Indian Angel Network (IAN), the world’s largest angel network, on August 8 said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) to invest into biotechnology startups and bring the ecosystem together to promote biotech industry in India.

“This partnership brings the biotechnology startups closer to angel investors, who apart from money will provide invaluable mentoring and global market access,” IAN said in a statement.

BIRAC, a public sector undertaking of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), provides funding for research on projects and early stage startups, addressing nationally-relevant product development needs in life-sciences.

“We hope that the 500 startups that BIRAC has supported can leverage this partnership, especially IAN’s expansive network, to move to the next level and bring cutting edge products and solutions for national and global challenges,” said Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology and Managing Director of BIRAC.

According to the latest research data by IBEF, India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and ranks third in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Indian biotech industry holds about 2 per cent share in the global biotech space and is expected to be valued at USD 11.6 billion in 2017.

Despite a huge market potential, biotech entrepreneurs face challenges like accessing capital and high-end infrastructure like labs and animal testing centres.

“The Indian Biotechnology industry breeds very innovative technologies with the potential to have a high impact on our citizens. However, these are usually long gestation investments. Over the years, IAN has promoted and nurtured ground-breaking technology startups in India bringing in patent money. We are delighted to partner with BIRAC. Indian biotech companies surely have the potential to go global and IAN could well bring a catalytic effect to these ventures.”

IAN has over 450 angel investors as its members across the world with over 130-odd companies, spanning across 17 sectors, 7 countries. IAN has already invested in several biotech startups like Vitas Pharma and Transcell, which are also BIRAC supported companies.

BIRAC is playing an important role in the implementation and delivery of the flagship programmes of the Indian government, especially ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-up India’ and has a crucial role in the transformation of the Indian Bio economy to USD 100 billion by 2025.

Source: Money Control