UST Joins Hands with IIT Madras Incubation Cell to Boost Healthcare Innovation
- UST partners with IIT Madras Incubation Cell to drive innovation in healthcare and life sciences.
- Pharma 4.0 launched, supporting startups with mentorship, funding, and go-to-market guidance.
- Top winners Nucleo-Vir, ChemBioSens, LN Infosphere receive cash awards and conditional funding up to Rs 45 lakh.
UST, a leading AI and technology transformation solutions company, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, and research-driven solutions in the healthcare and life sciences sector. The partnership aims to create a collaborative framework that drives high-impact innovation through joint programs, engagement with incubated startups, and strategic industry partnerships.
The MoU establishes a structured yet flexible approach to identify high-potential startups, provide mentorship, and offer targeted funding. It also supports startups in expanding pilot projects, validating proof-of-concepts, forming strategic collaborations, and creating go-to-market opportunities. By combining UST’s global reach and industry expertise with IITMIC’s strong incubation ecosystem, the partnership seeks to accelerate the development of scalable, research-driven solutions.
A key milestone under this collaboration was the Pitch to Win: Pharma 4.0 Edition, conducted jointly by UST and IITMIC, with Pfizer as Knowledge Partner and AWS as Technology Partner. The innovation challenge received over 90 applications from 32 cities across India, reflecting the growing momentum of the country’s healthcare and life sciences startup ecosystem. The top ten finalists received a month of mentorship from UST before presenting their solutions to a distinguished jury at IITMIC, Chennai.
The winners of the challenge were Nucleo-Vir Therapeutics (Winner), ChemBioSens (First Runner-Up), and LN Infosphere Tech Transformers (Second Runner-Up). They were awarded cash prizes of Rs 1,25,000, Rs 75,000, and Rs 50,000 respectively. Additionally, UST will provide conditional funding of up to Rs 45 lakh, along with strategic go-to-market support for the winning startups.
Manu Gopinath, President of UST, highlighted the importance of the collaboration, stating, “With IITMIC’s proven incubation ecosystem and access to cutting-edge research, we are not just backing startups; we are nurturing bold founders, accelerating research-driven ideas, and building a strong pipeline of solutions that can transform businesses, communities, and society at large. By combining IITMIC’s innovation capabilities with UST’s global reach and mentorship, we are creating a scalable platform to bring next-generation technologies from the lab to the market”.
Dr Tamaswati Ghosh, CEO of IITMIC, added, “This partnership with UST reflects our shared vision to advance India’s deep-tech innovation landscape, particularly in healthcare and life sciences. Initiatives like Pitch to Win: Pharma 4.0 help nurture high-potential startups while building bridges between academia, industry, and investors to scale impactful solutions that can improve lives globally”.
This partnership underscores UST’s commitment to advancing research-driven innovation and entrepreneurship, leveraging global expertise to accelerate Life Sciences 4.0 solutions in India.
