Betting On The Future

Corporates are partnering with incubation centres at b-schools to back startup ventures

- Nachiket Kelkar

Amagi, 8K Miles, Placio, Travelyaari, ridlr, and Transerve are startups with varied businesses, but one common factor—they were supported by innovation and incubation centres of various b-schools.

Over the last several years, technology startups have seen a huge jump in India, which is now the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. In 2017 alone, over 1,000 startups emerged. Incubation centres, many in the country’s top b-schools, have shaped and guided many of these successes.

Becoming an entrepreneur is no easy task. Even as new startups continue to emerge, over 800 have shut up shop over the past six to seven years, for reasons ranging from lack of available funding to unsustainable business models. Even if you do manage to start a company, securing funding to survive, scale up and sustain is another task. Incubation centres can play a big role by handholding a budding entrepreneur for anything from a few months to a couple of years. They provide a space where ideas can be shared and budding entrepreneurs get support from faculty and corporate mentors through accelerator programmes. The other advantage entrepreneurs can draw from incubation centres is finding partners to invest in the venture.