To encourage students in top-notch universities to become entrepreneurs, PayPal has extended its Start Tank initiative for aspiring students to bring their tech ideas into reality. The PayPal Start Tank incubator was launched in association with TiE Chennai in November 2013 and currently hosts six startups: DoPartTime, Fantain, Hey Feedback, Kobster.com, Konotor, and PiQube.
The center which has an office area spanning over more than 11,000 square feet with a world-class incubation space, state-of-the-art conference rooms and other amenities will help groom students to start up their own enterprise. PayPal’s Start Tank provides an obligation-free environment for select tech startups in a very conducive facility.
In a recent Entrepreneurship Conclave and Startup Hive at IIT-Madras, PayPal selected two teams to start off with the Incubation Challenge. If selected after the finals, the teams will get incubated at Start Tank.
The winning team of MTech students from IIT-M pitched in the idea of ‘delivering logistics via drones’, while the idea of ‘pushing dynamic ads into mobile games in place of the obtrusive banner ads’ by another team from IIT-M made it to the runners up.
Students from leading Indian universities who seemed enthusiastic came up with a wide array of novel concepts ranging from crowd funding to support the underprivileged, 3D printing & distribution, to ‘green garbage’ waste management. After IIT-Madras, PayPal will partner SASTRA University in Thanjavur to conduct the incubation challenge as part of their techno-management fest to be held in February 2015.
The Chennai Start Tank sees models in various Start Tanks, which run through PayPal offices in Boston and London. They provide access to global mentors, angel investors and venture capitalists. Anupam Pahuja, General Manager, Technology – Asia-Pacific, PayPal, said, “Extending the Start Tank Incubation Challenge to student entrepreneurs comes with the commitment of supporting their innovative startup ideas and tech concepts. It is encouraging to see many students in India daring to dream to give wings to their ideas and set up business ventures. Through Start Tank, we aim to help them with the right kind of mentorship and guidance to enter the market right after graduation.”
Interested applicants, student/non-student entrepreneurs, can register for Start Tank Incubation Challenge with their tech-centric ideas at
