These Indian Start-ups are Disrupting the Biotechnology Sector Several global companies have aggressively joined hands with Indian ones due to India's strong generic biotechnology potential
By Nidhi Singh
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The future of biotechnology is exceptionally bright, but in India it's still an emerging field.
According to an IBEF report, India's biotech sector has attracted a significant amount of attention over the past two decades. Several global companies have aggressively joined hands with Indian ones due to India's strong generic biotechnology potential.
Biotechnology is a technology that involves the use of living organisms. It is mainly used in agriculture, food science, and medicine.
Living organisms are used to make useful chemicals and products or to perform an industrial task. The research-based subject requires high-tech equipment, infrastructure, scientific workforce, and laboratories to create well-trained professionals for the industry.
Many start-ups are now investing in the biotech space. New-age entrepreneurs are not hesitant in starting business in the sector because of increasing government's focus and investments.
Entrepreneur India lists out three start-ups working in the biotech sector:
Pandorum Technologies: Founded in 2011 by academic entrepreneurs, Pandorum Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is a Bangalore-based biotechnology company with a focus on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. With its distinct synergy of life science, engineering and clinical competencies, the company designs and manufactures three-dimensional functional human tissues that are intended for medical research and therapeutics. The start-up founded by Tuhin Bhowmick, Arun Chandru, believes in the development and dissemination of high-end innovations aimed at addressing the most important challenges in healthcare.
Sea6 Energy: Bengaluru-based start-up Sea6 Energy focuses on the development of bio-fuels from the seaweed. It aims to derive ethanol fuel from seaweed (particularly red seaweed) that can replace non-renewable energy sources, commonly derived from fossil fuels.
Founded by IIT-Madras alumni Nelson Vadassery, Sailaja Nori, Sowmya Balendiran, and Sayash Kumar, the start-up believes that seaweed can replace fossil fuels and other types of green fuels in a way that is both sustainable and good for the environment. On 31 January 2012, Sea6 Energy signed a deal with Danish biotech company Novozymes. The goal of the partnership is to facilitate the conversion of seaweed carbohydrates into sugars that can be used to produce ethanol.
Ganit Labs: Another Bengaluru-based biotech start-up Ganit Labs is working in the area of Genome Science and use Bioinformatics and Computational Biology tools to solve scientific problems. The start-up is interested in solving biological problems that involve Big Data and Integrated Analysis.
Founded by Binay Panda in 2011, it is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership initiative between the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology and Strand Life Sciences, both in Bengaluru. The main idea of the start-up is to solve fundamental scientific problems by conducting experiments using real-time PCR, DNA microarray, and next-generation sequencing equipment along with analyzing and interpreting high-throughput data coming out from these instruments.
