• Velmenni’s LiFi Leap: The Final Push to Market?

    Velmenni, founded in 2014, was India’s first start-up company to venture into the realm of light communication and carry out research and development for commercializing light fidelity (LiFi) technology. After overcoming various technological and market hurdles, Velmenni had been able to make a few advancements by deploying pilot products with potential customers. However, the company lacked a continuous source of revenue. At this critical juncture when Velmenni was making progress with customers and feeling hopeful of getting substantial funding, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Investors who had committed funds didn’t move forward and Solanki lost most of his team members. The chief executive officer now faced the critical question of Velmenni’s very existence. Asking the team members to leave and selling the technology (licensing or assigning it to someone else) would provide him some cash as well as time to think about his next move. But should he instead restructure the team and get more paid pilot projects, to increase the chances of commercialization and investment?
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  • WRCB, IIT Bombay: Commercializing Deep-Tech Innovation

    The Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering (WRCB) at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), established in 2014 with support from the Wadhwani Foundation, entered its transformative second phase after a successful initial five years. With over 40 professors from nine departments involved, WRCB’s phase one had yielded 316 publications and 38 patent applications and spawned two entrepreneurial ventures. Heading phase two were Debjani Paul, the professor in charge, and Abdur Rub, the chief executive officer, who were focused on propelling deep-tech research toward commercialization. As the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided in late 2021, Paul and Rub looked toward the future with new hope and clear goal: to enable academic researchers to secure follow-on funding crucial for sustaining momentum beyond WRCB’s initial catalytic support. This initiative aimed to cement WRCB’s status as a global leader in bioengineering translational research, bridging academia and industry to overcome funding gaps and nurture innovation in a dynamic academic setting.
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