ROURKELA: National Institute of Technology - Rourkela (NIT-R)’s Foundation for Technology Business Incubation (FTBI) has scripted a success story by giving wings to 31 start-ups in the last three years. The start-ups have already notched a combined annual turnover of about Rs 21 crore. NIT-R Director Prof Animesh Biswas said that FTBI, established in 2016, presently houses 31 companies besides 18 teams in pre-incubation stage, with above 90 founders and co-founders.
Generating employment for over 200 youth, the start-ups are involved in activities ranging from innovation, creation of green-tech solutions, manufacturing and engineering to e-commerce activities. They are mostly run either by the alumni or present students of NIT-R , he said.
Professor-in-charge of FTBI Rajeev Kumar Panda said FTBI seeks to encourage budding entrepreneurs to translate their innovative thoughts into impactful ventures. “All starts-up companies are less than three-years-old. Prominent among them are Clavictory Academy, Yarev Technologies, Spunik Technologies, Phoenix Robotix, Estinno Energy, Penny India, Fastech Fashions, Awalk Innovation and Book Mediz,” he said.
The incubation policy of NIT-R under its Category I allows pre-incubation projects from faculty, academic staff and students to help commercialise a novel idea through a technology-based business enterprise. In Category-II, technology-driven start-up companies promoted by first generation entrepreneurs or other outside promoters, are supported for a period of three years.
The FTBI assists with soft infrastructure, technical and expertise services, market research, consultation, seed funding and additional use of Intellectual Properties of NIT-R. It now holds the status of a recognised incubator under Startup India and Startup Odisha campaigns.