Four IIT Delhi start-ups have each won Rs 50 lakh in grants for their products under the Endowment Nurture Fund initiative. The authorities at the institute have opined that this funding will help boost the start-up culture and encourage more students willing to start new ventures.
PVM Rao, Dean of Alumni Relations at IIT Delhi, said that many students were relinquishing placement options to start ventures immediately after graduating. "The Endowment Nurture Fund will encourage such students to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions," he added, as per a report by PTI.
"The grant provides a cushion to IIT Delhi's student teams to take risks and experiment with innovative ideas, products and business models. That in turn helps spread the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among the student community," said IIT Delhi Endowment Management Foundation CEO Anurag Rastogi.
Here are the four ideas that won:
1. Circle - Founded by Ankur Yadav and Navan Jaiswal, it is a financial wellness product for organisations to provide daily salaries and low-cost retirement to their employees.
2. Bag It - Founded by Madhukar Ranka and Dipanshu Verma, it is an on-demand platform for wholesalers that digitises the jewellery supply chain for the benefit of retailers.
3. Onpery - Founded by Pramod Priya Ranjan and Nachiket Thakur, it is a menstrual health start-up that aims to make green menstruation adaptable and accessible to the masses.
4. I-Stem - Founded by Akashdeep Bansal, Kartik Sawhney, Shakul Raj Sonker and Sunil Choudhary, the start-up provides digital content accessibility solutions through which universities and enterprises are making their digital infrastructure accessible to persons with disability.
