i2india Ventures, which set up shop in India in 2008-end intending to fund and commercialise ideas by academics and scientists, is beginning to see the light of day. The company that has raised about $10 million to be used for funding, has identified six scientists from educational institutes and CISR labs to commercialise their ideas in healthcare, clean tech and product engineering areas.

Deepam Misra, CEO of i2india told Financial Chronicle that they had spoken to over 150 scientists since August 2008 and they had converted about six of their ideas. He declined specifics, but said they are now in proof-of-concept stage.

One of them is by a Bangalore-based scientist who has come up with a construction material that is less expensive and can be built from raw material in India. Another is a new medical imaging technology that is 4-5 times more efficient than existing technology.

Misra says that the firm has tied up with the IISc, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Mumbai, IIITs and CISR Labs in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune for this venture of identifying budding entrepreneurs. “We have also been invited by 2-3 government departments to provide advice on structuring similar central government programmes,’’ he said.

At present in India, there are no funding firms which focus on commercialising ideas by academics or scientists, except for a few programmes by Department of Science & Technology or faculty entrepreneurship programmes by institutes like IISc. So the researchers have found it tough to convert their ideas into products.

i2india is 30 per cent owned by Imperial Innovations, UK — a publicly traded IP commercialisation company ($440M market cap), that has created 77 successful enterprises and over 130 major licensing deals. The rest of the company is held by Indian origin investors from across the world.

Misra said that while the firm can access from the cash basket of $40-47 million from Imperial, i2india has also raised $10 million specifically for India. It plans to have another round in 18 months.