Karsanbhai Patel, promoter of the Ahmedabad-based detergents major Nirma Ltd, is becoming a venture capitalist. A Patel entity, Nirma Education and Research Foundation, has set up a new company, NirmaLabs, which will incubate talented individuals and projects.

In the first instance, the company may tie up with Zensar Technologies, part of the Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) RPG group, to support Zensar's new initiative in the information technology.

Dr Madhu Mehta, chief architect of NirmaLabs, said: "The aim is to identify, groom and harness entrepreneurs in high-tech areas. We want to provide a conducive environment for knowledge-based wealth generation."

NirmaLabs, a not-for-profit company, will initially focus on the information technology and telecommunications industries. In the next stage, it will expand to other emerging areas like biotechnology and life sciences.

NirmaLabs has a corpus of Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) to incubate promising individuals and projects. The department of science and technology has also decided to support NirmaLabs.