N/Core, an incubator for non-profit start-ups launched by The/Nudge Foundation in January, has announced the opening of its new six-month-long incubation programme, christened N/1, for 10 early-stage non-profits.
Each of the start-ups will receive a seed fund of ₹10 lakh and will be allocated a dedicated partner from the industry to provide deeper mentorship and support throughout the six months and beyond.
Applications for the first cohort of N/1, which begins on September 11, will be open until August 6.
“N/Core Alpha, the first 14-day incubation programme that we launched for 20 non-profit start-ups in April, was a pilot project from which we learnt that non-profits require deeper engagement with industry experts,” Atul Satija, founder and CEO, The/Nudge Foundation, told BusinessLine .
“While those start-ups were not given any seed grants, N/1 start-ups will receive ₹10 lakh each and be mentored by four renowned, experienced leaders who are coming together as N/Core Partners.
“A sub-set of N/1 start-ups that show potential will individually be mentored and supported by the Partners beyond six months, for another 24 months.” N/Core Alpha attracted 583 applications from across India, the US and Kenya.
The four Partners that will drive the incubator forward are: Sanjay Purohit, former Chairman, Infosys Consulting; Maneesh Dhir, former MD of Apple India and current Partner at Social Venture Partners; KR Lakshminarayan, Chief Endowment Officer, Azim Premji Foundation, and Ujwal Thakar, former CEO of Pratham and GiveIndia.
N/Core plans to incubate 100 non-profits over the next five years, with two batches of 10 start-ups each, every year.
N/Core has also formed a Corporate Social Entrepreneurship (CSE) council with leaders from large organisations to promote innovation-led, problem solving in the non-profit sector and to support N/Core incubatees.
Some of the CSE members are: Anil Kumar, CEO, Axis Bank Foundation; Namita Vikas, Group President and MD, YES Bank, and Biren Bhuta, Chief - CSR, Tata Steel.
Backed by Nandan Nilekani, The/Nudge Foundation is a collective of some of the country’s best leaders and entrepreneurs, whose goal is to pull 1 million people out of poverty by 2020 by providing them with sustainable livelihoods through a gurukul system of training and skilling.
Since its inception in July 2015, The/Nudge has provided livelihoods to 1,000 underprivileged men and women, and at present has the capacity to train 2,000 people a year.
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