Zinnov launches social start-up accelerator programme

Management consulting firm Zinnov has announced the launch of SIGMA, a social start-up accelerator programme, in collaboration with German aid agency GIZ, Citrix, Ericsson, Harman and IKP Knowledge Park.

Aimed at boosting for-profit social enterprises that have created affordable, scalable solutions for the under-served population in the country, SIGMA will focus on four key areas — education, clean technologies, sanitation and healthcare solutions.

“Our goal is to bring together a consortium of corporate entities who will pool in money from their CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds to run SIGMA, and also provide tools to run the business and resources to mentor start-ups in the social space,” said Vaibhav Gupta, Principal / Lead - India Market, Zinnov, who leads the start-up engagement and digital transformation programmes in India. “We will shortlist 15 early stage social start-ups who are in the pre-Series A stage or have received seed funding, have a clear business model and a minimal viable product that can be sold to an identified customer base.”

Applications to select the first cohort of 15 social for-profit start-ups are open from Tuesday, on start-up funding platform Gust.com and will close on August 4. The selected start-ups will each receive a stipend of ₹15,000, and on graduation, the top three start-ups will receive seed grants. The first SIGMA cohort will begin on August 10, and plans are on to host two cohorts per annum.

Gupta said the running costs per cohort will amount to $30,000 — which will be spent on providing space, food and beverages, travel, start-up events, graduation day, consultant fees and programme management. He said GIZ, which supports key government initiatives such as Smart Cities, Clean India and Skill India to achieve sustainable and inclusive development, is the largest contributor of funding for SIGMA, while Zinnov, Citrix, Ericsson and Harman are smaller contributors and IKP Knowledge Park is the customised space and shared-equipment provider.

SIGMA is an acronym for Social Innovation – Grow, Multiply and Accelerate.

Interest in the social sector has been on the rise over the past few months. Earlier this month, Nasscom partnered with Head Held High, an organisation focussed on poverty eradication, to announce the Metta Fellowship for corporate employees, aimed at creating leaders in the social sector. “A lot of people from rural/poor backgrounds. who have tasted success in the IT sector, want to give back to society and are either starting or joining social enterprises,” said Rajesh Bhat, co-founder, Head Held High.

Atul Satija, founder, The/Nudge Foundation, said numerous conversations around impact investing, by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and The Giving Pledge have fuelled interest in social entrepreneurship among youth in India.

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