Birmingham City University (BCU) hosted 20 start-ups from India earlier this month as part of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) visit to the UK. The visit was an opportunity for them to network, find out more about business development and potential funding opportunities in the UK.
Posted 15 November 2022
BCU hosted 20 companies from India earlier this month as part of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) visit to the UK.
Head of Growth and Incubation Richard Scutt, Professor of Digital Technology Cham Athwal and Senior Development Manager Martin Weston hosted the Indian start-ups, which had come to the UK to learn more about business development and to create networks with academics for future India-UK funding calls.
The event took place in STEAMhouse, where the Indian start-ups were formally welcomed by CEBE Associate Dean Professor Huseyin Seker. They were then taken on a tour of the STEAMhouse facilities including the artist and prototyping spaces, incubator/accelerator, corporate floor and teaching space.
The tour was followed by a networking lunch, which included investors and mentors to open up the possibilities for growth in the UK for the firms.
Professor Cham Athwal, Martin Weston and Associate Professor in Business Dr Shishank Shishank discussed partnerships with academics and gave insights into support mechanisms and incentives, schemes, funding and mentoring available across a range of sectors such as deeptech, hardware, agritech, logistics, smart factories and legaltech.
Some of the Indian start-ups saw STEAMhouse as a potential base for targeting their UK customers.
Richard Scutt said: "We are delighted to have hosted an array of companies from India who are on their start-up journey of developing their business. BCU has a strategic focus on India – and our STEAMhouse building is the perfect platform for constructing a living bridge between the UK and India."
