Tag: seed funding

Intern Hiring Startup ‘Cuvette Tech’ raised $180, 000 in seed funding round

Intern hiring startup, Cuvette Tech, founded by Atul Singhal (2020 graduate, Electrical Department, IIT KGP) and Sudhanshu Singh (2019 graduate, Electrical Department, IIT KGP) has raised $180, 000 in a seed round of funding. The investment is led by Titan Capital, Varun Alagh, co-founder and chief executive officer, Mamaearth; Harish Daiya, co-founder Lumenci and other marquee angel investors.

“A feather added to their cap! The students have proved their mettle and made us proud with their incredible performance and achievements. It has been manifested that consistent dedicated hard work, perseverance and self-belief are the key mantras for success in any walk of life”, said Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, the Director of IIT Kharagpur. 

The Bengaluru based startup, Cuvette Tech (https://cuvette.tech/) is a platform to connect student software developers with companies on a full- time and part-time internship basis. Atul & Sudhanshu started their company right from their dorm room at RK Hall (Radha Krishnan Hall of Residence, IIT KGP).

Atul Singhal said, “First of all, we would like to extend our deep gratitude to Prof Bhaskar Bhowmick from Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship (RMSoEE) for supporting and mentoring us since our stay at campus. Additionally, we are sincerely thankful to IIT Kharagpur for providing us with the opportunities, that we would have never found anywhere else as well as for motivating us in order to understand the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation effectively. We believe that internships are the best way to connect a company and a student. Through our platform, students can do multiple internships and can get a chance to work with various companies all around the world. The learnings & exposures which a student can get through our platform are unparalleled”.  

Within 10 months of its inception, Cuvette Tech has managed to engage more than 600 companies from India, Singapore, Dubai and the USA. It has students from more than 150 engineering colleges pan India.

“We would use the funds to build our core team and develop the product. We will be working on creating an awareness about the importance of software development skills among the students and help them connect with multiple startups around the globe to get good industry exposure”, added Sudhanshu Singh.

(Inputs from Ms. Rituparna Chakraborty, Branding Executive)

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004

 

 

 

STEP towards Innovation Drive

IIT Kharagpur has been among the firsts to build industrial parks within an academic setup, in the country. While the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) was set up within and in the vicinity of the IIT Kharagpur campus, a Research Park has also been built in Kolkata to set up industrial laboratories involving researchers from IIT Kharagpur. STEP is aimed at encouraging and nurturing students to launch their startups through incubation facilities.

Recently Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur in the context of mobile application development by Indian companies, has been vocal about start-up ecosystem in technical institutions. While keeping his faith on STEP IIT Kharagpur he  can lead the initiative through seed funding and incubation facility.

Prof. Siddhartha Das, the newly appointed Managing Director of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park, shares his insights regarding STEP towards this end.

  • How STEP has been providing incubation support to startups? 

The Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur sprawls over 20,000 sq.ft. of incubation space which is made available to startups for incubation. While fully constructed laboratory facilities are available, mobile laboratories for conducting experiments have been developed too. Further the Park is equipped with conference space for brainstorming and collaboration. 

Apart from space for R&D and operations, STEP performs few critical functions which are essential for startups:

i) Seed Funding

ii) Intellectual Property and other techno-legal requirements

iii) Business operations Advisory

i) Seed Funding – Seed funding is one of the most important aspects of a start-up and for a company incubated at STEP, the following seed loans are provided: (a) Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Seed Loan, (b) Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS) Seed Loan, (c) Technology Development Board (TDB) Seed Loan and (d) Technology Incubation & Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Seed Loan. 

The seed loan amount ranges from ₹ 2 – 25 Lakh per start-up depending on the budget for the technology commercialization and business operations.

ii) Intellectual Property and Techno-legal requirements – Offering support in acquiring intellectual property rights is another important function of STEP. The unit collaborates with the law school of IIT Kharagpur, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, towards conducting seminars and workshops round the year and educating entrepreneurs in techno-legal matters. Further, the IPR office of the Institute facilitates filing of IP and registration.

iii) Marketing and Business Operations – Now, probably the most important part of a business is marketing because that is what introduces the product to the world. STEP has been seeking expertise from one of the top most business schools in India as ranked by MHRD’s NIRF – Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM). Not only its presence on the campus, but VGSOM is known for its innovative practices, focus on research and industrial consultancy, educational outreach, which make it just the right partner for STEP to enrich the marketing experience of the startups incubated at the Park. The faculty experts from VGSOM conduct lectures, seminars and discussion forums to train startups towards managing business operations efficiently and marketing of the products developed by them.

  • Who can apply for incubating their startup ideas under STEP?

A key factor for STEP is its inclusiveness. The unit is open to any technology-based start-up with the legal status to register and operate in India irrespective of whether they are associated with the Institute or not. It enables STEP to not only invite the 750+ faculty or 60000+ alumni worldwide or the current students, but also any Indian with the ambition to innovate new technologies. Furthermore, STEP is in the process of starting collaboration with MSMEs across the eastern region for entrepreneurship development. To promote technical advisory and networking it is also collaborating with various chambers of commerce and capital rich industries.

  • Will there be any special drive for developing mobile applications?

Our Director Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari has affirmed that the incubation facilities at various technical institutions in India are capable of leading such drives. STEP IIT Kharagpur, indeed can emerge as a beacon because of our existing system of incubation through infrastructure, operational support and seed funding. STEP can boast of a decent record in terms of incubation. The total no. of companies incubated till date are 200 out of which 183 companies have graduated and 17 are being mentored.

In the current situation, it is quite important that useful mobile applications and services are designed and operated in India. The Director has already mentioned planning for a drive to call for submission of proposals for mobile application development which can be sponsored by the Institute. If the technologies developed are market worthy or for the B2B industry, then STEP would certainly step into the process to incubate them into startups for future use by India.