Biotech projects incubated in India's first DIY Lab and Bioincubator

Biotech projects incubated in India’s first DIY Bio Lab and Bioincubator at BioRiiDL showcase their projects to compete for funding.

After the successful launch of tech start-ups incubated at RiiDL, Somaiya Vidyavihar launched BioRiiDL an incubation cell for biotechnology start-ups and a DIY bio lab. BioRiiDL aims to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship in various aspects of Bio Technology.

To encourage and support this initiative Bio RiiDL has set up DIY BIO LAB, a space where biologists can come, execute their ideas and innovate, even after completion of their studies, they can come and work on their own projects and a bioincubator where potential projects can be taken into the market.

The BioRiiDL will facilitate 100 students in the first year.

This is the first DIY Bio lab in India, students will have access to mentoring from Scientists and Experts, access to investors via RiiDL, a chance to become a part of global discussion biologist group.

Applications for the bio-incubator are accepted year round. A screening committee evaluates the applications on several criteria—technical merit, proof of expertise, economic viability, funding and compatibility with the incubator. Selected start-ups are provided lab and office space, high-end equipment, scale-up facilities, technical support and centralised utilities for process development to help the innovators mature their ideas and attain commercialization

The first Bio-entrepreneurship Incubation Program by BioRiiDL announced in May 2017, received 33 applications from across India including Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bhopal and Mumbai. 12 Teams formed from these applications participated in a pitch competition. From these 12 teams, 5 teams were selected and given the opportunity to pitch for the final incubation. These teams were also given the opportunity to interact with mentors.  These mentors helped them to formulate their idea realistically.

The winner’s will be incubated at BioRiiDL Labs for next 6 months.

Five shortlisted start-ups were given 7 minutes each to present their ideas to a panel of biotech experts and investors to win funding and further access to the BioRiiDL Labs. After their pitch, the start-ups had to answer questions raised by the biotech experts and investors present.

Supported by funding from Somaiya Vidyavihar, 

The first prize was won by Team INDRA

Name of the Founders - Krunal Patel, and Amrit Om Nayak

College/Institute Name – K.J.Somaiya College of Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering

Department - Mechanical

Post Graduation - University Of Washington, University of Washington

Name of the start-up - INDRA (Water recycling with monitoring & analytics)

Short Description - Indra provides onsite wastewater recycling & reuse backed by Industry first smart data monitoring and analytics platform. Their patent pending design is compact, scalable, cost-effective and measurable. It is capable of removing a variety of pollutants including suspended solids, organics, dissolved heavy metals, emulsified oils, superbug pathogens and other toxic pollutants. Applications range from waste water recycling at commercial & domestic facilities to treatment and reuse of industrial process water.

Impact on the society - Increasing water scarcity and higher water costs make it mandatory for all facilities to implement water management provisions, and by implementing this solution, people and businesses would not only be saving water but would also have monetary benefits.

2nd Prize winners

Name of the Founders - Dipeshsingh Rajpurohit and Bhavik Mehta

College/ Institute Name – VIT University,Vellore and Chetna institute,Bandra

Department – Biotechnology

Name of the start-up - Jalparivartan - Jalparivartan

Transforming Water recycling

Description: Developing a novel microbial consortium and immobilized enzymes for Waste water treatment

Rapid industrialization and urbanization over the past many decades has resulted in contamination of all the components of the environment that is the air, the food, the soils and most importantly water. Every day about 62000 Million liters of sewage gets generated of which only about 20000 million liters gets treated. Even out of this, almost 40% is not treated up to the mark and ends up in the oceans or fresh water reserves contaminating them. This will lead to a situation very difficult to deal with if not taken care of now. The miniscule amount of sewage treatment at present suggests a large gap to be filled in. One of the major reasons for this is the inefficiency of the treatment plants in achieving the desired quality of water as suggested by the Pollution control board (PCB).These Sewage treatment plants are not up to the mark in treating the complex sewage generated across the country.

Bio augmentation is generally an option of choice to achieve the desired quality. Now, what is bio augmentation? It is the addition of pollutant-degrading microorganisms to augment the biodegradative capacity of indigenous microbial populations. However, bio augmentation to be successful requires a careful screening and optimization to attain a perfect mix of strains that help achieve the desired quality. While there are few players in the market who offer microbial consortia hardly there are any companies offering enzymatic solutions.

Jalparivartan aims to provide an innovative bio solution consisting of screened microbial strains with high degradation capacity coupled with a strong blend of enzymes immobilized in a very specific design helping achieve the desired level of waste water treatment in a most cost effective way.

3rd Prize winner - It was a tie between 2 teams, please find the team details below.

Name of the Founders – Sulakshana and Khushbu 

College/ Institute Name – KJ Somaiya college of Science and Commerce and JNTU Hyderabad

Department – Biotechnology

Name of the start-up- Nutri Bread

Short description: NutriBread is diabetic friendly bread which contains non diabetic ingredients and can be helpful in reducing sugar level in blood. It also has sprinklers which is an anti-diabetic in nature that improves the taste and maintains the sugar level.

And

Name of the Founders – Jalak Rawal and Param Rawal

College/ Institute Name – Mumbai University and Bhagubai College

Department – Biomedical Engineering and Diploma in Computer Science

Name of the start-up: Fally - future of healthy eating

Short description:-  Fally is modernized app which suggest you everyday food recipe and meals as per your body type it also helps you in grocery shopping and ordering healthy foods.