Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has partnered with IndusDC, a deep-tech-focused venture studio to nurture and launch start-ups working towards decarbonisation.
According to a press release by IIT Madras, the urgency to cut down 40 gigatons of CO2 emissions per year requires energy transformation to the tune of a massive $4 trillion per year globally. This can be made possible by bringing to the forefront the latent innovations and a large number of IP in the decarbonisation sector, which sits in the research labs of India’s top institutions. By enabling a wave of hardware innovation, the institute hopes to propel India to the global forefront of decarbonisation technology leadership.
According to IIT Madras, the first phase of commercialisation is currently underway with IndusDC, founded by IIT Madras Alumni Dr. Kushant Uppal, collaborating with The Energy Consortium, a Centre of Excellence set up at the institute under the Institute of Eminence initiative. Three Intellectual Properties (IP) have already been on-boarded and the vision of this initiative is to replicate this model across institutes in India and take it to a global level.
“This is a pivotal IP, technology development and start-up incubation agreement with IIT Madras. We are also actively forging partnerships with other esteemed universities in both India and the U.S. Guided by a technical Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), we navigate from tech demonstrations to prototypes while maturing the technology to TRL7/8. Concurrently, we also define the commercial benchmarks around performance and economics. We expect this partnership to bring to market decarbonization start-ups that will redefine the energy transition landscape for India,” said IIT Madras Alumnus Dr. Kushant Uppal, Founder and CEO, IndusDC.
(Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) are a type of measurement system used to assess the maturity level of a particular technology)
“Decarbonization is the greatest need of this hour. This initiative is very timely and will bring together our alumni to serve a greater global cause in a sustainable fashion,” said Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, Dean (Alumni and Corporate Relations), IIT Madras.
According to the press release, IndusDC will onboard and match ‘Entrepreneurs in Residence’ (EIR) to the lab-stage ideas and mature it to achieve a market-fit product.
