Nineteen startups and five student team innovators won top honours at the 7th edition of C-CAMP- BIRAC National Bio Entrepreneurship Competition 2024—a launchpad for science-driven ideas to address challenges in healthcare, agriculture, and environment.
The edition saw over 3,300 registrations from across 33 states and UTs, with more than 400 entries from Karnataka alone.
Of the winners, 10 startups received funding ranging between Rs 2-8 lakh from various sponsors, and 15 will get investment opportunities worth $100,000. The total amount in cash prize and investment opportunities was over Rs 15 crore.
The student-led teams secured Rs 10 lakh in cash prizes across various awards presented at the Grand Finale.
Biocombinator announced an investment in four selected startups for up to Rs 4 crore. However, the recipients are yet to be announced.
Selected winners are also set to receive mentorship through partnerships with industry leaders.
“Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) projects that India’s biotechnology sector could skyrocket to a 100 billion dollar industry within the next decade. Karnataka’s bioeconomy has been leading transformational growth. In 2021 we were valued at close to $21 billion and in 2023, valued at $31 billion. The total base of startups in the biotechnology sector has crossed 1,000 in 2023,” said Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT/BT and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Karnataka government.
“Agribio is valued at about $1.2 billion, in bio services around $5.1 billion, bioindustrial at $12.1 billion and biopharma at around $12.6 billion,” the minister added. Mysuru has also contributed around $2.8 billion to the sector, he noted.
The talk also addressed India’s target of approximately $300 billion for bioeconomy from the current $151 billion. Karnataka also accounts for about one-fifth of this. “At the current rate, we would grow to $70 billion by 2030 and at a rate of 19% annually,” said Kharge.
“CCAMP has been at the heart of Bengaluru’s bio-entrepreneurship ecosystem, supporting and nurturing young entrepreneurs to innovate, incubate, and drive change. The NBEC cohort will not only foster innovative solutions but also contribute to economic growth, create jobs, and elevate India’s presence in the global market,” he added.
Some of the challenges the selected startups addressed include cancer screening and therapeutics, AI-powered data analytics, rapid diagnostics, biofuels, biopolymers and clean technology, agriculture, aquaculture, and water and sanitation including wastewater treatment.
“Saw a lot of collaborative initiatives from research labs…But did not see a lot of collaborative efforts from commercial organisations and things emanating from existing institutions which were promoting incubations and venture opportunities with large corporations and large companies within India. That is a challenge that we have seen that R&D within corporations and large organisations is very scarce,” said Prashanth Prakash, Chairman, Karnataka’s Startup Vision Group and Partner at Accel Partners.
He expects a 10X improvement in the field concerning innovations and entrepreneurial aspirations five years from now.
The criteria for shortlisting the 22 finalists from 62 pre-finalist startups was based on novelty, scalability, and business potential parameters.
The jury team was chaired by Prakash, and experts from NBEC 2024 partners WIN Foundation, Novonesis, Anthem Biosciences, Mahyco, Aurigene, Loreal Research and Innovation, Social Alpha, Indian Angel Network & Bio angels, IIMA Ventures, Accel, Molecular Connections, Biocon, Biocon Biologics, Syngene, Synapses, and Biocombinator.
“Karnataka being the IT capital of India is well poised to be the melting pot where IT and BT [biotechnology] converge to solve problems, not only existing but future ones such as biosecurity,” said Dr Vijay Chandru, Advisor, Karnataka State Council on S&T and Co-founder, Strand Life Sciences.
“Karnataka has a thriving biotech startup ecosystem. Last year, the state saw an 11% growth in the bioeconomy. We also recently released a report on bioeconomy and last year we had 202 new ventures registered in the biotech sector alone. Healthtech, agritech, clean energy, sustainability we see a lot of innovations happening,” said Dr Ekroop Caur, IAS, Secretary, Dept of IT-BT and S&T, Karnataka government.
The first edition saw the incubation of 50 startups, and the second edition foresees 85 startups. Additionally, about 30% of Elevate winners are from the biotech domain.
The winners of the competition include startups Genoscope, OpenMed Lab, BacAlt Biosciences, Gowriz Skincare, Sand Bird, COSMOS BIO Pvt Ltd., Individual Category, Trucan Diagnostics Pvt Ltd., CisGEN Biotech Discoveries Pvt Ltd., Caldor Health Technologies, CrisprBits, GrepBio Datalab Pvt Ltd, Instanutrients India Pvt Ltd, REVY Environmental Solutions, Inovaugmet Research Pvt Ltd, Xpredict Automation Solutions Pvt Ltd., Medinovation Research and Consultancy, NaisBrain Pvt Ltd, and Satyarx Pharma Innovatios Pvt Ltd.
The student teams were affiliated to institutions such as the College of Agriculture, Dharwad; BITS Pilani, Hyderabad; IISc, Bengaluru; NIPER, Mohali; and IIT, Guwahati.
“Many similar competitions exist but what makes NBEC stand out is its sector-agnostic approach, openness to partners, sponsors and Venture Capitalists, and to bright ideas irrespective of affiliation and background. This is why we are seeing an amplification of the true spirit of entrepreneurship in the biosciences from all across India and across students, researchers, clinicians, scientists, innovators, startups and even MSMEs,” said Dr Taslimarif Saiyed, CEO and Director, C-CAMP.
The event also saw the launch of Karnataka-Startup Advancement Programme (K-SAP) Phase 2 which aims to advance Karnataka’s bio-startups for global impact. The programme offers curated workshops, networking events, and international partner forums among others.
