How Incubators Can Keep Themselves Relevant

The Indian start-up ecosystem has witnessed a meteoric rise over the past decade.

- SRIVARDHINI K JHA

In tandem, we have seen the emergence of about 850 incubators across the country to support this rapidly growing ecosystem. Their primary goal is to nurture entrepreneurs and start-ups in their very early stages and help them navigate the business environment. Incubators adopt different models to achieve their mandate and fall into four broad categories. These are - Education-based model that strives to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset and provide the tool kit to build a venture; Mentor-driven model that provides on-demand domain expertise; Sand-box-oriented model that helps R&D based start-ups with access to labs for rapid proof-of-concept; Resource-based model that provides access to physical, financial, knowledge and market resources. Each of these models have taken centre stage at different points in time. However, recently, there are several shifts in the start-up ecosystem that are challenging the relevance of entrenched incubator models. We elaborate on a few of the emerging trends and the questions they raise here: