Novo Informatics receives emerging company award from Karnataka Govt

Novo Informatics (NI), a company that develops biological software for academic and pharmaceutical companies in the life sciences sector, has been awarded the Emerging Company of the Year 2014 in the bioinformatics category by the Government of Karnataka.
 
Novo Informatics leverages on the long standing SCFBio (Super Computing Facility for Bioinformatics & Computational Biology, IIT-Delhi) tradition of producing state-of-the-art technologies for research communities and pharmaceutical companies in order to smooth line the whole process of drug discovery. NI aims at developing an innovative models that aims to address a today’s challenge in combating widespread diseases and simultaneously which can cut down cost and time in delivering molecules to the market as faster pace. Built on its R&D pipeline, one stop solution, new innovations, Novo Informatics also provides a comprehensive portfolio of services in computational drug discovery which can be effectively integrated in research objectives & operations.
 
Supported by the Biotech Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) funding scheme, Novo Informatics was one of five start-ups selected to attend the University of Cambridge Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning’s Ignite programme at Cambridge Judge Business School in 2013.
 
Sahil Kapoor, Director and Co-founder, said, “We received the Asia Pacific Emerging Company of the Year in 2013 and have been working on preparing our product for global release in July 2014. We were delighted to get this further award which acknowledges our progress. Biotech entrepreneurship is booming in India and initiatives created by BIRAC and the Department of Biotechnology are supporting biotech & healthcare start-ups across the country. The whole ecosystem has given us confidence and enabled us to mature and develop as a business.”
 
Kapoor attended the Ignite programme for tech entrepreneurs and innovators in Cambridge as a result of the partnership between the Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning and BIRAC. His aim was to look at streamlining the offering, ie a mix of technologies that help researchers to discover molecules for diversified protein targets, into a one stop product solution - Inventus - for customers at an affordable price with competitive advantage.
 
Kapoor said, “Ignite came with an ecosystem of innovators that I have never experienced before. I was able to network with CEOs and CTOs from various companies in and around Cambridge in a really short period of time. I gained a better understanding of the international market, ways of doing partnerships and how international product strategies are developed before launch. This has influenced our approach to business development and marketing the product.”
 
Since Ignite, Novo Informatics has won business from global pharmaceutical companies and raised seed funding from Kilitch Drugs (India) Ltd. The focus is now on the global product launch in July 2014 but the company also has plans to establish a small scale experimental lab to enable in-house R&D.   
 
Yupar Myint, Ignite Programme Director, commented, “It is wonderful to hear of the continuing success of one of our alumni ventures and demonstrates the impact of our partnership with BIRAC on Indian biotech innovation.”