Indian Institute of Management Calcutta sets up incubator

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta has created the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, the aim of which will be to incubate 40 startups over the next five years. The incubator will be dubbed Incubation Unit, while an accelerator will also be set up under the name of Innovation Lab.

The institute, a public business school in Calcutta, runs a different incubation model to most. Its “learn, grow and share” model means participating startups must give back to the school by letting students participate in projects, get involved in traineeships, workshops, do guest lectureships, and offer consultancy services and research opportunities for faculties. The system works through credit points.

In turn, startups will have access to the incubator’s infrastructure, receive mentorship from both faculty and successful alumni, and be given an opportunity to participate in the accelerator programme and apply for seed funding as well as be given access to legal and administrative support.

The incubator is being funded by the Department of Science and Technology, which has allocated funding of Rs70m ($1.16m) for running costs. The department is in the process of raising Rs100m ($1.65m) to Rs200m ($3.32m) to use for a seed fund.

The incubator will have a focus on health care, clean energy, analytics, education and lifestyle. So far, three startups have signed up to join: ONergy, Doctors For You and Edwell. The incubator will take an equity stake of 2% to 5% in each participating startup.