Business Today Net Special

Test-Tube e-Babies

The Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy's Labs has floated an incubator firm to wean health-related dotcoms.

By E. Kumar Sharma

Molecules and megabytes. What do they have in common? Megabucks. Or so thinks Satish Reddy, the 33-year-old Managing Director of Dr Reddy's Labs (DR), who has teamed up with his brother-in-law G.V. Prasad and a former Indosuez W.I. Carr Analyst, Jignesh Bhate, to launch Ideas2Solutions--a dotcom incubation firm.

The Hyderabad-based trio, however, doesn't see Ideas2Solutions as a virtual me-too. For one, their integrated venture firm intends to focus only on the health sector, including health-specific vortals, bioinformatics (biotechnology and IT), and bi-technology. Says the 39-year-old Prasad, whose Cheminor Drugs recently merged with DRL: "Our aim is to identify, invest in, inspire, and integrate best-of-breed start-ups in the healthcare and technology areas."

Is the niche targeting working? Rather well, apparently. Although the company is just over a month old, it has already received 33 proposals to fund. Of that, it plans to incubate at least three. It has already incubated a health vortal www.meditimes.com. As an incubator of dotcom ideas, the hi-tech midwife-cum-matron will provide its portfolio companies a range of services: It will vet and fine-tune business ideas, chip in with funds, and also leverage DRL's clout in the real world to the start-up's benefit.

Accordingly, the company is being structured around a core team consisting of a CEO (Jignesh Bhate), CTO (Chief Technology Officer), CBO (Chief Biology Officer), and a CIO (Chief Investment Officer). The core team will strike alliances with a range of function-specific outfits such as HR firms, finance and accounting firms, system integration companies, and marketing and advertising firms. The idea? Outsource skills from specialists at relatively low costs.

That apart, Ideas2Solutions will form a panel of advisors to help the upstarts. The advisors would consist of corporate chieftains like Dr K. Anji Reddy of DR, economists and select professionals with domain knowledge in brand-building and media planning. The board is to be finalised by next month.

Over the next nine to 12 months, the company is looking at incubating only six-to-seven ideas. Although Bhate is chary of discussing the nitty-gritty of finance, he does reveal that the initial investment would not exceed Rs 15 crore. Says the 29-year-old Bhate, who until recently used to head Indosuez W.I. Carr's IT services and Net sector for the Asia-Pacific region: "We want to put a cap on ideas and not funds. If the idea is good, then it is possible to get the funds."

Clearly, Bhate speaks from experience..

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