IIT Madras’ CREST Launches AI Platform for Incubators and Accelerators

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The platform has information about more than 920 incubators in the country and will help founders to find the most suitable incubator for their start-up.

New Delhi: The Centre for Research on Start-ups and Risk Financing (CREST) at Indian Institute of Technology Madras has developed the first AI powered information platform on incubators and accelerators in the country. The platform has been named ‘Incubators’ by the developing researchers.

According to the press release by IIT Madras, “The platform, developed in partnership with YNOS, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up, contains comprehensive information on incubators and accelerators, which play an important role in helping start-ups navigate an uncertain entrepreneurial ecosystem,”.

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The platform will serve as a directory of information for incubators and accelerators. There are around 1000 active incubators and there is no single platform to get information about these. The newly launched initiative by IIT Madras Researchers to solve the problem and help start-up founders to identify, compare and analyse incubators.

The ‘Incubators’ platform has comprehensive information about more than 920 incubators which will relieve the founders of the pain to choose the right incubator which will contribute to the success of the start-up in subsequent years. The Platform will also benefit the CEOs and Managers of incubation centres to get the attention of start-up founders for their incubation centres and benchmark themselves against comparable incubators and constantly improve their effectiveness.

Dr. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Departments of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Industries and Commerce, Government of Telangana, and Member, Board of Directors of T-Hub, the largest incubator in India, formally launched the ‘Incubators’ platform at Hyderabad on November 17, 2023.

Congratulating CREST, IIT Madras and YNOS for developing this platform, Dr. Jayesh Ranjan, said, “The growth of the Indian start-up ecosystem depends on a strong incubator ecosystem. Research has shown that there is a direct correlation between start-up formation and number of incubators. Recognizing this, various governments have focused on strengthening the incubation ecosystem in the country.”

Dr. Jayesh Ranjan added, “However, getting information about various incubation centres has always been a challenge. Since there are information platforms that provided a one stop resource on the incubation network in the country, entrepreneurs had to visit through multiple websites to get the information they needed. With the availability of Incubators, this problem has been squarely addressed. There is no doubt that the platform would significantly benefit entrepreneurs by presenting various incubation opportunities available to them and helping them to identify the perfect incubator for their start-up. I congratulate Prof. Thillai Rajan and his team for conceptualising this platform and developing this for the benefit of the start-up community.”

Key Features of ‘Incubators’ Platform

Data on more than 920 incubators and accelerators
Comprehensive information on each incubator such as host organization, startup funding agency, number of startups supported, investors who have invested in the startups supported by the incubators, among others
Focus areas of existing startups supported by the incubator
Enables easy comparison of incubators on various parameters helping the startup founders to decide on the incubator that would be most suitable for their start-up.

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