i2india Holdings Ltd., a company jointly promoted by Tata Sons and Imperial Innovations Plc. of UK among others, will invest over Rs 40 crore in the next few months to create commercial value from IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) in India.
Deepam Mishra, Chief Executive Officer of i2india Ventures says they are mainly focused on the IP arising from a range of Indian research institutes, universities, research organisations and corporations. The firm is looking for patents in health care and clean-tech.
“We are interested in enzyme technology, genetic modification and bio fuels, which these have huge market potential. It is a relation of part-ownership with these institutes. What we are trying to do is to get people and research together to further prove the idea.,” said Mishra.
Typically, i2india would pick up around 30-40 percent stake in a company for its efforts. In terms of revenue while i2india takes 20-60 percent of it, the employees or entrepreneurs would get 20-30 percent and the scientist would get the rest. Revenue sharing also depends on technology as those such as drug molecules are very difficult to sell in the market.
i2india had raised $3.09 million as a seed capital from individual investors like DS Brar, Chairman of GVK Biosciences Ltd,. Donal Peck of Actis India, Graham Wrigley ex-senior partner of Permira and Tata Sons. i2india is the Indian arm of UK's Imperial Innovations Group Plc, a company based out of Imperial College London and listed in the Alternative Investment Market of London Stock Exchange. Imperial Innovations, which has equity holdings in 74 technology businesses, holds 35 per cent stake in i2india.
Susan Searle, CEO of Imperial Innovations, is on board of i2india as a director alongside Chris Mathias, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Conduit Communications, a software and web development company.
Besides its business plan, the firm the experience of its parent company, Imperial Innovations in the UK, will also help it pave its way in India. Imperial Innovations is a publicly traded intellectual property commercialization company, with a market cap of $400 million (Rs1,928 crore).