ENTREPRENEURSHIP CELL

IIT MADRAS

THE

START-UP
BLUEBOOK
Copyright © 2017 E-Cell, IIT Madras
www.ecell.iitm.ac.in
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First printing, December 2017
 ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN IIT MADRAS
IIT Madras is one of the new-era educational establishments – one of those which, for a
long time now, have never been shy of going that extra mile to nurture or stimulate an
entrepreneurial spirit among its students. This is the reason our institute currently po
sesses, arguably, the most vibrant startup culture among the IITs. Despite having to slog
through our curriculum much the same as everywhere else, what sets the atmosphere
apart here are the opportunities provided to the students to participate in innovation of
some form or the other – and at the very least, gain experience in such areas to better
prepare you for any undertaking you might pursue in the future.
Does this mind-set and support actually translate into something noticeable? Or are we
all bark and no bite? Indeed it does. Just look at our presence at the annual ET Startup
Awards. Student startups being eligible for the “Best on Campus” award, 4 out of the 5
final nominees were startups from IIT Madras last year. And indeed, IIT Madras’s Ather
Energy, Founded by Tarun Mehta, took the prize. Theirs is the journey of a typical college
startup. Just three years ago, all they had was a vague idea of their eventual product. No
plan, no vision, no target. IIT Madras gave them the opportunity they needed to expand –
support, mentor-ship, research funding – anything they needed, the institute provided.
And they thrived.
Read on to find out more about these fast-growing startups, bu before that, lets have a
look at the pillars of the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM
However advanced IIT Madras’s current entrepreneurship scene is, it was not always this
easy (easy being relative here). Entrepreneurs have always been here, since decades,
and the early ones had nearly no end to their struggles. They struggled for funding, for
support, for knowledge, for recognition, for contacts, for feedback – nothing came easily
to them. Worst was the attitude and condemnation they faced. But over the years, slow-
ly, a system evolved at IIT Madras to help these people. The importance of nurturing the
spirit of these folks was recognized, and organizations, both professor and student-run,
were cropping up everywhere with two major purposes – to support existing innovators,
and to get rid of the prejudice against them. And these organizations have evolved, even-
tually, to form the “ecosystem” we see now, a whole host of specialized institutions set
up to guide entrepreneurs through all stages of their journey. Some of these are –

The Center for Innovation: The “CFI”, as it’s called here, is our very own “Student Lab”.
Set up with funds from the Alumni batch of 1981, they follow the quote “Walk in with an
idea, walk out with a product”.
The Gopalakrishnan Deshpande Centre: The GDC plans to play the role of an Angel In-
vestor to a select few startups every year, along with its primary goal of encouraging
entrepreneurial thinking among students here.
The Nirmaan Programme: Nirmaan is the “Pre-Incubation Cell” at IIT Madras. It encour-
ages students to look beyond placements, easing their journey to incubation. With sup-
port like this, not many are easily discouraged.
IIT Madras Entrepreneurship Forum: The alumni of IIT Madras are an extremely valuable
resource. This forum aims to make the most of their expertise – and not just through
their advice, support, and information. Students can receive offers for apprenticeship in
startups or request personal mentoring.
IIT Madras Research Park: The Research Park is home to dozens of startups and compa-
nies belonging to various fields. However, its primary purpose is to “facilitate the promo-
tion of research and development, and assist
in the growth of new ventures, while promot-
ing economic development”. It is home to the
highest echelon of our “ecosystem”, the Incu-
bation Cell – helping startups make the final
leap that takes them beyond the confines of
the institute. Plans to replicate the Research
Park in several locations all over India has been
discussed by Narendra Modi himself.
The Research Park is also home to sector spe-
cific organizations –
RTBI: The Rural Technology Business Incubator
attempts to impact rural/underserved societal
segments, resulting in social and economic
development among these peoples.
CSIE: This is the Center for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, predictably dedicat-
ed to the promotion of Social Entrepreneurship in the institute.
Bio-Incubator: This was set up by BIRAC, under the Bio-Incubator Support Scheme, with
support from our institutes Biotechnology department a couple of years ago. It has since
incubated 2 companies.
