10 start-ups waiting to be funded

The start-ups were chosen by The Indus Entrepreneurs, as well as a jury of VCs, entrepreneurs, and faculty of IIM Bangalore, reports Tech in Asia

The media are full of stories about start-ups getting funded. But it’s equally important to bring to the limelight those that are yet to be discovered by the moneybags. Ten start-ups have been curated from hundreds, which are less than three years old and haven’t received any VC funding yet.

The Bengaluru chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) – a network of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley with roots in the Indus region – picked the 10 start-ups with help from a jury of VCs, successful entrepreneurs, and faculty of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. They will initially be mentored at an IIM bootcamp before getting coached by mentors from the TiE network.

The parameters for selecting the 10 fledgling start-ups was that they should have the potential to either be financially viable as profitable ventures or make a social impact with non-profit ventures. Here are the ones that made the cut:
 

BendFlex

Two doctorates from the premier Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore – Dr Ramnath Babu and Dr Santosh Bhargav – along with IIM grad Raghunath Babu, launched BendFlex this year, after developing its patent-pending technology in an IISc lab. It produces equipment for in-vitro fertilisation, such as micro-grippers for biological cells and bioreactors for cell culture. Currently, it is running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise $750,000 for procuring instruments and setting up the BendFlex lab. 
 

SuperText

SuperText provides a chat interface for a range of on-demand services, using both WhatsApp and its own app. ‘Conversational commerce’ has been catching on in India this year with the emergence of start-ups like Lookup, Niki, and JoeHukum.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.