The IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) is planning to provide funding support to around 100 start-ups in the next two to three years.
“So far, we have mentored around 1,000 start-ups overall and funded around 110 of them. This time we are going to ramp up. So, in next two to three years, we want to offer funding support to another 100 start-ups,” IIM Calcutta Innovation Park CEO Subhrangshu Sanyal told businessline.
IIMCIP is a not-for-profit company established under the aegis of IIM Calcutta to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. In order to support entrepreneurs to create more jobs in the Eastern and Northeastern parts of the country, IIM Calcutta had started this initiative in 2014.
“In August 2024, we are completing 10 years. Our own funding was ₹27 crore in providing funding support to these 110 start-ups. And the start-ups raised close to ₹900 crore from the market. The aggregate market value of the startups will be around ₹7,500 crore. So, that means the model is proven that we have the ability to generate value through incubation,” Sanyal said.
IIMCIP gets funds from various sources such as different Central government schemes, corporates and international agencies, among others, Over the years, it has also developed own corpus.
With the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park now planning to offer funding support to another 100 start-ups, average seed capital would be around ₹25 lakh per start-up.
Asked about the criteria on which a start-up is selected for funding, Sanyal said it depends on innovative ideas, business model and team capability, among others. “These three simple things we look at. Otherwise, we are geography and domain agnostic,” he pointed out.
Sanyal was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day-long event on building entrepreneurship for the country, organised by IIM Calcutta.
Women entrepreneurship
As a part of IIMCIP’s objective to support women entrepreneurship at the grassroot level, it had started a big project with 450 women entrepreneurs in three States – West Bengal, Bihar and Assam – two years ago. Out of these 450 women entrepreneurs, now 60 women are “Crorepati Didis”.
“We did a two-year pilot project. The experience has been fabulous. And let me tell you, the entrepreneurs at a grassroot level are much more entrepreneurial than I see in the urban. Because they are working with constraints every day. They don’t have the resources which we have. But still they sustain. And that is why it is important,” the CEO said.
All of these supported enterprises now have more than ₹1 lakh turnover per month. “If a lady is making ₹1 crore in a year in her business, she is supporting on an average 150 livelihood. That is the significance of this segment. This is a very successful experiment for us in association with respective state governments,” he pointed out.
Now, IIMCIP is planning to scale it up by replicating the incubation model in partnership with the government and corporate CSRs. “We can extend this support to women entrepreneurs in other states going forward,” Sanyal added.