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Business News/ Companies / Start-ups/  IIT Madras-incubated YNOS Venture Engine raises 75 lakh in seed funding
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IIT Madras-incubated YNOS Venture Engine raises ₹75 lakh in seed funding

Funds will be used to meet planned investments in technology and to strengthen product development

Thillai Rajan, Professor at IIT Madras.Premium
Thillai Rajan, Professor at IIT Madras.

BENGALURU : YNOS Venture Engine, a startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras Incubation Cell, co-founded by Thillai Rajan, Professor at IIT Madras, has raised 75 lakh in a seed funding round from angel investors. The funds will be used to meet planned investments in technology and to strengthen product development, a statement said.

Mahesh Ramachandran, Partner at Pontaq, a cross-border innovation fund, who has invested in his personal capacity, other investors and founder promoters participated in this round. IIT Madras Incubation Cell also joined the round as a part of its Seed Support Funding Scheme to its incubatees, the statement added.

YNOS Venture Engine's offerings use advanced data sciences techniques and market analytics to provide customized insights and recommendations to entrepreneurs.

Its technology platform provides solutions to address some of the major challenges faced by early stage entrepreneurs and innovators. The company's offerings help entrepreneurs identify potential investors, understand the startup landscape, estimate the valuation, and get access to scientific and technology expertise, the statement said. Many leading incubators in the country subscribe to the YNOS platform to support their incubatees, it said.

Platforms such as LetsVenture, AngelList, and Tracxn, offer support to startups in a variety of ways. These platforms offer startups access to research-based insights, market research information, help them create their profiles and review business plans, and connect entrepreneurs with investors, mentors and other founders.

Ramachandran, a serial entrepreneur-turned-investor, said he uses many of these startup platforms. "Investors and entrepreneurs will use multiple platforms. The transaction potential for many of these platforms, put together, would be around $4-5 billion," he said, over the phone.

He pointed out that such platforms should focus more on on the startups, in order to attract good investors. "A lot of platforms have got more investors, but the pipeline of startups are in the same domain.. tech-based or software domains. I want a broader base of companies to be able to access the capital. The YNOS platform may be able to provide that," he said.

YNOS, he added, also offers startups access to over 350 domain experts at IIT Madras and expert panels at IITs across India. It also helps them with valuation. "It is very difficult for a startup to understand what their valuation should be. It is an art as much as a science. The YNOS engine gives a range, which could be a starting point for a discussion with a potential investor," Ramachandran said.

Professor Rajan, who is also an Associate at the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, said, in the statement, “The funding would help us to accelerate our product development and introduce several new features to our existing offerings. Innovators, aspiring and early stage entrepreneurs face several problems leading to high mortality rates of start-ups that they create. YNOS offers various technology-driven solutions that help to increase the chances of success of start-ups and SMEs."

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Published: 23 Dec 2019, 07:37 PM IST
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