Starburst Accelerator SARL is looking to create venture capital funds for ASD technology, a powerful engine to drive the transformation of India’s economy and its integration with global stakeholders. This partnership will enable export promotion and provide support for Indian ASD startups to explore international markets through the extensive network of Starburst.
An MoU towards this collaboration was signed at IIT-Madras campus on Monday by François Chopard, founder and CEO, Starburst Aerospace, Cedric Vallet, innovation and venture director, Starburst Aerospace, and Prof V Kamakoti, director, IIT-Madras, Prof Manu Santhanam, Dean (ICSR), IIT-Madras.
An MoU was signed on Monday by François Chopard, founder and CEO, Starburst Aerospace, Cedric Vallet, Innovation and Venture Director, Starburst Aerospace and V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras and Manu Santhanam, dean (ICSR), IIT Madras, the statement added.
“We together aim at creating a robust ASD ecosystem that supports innovation in deeptech and the production in India, to meet the future challenges of aerospace, new space and defence worldwide players,” said Chopard.
V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said, “Encouraging young entrepreneurs is extremely important as we embark on our journey to become a multi-trillion economy. To this effect, reputed higher educational institutions must aspire to nurture future employers than employees. In this context, such collaborations with accelerators to nurture startups in critical and emerging sectors are crucial and timely.”With offices in Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, Singapore, Seoul, Tel Aviv, and Madrid, Starburst has built an ecosystem of key players with 17,000+ startups in its network.A key focus of this partnership will be on entrepreneurs, research parks, investors (public and private), Government, and corporate firms. The aim is to create innovative startups and help them grow rapidly to work in tandem with future aerospace and new space worldwide programmes.
Starburst will create a consulting team that can be composed of IIT-Madras alumni and experienced military officers besides ASD managers and senior consultants from Starburst offices to help start-ups scale up in their growth journey. This programme will provide access to entrepreneurs and innovators, drive new technologies, business ideas, and models, and boost the Indian aerospace and defence innovation ecosystem. It will also allow startups and entrepreneurs to explore synergies and avenues of collaboration with Industry, Government, and beyond besides guiding them towards rapid implementation and global commercialization.
Structured programmes will be created by combining academic knowledge with practical startup guidance, including workshops, seminars, and mentoring sessions for Indian Start-up clusters and research and innovative projects. Starburst will provide startups with business tools to grow and scale businesses in aerospace and defence to become future suppliers. These measures will also help start-ups attract external capital, de-risk investments and accelerate development.
(With inputs from TOI)
