Starburst will provide mentorship, international links and funding to startups.
Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Mumbai has collaborated with European aerospace, new space and defence (ASD) accelerator, Starburst, for boosting aerospace and defence startups in India. Their resources and expertise could reshape the ASD startup ecosystem.
This partnership aims to strengthen the ASD startup ecosystem in India, leveraging Starburst’s resources and deep industry knowledge and IIM’s management. Starburst will provide mentorship, international links and funding to startups. It will connect them to corporate investors and the government as well. They will provide investment consultancy and help in strategic growth.
IIM Mumbai will be the conducting institution for this. Its role will be to offer a conducive environment for entrepreneurship within the innovative ASD sector. This collaboration will catalyse the process of turning innovation into successful businesses.
Indian government (GoI) has been making efforts for indigenisation of defence technology and has introduced several measures and schemes for the same. GoI regularly updates the list of defence components that can’t be imported which means they have to be developed here. For this, GoI introduced the Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) programme in 2018 with a budget of around ₹500 Crore. It is aimed at providing funds to 300 defence tech startups from 2021-22 to 2025-26.
Starburst is a European ASD startup accelerator and strategic advisor. It provides acceleration consultation and ventures to the ASD startups and claims to be the world’s first and only global aerospace accelerator, connecting startups with corporates, investors and government, while providing strategic growth and investment consulting services for all. The company has a portfolio of 140+ startups, 20 accelerator programs, and 2 active venture funds.
