IIMB's NSRCEL Partners With Capgemini To Launch Social Startup Incubation Programme The programme aims to support not-for-profit tech-enabled ventures solving social problems and impacting areas of education, employability, and environment

The startup incubation centre NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) on Monday announced a collaboration with Capgemini in India to support social startups under the NSRCEL social programme.

The programme plans to support not-for-profit tech-enabled ventures solving social problems and impacting areas of education, employability, and environment and will be accepting applications from 6 January, 2021.   

"We are very excited to collaborate with Capgemini in this novel endeavor to nurture and scale up social entrepreneurs. A large country like ours has an abundance of challenges as well as talent and passion to solve them. But building a sustainable social enterprise takes more than passion. Our experience over the last several years has taught us the value of nurturing the individual and the enterprise and walking on the journey with them. With a very strong commitment from Capgemini, NSRCEL is confident in creating a platform that can set a global benchmark for developing entrepreneurs who are ready to make a lasting impact on the society that they serve," shared Dr. Venkatesh Panchapagesan, chairperson, NSRCEL and finance and accounting professor, IIM-B.

Early-stage ventures, not older than two years with a minimum of six months of groundwork, will be shortlisted for a three-month pre-incubation phase. During the pre-incubation phase of the programme, entrepreneurs will be engaged in capacity-building workshops and sessions by sector-specific experts to enrich their technical know-how. The entrepreneurs will get a robust opportunity to network with more than 800 ventures from previous cohorts at the institute, said the establishment in a statement released. 

"As a leader in digital transformation, Capgemini has a firm commitment to ensure technology and innovation drive sustainability and social development. We value and support this alliance with NSRCEL and hope to provide a platform for aspiring and innovative startups to make their dreams a reality, and to boost innovation and growth with an entrepreneurial mindset. For this program, our Capgemini Innovation and Applied Innovation Exchange teams, supported by our innovation leader Nisheeth Srivastava, will mentor the selected startups. We look forward to amplifying opportunities to nurture promising early-stage social ventures at IIM-B and empower them to scale up in order to be capable of addressing social problems and delivering sustained real-world impact," added Kumar Anurag Pratap, India CSR lead, Capgemini, while sharing his thoughts about the NSRCEL social programme.

The platform further maintains that the incubation phase will focus on entrepreneurs getting access to workshops on building their value proposition, impact measurement, leadership capacity building, legal and compliance support, a strategic road map for scaling, and more, along with a grant. Capgemini's Applied Innovation Academy will be engaged in these pre-incubation and incubation phase proficiency-building activities, the statement stated.

Post-pre-incubation, the ventures will be given an opportunity to pitch to NSRCEL for a 12-month incubation journey.

The participants of the NSRCEL social program will receive continued support after programme completion through webinars, masterclasses, guest lectures, and workshops, said the report.  

With Altran, the Capgemini group reported combined global revenues of €17 billion in 2019.