IITH shares with Japan and opens up new opportunities for research and promotes the culture of entrepreneurship.”
The MoU also envisages establishment of ‘Joint Innovation Centres’ in Tokyo, Japan, as well as in Telangana and will help create an ecosystem that is connected to global research institutions.
IIT Hyderabad places a lot of emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation as part of its undergraduate program, which has resulted in a growing number of students starting their own ventures or joining startups.
Highlighting the expected outcomes from this collaboration, Mr. Usuki, CEO of New Frontier Capital Management, said, “Japanese corporations have a very strong interest in innovation coming out of India. Through the collaboration with IIT Hyderabad, we expect to further the mutual relationship between India and Japan especially in the fields of venture and innovation. The MoU will enable us to establish our office in the IIT Hyderabad campus to promote more information sharing both ways and, in such case, we expect broader development of the India-Japan collaboration.”
IITHyderabad has a very vibrant incubation and research park ecosystems. The focus is on deep tech companies.IIT Hyderabad is a source of early stage ideas, research, incubation and technologies, especially in the fields of 5G, IoT, Fabless Chip Health Care, AI and advanced technologies operates three different technology business incubators, namely i-TIC Foundation IIT Hyderabad (iTIC), Centre for Healthcare (CfHE) and Fabless Chip Incubator (FabCI). This MoU will allow IIT Hyderabad to seek funding from the global funds operated by New Frontier Capital Management for its incubators and accelerator programs.
This collaboration will also facilitate the introduction of more Japanese and global companies to IIT Hyderabad to promote research and development, innovation and incubation.