Top 5 B-school incubators for start-ups
An increasing number of MBA graduates are opting out of placements to pursue their own ventures. Wannabe entrepreneurs are in a hurry now-a-days. Fresh out of college, they are full of innovative ideas and often look for business incubators to take these ideas to the next stage.
An incubator helps start-ups grow, supporting with all things required — such as capital and funds, angel investors, strategy and providing a variety of other resources.
But getting accepted by business incubators can be a long drawn out process with a gruelling application process.
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To make matters easy, some of the top business schools in India have launched proper incubation centres. These start-ups are incubated within the B-school. If the venture takes off well, it goes forward to the next stage of getting investors and scaling up of operations.
However, if the venture doesn't take off, the entrepreneurs can come back and sit for campus placements. This is also refereed as Placement Holidays.
With so many significant changes, business schools are now encouraging students to take the entrepreneurial route.
In this article, let us take a look at the top business school incubators in India:
1. Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE)
Institute: IIM Ahmedabad
The Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been established with support from the Government of India and Gujarat Government. It operates through an autonomous not-for-profit entity. CIIE comprises of IIMA faculty, alumni and other individuals and partners with like-minded organisations to foster entrepreneurship through incubation, ecosystem development and academic initiatives.
Founded as a research institute in 2002, CIIE turned into a full-fledged incubation centre in 2007.
Right now, CIIE is focusing on three areas: Cleantech, IT and Social
Incubators:
- Aarohaan Ventures
- iAccelerator
- Infuse Ventures
- IIMAvericks
- IdeaPad
- Startup Oasis
Success Stories
Birds Eye Systems, Barrix Agro Sciences, Biosense Technologies Private Limited, Ecolibrium, Forus, iStar, Travelyaari, Innoz, Thots
2. Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL)
Institute: IIM Bangalore
NSRCEL is the entrepreneurship development centre of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. Apart from incubating entrepreneurial ventures, the cell delivers courses and programmes relating to entrepreneurship. Some of the popular programmes offered at Management Programme for Women Entrepreneurs and Management Programme for Entrepreneurs and Family Businesses.
NSRCEL is an open incubator. It admit projects of both IIM Bangalore student/alumni and non-alumni. So far, it has incubated 45 enterprises.
Success stories
Amagi, Nextgen, ttatva, Milaap, MeshLabs
3. Wadhwani Centre For Entrepreneurship Development (WCED)
Institute: Indian School of Business (ISB)
Established in 2001 at ISB and funded by Wadhwani Foundation, WCED assists young entrepreneurs in the area of business planning. It also focuses on entrepreneurship education. Its chief areas of focus are finance, Innovation and Knowledge Network.
WCED has the following initiatives:
- Incubation: Edi (physical), Khub (virtual)
- Growth: SME-SEZ Connect, Propero
- ISBGI
- R2M platform
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor partnership
- Innovation for Humanity (I4H) partnership
- TIE-ISB Connect event
Success Stories
Orkash, Richcore Lifesciences, Loylty Rewardz, Avsarr Quest
4. MICA Incubator
Institute: MICA
An initiative of MICA Entrepreneurship Development Centre (set up with the support of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India), MICA Incubator aims to nurture entrepreneurship with a special focus on Strategic Marketing and Communication. It incubates new ventures by providing training and intellectual. Chief areas of focus are:
- Communication Service Technologies
- Communication Product Technologies
- Communication Equipments
- Applications Tools for Communication Businesses
Here are some current MICA EDC projects:
Srujanika, Booksvilla.com, Digital Upstarts, Zeus International, Acchabaccha.com, CityOffers
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5. Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED)
Institute: SP Jain Institute of Management & Research
Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at SPJIMR, was also setup in partnership with the Wadhwani Foundation. The cell is one of the five founding institutions of National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in India. CED initiates student interest in entrepreneurship, facilitate new venture creation and commercialize grass-root inventions. So far, it has incubated 20 new ventures.
