Indore
In a bid to give fillip to the start-up culture in the city, the Indore Smart City Development Limited has introduced ‘Smart Seed’, an incubation centre where start-ups will get all the required facilities; starting from guidance to funding during their nascent stage.
Smart City CEO Rishav Gupta said that ISCDL in collaboration with CIIE.CO com, the Technology Business Incubator of IIM Ahmedabad has opened an incubator centre, Smart Seed, at the AICTSL office where tiny till initial stage start-ups as well as innovative startup ideas will be welcomed and a team of the company will help in taking it ahead.
CEO Gupta said, “We have 6000sq ft of space on two floors where 150 people can work at a time. The place has been developed over a sum of Rs 3.9 cr.”
Aditya Vyas, from CIIE.CO who is handling the centre and also there to help the start-ups with their ideas and execution, said that all the start-ups which need a workspace can work in the centre, and if someone needs space to handle clients, they can also get space at the centre.
He added that mentoring on strategy, business model, sales and marketing from in-house team and external experts especially curated by CIIE.CO will be provided. The centre also has space where the discussions over the start-up and its starting strategies could be discussed before getting on board.
“Funding support from Rs3 lakhs to 1 crore will be provided. Funding through programmes supported by state and national government as well as corporate CSRs can be provided at the centre to selective startups. Also fundraising support from a large pool of Angel Investors and VCs will also be there”, said Vyas.
He added that the CIIE.CO would also channelise local mentor for on-ground support and pilots. Team of three full time officials from CIIE.CO and interns will be there to guide the startup. In addition, startup can also get mentoring from international mentors as well. Indore’s centre is the fourth centre nationwide; the other centers are in Ahmedabad, Jaipur and Guwahati.
Cost for getting workspace
The cost for getting the workspace would be around Rs 2K to Rs 3.5K per month in which the person will get meeting room and other office spaces without any additional expense.
“We are concentrating on the incubation center and we are trying our best to encourage startups. We have goal to call hundreds of startups by the end of this year. Smart City has developed the incubation center by doing a large survey on the other such centers," said Rishav Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Indore Smart City Development Limited