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ASCENT Foundation, a peer-to-peer learning platform that helps entrepreneurs share best practices, is planning widen the network of members across the country.
The 10-year-old not-for-profit organisation, founded by Marco Limited Chairman Harsh Mariwala, helps leaders of micro, small and medium enterprises group together, divide themselves in smaller groups to help one another.
ASCENT attempts to improve the bandwidth of entrepreneurs that lack exposure and access to the best practices. The members are grouped into Trust Groups with 10-12 ‘non-competing’ members.
With most of entrepreneurs in the MSME peer support to business owners and empowering the entrepreneurial ecosystem by enabling the doers with learning, support, motivation and a sense of camaraderie.
“We have about 850 entrepreneurs as members in three chapters, covering 54 cities. We are targeting to take the number to 1,000 members by the end of the financial year,” Archanna Das, Chief Executive Officer of ASCENT, told Business Line.
Though it has 850 members, Mumbai with 600 and Chennai with 100 take the lion’s share.
“It is because for the first few years, our focus has been in Mumbai and Chennai. We would like to expand the basket,” she said.
The bandwidth of entrepreneurs is quite vast as they represent diverse industries, with turnovers ranging from ₹1 crore to ₹25,000 crore. The aggregate turnover of all companies in the network stands at ₹53,000 crore.
The organisation is now targeting to increase the participation from New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. It is also considering to launch city-based Chapters to help local entrepreneurs come together.
“Several of our members are from smaller cities such as Cooch Behar, Guwahati, Dharwad, Varanasi and Mangalore,” she said.
Stating that the organisation has been capturing matrix to see what kind of impact the networking is helping.
“Our Annual Health survey of 2022 shows that our members have registered 200 per cent increase in revenues with 50 per cent increase in efficiency of operations,” she said.
The seventh edition of ASCENT Conclave will be held in Mumbai on November 24.
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