IIT-Madras Joins Hands With Samunnati Foundation To Promote Indian Agritech Start-Ups

Chennai: IIT-Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) in association with Samunnati Foundation will promote innovative technologies in agriculture and allied areas in India. Samunnati Foundation is a non-profit subsidiary of Samunnati Financial Intermediation and Services Private Limited.

An MoU has been signed by the two organisations to encourage agritech start-ups to increase farmer incomes, reduce waste and encourage sustainable agriculture.

Both organisations will provide incubation support/facilities for entrepreneurial ventures, prepare position papers and propose policy recommendations through this collaboration.

Founder, and CEO, Samunnati, Anilkumar SG, shared his views on the association. “We as a country are witnessing a buoyancy in entrepreneurial energy, especially in agriculture. It is heartening to see several youngsters from IIT/IIMs taking up entrepreneurship in agriculture. We also see a lot of private capital flowing into these young start-ups,” Anilkumar SG was quoted as saying by India Today.

“Being an eco-system player, Samunnati aims to nurture this entrepreneurial energy by collaborating with premier institutions to incubate, nurture and scale these ideas which can transform the agri space in this country with focus on the small holder farmer. We are excited about this partnership with IIT Madras Incubation Cell, which has been the cradle for many deep tech and social startups that have scaled successfully. With IITMIC focusing on agriculture, we are confident that the eco-system will see a huge fillip to start-ups in agriculture,” he added.

President, IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) and IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, said, “This partnership focusses on encouraging innovative technologies in agriculture and allied areas. We will work together in developing the ecosystem necessary to support entrepreneurs, and jointly incubate start-ups in this space. This partnership will offer mentoring support for product development, advisory services, networking for business development, training, funding assistance, and technological support and will focus on strengthening the agricultural entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

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