 ABOUT E-CELL, IIT MADRAS
Entrepreneurship Cell at IIT Madras believes that entrepreneurship is not just about
starting companies, but a pathway towards India’s socio-economic development. Our vi-
sion is to make students and faculty ‘entrepreneurial’ in every work that they do. We hope
to enable them to solve global challenges as we see students as the greatest capital and
intend to nurture them, provide them with opportunities for excellence.
E-Cell is where you can come to no matter what stage of your journey you are in, with the
assurance that we are ready to and capable of assisting you through any kind of problem.
E-Cell can be considered the origin of the ecosystem – from when it was started near
two decades ago as “C-TIDES”, we’ve brought IIT Madras’s startup culture a long way, and
now we are the bridge between you and success – we advise you, support you, equip you
for whatever you might face.
E-Cell has a finger in every pie, so to speak. We provide mentoring, support and to an
extent, funding. We hold countless talks and events throughout the year to develop our
institute’s startup culture. We conduct competitions and provide challenges that make
people think in a way that will benefit them once they leave the confines of the institute.
We provide budding entrepreneurs with a valuable network of contacts and advisors.
E-Cell is absolutely essential to the functioning of the ecosystem, and it bears the re-
sponsibility admirably, always seeking to improve, looking for new members and bringing
out the best in them.
1. HYPERVERGE
The story of Hyperverge began in 2009 at IIT Madras. It was founded by IITM alumni Kedar
Kulkarni, Kishore Natarajan & Vignesh Krishnakumar. They started out as a student team
that was struggling to install a vision library in Ubuntu. With the support of the ecosys-
tem at IIT Madras they represented IIT Madras and India in various robotics competitions
around the world.
As a student team, they also took up challenging consulting assignments to get hands-
on knowledge about solving real-life problems. They built prototypes for the inspection of
overhead lines for railways, inspection of biscuits, inspection of raw rubber, identification
of grain boundaries, classification of weld defects and auto-enhancement of images.
HyperVerge uses deep-learning to analyse and organise photos across all devices. Silver,
the first smartphone app developed by the company, helps users automatically organise
their photos, eliminate poor quality photos and duplicates, and share their best photos.
2. LEMA LABS
Lema Labs is a company founded by IITM Alumni under the guidance of faculty members
of IIT Madras. It was the brainchild of Kedar Kulkarni, alumnus of 2012. They are striving
to build an ecosystem for emerging technologies by providing support to stakeholders
who include student community, educational institutions and the industry.
Their certificate programs provide participants with a steep learning curve in emerging
technologies such as Robotics, Embedded Systems, IoT, Machine Learning etc. The Kai-
zen Technology Program is a combination of three subjects namely Robotics, Internet
of Things and App Development which aims at teaching students all about the latest
emerging technologies with a very strong and fun hands-on experience. The Kaizen Ro-
botics Program is a certificate program which serves as a platform for tech enthusiasts
to get started in Robotics and Embedded Systems. Trained over 4000+ students so far,
this program has been rated a 4.5 out of 5 by our students
3. ATHER ENERGY
Ather Energy Pvt Ltd is credited with building India’s first smart electric scooter, the
$340. The company was founded by IITM alumni of 2012, Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain.
At Ather, they are a team of 2-wheeler enthusiasts who are engineers at heart. A tough
bunch to please. To be truly happy with the S340, they had to build it ground up, crafting
it part by part. The result: A creation with every part working in complete harmony and a
scooter that we’d love to ride. They say they have not only built a scooter that you will love
but have also carefully crafted every experience around it. From offering door step vehi-
cle delivery & service to thoughtfully located charging points to dedicated relationship
managers, they aim to make every interaction with you a delightful experience.
4. SWADHA ENERGIES
Founded by alumnus Ankit Poddar, Swadha Energies is an IIT Madras RTBI incubated
company, initiated in Chennai. At Swadha, they mainly aim at developing products and
services which ensures a power saving technology. They clench the Industrial, Resi-
dential, Commercial and Agricultural sectors, accelerating the conservation of energy
through our products. Their goal is to be a leader in the industry by providing enhanced
products, services, relationship and profitability.
