US-based venture capital fund Global Internet Ventures (GIV) is pumping in around $230,000 to set up an incubator facility in the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore campus and is also looking to invest heavily in Indian start-ups.
The incubator facility at the IIMB campus will be created under the umbrella of the IIMBs Nadathur S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), which has received generous funding from S. Raghavan, an ex-Infosys Technologies executive.
"Our long term goal for the NSRCEL is to develop it into a world class institutional resource center for entrepreneurial research and facilitate IIM alumni to become entrepreneurs and raise the proportion of entrepreneurs from the current level of about 10 per cent per batch to about 20 to 30 per cent in the next five to ten years," IIMB director Rammohan Rao said.
Initially, Rao said, the target segment will be the students and alumni of leading management and technical institutions such as the IIT and IIMs.
The incubator will accommodate about 8-10 participants at any point of time. Each participant will be provided with this facility for an initial period of six months to be extended by a maximum period of six months with mutual consent.
The centre also has an ambitious web based distance education programme for entrepreneurs and web based information services for existing and potential entrepreneurs who could also feed into the incubator facility, Rao said.
In the big picture, GIV is looking seriously at investing in India, China and the US, Jeff Tonkel, Managing Director, GIV.
"`If our IIMB model works well, we will replicate the incubator facility across other schools in India and China,"' Tonkel said.
GIV is already working with premier American institutes - MIT, Wharton, and Harvard - on similar projects.
Asked why he chose India for the incubator facility, William Melton, Founder of GIV and Verifone, said both India and China's respect for education, their strong work ethic and cultural profile made them ideal destinations for investors.
GIV will be focusing on funding and incubating companies with strong technological and engineering capabilities.
