N/Core, an incubator for non-profit start-ups, has partnered with Mphasis, an IT services and solutions provider specialising in cloud and cognitive services to incubate 26 non-profit start-ups that are working towards poverty alleviation in India.

Mphasis will invest over ₹4.5 crore to incubate these start-ups in the next three years.

“When talent meets funding, amazing things happen. The technology sector has benefited immensely by investing in top talent to drive innovation. This collaboration with N/Core helps us make a meaningful difference in solving challenging problems in the social sector” said Meenu Bhambhani, Vice-President and Head-Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Mphasis. Each of the selected non-profit start-ups will receive an innovation grant of ₹10 lakh and will work with dedicated mentors, including Sanjay Purohit, ex-Chairman, Infosys Consulting; KR Lakshminarayana (Lan), Chief Endowment Officer, Azim Premji Foundation; Ujwal Thakar, ex CEO of Pratham and GiveIndia; Kamakshi Rao, Senior Investment Director at Capital Advisors and Madhav Chavan, Founder, Pratham.

Asked what kind of non-profits are being selected, Sudha Srinivasan, CEO, N/Core said, they are looking to incubate start-ups that will become unicorns of the social sector.

“Despite the scale of our problems, India has yet to see a non-profit feature in the list of Top 100 non-profits worldwide. On one hand, our economic growth and wealth is surpassing first world countries. On the other, our rankings on the human development index continue to fall. Non-profits have a big role to play in making economic growth inclusive and to improve lives of the poorest and most marginalised among us. We are looking to incubate capable entrepreneurs who see this potential, and are committed to solve problems of poverty at massive scale through innovative models of change” she said.

Human Impact

N/Core’s incubated start-ups like Navgurukul that work with young adults reached fewer than hundred students in their first year, but transformed their lives radically, by transitioning them into livelihoods with remarkably high earning potential like software developer, without formal education beyond Class 12. Sukhibhava has achieved operational rigour of onboarding upto 180 self-help groups of women every month in Bengaluru alone, impacting over 46,000 women with their menstrual health program.

“Other non-profits with highly scalable models like Lakeer (platform for civic engagement) or Aquasafi which provides clean drinking water, have the potential to touch lives of millions. Our job as N/Core is to help them achieve that scale faster, more efficiently, and sustainably” said Srinivasan.

Started in January 2017, N/Core’s goal is to jump start 150 non-profits and 1,000 non-profit leaders by 2022. By December, N/Core will have a total of 27 non-profits from its incubation programme.

comment COMMENT NOW