IIM-B to increase seats in incubator programme

The centre is planning to raise the number of seats from current 82 to 125

With rising interest among the youth to pursue entrepreneurship, Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), the incubation centre for start-ups of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), is increasing seats for its incubator programme. The centre is planning to increase number of seats from current 82 to 125, said NSRCEL’s chairperson G Sabarinathan.

“Every season, the demand is far in excess of the number of seats we have. Often, we start with 60-70 applications out of which about six go through the screening process,” said Sabarinathan, who is also a faculty in Finance and Control at IIM-B.

IIMB’s incubation programme is for a 12-month period where an early stage startup can get up to 12 seats to build and develop its business. The basic selection involves the 3 ‘I’ criteria – the business idea should be innovative, implementable and impact-making.

The spike in demand among companies to get incubated at IIM-B also led the latter to introduce a Launchpad programme for early stage startups. The institute has reserved 10 seats for eight companies with maximum of two seats per company for a maximum duration of three months. IIM-B also has plans to increase this to 18 seats.

NSRCEL is an open centre and is not exclusive for IIMB students.  A few startups incubated at NSRCEL include habit forming and tracking app Zoojoo. Be, cloud-based TV ad network platform Amagi and e-waste disposal BinBag.

The faculty at the centre offer courses at the graduate as well as doctoral level and shorter modules on entrepreneurial thinking in a number of executive education programmes. In addition, NSRCEL also runs two programmes for entrepreneurs. The first, management programme for entrepreneurs and family businesses, targets first-generation entrepreneurs as well as family businesses. It is an eight-month programme which imparts contemporary knowledge in various functional areas. The second, management programme for women entrepreneurs, helps early-stage enterprises started by women who feel the need for capacity-building.

The cell also conducts mentoring sessions regularly. In 2015, there has been close to 380 mentoring sessions. “We have a fixed mentoring calendar – two sessions a month. We also work with a fixed panel of mentors,” said Sabarinathan. “This also helps our mentors to align with what we stand for as a centre.”