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    Tata Trusts-backed Social Alpha sets up aerospace accelerator and incubation platform

    Synopsis

    mach33.aero is set to be the first Public-Private Partnership in India focused on accelerating innovations in Aerospace.

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    This new joint venture promises to offer a platform for industry, academia and government to promote innovation, indigenous manufacturing and a means to promote dual use tech in a number of sectors.
    Social Alpha, an initiative supported by Tata Trusts, along with the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a constituent of the Council of Scientific and Industrial research (CSIR), on Wednesday announced the launch of mach33.aero.

    mach33.aero is set to be the first Public-Private Partnership in India focused on accelerating innovations in Aerospace. mach33.aero will develop a support eco-system for nurturing start-ups in aerospace and allied engineering housed at a dedicated state-of-the-art centre in the CSIR-NAL campus in Bangalore, with a vision to expand its reach to new geographies in the future.

    Speaking on the launch, Ratan N Tata, Chairman -Tata Trusts said in a statement, “I hope a number of high impact and scalable solutions emerge from this initiative, creating a new wave of technology entrepreneurship in the country.”

    mach33.aero’s focus will lie in the fields of aviation, defence, space exploration and climate action among others. Its “lab-to-market” model will act as a catalyst to accelerate innovations and entrepreneurship while promoting start-ups and SME’s in sectors of national strategic importance. mach33.aero will leverage innovations to build solutions for some of our toughest challenges with the help of advanced systems and frontier technologies like Robotics, AI/ML/Data Science, Nanotech, Material Science, Advanced Manufacturing, Cryogenics etc.

    Amit Rastogi, Chairman and MD, NRDC said, “NRDC has concluded more than 5000 technology license agreements to large number of small and medium scale industries paving the way for the success of indigenous technologies and creation of wealth. With its expertise in establishing and successfully running the start-ups, NRDC will support incubatees of mach33.aero with professional services like IPRs search, analysis, filing, market survey, feasibility report, technical consultancy, expert advice etc., and/or any other kind of technical services.”

    With access to multi-stage funding, regional, national and global market linkages, mach33.aero will offer start-ups strategic connections with government, academia and industry resources and accelerate pathways for technology commercialisation and also encourage scientists and engineers to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities . This unique model will also allow access to physical and virtual infrastructure, certification and testing facilities to carry out pilots for product deployment and validation.

    Transitioning deep science and technology start-ups from "lab-to-market" is extremely complex and requires a multi-stage innovation curation and de-risking model. Innovators may need support and guidance for establishing product-market fit, pilots and validations, capital access, regulatory pathways and accelerated market entry. Social Alpha’s architecture integrates the innovation, incubation and investment ecosystems to support mission-driven founders throughout their “lab-to-market” journey.

    Talking about the partnership Manoj Kumar, Founder and CEO of Social Alpha and Chairperson, mach33.aero said – “mach33.aero combines the Aerospace Research and Engineering leadership of National Aerospace Laboratories, technology commercialisation prowess of NRDC and the venture development model of Social Alpha. This is a unique partnership that will further strengthen the science and technology start-up ecosystem in the country”

    This new joint venture promises to offer a platform for industry, academia and government to promote innovation, indigenous manufacturing and a means to promote dual use tech in Agriculture, healthcare, climate change and natural resource management among others.
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