Their vision is to provide quality products and services which exceeds the expectations
of our revered customers. They firmly believe that our customers are the reason for our
existence and greatly respect their trust on us. They grow through creativity and innova-
tion, adding the flavours of honesty, integrity, social responsibility and ethics to business,
building a long term relationship with customers. Their specialization lay in developing
products which conserve power in energy intensive sectors and create an ecosystem
with a more energy efficient footprint. Team members at Swadha also wish to establish
a strong base of key customers and increase the assets and investments of the company
for a better prospective.
5. DETECT TECHNOLOGIES
Detect was founded by Daniel R David, Tarun Mishra, Prof. Krishnan Balasubramanian,
Harikrishnan AS and Karthik R. It offers a holistic solution to the inspection needs of
energy sector focusing mainly on the pipeline integrity management. The technologies
developed at Detect are of highest novelty and ensures thorough inspection of our client
pipeline assets. It enables service-based products as well as permanent installable sen-
sors that can show real time health data of the pipelines.
Detect Technologies was awarded the prestigious gold medal for being one among the
top 10 innovative ideas in India by the Government of India under the India Innovation
Growth Program. It was also selected as one among the top 10 by IC2 at University of
Texas at Austin for a market survey and analysis for their technology.
6. AIBONO (AIRWOOD AEROSTRUCTURES PVT LTD)
Aibono is India’s first Smart Farming Collective. The company is primarily focused on
providing precision farming input and end-to-end production management advise for
fruits & vegetable farmers using Sensors, Cloud Application, Data Analytics, Soil & Ambi-
ent Sensors, as well as multispectral crop stress using drone imaging. It was founded by
Vivek Rajkumar, IITM alumnus of 2011.
India, a nations of small farms, faces the twin challenge of low yields and fragment-
ed supply. As a result, the Indian Farmer operates at 20% productivity of the West and
gets sub-optimal price due to his supply’s mismatch with demand and exploitation by
arbitrage. Aibono pioneers the use of Real-time Intelligence and Agri 4.0 to solve this in-
tractable problem with next-generation agri-data science and artificial intelligence. Ai-
bono’s Real-time Precision Agriculture Solutions stabilises and increases yields by 2x by
monitoring over 50 farm variables, and the Predictive Supply Engine controls the Plant-
ing-Material and Just-in-time harvests to precisely match supply and demand, thereby
doubling price realisation and income for the farmer.
7. GYANDATA
GyanData was conceived of by IITM professors and faculty-members of the Department
of Chemical Engineering, Prof. Shankar Narasimhan and Prof. Raghunathan Rengas-
wamy. They provide data-driven solutions across a multitude of sectors such as finance,
retail, transportation and process industries.
Their present focus comprises product development and consultancy in the fields of
Data modelling, Surge analysis, Water Distribution Systems, Process monitoring and
control, Fault diagnosis, Decision support systems and other Software applications to
process industries.
Their core competencies can be delineated as process systems engineering, data ana-
lytics, hardware prototyping and education and training.
8. PLANYS TECHNOLOGIES
Founded by Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, Vineet Upadhay, Prof Prabhu Rajagopal & Prof Krishnan
Balasubramanian, Planys Technologies is India’s first and only manufacturer of compact
ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) providing inspection and survey solutions. Planys
has its head office in Chennai where it indigenously designs and manufactures compact
ROVs. It brings world class technology and cutting-edge innovations in underwater ro-
botics and diagnostics in the shallow-mid depth segment. Planys’ technology spans the
domains of marine robotics, advanced Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE), and post-in-
spection analysis. It provides a holistic service offering to customers through a design
level fusion of ROV manufacture, operations and structural diagnostics. Its vision is to
become a world leading provider of customizable automated inspection solutions for
onshore and offshore submerged structures.
9. DOCSAPP (PHASORZ TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD)
Satish Kannan & Enbasekar D, alumni of 2012, laid the foundation of DocsApp. DocsApp
is a mobile app for patients to seek online consultation from specialist doctors. Patients
can also get lab tests and medicines delivered at home seamlessly through the app after
the doctor consultation. It ensures that one may beat the queues by connecting with and
consulting doctors in less than 30 minutes regarding a range of ailments. It offers fast,
private and secure 24/7 service with multiple specialities.
