Startups incubated at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) have received debt funding of Rs. 1.16 crore from Yes Bank.
Earlier this year, EDII had tied up with Yes Bank, India's fifth largest Private sector bank, to lend to startups supported by EDII under the CGTMSE program (Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises).
The start-ups that have received funding from Yes Bank so far are Green Ideology, an organic cotton and bamboo fibre manufacturing company founded by Abhishek Lodha and Neerja Lakhani (Rs. 50 lakh), Keepsake Automation to promote welding robotics, founded by technopreneur Manan Bateriwala (Rs.50 lakh), and Naapbooks, a cloud-based, customized accounting application that provides automated process of accounting for accurate and secure accounting records, founded by Abhishek Jain (Rs.16 lakh).
The Centre for Advancing and Launching Enterprises (CrAdLE) is a technology business incubator, supported and catalysed by The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), The Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India, and hosted by the Ahmedabad-based EDII.
CrAdLE focuses on four niche segments of manufacturing, food processing, renewable energy and healthcare. It is aimed at fostering technology and knowledge-based entrepreneurial startups by nurturing them at an early stage and providing them legal, financial, and technical advisory services, EDII said in a statement here on Monday. CrAdLE has a mix of investment from DST, EDII and angel investors.
Apart from providing physical infrastructure, CrAdLE EDII plays a pivotal role in mentoring, guiding and funding, if required, to the incubatees. CrAdLE has been registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, which would enable it to invest in startup ideas and share profits that would again be re-invested in the development of the incubation centre.
In its first year, CrAdLE had shortlisted 30 and incubated 16 ideas. Out of the 16, three have received debt funding worth Rs. 1.16 crore and seven startups got grant from the Gujarat Government under its startup/innovation scheme.