Social Alpha launches mach33.Aero along with NRDC, NAL to nurture start-ups in aerospace engg

Tata Trusts-supported initiative Social Alpha, along with the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), on Wednesday announced the launch of mach33.Aero, an incubation platform to nurture start-ups in the aerospace engineering sector.

Mach33.Aero will develop a support ecosystem for nurturing start-ups in aerospace and allied engineering housed at a dedicated state-of-the-art centre at the CSIR-NAL campus in Bengaluru, with a vision to expand its reach to new geographies in the future, according to a statement.

Social Alpha's architecture integrates the innovation, incubation and investment ecosystems to support mission-driven founders throughout their 'lab-to-market' journey, according to the statement.

This new joint venture promises to offer a platform for industry, academia and government to promote innovation, indigenous manufacturing and a means to promote dual-use tech in agriculture, healthcare, climate change and natural resource management, among others, it said.

NRDC is an enterprise under the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research in the Ministry of Science and Technology, while NAL is part of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Mach33.Aero is set to be the first public-private partnership in India focused on accelerating innovations in aerospace, the statement said, adding that its focus will lie in the fields of aviation, defence, space exploration and climate action, among others.

"CSIR-NAL and Social Alpha have joined hands to promote innovations in aerospace engineering with wide ranging applications across aviation, defence, agriculture, and climate technologies.

"I hope a number of high impact and scalable solutions emerge from this initiative, creating a new wave of technology entrepreneurship in the country," the statement quoted Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata as saying.

Mach33.Aero's 'lab-to-market' model will act as a catalyst to accelerate innovations and entrepreneurship while promoting start-ups and SME's in sectors of national strategic importance, it added.

Mach33.Aero will leverage innovations to build solutions for some of our toughest challenges with the help of advanced systems and frontier technologies like robotics, AI/ML/data science, nanotech, material science, advanced manufacturing and cryogenics, it said.

Amit Rastogi, chairman and MD, NRDC, said: "As a JV (joint venture) partner of mach33.Aero, NRDC has forged strong links with the scientific and industrial community in India and abroad, and developed a wide network of research institutions, academia and industry and made formal arrangements with them for the commercialisation of the know-how developed."

With its expertise in establishing and successfully running start-ups, NRDC will support incubatees of mach33.Aero with professional services like IPRs search, analysis, filing, market survey, feasibility report, technical consultancy and expert advice, he added.

NAL Director Jitandra J Jadhav said, "In recent years, start-ups have been receiving increased attention in many parts of the world especially in the aerospace sector. With the emergence of start-ups backed by leading industries, the aerospace technology is propelling us into the future of transportation.

CSIR-NAL has developed many aerospace technologies that will be of interest to start-ups."

Shekhar C Mande, secretary of DSIR and director-general of CSIR, said this will catalyse, incubate and accelerate start-ups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) towards the Atmanirbhar Bharat in these sectors of national strategic importance.

Manoj Kumar, founder CEO of Social Alpha and chairperson of mach33.Aero, said: "mach33.Aero combines the aerospace research and engineering leadership of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), technology commercialisation prowess of NRDC and the venture development model of Social Alpha."