Their goal? To make world class healthcare affordable to a global population through
dedicated effort. They continue to challenge the status quo of health every day.
10. INVENTION LABS ENGINEERING PRODUCTS
Invention Labs was founded by IITM alumnus Ajit Narayanan. At Invention Labs, they
make products for persons with communication disorders. Their first product - Avaz
- helps persons with cerebral palsy to communicate in an independent manner. It is
an award-winning ipad application. Their current product-FreeSpeech a revolutionary
grammar prediction engine which allows users to build sentences & learn languag-
es; it helps autistic kids communicate complicated sentences. Invention Labs, with its
ground-breaking work, has attracted markets in the US, Denmark and India.
11. SKILLVERI TRAINING SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
Skillveri Training Solutions Private Limited was started by Sabarinath C and L Kannan
in Chennai in the year of 2012. It aims to aid skill training in the right manner through
realistic simulation of various trades, starting with welding to other complex avenues
of industrial labour works. Skillveri was started by Sabarinath C and L Kannan, to help
in addressing India’s Skill Gap. Sabarinath is a engineer with interest in simulation inte-
grated training methodologies. He has wide experience in building intuitive and effective
products and solutions for the developing world. Kannan is a “parallel” entrepreneur and
award winning innovator. Skillveri enables better quality delivery of practical vocation-
al skill training at significantly lesser costs through its innovative, scalable platform of
multi-skill simulators. After establishing market leadership with a range of welding-train-
ing products, a slew of new offerings is in the pipeline—spray painting, gold-jewelry sol-
dering, medical skills, etc.
12. MERKEL HAPTIC SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED
Merkel Haptic System Private Limited is the first startup for touch technologies in India
working as a R&D company developing haptics-enabled VR technologies for healthcare
simulation. The startup came up with a range of products to make training healthcare
professionals on various procedures in healthcare industry simpler. A mechanical engi-
neering graduate, Manivannan completed his Master’s and Ph.D from the Indian Institute
of Science, Bengaluru, before heading to the US, for a post-doctoral fellowship in haptics
at MIT. He set up Merkel Haptic Systems, of which he is the Founder Chairman, at IITM’s
Touchlab. Paul, an electronics engineering graduate from Bangalore University, worked
with two multinational companies, before joining Merkel Haptic Systems as its Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer, with a 30 per cent equity stake in the venture, in 2016.
13. CONZUMEX INDUSTRIES PRIVATE LIMITED
ConsumeX Industries is a tech startup that designs, develops and sells consumer elec-
tronics wearables. ConsumeX was the brainchild of Sai Prasanth, who quit his job in
Kenya and returned to India to float his startup and teamed up with Ajay Yathindra and
Karthik Reddy.
Their first launch was a smart-magnetic charger under the brand of MuConnect MuCo-
nnect was launched on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo in February 2016 to sell
17,000 pieces at $16 each. The team also obtained a patent for the technology. While
the technology is developed inhouse, the manufacturing was outsourced to China. They
have started receiving investments into their venture which has helped accelerate the
production process and their ever-increasing demand.
14. FIBSOL LIFE TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED
FIBSOL Life Technologies Private Limited is a startup kicked-off by postdoctoral and
doctoral student Dr Kavitha and Dr Anant Raheja of IIT-M in the year 2013 with a vision
to innovate functionally efficient nanofiber substrates for Agriculture, Healthcare & Ad-
vanced materials. The startup hosts the privilege of being one of the four identified com-
panies to avail the facilities of the newly launched IITM Bioincubator. Currently FIB-SOL
is involved in developing crop growth promoting formulations to improve organic farm-
ing. Two products are developed and under validation, one is N-FIB-20 and the other is
N-SOL SP. FIBSOL also won the Lift India Ideation Series 2017. The startup is fed by IITM
Incubation Cell fundings and IITM Alumni Seed Funding.
