IIT Madras launches Research Centre on Start-ups and Risk Financing

@Infodeaofficial

CHENNAI, 23 rd June 2021: Indian Institute of Technology Madras has launched a ‘Centre for
Research on Start-Ups and Risk Financing’ (CREST) to provide academic and thought
leadership in innovation, entrepreneurship and risk capital.
It would also create a unique world-class data repository on Indian start-ups and
ventures to address a major hurdle for engaging in high-quality research. This information
resource would be made accessible for researchers and policymakers that can result in top-tier
publications

With risk capital investment in Indian technology start-ups touching $68 Billion (₹4,76,000 crore
approx) in the period between 2011-20, academic research and thought leadership can play an
important role in sustaining and furthering this growth in entrepreneurship. Insights and
evidence from the rigorous academic research would support policy-making as well as increase
the effectiveness of managerial and investment decision-making in entrepreneurship.
Delivering the Inaugural Keynote Lecture of CREST on Tuesday (22nd June 2021) on
‘Cultivating societal trust can unlock India’s Entrepreneurial Potential,’ Prof. Tarun
Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School, said, “Entrepreneurs
with great ideas in developing countries cannot rely on the usual trust building foundations – law,
regulatory oversight, and government projects, as they might in the developed world. Assuming
the existence of these phantom factors predisposes ventures not to succeed at scale. Instead,
smart entrepreneurs in these countries need a mindset shift, focusing not only on creating but
also the conditions to create these.”

Further, Prof. Tarun Khanna said, “There is a need to build trust between Scientists and
business leaders. Amazing technology is coming out of the labs but the condition to get the
maximum out of such innovations is not there.”

The Vision of CREST include:
 To be globally recognized as a leading centre of research engaged in scholarly research
in the areas of creation, development, and financing of innovation, start-ups, and
entrepreneurship
 Cross country collaborative research, resulting in the use of unique data sets on start-
ups and venture capital that increases the chances of breakthrough findings

 Evidence synthesis on the start-up and innovation ecosystem to inform policymakers
and practitioners
Delivering the Presidential Remarks of the event, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT
Madras, said, “These research initiatives we (IIT Madras) are creating, almost all of them, have
very strong international collaborative connections. We are knitting together partnerships with
leading groups across the world. We want to have strong flow of people and ideas. We will have
the interactions in online mode till the pandemic gets over.”
The key mission of CREST would be to engage in scholarly research encompassing the areas
of innovation, entrepreneurship, and risk capital. The data repository being developed on
innovation, venturing and risk capital will create the infrastructure to carry out high-quality
research. The creation of entrepreneurship specific language models will facilitate a better
understanding of the entities in the ecosystem while facilitating the use of latest research in AI,
ML to generate new insights.
Providing an overview of CREST, Prof. A. Thillai Rajan, Principal Investigator, CREST, IIT
Madras, and Faculty, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, said, “The role of
higher education institutions in the area of start-ups and entrepreneurship is four-fold. The first
is the creation of intellectual property that can be commercialized through start-ups. The second
is to train for entrepreneurship through various formal and unstructured programs. The third is to
provide a nurturing environment for start-ups by setting up incubators and providing access to
various facilities to young start-ups. The fourth is to generate insights through rigorous research
that can inform and guide policy making and practice.”
Further, Prof. Thillai Rajan said, “While substantial progress has been achieved in the first
three, much needs to be done on the fourth. CREST is a big step in that direction. The timing
cannot be more apt. Start-ups have been playing a very critical role in different walks of life
during the pandemic period. Therefore, a research centre that helps to enhance the success of
start-ups through appropriate policy formulation or managerial decision making is even more
relevant now than even before.”
Prof. P. Krishna Prasanna, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, Dr. R.K. Amit,
Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, also spoke on the
occasion.
A confluence of factors has resulted in India becoming one of the key centres globally for start-
ups and innovation. Innovation, venturing, and entrepreneurship is getting increasing attention
from policymakers. These three areas of economic activity are expected to play a key role in the
journey to become a $5 Trillion economy apart from strengthening India’s position as an
innovation country.
Because of these, there has been a fillip to start-up activity in India. Formulation of start-up
policies, setting up of incubation centres, growth in investments and focus on entrepreneurship
in academic curricula have led to an increase in the number of start-ups.
CREST would also push for use of evidence to guide policymaking. CREST would synthesize
existing evidence as well as generate new evidence-based on unique data sets from
organizations in the start-up ecosystem such as incubators, investor networks, government

missions, and so on. Such grounded research can help to generate novel findings, that are
likely to interest high impact journals
The Current Projects and Studies of CREST include:
 Book Project – Shifting Orbits: Decoding the trajectory of the Indian Start-up Ecosystem
(Thillai Rajan A, IIT Madras, Srivardhini K. Jha, IIM Bangalore, Joffi Thomas, IIM
Kozhikode, Rohan Chinchwadkar, IIT Bombay)
 Research Studies–
o Role and Effect of Corporate Venture Capital Investments: Evidence from Indian
Corporations (Arushi Gupta, IIT Madras)
o Angel investors in India: Does the start-up stage matter? (A. Niroopa Rani, IIT
Madras)
o Performance of Start-up Incubators: Do host organizations matter? (Abhishek
Gupta, IIT Madras)
o Entrepreneurship at the Grass Roots: Challenges faced by Rural Women
Entrepreneurs of Tamil Nadu (Aarthi Ramachandran, IIT Madras)

ABOUT IIT MADRAS:
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an
‘Institute of National Importance.’ The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology
are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic
centres. The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc.,
M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations. IITM is a residential institute
with more than 580 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters
an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.
IITM has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’ Category for the second consecutive year in India Ranking
2020 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. The
Institute has also been ranked No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category in the same Rankings for
five consecutive years – 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. It was also adjudged as the ‘Top innovative
Institution’ in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019 and
2020. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education.