Monishi Sanyal, an IIT alumnus has launched a non-profit accelerator called ‘IIT Startups’ at the Bay Area in San Francisco, USA. The accelerator aims to support, motivate and provide mentorship to potential entrepreneurs, and to connect the IIT alumni in the Silicon Valley.
Sanyal, who was a B Tech graduate from IIT Madras and the Governor’s Gold medal Recipient in 1970, said, “This is the first step in our journey to build a world class accelerator. Our next steps are to run workshops, provide mentorship, incubation and connectivity to the 11,000 plus IIT community, advisors, angels and VCs in the Silicon Valley.”
It was realized that the IITians were technically very strong. Their weaknesses lay in fund raising and business development.
The launch event at the Computer History Museum, California was attended by about 400 IIT startups, angels, venture capitals and mentors. Sanyal hopes to collaborate with the IIT research parks in India in 2019 and move the plan forward.