Sam Circle, a Detroit-based venture development firm that works with U.S. universities and health care systems to monetize their intellectual property, has set up the India International Innovation Institute in Detroit to create and commercialize venture development programs with these institutions.
Sam Circle’s partners include Henry Ford Health System, University of South Carolina, Clemson University, Kent State University, and Case Western Reserve University.
The institute has 14 partners and plans to expand this to 100 universities and health care systems in the next 10 years. Its collective ecosystem has 100,000 students and 10,000 faculty members who have the opportunity to participate in the program, projects, and partnerships for research, training, and commercialization. It plans to provide its U.S. partners with more than $400 million in revenue in the next 20 years.
“I4 is set up in context to a connected world,” says Amber Malhotra, president of the institute and founder and CEO of Sam Circle. “Historically, the U.S. university systems, the academic and research, co-existed with strong industry connections. This fueled innovation leading to manufacturing. But in the changing world scenario where technology is disrupting traditional business models, the opportunity is to collaborate and leverage the strong innovation ecosystem to export knowledge across the world and generate additional revenue.”
The institute focuses on creating a connected network of habitat, humans, and health and uses interdisciplinary research to find treatments for health care problems such as cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases. It also focused on virtual health care, working to co-develop digital tools for remote medical management and consultation through innovations from India.
As part of the initiative, the institute has started Detroit2Delhi with a goal to generate 50 additional jobs every year in Michigan by leveraging innovation and research ecosystems around medicine and mobility. Detroit2Delhi is also providing startups in the region an opportunity to make their innovations accessible in India.
