NASSCOM launches Deep Tech Club (DTC) 2.0
In an effort to boost India’s tech start-up ecosystem, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), has announced Deep Tech Club (DTC) 2.0; the second edition for its DeepTech Mentoring program, an initiative to nurture and promote Indian DeepTech products solving global problems. DTC finds world-changing start-ups that are enabled by AI, ML, AR, VR, IoT, Robotics, Blockchain, NLP, and similar technologies. The central focus of the DTC program is to act as a catalyst in empowering pioneers in India-based deep technology startups and connect them with industry leaders, investors, academia, researchers, and government regulators to establish a global deep tech ecosystem impacting physical and digital transformation.
With the vision of enabling India’s digital & social transformation and empowerment through innovation in deeptech and making India a World Leader in Deep Tech products, NASSCOM DTC 2.0 is a 3-stage program pioneered towards scaling the impact to over 1000 Indian DeepTech Companies.
To achieve this, in its first stage NASSCOM DTC has formed exclusive partnerships on the global front with Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR), Japan and Dallas VC, USA. On the domestic front, NASSCOM has partnered with industry and academia leaders including Intel, Cisco Launchpad, NetApp, IIT-Kanpur, Sine (IIT-B), T-Hub and ZINNOV. The program aims to drastically increase the number of partnerships in stage 2 accelerating the growth of the Indian DeepTech ecosystem.
Talking about the launch of DTC 2.0, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said, “With the advent of hyper-digitalization in the next normal, we expect a higher integration of AI, ML, AR, VR, IoT, Robotics, Blockchain, NLP and similar technologies. The start-up ecosystem of our country is strong and robust and is already ahead in solving many global challenges. In this era of digital, it is essential for these start-ups to continue to digitalize and integrate deep technologies in order to constantly evolve and be globally competitive. We hope through this second part of DTC we catalyze empowering pioneers in India and connect them with industry leaders, investors, academia, researchers, and government regulators to establish a global deep tech ecosystem that brings a physical and digital transformation.”
As of 2020, more than 2,100 Indian startups have adopted deep technologies, up from 1,600 in 2019. There has been a spurt in deep tech startups funding, as investor interest in niche products and platforms has increased significantly, resulting in over 14% of the total Startup investments in deep-tech ventures in 2020 which is 11% higher than in 2019. Up to 87% of these investments were in AI/ML startups in 2020. The NASSCOM and ZINNOV study highlights that deeptech will continue to grow at a CAGR of 40-45% in 2021.
Driving an impact-driven agenda in its first edition of four cohorts of 78 companies with a 7% acceptance ratio, and through 1150+ Hrs personalized mentoring, 2000+ industry connects via 6 DeepTech Confluences, DTC inspired corporate and Investor led accelerators to focus on deep tech; building first of its kind support mechanism for deep tech companies (Mentoring coupled with Enterprise and Investor connect). Over the years DTC has helped companies raise $70 million and has brought the deep tech Startup companies from the lab to market-ready global ground.
NASSCOM has always focused on cutting-edge technological advances with DeepTech Club focusing on and involving Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), AR/VR, Robotics, Blockchain, NLP, and similar technologies. DTC offers mentoring, nurturing, and thriving opportunities to its member companies and trains them to be more innovative, robust, and agile. The Startup companies at DTC have experienced strategic transformation through industry-led confluences, conferences, and networking events with the presence of global partners and leaders.
Speaking on the launch, Anupam Saronwala, lead- DeepTech Club, Ex Director at IBM Research said, Deeptech ecosystem will play a critical role in marching towards trillion dollar digital economy. Having a strong and robust ecosystem comprising of academia, incubators/accelerators and enterprises will be absolutely critical. NASSCOM Deeptech Club 2.0 aims to achieve and am very happy to be part of the club and for 2.0 launch with our key partners!
NASSCOM DeepTech Club started when no program or efforts was being made in India to create, support, and sustain the development of DeepTech Ecosystem and it will continue to support emerging technology start-ups and provide a platform to promising deep-tech startups to explore, innovate, scale and solve for challenges of the future.
