Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indore Smart City Development Limited organised the launch programme of the Smart Seed Incubation Centre at the AICTSL office in which MP Shankar Lalwani, Smart City CEO Rishav Gupta and other officials were present. The Smart Seed INNOCITY was launched by MP Lalwani.
MP Lalwani quoted PM Narendra Modi saying that India should become an employer instead of employee. Taking ahead this motto, the Smart Seed INNOCITY has been introduced in Indore.
“Indore will compete with other metro cities and will become the No. 1 City for startups, as well. Smart Seed will prove beneficial for Indore and, in the coming days, Indore will become the startup hub of central India,” Lalwani said.
Smart City CEO Gupta said that Indoreans were very aspirational and the startup culture would run successfully in the city because of its vast diversity. Smart Seed would become the business hub of the city and provide assistance and support to startups of nearby cities, including Ujjain and others, he said.
The incubation was already inaugurated by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in August and was officially launched on Thursday.
‘Nurturing startups’
‘Here, at the incubation centre, we’ll nurture startups and provide them with proper assistance and all things necessary so that they can grow smoothly and function properly in future. In the coming three years, Smart Seed will come up as the startup hub of the city where a person can grow his/her respective startup easily’
— Rishav Gupta, Smart City CEO (while addressing the programme)
What is INNOCITY Incubation Centre?
§ Indore Smart Seed, the incubation centre of Indore Smart City, started in collaboration with CIIE.CO, the technology business incubator of IIM-Ahmedabad, has great plans for start-ups in the region
§ Smart Seed has several programmes for supporting startups from an early stage to the revenue growth stage, including fundraising at the incubation centre
§ Aditya Vyas, CIIE.CO, team member who leads the centre, said there were multiple programmes designed to support startups
§ The programmes begin with Innocity Connect—an informal ecosystem meet-up to bring startups, mentors, angel investors, accomplished industrialists and service providers on the same platform for better cohesiveness in the entire ecosystem
§ Innocity Learn is to support students, early-stage entrepreneurs with various concepts of Business Modelling, such as product-market fit, revenue, sales, financial model, cash flow, pitch design and other related topics conducted in a hands-on workshop format
§ Innocity Startup School, an 8-week programme which covers the basics of building a startup, one-on-one mentoring, investment pitch review and peer learning sessions with other startup founders
§ The Incubation and Acceleration Programmes are 4-7-month-long programmes to provide deep mentoring and hand-holding support to early-stage and minimum viable product-stage startups, respectively
§ The last stage will be Innocity Pitch, which is for fundraising for the startup. The CIIE.CO seed investment team and external investors will be a part of the pitch panel and provide relevant feedback and also funding opportunities to relevant startups to enable faster growth of startups and its progression to the next stage.
Cost of getting workspace
The cost of getting a workspace will be around Rs 2K to Rs 3.5K per month in which the person will get a meeting room and other office spaces without any additional expense. The company, on equity basis on large amounts, will also arrange for funds up to Rs 3 lakh to Rs 1 crore or more to the startup, or else an MSME loan, or under Government of India schemes
All necessary amenities for startups available
§ Air-conditioning
§ High-speed Internet
§ Fully furnished
§ Lively, energetic colour combinations
§ Pantry area
§ Clean washrooms
§ Recreation room
