Our Story

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Innovation Space: Our Beginnings (1999 – 2008)

Prof. Sadagopan helped establish the International Institute of Information Technology, a Deemed University, popularly known as IIIT-B. The Institute is a registered not-for-profit society funded jointly by the Government of Karnataka and the IT industry. It was established in 1999 with a vision to contribute to the IT world by focusing on education and research, entrepreneurship and innovation.

During this time, startups setup their offices on campus in order to benefit from the wonderful & creative ambience.

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Innovation Centre: Seed Investor (2008 – 2012)

Prof. Rajagopalan later joined Prof. Sadagopan in establishing the IIIT-B Innovation Centre. Hosted within IIIT-B University Campus in Bangalore’s Electronics City, IIIT-B Innovation Centre is a hub for ICT4D research, innovation & entrepreneurship.

Incorporated in the year 2009 as a section-8 not-for-profit company, the major objectives of this company are:

  • To support and incubate new ventures from those outside IIITB which can realize a synergetic partnership with the Institute faculty and students
  • To promote commercialization of IP generated by faculty and students of the Institute – by incubating their ventures
  • To encourage Industry to set up RnD centers in which their staff can work closely with faculty and students of the Institute on joint RnD projects

As one of the STARTUP INCUBATION centers approved by Governments of India and Karnataka, IIIT-B Innovation Centre received and invested (pre-seed / seed) Government of India’s TIDE grants in innovative startups during this period. The startups that are chosen for investment offer solutions that are:

  • Non-Trivial: Not easily replicable – with sufficient barriers to entry
  • Novel: Not me too – Innovative in nature
  • Nifty: Can start generating revenue within 2-3 year time frame

Details about IIIT-B Innovation Centre are available at the following government websites: Startup India – List of Incubation Centres Supported by DSTDEITY-TIDEPrime Minister’s MyGov Initiative and Department of IT-BT, Karnataka.

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Innovation Centre: Incubator (2012 – 2014)

Mr. Jagadish became the first CEO of the Innovation Centre in 2012 and helped streamline the operations & seed-funding ativities of the Innovation Centre. By 2014, Innovation Centre had nurtured around 20+ startups and had invested in 7 startups (utilizing the grants received under the TIDE scheme of Government of India).

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IMACX (Since 2014)

As Innovation Centre’s activities gained momentum, Prof. Ramesh Sundararaman joined Mr. Jagadish’s team in 2014 to launch a Civic-Tech focused intiative named IMACX (IOT to Mobility Apps for Community Excellence).

Born out of Government of Karnataka’s Vision 2020 Initiative, IMACX was envisioned as an initiative that helps nurture startups that address the needs of our citizens, our communities and our governments through technology.

As part of this IMACX Initiative, early 2015, a Startup Accelerator IMACX Accelerator was launched to help civic-tech startups that focus on building socially-relevant solutions targeting healthcare, education, transportation, energy, governance and culture. Being a zero-fee, zero-equity, cohort-based, 100-day early-stage accelerator program, the IMACX Accelerator focused on startups that build solutions using cutting-edge technologies / business models. The accelerator helped accelerate more than 30+ startups till date.

Taking into account the strengths of IIITB Community, beginning 2017, IMACX also started facilitating Research-led Collaborative, Social Innovations. As part of this, technology solutions for the society are being built in collaboration with our like-minded partners (be it startups or otherwise). Such solutions also benefit from the ongoing research activities within IIIT-B (at its different centres including Centre for IT & Society, eHealth Research Centre, Cognitive Computing Centre of Excellene, Centre for Machine Intelligence & Robotics).

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Currently at IMACX, we: 

  • Help entrepreneurs & innovators build solutions in specific areas of technology focus for IMACX: IOT / Sensors, Mobile Apps, Analytics / Data Science and Connectivity
  • Cover various aspects of building ventures & solutions: purpose, problem, product development, platform strategy, data science, branding, revenue generation, fund raising & hiring
  • Execute prototype-stage investments in committed people and innovative & impactful firms
  • Conduct Demo Days to showcase Creations to Investors
  • Consult Government / Social organizations on technology deployments
  • Conduct RISE / Civic-Tech Summits & associated workshops
  • Conduct sessions on Leadership & Social Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Spirituality, etc.
  • Conduct Hackathons & Competitions that focus on addressing social challenges
  • Invite Social Leaders to share their viewpoints
  • Research on the impact of technology on society

Partners   |   Gallery

For further queries, Contact IIITB Office of Research(ORA) : ora@iiitb.ac.in

© 2021 IMACX / IIIT Bangalore