CIIE launches a premier program for technology startups

Updated on: Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), the business incubator located at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has launched a premier program for technology startups.

CIIE has joined hands with Village Capital to launch an acceleration program for groundbreaking startups focused on technology that has the potential to make an impact. The CIIE-Village Capital Accelerator is a partnership between two organizations with an incredible track record of identifying, supporting and funding early-stage companies through the power of peer support.

The accelerator focuses on for-profit, commercially scalable Indian startups that display a high level of social value in their tech-driven or tech-enabled offerings. The accelerator will focus on technology ventures operating in the mobile/ICT, health, agribusiness, education, sustainability and livelihood solutions verticals.

Throughout the program, participating entrepreneurs assess one another, with the two top-ranked startups receiving up to $50,000 USD each in investment.

The program starts April 11th, 2013 with the first of three four-day workshops being held at CIIE. Ongoing online collaboration, meetings and presentations with expert mentors, investors and sector practitioners will provide additional real-time feedback. Participants would get an opportunity to pitch to leading Indian venture capitalists and international investors at the end of the program.

Shashank Rastogi, director of operations at CIIE said, "CIIE has been supporting some of the leading social ventures in India, and this partnership with Village Capital will help us identify and help innovative Indian startups in the technology for development space. This is one of the several initiatives we plan to introduce in the near future to co-create the next generation of social enterprises".

As identifying the best early-stage startups for investment is a difficult and cost-intensive process for investors, the Village Capital solution is to harness the power of peer support and mentoring to build investment-ready companies and to allocate capital through peer selection.

Ross Baird, executive director of Village Capital, said, "In our experience of launching 16 Village Capital programs across five continents, teams universally engage in the process in an astoundingly collegial and disciplined way."

CIIE launches a premier program for technology startups

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