15. STELLAPPS TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED
Founded by IIT Madras Alumnus Ranjith Mukundan, Ravishankar Shiroor and Praveen
Nale. Stellapps Technologies Private Limited is an end-to-end dairy technology solutions
company, first of its kind in India, which incorporates modern technologies to optimise
dairy farming . Their prominent Stellapps’ innovative applications and state-of-the-art
mechanization tools leverage Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Cloud, Mobility, and Data
Analytics to improve Agri- supply chain parameters, including milk production, milk pro-
curement, cold chain, animal insurance and farmer payments. It produces and procures
comprehensive farm optimization and monitoring support, which helps dairy farmers
and cooperatives maximize profits while minimizing effort.
16. DHVANI R&D SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
Co-Founded by IIT Madras faculty Prof Krishnan Balasubramaniam. This company is a
spin-off from the Centre for Non-destructive Evaluation (CNDE) at IITM, this technology
company was formed in 2008 for transferring academic research of CNDE at IITM into
products for the industry. The company provides a concept to field experience to cus-
tomers through innovation in technologies related to non-destructive testing, manufac-
turing diagnostics, materials characterization, structural health monitoring, simulation
and visualization tools, and training. It also generates income above 5Cr annually.
17. EPMCR PRIVATE LIMITED
Founded by IITM Alumni S Kavinkumar & PS Mukundan, Engineering Project Management
Consultancy and Research (EPMCR) is an IIT Madras Incubated Engineering and Project
Management consulting company offering civil engineering solutions right from Archi-
tecture to delivery of the infrastructure facilities to the client.
It offers single point solution for planning, design and construction of all type of Build-
ing Infrastructure, Transportation Infrastructure and Water Infrastructure. This company
acts as an interface between IITM and Construction industry and brings modern cutting
technology developed by IITM to construction industry. Their expert consultants form the
core strength of the company.
18. FABHEADS AUTOMATION PRIVATE LIMITED
Founded by IIT-M Alumnus Dhinesh R Kanagaraj in 2011, this company is developing
products targeting industrial automation in composites manufacturing sector, with a
special focus on carbon fiber based products. A majority of carbon fiber products are still
fabricated using expensive, but ineffective processes that produce heavy raw material
wastage and require large manpower. Their domain is 3D-Printing and manufacturing.
The products developed here focus on complete automation with negligible material
wastage allowing to bring down per part costs by minimum 10% to as much as 25%
based on the production volume.
19. MICROSPIN MACHINE WORKS PRIVATE LIMITED
Founded by IITM Alumnus L Kannan, Microspin works on commercializing innovative
technologies of fibre processing which enables production of premium quality yarn at
low investment, along with significantly reduced energy footprint. Microspin’s technol-
ogy is based on a proprietary process, comprising 27 patentable claims that have been
upheld by the International Patent Search Authority, Vienna.
Textiles produced by this method have gained recognition among leading brands and
designers in India and abroad, enabling small producers to gain enhanced value for their
produce – short video. The prestigious Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator recently
recognized this contribution.
Microspin’s offerings are also used as an affordable and convenient platform for devel-
oping new blends and for the production of sampling lots. Apart from private enterprises
who are using this technology to blend different natural fibers, the Central Silk Board is
working with Microspin to adapt the process for “Eri” silk.
20. PADMASEETHA TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED
Founded by W.Gowrishankar, IIT Alumnus of batch 1998, this company deals with health-
care and biomedical devices. It has developed a wearable mobile Continuous Ambulatory
Peritoneal Dialysis device (mCAPD), which allows people to carry out peritoneal dialysis
during their regular sleep or work hours by wearing their proprietary portable device sim-
ilar to a backpack. This simple and affordable device allows renal patients to have a near
normal life, in spite of the crippling disease - patients in rural areas often have to travel
many hours, for their dialysis, imposing a phenomenal burden on their time and costs.
They also received seed-funding from IITM-IC.
21. LEAST COUNT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS PVT LTD
Founded by IITM alumni, Krishna S Alwala & Nitish R Parvatham, their field of Interest is
3D Visualization and Fashion Technology.
