Building entrepreneurs

The Manipal Universal Technology Business Incubator, in collaboration with the government of Karnataka, has established incubators for nurturing an ecosystem of entrepreneurship to encourage tech startups.

Inauguration of the bio-incubator at Manipal.

Operational since March 2010, the Manipal Universal Technology Business Incubator (MUTBI), an initiative of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), assists students, faculty, alumni and the people of coastal Karnataka to start their own ventures in line with the social objectives of the Government of India. Supported by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), the Department of Science and Technology (DoST), MUTBI seeks to help the over 15,000 students who graduate every year from various MAHE campuses, many of who dream of becoming entrepreneurs. MUTBI offers mentoring services during the first three critical years of a startup. It also provides resources and arranges for funds from various agencies, and facilitates marketing, financial, legal and other support services. It has also been established with a view to boosting networking among academic and R&D institutions, industries and financial institutions.

MUTBI seeks to provide seed funding for feasible ideas/products/proposals; arrange infrastructure resources to incubate startups; facilitate market surveys, product marketing, patenting, financial and legal services; and arrange for funding from external agencies, angel investors and venture capitalists. The thrust areas of MUTBI are information technology, health care, medical devices, agriculture, renewable energy, energy conversion systems and nanotechnology.

Manipal-Government of Karnataka Bioincubator

The Manipal-Government of Karnataka Bioincubator (Technology Business Incubator, TBI), established at Manipal in Jan uary 2019, is a joint venture between MAHE and the Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services. Recognised by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, the TBI, which has dedicated and shared laboratories, incubation facilities, offices, central instrumentation facilities and tissue culture facility, promotes technology-based innovations for the development of knowledge-based enterprises with a successful business model. The TBI is a “K-tech Innovation” hub established at MAHE’s Advanced Research Centre. This bioincubator invites applications for technology-based startups and creates job opportunities. It provides world-class facilities, infrastructure and services to startups of various domains such as biopharma, biomedical devices, dental innovation, biotechnology, health care and diagnostics. Bioincubator programmes are open for all innovators across the globe and have various partial/virtual incubation programmes. The TBI facilitates various services in technology management, intellectual property (IP) management, technology transfer, business plan development, prototype development, refinement, fund/grants support assistance and market evaluation of innovative technology ideas. The bioincubator proposes to provide a network of third party professional service providers for accounting, IP, legal, corporate, regulatory and other managerial expertise based on the incubates’ requirements. Membership programmes of the bioincubator are especially designed to aid novices/students. MAHE supports incubates with mentors and medical experts, an animal house facility, biobank and medical facilities, clinical trial supports and a library.

Currently, the bioincubator, with support from the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), assists innovators and startups through various schemes and programmes. It facilitates the requirement of funding through seed money, available with MUTBI and MAHE. Further, it provides guidance on how to apply for various grants from government agencies. Currently, the bioincubator has four incubates including health care and biotech.

To become an incubate, anyone with an innovative idea can walk into the bioincubator or visit the website: http://bioincubator.manipal.edu/ and download the incubation application or visit http://bioincubator.manipal.edu/InvitingApplications. Expressions of interest will be monitored by the expert committee, which will then invite the applicant for pitching sessions followed by selection for incubation. Based on the readiness of the technology, applicants will have the liberty to select pre-incubation programmes with rigorous mentoring sessions or directly start with their proof of concept/validation/trials/commercialisation incubation.