With a foundation stone laying ceremony, Aarambh Ventures today launched the construction of its iLab : An IITR – Aarambh Initiative at IIT Roorkee on October 19, 2016. It will set a benchmark for innovation and realize the vision of making IIT Roorkee, a truly cross – disciplinary research and innovation focused learning and development community by promoting cutting edge
discoveries.
Located in the Mohd. Hafiz Ibrahim Building, IIT Roorkee, iLab will promote the culture of breakthrough research, innovation & entrepreneurship amongst IITR alumni, students, faculty, project staff and R&D partners. The iLab, where the best minds from IITR can work together to deliver creative solutions to specific problems, will be fully equipped with a state-of-the-art infrastructure and 6,000 square feet of
collaborative work space.
Commenting on the significance of the iLab, IIT Roorkee Director, Prof. Pradipta Banerji said, “The establishment of iLab is in line with IITR’s commitment to generate global ventures through its focus on innovation. ”
Highlighting the opportunities that iLab brings in for the IITR students and alumni, Chairman, Aarambh Ventures, Mr. Pramod Saxena said, “iLab represents an opportunity to foster ideas that can create next generation of entrepreneurs at IITR campus. It’ll provide tools and resources to develop the ideas in customer centered and market relevant ways. ”
iLab will organize repository of skill-based workshop, sector specific events, business plan competitions, hackathons, seminar videos, competitions and guided tours to India‘s top venture capital funds, leading startups and corporates where participants will get to meet the team, see how the best companies function, interact and learn more about India’s best entrepreneurship stories.
“iLab resonates three pillars viz technology, business innovation & design, of Aarambh Ventures. With our focus on these three pillars, it becomes more apparent that we need a space that provides an opportunity to work differently. Sometimes, that’s enough to cause you think in an innovative way, ” said Vivek Kaushik, CEO, Aarambh ventures.
Aarambh Ventures is an innovation & design driven startup accelerator, founded by Mr. Pramod Saxena, an IIT Roorkee alumnus (Batch ’75) and Chairman, Oxigen Services (I) Pvt. Ltd. Aarambh’s facility in Gurgaon has an office area of approx. 10,000 sqft with state of art working space, conference rooms and other amenities.
The accelerator provides office space, mentoring and where possible even funding to
select startups. It mainly focuses upon startups that are at an early traction stage, within 6-12 months of starting up and have not raised money.