IIT Delhi's IHFC, Google to support 33 early stage startups on their AI journey

I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), Technology Innovation Hub of IIT Delhi, and Google for Startups have partnered to organise a three-day intensive bootcamp to support 33 early-stage startups on their Artificial Intelligence (AI) journey, the institute said on Saturday.

The programme aimed to help early-stage startups harness AI to address global challenges across sectors like healthcare, climate, agriculture, education, financial inclusion, and infrastructure.

The bootcamp, AI Academy India 2024 held this week, was also supported by MeitY Startup Hub. It welcomed 33 startups across Delhi NCR for hands-on training, expert mentorship, access to Google's AI technologies, access to up to $350,000 cloud credits, and the opportunity to network with the best of Google.

“Partnering with IHFC, TIH of IIT Delhi, on the first ever AI Academy programme has been a privilege. By supporting early-stage startups, we're together fostering innovation and addressing real-world problems. We look forward to continuing our partnership with IHFC on more such initiatives that enable startups to leverage AI," said Amit Kumar, Director, Digital Native Business, Google Cloud.

The participating startups also addressed diverse challenges: in education, with an AI-powered platform that transforms thoughts into fully interactive 3D simulations; in climate change, with building circularity in textile waste; in fintech, with AI-powered early fraud detection and risk management; and in healthcare, with detecting blood cancer at an early stage using AI/ML.

The bootcamp provided support to startups leveraging or looking to leverage AI with specialised resources, mentorships, training, and access to infrastructure around the Start, Build, Grow theme.

Across three days, the bootcamp discussed how to design human-centered, secure AI solutions through workshops on People + AI, Responsible AI, product design, building AI solutions using Google technologies, with hands-on workshops on generative AI, app development, and Web AI, along with technical mentoring and strategies for taking AI solutions to market, including AI-powered marketing, fundraising, storytelling, and growth-focused mentoring.

The bootcamp will also be held in six other cities across India in partnership with Kerala Startup Mission, IIMA Ventures, T-Hub, MATH, NSRCEL IIM Bangalore, SINE IIT Bombay, IIT Madras Incubation Cell along with Nasscom AI, and People+ai in December.

IHFC will provide incubation support and funding up to 50 lakhs to select startups from these cohorts.