Startup Circle: How is Innocity Startup School by CIIE.CO assisting entrepreneurs helping grow and learn?

As we all know that the startup ecosystem in India has strengthened over the past decade with the rise in the number of incubators, angel community, and VC funds. But the question that arises is, do we have a holistic ecosystem that caters to all with complete support in every region? Entrepreneurship is a formal learning structure that is challenging to execute, but CIIE.CO, with its experience of more than 12 years in the incubation space, supporting entrepreneurs has understood that imparting best practices, sharing extraordinary experiences, and developing a holistic approach is the key to developing fundamentally strong startups with Innocity.

The recent launch of Innocity startup school by CIIE.CO offers entrepreneurs an opportunity to be in a community of like-minded people, and solve real-life challenges through hypothetical cases. The inaugural program would induct 50 selected entrepreneurs from different regions of India and start by Jan 2021 with sessions happening every Friday and Saturday. With the support from Caspian Debt, the program would be offered to entrepreneurs from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and women entrepreneurs at a scholarship of up to 90 per cent.

In the same regard, Mr Chintan Bakshi - Partner - Incubation, CIIE.CO; CEO - Startup Oasis shares his insights on how the Innocity startup school is helping entrepreneurs learn and grow.

Tell us about the genesis of Innocity?

We started Innocity in the year 2017 to support & build a regional startup ecosystem as there was a need to interact with the startups who were based out of Tier 2 & 3 cities. Also, during the same time CIIE.CO collaborated with Rajasthan Government and established Startup Oasis to support an ecosystem of Rajasthan. Unicorn startup, Razorpay was incubated out of the Startup Oasis Centre in 2015. As time passed, we realized that it's imperative to strengthen the regional ecosystems in other states especially in the tier and tier 3 cities. Thus, we partnered with SAP to start Innocity, which was an extension of our learning from Rajasthan to the other regions of India, starting with Gujarat, to build tomorrow's startup capital.

What makes the initiative, a startup school the need in the present scenario?

While working in Tier 2 & 3 cities, apart from lack of mentoring, funding, etc there's a gap of knowledge which we have noticed. A lot of founders did not have a good understanding & experience of what is required to build the startup, what are the important stages, processes to follow, startup metrics, etc. Some of the founders are from non-technical areas and from Tier 2 & 3 colleges which doesn't give them much exposure. Thus, because of the certain gaps which are there in the ecosystem, Innocity Startup School will assist these entrepreneurs and make them learn & grow.

How will the Innocity Startup School help the first generation entrepreneurs?

Apart from the fact that the Innocity Startup School has a curriculum and structure that has been built based on the knowledge gaps of early-stage entrepreneurs especially from the smaller cities of India, all knowledge sessions of the School are taken by successful entrepreneurs who have had the first-hand experience of building startups while tackling the challenges. Most first-generation entrepreneurs would lack the first-hand experience of starting a business and the unique combination of a structured and whetted curriculum and delivery by successful entrepreneurs, would be significantly beneficial for first-generation entrepreneurs.

What market opportunity are you addressing? What is your market/business growth?

There are close to 40 Tier 2 & 3 cities in India that have high future startup potential. In addition to tech startups, many of these cities will also have a large number of women entrepreneurs, student entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs that are solving big problems and building interesting products but also not getting the necessary support required to build their businesses – and therein lies the market opportunity. In the pre-pandemic era, it may not have been not possible to reach these entrepreneurs spread across India. However, with most startup programs gong digital, it is possible to build programs that can address the specific needs of these entrepreneurs spread across the country. For the recently launched Innocity Startup School, we have participation from 29 tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Our target is to have participation from startup and aspiring entrepreneurs from across 40 Tier 2 & 3 cities for our next cohort.

What difference has your partnership with SAP made to your business?

Entrepreneurship development in Tier 2 & 3 cities with a strong focus on social impact generation, has been an important focus area for SAP's corporate social responsibility. CIIE.CO partnered with SAP to develop and implement relevant programs that would build startups ecosystems across the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan under the banner of Innocity. The partnership with SAP has evolved over the years - while the focus was largely ecosystem development, entrepreneurship training and small grants initiative to support early-stage startups, it has now evolved to conducting accelerator programs and providing seed funds to startups.

What are your expansion plans and new focus areas?

We will scale up the Innocity Startup School from the current to cover at least 40 Tier 2 & 3 cities of India, as it's completely a virtual program so that entrepreneurs from these cities can get the best startup education available. Furthermore, by taking a hybrid approach, the other programs under Innocity will be scaled up across multiple regions of India, specifically to cover states like Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP and Assam. Finally, in Tier 2 & 3 cities there's limited support available for startup segments like women entrepreneurs, creative entrepreneurs, food and craft startups - to name a few. We hope to design and implement specific programs to address these underserved startup segments.

Is the Indian Startup Ecosystem successful, according to you?

The Indian Startup Ecosystem is successful as far as the major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Pune, etc are concerned. In these cities, the startup ecosystem has developed almost organically and by itself largely because of some intrinsic advantage of the city (presence of tech workforce, presence of investors, corporates, good quality educational institutes etc.). However, going forward the startup ecosystem development needs to accelerate in tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India for the full benefits of technology to be realised, especially in the context of a country like India. The startup ecosystem in the smaller cities will require more inorganic interventions like setting up high-quality incubators managed by highly professional personnel, implementing relevant programs for the benefit of startups.

How does the incubator ecosystem contribute to the continuum of the startup development and growth cycle?

Incubators are the builders of startup ecosystems in cities/regions. They play a very critical role in plugging the gaps existing in the ecosystem - whether it is mentoring, investments, support, labs etc. The key role of an incubator is to focus on the gaps in the ecosystem in a particular region or a particular startup domain & develop relevant programs and support products to bridge the gap.