NASSCOM’s Product Council Announced the Second Batch of The Deeptech Club

As part of its efforts to encourage the niche industries and ensure they flourish, the Product Council has introduced the second batch of the NASSCOM DeepTech Club. This is a program intended to promote the creation and evolution of world class DeepTech companies which have been identified and will be recognized, nurtured and promoted by NASSCOM through their various programs, platforms and events. There were initially 22 companies that benefitted from this program for 3-months and they each received 1:1 mentoring, connects and exposure to enterprises, investors and the global ecosystem.

NASSCOM has always focused on cutting edge technological advances. DeepTech would involve working with artificial intelligence, machine learning, immersive technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality, robotics, natural language processing and similar such other technologies. DeepTech is a futuristic area and requires a lot more attention as compared to a conventional tech startup. Resources and expertise need to be provided to DeepTech startups in both the theoretical knowhow and their practical handholding to ensure their success.

The second batch of the DeepTech Club includes a very diverse set of companies that have amalgamated multiple deep technology areas such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, immersive technologies, Internet of Things, computer vision and quantum computing and have built phenomenal use cases for several verticals including healthcare, manufacturing, marketing and customer experiences, cyber security, public safety, transport infrastructure, eGovernance, etc.

The program was conceptualised by Mr Subinder Khurana, MD, Sage Accelerator and member of the NASSCOM Product Council and is now co-led by Mr Milind Hanchinmani, Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, Developer Relations, Intel Technologies and member, NASSCOM Product Council and Anupam Saronwala, mentor and advisor to many startups and former Country Leader, Business Development of IBM Research under aegis of NASSCOM Product Council. The program is chaired by Mr Atul Batra, CTO, Manthan systems.

Expressing his delight on the development, Mr. Milind Hanchinmani, Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, Developer Relations at Intel Technologies and Member, NASSCOM Product Council, said, “It was fantastic experience working with a diverse set of companies and such unique and innovative technologies and more than that it was an amazing learning experience interacting with the founders themselves. It is going to be an exciting phase for startups in India over the next 5 years and we will continue to engage with them and be part of this journey!”

Sharing her thoughts, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said, “Prowess in deep tech and artificial intelligence will be one of the main drivers of economic competitiveness in the near future and deep tech startups will drive innovation & spearhead the broad structural transformation of the economy. The DeepTech Club reaffirms efforts in evangelizing and mentoring India’s latent, untapped talent in emerging technologies.  We will continue its drive towards catalysing deep tech start-ups, build category leaders and support start-ups to create not only for India but also scale up and solve for the world.” 

Speaking on the occasion, Anupam Saronwala, mentor and advisor to many startups and former Country Leader, Business Development of IBM Research under aegis of NASSCOM Product Council said, “I am delighted to engage with innovative companies that are leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to build products for global markets.  It is an excellent initiative by the NASSCOM Deep Tech Club to engage mentors who share their rich experience and mentor startups by strengthening their technology offerings, shaping go-to-market strategies and sharpening their fund-raising proposals.  We have had key successes with the first batch of companies and are looking forward to launching the next batch of 22 deep-tech startups.”

Speaking on the occasion Subinder Khurana MD, Sage Accelerator and member of the NASSCOM Product Council has found the Deeptech Club to be an enriching experience for himself and said, “It has been such a pleasure working with bright and enthusiastic founders working on innovative solutions. I learn about new technology developments in every interaction. Engaging with the startups and watching them progress rapidly has been a very satisfying experience.”