Pune body incubates tech & knowledge businesses

Pune-based Venture Center, an organisation hosted by the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, and funded by the Department of Science and Technology, is engaged in creating a sound ecosystem in and around the Pune region for entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Venture Center’s rationale is that, though SMEs have tremendous potential, many lack the resources to invest in good talent and expensive technology, and would benefit from the services of business incubators.

Kaushik Gala, business development manager at Venture Center, says, “We are a not-for-profit technology business incubator organisation that is run with the aim of shaping up a cluster of innovative technology businesses in this region by helping them identify financial aid, or making resources such as infrastructure and advisory services available to them.”

An initiative of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Venture Center aims to create a favourable environment for scientists, investors, technologists and entrepreneurs, which will help the growth of newer businesses.

Recently, the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MoMSME) appointed this organisation (along with 24 other agencies in India) to run a programme to help SMEs procure financial aid from government organisations.

“Enterprises in need of aid send us proposals and after evaluating them we send them across to the ministry. Depending on the stage and need of the start-up, the enterprises receive aid of Rs 4-8 lakh. We recommended 10 such proposals and all have been approved. We get 5 per cent of the allocation that goes to the enterprise,” explains Gala.

Apart from identifying such services for SMEs and entrepreneurs, the incubator also makes available resources like laboratory space, plug-and-play office space, board rooms and the like to businessmen. Advisory services like intellectual property, company structure and business planning; and business support services like ‘rent an address’, complete with mailbox and postal address, are also extended to start-ups.

Venture Center says its aim is to nucleate and nurture technology and knowledge-based enterprises for India by leveraging the scientific and engineering competencies of institutions in the region.