Imperial’s leading cleantech startups make connections during India Venture Trek

Imperial’s leading cleantech startups visited Bengaluru in India to pitch their climate and sustainability solutions.

The visit coincided with the launch of Imperial Global India* and was the latest trip as part of Imperial Enterprise Lab’s Venture Treks programme. 

The Venture Trek to India enabled some of Imperial's leading startup founders the opportunity to engage with the new Imperial Global India hub and take part in a series of meetings and events to gain vital skills for growing their business outside of the UK.

The pioneering startups took part in the "Climate Dialogues: Exploring Cross-Border Collaboration" event with NSRCEL, a startup hub at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. 

The event connected startup founders with investors, academics and policymakers to explore how cross-border collaboration can accelerate the impact of climate ideas and solutions. 

The new hub, Imperial Global India provides opportunity to co-create and learn from the entrepreneurs in India's fast-paced and rapidly expanding innovation community.   

Ben Mumby-Croft, Director of Entrepreneurship, said: “Our Venture Treks programme enables founders to build meaningful connections in India’s dynamic market. The Imperial Global India hub provides access to a rapidly growing market, making it an ideal launchpad for scaling businesses across Asia.” 

Nachiket Kulkarni, AVP Social Entrepreneurship at NSRCEL, said: "There are a lot of opportunities to start talking on verticals and themes like women entrepreneurship and climate entrepreneurship, especially in something like climate tech which is the need of the hour because we are seeing extreme weather events affecting both London and Bangalore. Solving problems in India can be scaled to cities in Europe such as London. Bangalore is a microcosm for solving such problems, especially in urban development and climate tech." 

Climate startups 

Biofonic have developed entirely new approaches to low-cost soil sensing for agricultural. Biofonic uses acoustic methods to monitor soil health, with a focus on soil biology. Recent scientific understanding points to the crucial role of soil biology in plant growth, plant resilience, resource use, ecosystem health, and climate regulation. 

Guerilla is a device that extracts contaminants passively using no membranes, moving parts or electricity and operates at high flow rates and high efficiency, while fitting into the current maintenance regime of cities. 

Agave Networks is an online platform helping suppliers and buyers of scrap metal to engage in international trade openly and securely thanks to our immutable digital passports sharing technology. 

Permia Sensing introduces precision farming to palm plantations to enable growers to move from traditional practices (labour intensive, inaccurate) to a data driven approach with the use of satellites, sensors, AI, IoT and robotics. 

Air Aware Labs offers personalised air pollution insights to reduce exposure and improve health by providing low-pollution routes under a mobile app (AirTrack). Real-time, hyper-local air quality modelling, combined with our proprietary software and algorithms, deliver unique, global air quality data, empowering individuals to make informed decisions and protect their health. 

Imperial Global India 

Imperial Global India, builds on longstanding links between the university and partners in India and will drive UK-India partnerships in science, technology and innovation.  

The hub – established as a Liaison Office – will focus on strengthening and co-creating new partnerships between Imperial and leading universities and institutes in India, act as a communication channel to form closer ties with industry and policymakers, and provide a platform for greater collaboration in innovation between India and the UK. 

Venture Treks  

The Venture Trek programme is designed to give Imperial founders the opportunity to visit global startup hubs and take part in a series of meetings and events to gain vital skills for growing their business outside of the UK.  

Following a first successful Venture Trek to San Francisco, the programme has visited Ghana, Singapore and India. 

To find out more about this year’s Venture Treks and how to apply for future trips, visit Imperial Enterprise Lab. 

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* Pending the completion of regulatory formalities to be able to set up our own liaison office, Imperial Global India will initially be managed by a service provider duly appointed by Imperial College London.   

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Pictured (second picture)

Sridhar Pabbisetty - Mentor, NSRCEL,  Akshay Joshi - Senior Program Manager, Climate Centre of Excellence, NSRCEL, Ben Mumby-Croft, Director of Entrepreneurship, Imperial, Nihal Choudyal - Lead Climate Centre of Excellence, NSRCEL, Nikki Kelly, Operations Manager at Imperial Enterprise Lab, Nachiket Kulkarni – AVP, Social Entrepreneurship, NSRCEL, Shriyam Yagnik - Assistant Manager, NSRCEL, Dr Elena Dieckmann, Academic Co-Director of Imperial Global India, Parvathy A - Program Associate, NSRCEL.