Every successful organization was once a small startup. Every startup starts with one fresh idea. In the process of evolution of a startup to a huge company, a startup needs assistance in various ways such as financial support, technical guidance, office space, and many more resources. The nourishment of a startup is possible only with the support of mentors, accelerators, and others.
A startup incubator is a collaborative program designed to help new startups succeed. Incubators help entrepreneurs solve some of the problems commonly associated with running a startup by providing workspace, seed funding, mentoring, and training. The sole purpose of a startup incubator is to help entrepreneurs grow their business.
Out of many active incubators in India, here are a few noteworthy ones.
AngelPrime Incubator
Veteran entrepreneurs - Bala Parthasarathy, Sanjay Swamy, and Shripathi Acharya launched Angel Prime at Bangalore. It focuses on startup companies based on electronic payments, eCommerce, smartphones & Tablet-based Applications. Their objective is to cultivate successful startups by bringing together highly talented entrepreneurs, mentoring them through ideation, prototyping, market validation, building a customer base, and subsequently raising institutional investment for further scaling. HackerEarth is one of the remarkable startups.
IAN Incubator
Indian Angel Network (IAN), located in Delhi is the pioneer of Angel Investing in India. It has established the IAN Incubator with the support of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. IAN Incubator provides a platform for sound technology/business ideas to become successful and investable businesses. IAN prefers sectors like Telecom, Mobile VAS, Education and Healthcare technologies, cloud computing, alternative energy, Gaming and Animation, Retail Technology, Media and Entertainment, IT/ITES. To join IAN, click IAN Incubator
UnLtd India
UnLtd is located in Mumbai. It is an incubator to support and grow early-stage social entrepreneurs who can build high-impact organizations and grow as catalysts for social change. It is entrepreneur-centric, sector agnostic, and model inclusive. It has 4 key programs that include Incubation support, Bootcamp, and Social Mashup – a national conference for early-stage social entrepreneurs. To apply, click on UnLtd India
iCREATE
iCreate (International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology) an initiative of the Gujarat Foundation of Entrepreneurial Excellence (GFEE) and a joint venture of Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Limited (GMDC) and Gujarat Entrepreneurship and Venture Promotion Foundation (GEVPF). It identifies, nurtures, and mentors the spirit of budding entrepreneurs and provides them with all assistance. The centre has the capacity to house 100 incubates currently working on 40-50 projects. It offers grooming, incubation, mentoring, mentoring, angel funding to entrepreneurs. To join, visit iCreate
NSRCEL
Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning(NSRCEL) is an open incubator of entrepreneurial activity at IIM Bangalore. NSRCEL focuses on programs that are specifically catering to entrepreneurs with profit ventures and social ventures as well as student and women entrepreneurs. NSRCEL brings together startups, industry mentors, eminent academicians from IIMB. NSRCEL is also the first incubator that has a program tailored for social entrepreneurs. To apply, Visit NSRCEL.
Srijan Capital
It is founded by Ravi Trivedi and it is located in Bangalore. Srijan Capital provides seed-stage investment. It mainly focuses on one incubation for 2-3 years. They take up startups that are based out of India or have India as their base market. Investments are funded by the founder according to his personal capacity. It has a strong hold on Digital Marketing and Product Development. It mainly focuses on Global SAAS and Consumer Internet Startups. Its startups include Explara, Tookitaki, and Skillenza.
Technopark-TBI
Technopark Technology Business Incubator Joint Association of Technopark, Trivandrum, and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, to help the technology business start-ups that started their operation during 2007. It is India’s first Non-Academic Business Incubator. It functions with a vision to support and nurture startups in the state of Kerala. Startups go through a stage based 3-month structured program. The various stages are idea acceleration, product acceleration, market acceleration. To apply, visit Technopark-TBI
Villigro
It is a social enterprise incubator that works with early-stage-profit-businesses who impact the lives of the poor. It was founded in 2001 in Chennai by Paul Basil. It works in various sectors like health, education, agriculture, and many others. It incubated over 200 businesses. It is a big organization with a record of 315 innovators, Rs. 617 million seed funding, Rs. 4,164 million investment raised and impact on 20 million lives. To join a social enterprise movement in India, visit Villgro
TBI, BITS Pilani
The BITS Pilani in association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India has established a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in the area of Embedded Systems and VLSI Design. TBI promotes entrepreneurial leadership across all disciplines and facilitates entrepreneurial activity amongst students. It invites entrepreneurs to use TBI services so as to develop end products for commercialization. It provides training in business communication, business management, and short structured courses. Redbus and Bigbasket are some of the notable startups. For more information, visit TBI
Bhamashah Techno Hub
India’s largest Incubator BTH is in Jaipur. It provides an entire support system to startups in Rajasthan and it creates a common platform for startups, acceltors, potential investors, venture capital, and high net worth individuals (HNI). This offers facilities such as infrastructure, technology, angel funding, access to venture capitalists, mentorship, and many more features free of cost so that startups can focus on developing products and new ideas. It is a huge area that includes world-class amenities like Tinkering labs, Bluetooth controllers, VR, 3D printers, and modern technology like mind wave readers, and virtual games.
Startup incubators are indeed a boon for entrepreneurs who might be dealing with limited resources, time and education support, and many more. A potential incubator provides low-cost business access like office space, mentorship, expertise, influence, and sometimes capital which grooms an entrepreneur successfully. An entrepreneur should understand and analyze all services before applying for a startup incubator. Select your incubator wisely and kickstart your business. Happy Learning!
Written By - Mahima Sreeram
Edited By - Bhanu Jain
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