TRI3D as it is commonly called is a Virtual Fitting Room technology solution for e-Fash-
ion stores which helps users to virtually try-on clothes before they buy online. Users can
enter a few measurements, skin-tone and pose, and create own body avatars and then
select different garments to try-on. TRI3D are working on a scalable garment digitization
platform to convert and digitize garments into 3D format at scale.
22. IMOV MOTIONTECH PRIVATE LIMITED
Founders: Vinay Sridhar, Prof. Ramkrishna Pasumarthy & B S Srinivas (IITM Faculty &
Ramaiah Institute alum & faculty)
IMOV develops intelligent wearables to capture movement & bio-parameters to give
more insight on human performance. A varied range of custom devices are being de-
veloped for athletes to assist physiotherapy & rehabilitation & create intelligent motion
analysis wearable/apparel that predict patterns towards optimum performance. They
have developed the following prototypes:
• Basketball shooting form - Multi-sensor wearable system
• Fit-Shirt – an EMG Based sensing for GYM Athletes to specifically get muscle informa-
tion and also ECG based bio-parameters to understand the science of GYM training and
prevent muscle fatigue/injuries
• Gait Analysis - Motion sensing and Functional Stimulation of upper and lower limbs to
treat persons affected by stroke or spinal cord injury. Custom designed systems which
specifically adapt to individual walking and triggers the treatment therapy intended.
23. LOKYAM AGRO PRODUCTS AND FOOD PVT LTD
Founder: Siddharth Tata MBA, Harvard Business School; IITM alumnus, BTech 2004.
This agro-based startup has come up with new innovative ways to redefine how agri-
culture is to be done with the clench of modern techniques. For example, Purple Chilli
(a unit of Lokyam Agro) has developed a technology and process suite wherein a farmer
with just 1 acre of land can grow 20+ varieties of vegetables 365 days a year earning Rs
20,000-30,000 per month. Purple Chilli works with farmers to replicate the technology
and process suite on their farms. The Company markets high quality organic fresh pro-
duce grown by its partner farmers directly to customers and select retail outlets.
24. ZAZEN SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED
Founded by IITM alumnus, Sriram Narayanamurthy
ZaZen has developed DC powered Appliances that are extremely efficient and is ready to
be integrated with Solar Power and Battery Storage. Company specializes in green ther-
mal comfort & refrigeration. Their motive is to promote Green and Safe environment. The
company’s new and innovative approach is lauded by many prominent people and it has
experienced IITM Faculty as mentors. They products are cost-effective and environment
friendly.
Their Current products are Air cooler, DC Air Conditioner and Solar refrigerator with two
multinational companies, before joining Merkel Haptic Systems as its Chief Executive
Officer, with a 30 per cent equity stake in the venture, in 2016
25. TARA TECH SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
Founder: KR RAHUL
Tara Tech Solutions Private Limited was floated to explored unexplored avenues and re-
cord success in the avenue of software consultancy and software publishing. KR Rahul,
a civil engineering student of IIT Madras conceived this startup to serve the growingde-
mand for software consultancy. This startup offers an amazing product, Clozerr which is
a customer centric platform that services the mobile first customer using cutting edge
technology offering them a ridiculously simple way to discover new places and engage
with their favourite outlet and on the other hand aims to be the complete platform for
SMB’s to connect, reward, engage, retain the customers and drive new footfall.
26. NEOMOTION ASSISTIVE SOLUTIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
Founder: Swostik S Dash, Vivek Sarda & Prof Sujatha Srinivasan (IITM alumni 2013, 2014
& Faculty member)
The motto of social justice is safeguarding human rights and ensuring equality and a
crucial element of social justice is empowerment. NeoMotion Assistive Solutions Pri-
vate Limited endeavoured to empower the physically challenged people by the array of
their assistive devices. Their assistive devices aims to create an impact in the lives of
specially-abled and elderly people. Neomotion’s initial offerings were named, Neobolt,
Neoflame and Neo rider. Neobolt is a clip-on device to wheelchair to enable the user to
go outdoors independently and NeoFlame is a wheelchair which is customizable to its
user and rugged for outdoor use. The NeoRider is an add-on device that converts a reg-
ular wheelchair into an outdoor mobility device. Currently there is no mobility solution for
rural areas that can meet both indoor and outdoor needs.
