IIM-A centre, Village Capital to support 16 start-ups

Ahmedabad: The IIM-A-based Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and Village Capital on Tuesday announced the 16 ventures it has selected to participate in its “Technology for Impact Accelerator” programme for businesses creating social impact.

The accelerator programme focuses on for-profit, commercially scalable Indian start-ups that display a high level of social value in their tech-driven or tech-enabled offerings. The accelerator will focus on technology ventures operating in the mobile/ICT, health, agri-business, education, sustainability and livelihood solutions sectors.

With the first of three four-day sessions at the IIM-A campus beginning on April 11, the highly competitive application process saw 300 organisations applying for the programme, Akash Bansal, spokesman for CIIE, said. The accelerator will help optimise ventures through interactive working sessions with international-impact investors, entrepreneurs that have overcome the same challenges facing many in the cohort, and one-on-one access to high-quality professional services.

The cohort includes Kriyate Design Solutions, which is seeking to create an affordable smart phone for the visually impaired; MediAngels, which is creating the world’s first online hospital; Aakar Innovation, which is producing a biodegradable sanitary napkin product for women at the bottom of the pyramid, SuryOn, which has developed a mobile phone charger directly using sunlight, and Pappilon Software Solutions, which has developed HealthBooth, a five-minute check-in booth performing health checks for Rs 50.

Since 2009, CIIE has invested in more than 80 start-ups, with over 90 per cent survival rate, reached out to over 30,000 start-ups and budding entrepreneurs and has mentored 2,000-plus start-ups.

Village Capital, founded in 2009, provides opportunity to high-impact start-ups. To date, it has served over 250 entrepreneurs from 30 countries through 17 cohorts in the US, UK, Brazil and India, and recently expanded their reach to include China and Kenya. The Technology for Impact Accelerator with CIIE will be the first sector-focused programme for Village Capital in India.