“We believe that incubation is not just about providing physical incubation space and have a virtual incubation model where start-ups not physically co-located with us also benefit from our mentoring, financial and networking support,” says Kunal Upadhyay, Chief Executive, CIIE (Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship).

The CIIE, he says, has around 100 ventures seeded by it and at any give time, it is actively engaged with 50-60 ventures. The centre has about 20,000 sq ft of incubation space in Ahmedabad, 30,000 sq ft in Pune and is in the process of setting up another one in Pune spread over 10,000 sq ft. The centre supports 40-60 ventures every year through its accelerator programmes, incubation spaces and seed investment programme. It deals with start-ups in the areas of information and communication technology (ICT), cleantech, agri-business and healthcare.

Two sources

CIIE invests in start-ups through two sources – amounts ranging from ₹25 lakh to ₹50 lakh from its own balance-sheet and through the Infuse, which is a ₹120-crore clean technology fund. In the first case, it provides seed capital to start-ups and takes stakes as low as 0.5 per cent and going up to 7 per cent. From the Infuse fund, it invests ₹6-7 crore in a venture and picks up 25-30 per cent stake, according to Upadhyay. Start-ups located in the incubation centres can use the facilities for up to 30 months, but CIIE continues to stay engaged with them till it exits the ventures. The centre looks at characteristics such as team, market opportunity, scalability of the business, entry barrier, traction depending on the stage of the start-up and other factors that are specific to the sector.

Several angel investors and venture capital firms regularly engage with the CIIE. Many of the start-ups incubated at the centre have raised funds from investors such as Accel Partners, IDG Ventures, IFC, Blume, Matrix Partners, Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels. Before any start-up gets associated with the CIIE, it goes through a three-step induction process – outreach, evaluation and acceleration, says Upadhyay.

Network of mentors

Apart from this, the start-ups can draw upon an active network of 400 mentors, IIM-A alumni and faculty networks for mentorship and guidance.

The centre does not restrict its assistance to those ventures started by IIM-A alumni alone but engages with start-ups from different places. The start-ups that have been incubated at CIIE include Forus Healthcare, Birds Eye Systems, Barrix Agro Sciences, Boond, Ecolibrium Energy, Proklean Technologies, Greenway Grameen, Gridbots, Aakar Innovations and Transerve Technologies.

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