27. AIR OK TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED
Founders: V Deekshith, Y Pavan Reddy & V Sravan Krishna (IITM Alumni - 2014, 2015)
Having access to clean air is very important, especially now with air quality becoming a
major issue in our world. As most of the air we breathe is full of harmful gases, particu-
late matter, fungal spores and other hazardous materials, a startup named Air OK Tech-
nology Private Limited comes as a beacon of hope. It brings in innovation which can be
torchbearer for great societal impact and engages technology that can make clean air
an affordable reality to people across the planet.
28. CRION TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED
Founders: Karthik Pondugola & Rahul Karpurapu (IITM alumni)
In an era marked by automation and artificial intelligence, manufacturing industries
have been in the throes of utter change. And to navigate this change, Crion Technologies
Private Limited has been endeavouring to develop virtual based solutions to help manu-
facturing industries perform better. The startup banks on the concept of technology as-
sisted augmented workforce where the workforce is skilled as per demand and works on
a multiple platforms of technology ranging from android and windows to screens, touch
terminals and image projectors.
29. MGH LABS PRIVATE LIMITED
Founder: Muthukumar P, Hemachandra B & Gokul R (IIT Alumni)
The most deadly animal in the world is the mosquito. It might seem impossible that
something so miniscule can kill so many people, but it’s true. According to the World
Health Organization, mosquito bites result in the deaths of more than 1 million people
every year. The major diseases caused by mosquito bite have been malaria and dengue.
To combat this menace, MGH Labs came up with a unique solution of BogOrchid. Bogor-
chid is an intelligent machine that attracts, traps & kills mosquitoes naturally. The Bo-
gochid extract in the machine uses multiple attracting factors to lure the mosquito then
traps them in a suffocation chamber and kills them naturally. The startling feature of this
device is that it kills the mosquito naturally while other methods do it by temperature or
chemicals etc.
30. DIGAS PRIVATE LIMITED
Founder: Madhup Shukla, Dr. Anjan Chakravorty, Dr. Boby George, Dr. Pradeep Sarvepalli
& Dr. Soumendra Kuiry (IITM Alumnus, MS 2016 and IITM Faculty members)
DIGas Private Limited is floated to address the problems of the energy sector and more
specifically, it is into building LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) related automated system
and instruments. This startup was kickstarted by a very talented team consisiting of
professors and students. Each member of the team were responsible for one or the other
aspects of the technology employed in the startup.
31. TORQ
Torq was cofounded by 2nd year Undergraduates Manu John, Harishankar Pradeep and
Binu George. It is a cycle sharing service which aims to reduce the wastage associated
with each new student buying a new cycle, and help students who do not have a cycle, or
who’s cycle is out of order.
The company charges Rs. 2 per 10 minutes on the cycle, and have 30 cycles stationed
across the campus.
32. POSTINC
PostInc integrates two flourishing new fields: freelancing and graphic design. They a
group of IIT Madras undergraduates with a passion for cultivating the growing power and
indispensability of graphic design and UI/UX design. Their first step is an online poster
store featuring quirky posters for homes, offices and restaurants, supplied by the grow-
ing online design community. They plan to grow into a full-fledged online freelance plat-
form, where graphic designers all over the country can find and meet design require-
ments. They feel that the world needs graphic designers as much as it needs developers,
and design is the next big thing.
33. INVOLVE
Founded by Divanshu Kumar, a 4th year Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate, Involve
is a Peer Teaching based initiative which uses the potential of students to improve the
quality of learning. It trains senior students in their formative years of age 12-16 to teach
and mentor their juniors. They partner with low-income private schools to implement our
model. Their innovation lies in the way they train senior students (our educators) using
our state of the art training modules to maintain the efficiency of learning. They struc-
ture our own content, which adds to their quality. As per reports, the out of pocket expen-
diture on education of children in India has increased by around 12.5 times over the last
decade. Their teaching methodology costs at least 4 times less and promises the same
efficiency which will help middle-class parents afford quality education for their child.