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As deep-tech demand burgeons, can scientists make lab-to-market pivot?
The global deep tech market is projected to be worth $714.6 billion by 2031.
The government and academic institutions are setting up accelerators to turn science into startups. Is it right to ask academicians to start a business?
For decades, there was this image of scientists – geniuses living in their laboratory, working with beakers and lab rats, lost in their own world. For centuries, science was based on patronage – of governments and businesses. But this image is quickly changing thanks to emerging technologies such as AI, robotics, quantum computing, space and biotechnology.
The global deep tech market is projected to be worth $714.6 billion by 2031. That’s a huge business opportunity and it requires scientists from physics, engineering, biology and computer science to develop businesses and products.
“Faculty and their students are in the best position to do deep tech startups as they know the field very well,” agrees Dr Arindam Ghosh, professor in department of Physics at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) who was the conference chair at the recently concluded Quantum India conference in Bengaluru and has founded multiple startups. Faculty and their students have a bigger picture of the field, a potential solution and even the technical know-how to develop a product.
“My PhD helped me find new ideas and techniques to build my products,” says Manoj Gopalkrishnan, an associate professor at IIT Bombay and founder of Algorithmic Biologics, a startup building a molecular computing solution. Gopalkrishnan worked in molecular computing for many years before and developed a method that increased efficiency in detection. This is what he’s building right now – a way to improve the cost, scale and accuracy of molecular testing in genetics so we can do better, faster diagnostics and discover new drugs. Alongside, he’s also involved in his academic duties. “It’s essential that more scientists build science startups as they are well positioned to come up with unique solutions and have a deep knowledge of techniques,” says Gopalkrishnan. After all, it was scientists who invented and commercialised telephones, computer chips, cellphones and even the internet.
Stepping out of their comfort zone
One of the things that historically made academicians hesitate was they lacked the know-how of a business and a robust ecosystem to give them the courage to try. The Indian government is trying to change this in recent years. India’s union cabinet approved ₹1 lakh crore to catalyse research and innovation across deep technologies from robotics to quantum computing and space. In the next five years, this money is going to be distributed through research parks and academic councils to fund startups and encourage more collaboration between academia and business.
And the results are already stepping into the business world. It was the IIT Madras’s Incubation Cell that helped build Ather Energy into an approximately $3 billion company. Founders Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain have regularly credited the cell for technology and business mentoring to build their company. Currently the IITM cell holds a portfolio of more than 500 startups and has just launched its own venture capital fund to seed and provide mentorship to deep-tech startups. IIT Bombay has supported more than 200 startups while IISc’s incubation cell, the Foundation for Science, Innovation and Development (FSID) currently has 95 startups working on AI, quantum computing, robotics and biotech.
In pursuit of papers or business?
Business might need academicians, but if professors leave to build companies, what happens to the future of science research? Deep tech faculty is often highly specialised in AI, quantum physics or biotechnology. Their absence from academia can pose a problem for future research and education in the area. Who will guide new students if faculty is busy building businesses?
When scientists come out of the lab to build products, they face real-world problems, leading to better research in their future. This stimulates academic activity and brings innovation that might better our society, says Gopalkrishnan. “Engaging with business forces the scientist to come face-to-face with real problems, leading to better science.”
However, Ghosh at IISc, cautions that there needs to be strong regulations at the institutional level to make sure that the faculty doesn’t abuse their academic position while building a company. “In IISc for example, we can only work on a startup for 10% of our time. The rest 90% has to be given to academic responsibilities like committees and teaching.” Like other academic institutions across the world, IISc offers longer sabbatical or leave to those interested in building a startup – but they have to return to their departments within a year or so. With this kind of a balance of vigilance and opportunity, both the startup ecosystem and the academic environment can potentially thrive, says Ghosh.
Science startups require a new mindset
Other than a supportive ecosystem, scientists require a mindset shift to do business. “Many scientists believe that money and knowledge can’t go together,” says Dr Sujay K Biswas, founder of Medinovare, a startup that received a biotechnology grant from the government to build diagnostics and drug delivery. It’s this mindset that makes researchers develop a product in their lab till a proof-of-concept but never take it into market. “Technology is meaningful only when it reaches the people who need it most, beyond the walls of laboratories and hospitals, so scientists need to become entrepreneurs,” he insists.
There’s definitely a challenge in stepping out of your comfort zone into a startup where your research doesn’t need to be perfect but it needs to work in the real world. Unlike the controlled setting of a laboratory, the business world is unpredictable and needs constantly change. When Dr Pridharshini Mani figured a new technology to clean water polluted with dyes, she didn’t have the heart to keep the technology in her laboratory. This led her to leave academia and start JSP Enviro to build wastewater treatment techniques for industrial areas. “Coming from Erode in Tamil Nadu, I’ve seen the negative effects of water pollution from textile,” she says. She channeled her lived experience and technical know-how to develop her products, but it’s been a massive learning curve for her. “Scientists don’t know business models, funding structures or how to interact with clients,” Mani explains, adding that she has to step back from working on a perfect product or process and think more on how the product will fit into the market that might want it.
Deep technology is like a human infant – its core technology needs years even decades of R&D to be developed into a commercially viable product to meet market needs. It takes patience, perseverance, capital and a commercial fit for a startup to work and a scientist can fail if one of these aren’t in place, says Mani.
