Vikram Saraph

An Entrepreneur and Futurist by passion, and an Architect and Planner by training, currently mentoring startups and exploring opportunities to converge design and business to bring the best ideas into this world. Presently working as Group Director (Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development) at Science and Technology Park University of Pune, India’s leading Technology Business Incubator. Responsible for selection of and mentoring startups, entrepreneurs and innovators, managing seed funding, product development and prototyping, entrepreneurship training, setting up new business incubators and prototyping labs, conceiving and implementing consultancy projects, design and master planning and government advisory work.

Vikram is also a Founding Partner at Transenviro Design Studios, an environmentally conscious architecture and planning firm that has delivered projects across a wide range of sectors in India and Australia. He is also a Founding Director at Makeithappen Centre for Invention, Innovation and Incubation at Pune, a not-for-profit business incubator and high-end industrial skills training institute.

Educated in India at Sir J J College of Architecture and later specialising in the field of sustainable development from the University of New South Wales, Australia, Vikram has a broad experience in the incubation, innovation, building construction and development planning sectors. With a proven track record in effective design and project management, entrepreneurship development, startup mentoring and business planning, Vikram’s portfolio contains technologies from waste management, healthcare, electric mobility and clean-tech sectors as well as design and master-planning projects from residential, corporate, museum, health and public sectors. He also has extensive experience in strategic planning, stakeholder management, government liaison work, policy framework formulation, feasibility studies and tourism development. He has a keen interest in the study and planning of sustainable and resilient futures, environmental protection, socio-economic development and education.