Mumbai: On Wednesday 3rd Oct 2018, the State announced grants for 16 incubation centres across Maharashtra. The objective of the initiative was to promote entrepreneurship in the state and provide them with a start-up ecosystem. Only three education institutions were selected from Mumbai. Somaiya RiiDL (Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory) Foundation, an initiative of Somaiya Vidyavihar was selected from the city. The other two institutions selected for the grant are NEERI & Mumbai University.

Somaiya RiiDl has been sanctioned a grant capital of Rs 5 crore by Maharashtra State Innovation Society, Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of Maharashtra.

Since its inception in 2010, RIIDL has incubated more than 70 Start-ups and receives an average of 2-3 start-up applications per week.

RIIDL has identified healthcare, food, agritech, embedded electronics and SMAC as the sectors of focus.

The funds received, will be used to scale up the existing incubation facilities and other expenses to support and develop the start-ups.

Somaiya RiiDL incubation Centre was developed to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship amongst students and other innovators. Several incubated companies have evolved and are working as independent organisations. Being on the campus the students get access to experts across subjects, guidance from professors and a safe environment to develop their ideas.

On receiving the grant, Gaurang Shetty, Chief Innovation Catalyst said “I believe that this grant will help us surpass our own limits and help us accelerate and scale our efforts to help innovators and start-up founders. We have been trying our best to create a community of innovators through our Maker Mela platform, which eventually becomes a pipeline for our incubation program. This support will help us to reach, grassroots innovators/entrepreneurs. “If you learn and work to surpass yourself quickly, things will start changing for you.’

About Somaiya Riidl (Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory):-Research Innovation Incubation Design Lab (Riidl) was set up in the year 2010 by Somaiya Vidyavihar on its Mumbai campus. It was created to drive innovation & entrepreneurship and currently facilitates 39,000 students and 1500 faculty in the campus. In, 2014 Riidl was affiliated to the Centre for Bits and Atoms (MIT USA) as a Fablab (now a Fablab Node in India) and in 2016 with support from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Riidl became a Technology Business Incubator. The incubator operates through an autonomous not-for-profit entity model. Riidl comprises of Somaiya Vidyavihar faculty, alumni and partners with like-minded organisations to promote innovations in healthcare, machine learning & artificial intelligence, education. Riidl also helps in setting up labs & innovation centres at other places. The Incubator helps entrepreneurs to convert their ideas into becoming successful and profitable ventures by supporting them in business Planning, mentoring, recruiting their top team, commercialising their technologies, developing their products, getting early engagement and customer validations from the market, getting early-stage seed funding, help in forging partnership at the national and global level, advice on intellectual property, training and development and many other things.

About Somaiya Vidyavihar: (www.somaiya.edu) Padmabhushan Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya founded Somaiya Vidyavihar an education trust in 1959, to provide quality holistic education. It was founded on the belief that, education is an important pillar of nation-building with the power to change lives, and education must innovate to encourage the holistic development of youth. It is known as much for its Science, Technology, Engineering, Management, Social Sciences and Commerce programs, as for its programs for academic studies in various faiths and cultures of India. Somaiya Vidyavihar fosters a start-up ecosystem that encourages multi-disciplinary collaboration, accelerates innovation, and cultivates the next generation of start-up leaders. Somaiya Vidyavihar encompasses 34 institutions, with more than 39,000 students and 1,500 faculty. Its main campus is in Mumbai, but Somaiya Vidyavihar also operates six schools in rural India i.e. in Dahanu, Sakarwadi, Laxmiwadi, Kopargaon, Sameerwadi, Kutch, Bagalkot and Bhopal.