Posted by New Delhi: Nasscom has announced the second edition of its Deep Tech Mentoring program – Deep Tech Club (DTC) 2.0.
With the focus on startups, the Deep Tech Mentoring program aims to nurturing and promoting Indian deep tech products. DTC features startups that are enabled by AI, ML, AR, VR, IoT, Robotics, Blockchain, NLP, and similar technologies.
The role of DTC program is of a catalyst in empowering India-based deep technology startups. And connect them with industry leaders, investors, academia, researchers and government regulators.
Nasscom DTC 2.0 is a 3-stage program designed to scale the impact to over 1000 Indian deep tech companies.
Nasscom DTC’s in the first stage has formed partnerships with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), Japan and Dallas VC, USA.
On the domestic front, Nasscom has partnered with Intel, Cisco Launchpad, NetApp, IIT-Kanpur, Sine (IIT-B), T-Hub and Zinnov. The program aims to increase the number of partnerships in stage 2 accelerating the growth of the Indian DeepTech ecosystem.
“With the advent of hyper-digitalization in the next normal, we expect a higher integration of AI, ML, AR, VR, IoT, Robotics, Blockchain, NLP and similar technologies. The startup ecosystem of our country is strong and robust and is already ahead in solving many global challenges,” said Debjani Ghosh, President – Nasscom.
“We hope through this second part of DTC we catalyze empowering pioneers in India and connect them with industry leaders, investors, academia, researchers, and government regulators to establish a global deep tech ecosystem that brings a physical and digital transformation,” added Ghosh.
As of 2020, more than 2,100 Indian startups have adopted deep technologies, up from 1,600 in 2019. There has been a rise in deep tech startups funding, as investors’ interest in niche products and platforms has increased significantly.
Over 14% of the total startup investments was in deep tech ventures in 2020 – an 11% higher than in 2019. Up to 87% of these investments were in AI/ML startups in 2020. The Nasscom and Zinnov study highlights that deep tech will continue to grow at a CAGR of 40-45% in 2021.
The DTC first edition saw four cohorts of 78 companies with a 7% acceptance ratio, through 1150+ hours personalized mentoring and 2000+ industry connects via 6 Deep Tech Confluences. Over the years DTC has helped companies raise $70 million and has brought the deep tech startups from the lab to market-ready global ground.
“Deep tech ecosystem will play a critical role in marching towards a trillion-dollar digital economy. Having a strong and robust ecosystem comprising of academia, incubators/accelerators and enterprises will be absolutely critical. Nasscom Deeptech Club 2.0 aims to achieve that and am very happy to be part of the club and for 2.0 launch with our key partners,” said Anupam Saronwala, Lead- Deep Tech Club, Ex-Director – IBM Research.