India-based education services and technology provider CL Educate intends to invest Rs 300m ($4.2m) in startups affiliated to universities, the Economic Times has reported.
The company will provide roughly $7,000 to $70,000 for each university campus-based startup, unveiling its initial cohort of portfolio companies in March 2020. It will be allocated through open innovation platform Worldwide Academia Industry Network (Wain) Connect.
Formed in 2016, Wain Connect was formed to help startups collaborate with university and corporate partners. Its sponsors include Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, corporates General Electric and HP, and Tata-AIG, an insurance-focused alliance between conglomerate Tata and insurer AIG.
Wain Connect currently links some 75,000 innovators with 200 partners, providing expert seminars, hackathon contests and incubation schemes to help foster growth in markets across Asia, Africa and the Americas.
The initiative is expected to benefit further from the launch of an accelerator alongside the Wain fund, according to CL Educate chairman Satya Narayanan.