 "The IIT that has given birth to a number of successful start-ups")
What does customer engagement software maker Capillary Technologies have in common with math app Splashmath, used vehicles marketplace Gozoomo, and logistics provider Roadrunnr?
All of them are technology start-ups doing well in their playing fields, scaling up fast, raising money, and growing user bases or clientele. That apart, the founders of these successful start-ups are alumni of the same engineering college – Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP).
The initial sparks of entrepreneurship lit up inside these founders when they were students at IIT-KGP, toying with tech ideas, and building enduring friendships.
“What really got the entrepreneurship buzz going was the success of seniors we had seen closely. Specifically, three start-ups which emerged during 2008 to 2012 made a lot of KGPians [the alumni of IIT-KGP call themselves this] curious: Capillary, Splashmath, and Minekey. Their success inspired a lot of people,” Arnav Kumar, co-founder, Gozoomo tells Tech in Asia.
He points out that IIT-KGP offers a lot of disciplines that most other IITs don’t: agricultural engineering, medical sciences, architecture, energy, economics, and so on, besides the usual engineering courses. “This bodes well for KGP since some of the most exciting innovations are interdisciplinary in nature – think IoT, wearables, medical technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and so on,” he says.
IIT-KGP was one of the first colleges in India to have an entrepreneurship cell. It was established to encourage and support students who dream of founding a start-up, and it’s entirely student-run. So far, in the eight years since the cell’s inception, it has incubated 50 student start-ups.
The cell also runs a series of contests, events, and workshops to reach out to colleges in India, find students with brilliant ideas, and attempt to nurture those ideas into potentials businesses. Last week, the cell kicked off a global business model competition, named “Empresario.”
