IIT Madras’ CREST launches India’s first AI platform on incubators to help start-up founders

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras’s (IIT Madras) Centre for Research on Start-ups and Risk Financing (CREST) had developed India’s first information platform on incubators and accelerators.

“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,” the institute said.

India has around 1,000 active incubators, the information about them has been scattered. The ‘Incubators’ is AI-powered platform which was developed to squarely solve the problem and help start-up founders to identify, compare and analyse incubators.

It has information of more than 920 incubators and accelerators. Some of the key highlights include comprehensive information on each incubator such as host organization, start-up funding agency, number of start-ups supported, investors who have invested in the start-ups supported by the incubators, among others.

Telangana IT Secretary, Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, 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.”

Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Departments of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Industries and Commerce, Government of Telangana, 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.”