IIMB Innovations to support incubating startups

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) has setup a non-profit entity ‘IIMB Innovations’ which aims to support promising startups. With 1.24Cr INR as the initial backing from department of Information technology (IT), IIMB could raise grants from other agencies as well.

This new entity would help strengthen the NSR Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning which was set up in 2002 with a grant from Infosys honchos. NSRCEL has a history for supporting many now successful startups.

NSRCEL Chief Operating Officer A Suryanarayanan said, “The new vehicle will allow us to take stakes and raise funds. We will now be able to seed-fund some of the companies. Since it is a not-for-profit model, it will not function like your typical VC. Incubation and early stage investing has a high risk element. But, with our vast faculty experience and partnership connect to startups, we hope to improve their chances of survival.”

Any startup with a slant towards technological development could have chances to be backed up by NSRCEL. It has already seed-funded three new startups Metaome (a bioinformatics company), Redforce Labs ( building authentication systems for financial institutions) and Radifinity (asset tracking solutions).

Besides, the brand name IIM-B helps many of these startups when they announce their talent and scout for potential customers.

At a subsidized cost, incubates have access to office space that can seat four to 12 persons, communication links, access to business angels who are part of NSRCEL network and other services like IT hosting, logistics, marketing, statutory compliance, finance and legal support.

IIMB Innovations would typically benefit the incubating startups by giving them the support, the campus and infrastructure  feel and the guidance from the faculty of the top notch B Schools in India.