IIM Bangalore & IIIT-B sign MoU to provide mentorship to startups

The International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) and the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday with the aim to share their expertise in the areas of technology and management respectively with the start-ups being incubated in their respective innovation centres.

“IIM-B and IIIT-B, from their collective experience in nurturing entrepreneurs and startups over the past decade, recognise their mutual interest in positively influencing the technology startup ecosystem in India and the importance of collaborating with each other to nurture early stage technology ventures and help them in shaping appropriate business models,” said Professor Suresh Bhagavatula, Chairperson, NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at IIM-B.

The institutions will work together to provide technology and business mentorship aimed at helping young technology startups and entrepreneurs achieve sustainable business growth in the Indian startup landscape.

Professor S Sadagopan, director, IIIT-B, said that the collaborative partnership between the innovation centres of IIIT-B and IIMB is a much needed and one-of-its-kind model of cooperation between two premier Indian institutes for the benefit of the startup community. The IIIT-B Innovation Centre was started in 2009, and is currently incubating 17 startup companies that are developing innovative IT-based products to solve problems in areas such as healthcare, transportation and energy. The NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at IIMB is an open incubation centre that nurtures early stage start-ups and currently incubates 18 companies focused on providing scalable and sustainable solutions. NSRCEL’s mission is to take ideas to implementation through a structured mentoring programme.