Bengaluru, NFAPost: NSRCEL- the innovation and entrepreneurship hub of IIM Bangalore, has signed an MoU with Yunus Social Business Fund Bengaluru (YSBFB), the pioneers in social business financing and scaling.
NSRCEL’s Impact Orbit Incubation Vertical recently launched its first-ever Rural Entrepreneurship Incubation program. The program aims to identify, nurture and scale social innovations in rural India. It is the first foray for NSRCEL to understand the challenges to scale for-profit impact businesses from rural India.
NSRCEL will support nine early-stage startups in scaling their revenues through specialised businesses and investment-readiness training through this program. The goal of this incubation program is to support at least 25% of the cohort to double their revenue and to directly impact 500-700 livelihoods, and indirectly benefit 2500-3000 lives.
While NSRCEL is leading the incubation program, YSBFB will facilitate modules on investment readiness, working capital management, and exposure to different forms of funding, including an opportunity for two ventures to raise debt from the fund.
Anand Sri Ganesh, Commenting on the development, NSRCEL Chief Operating Officer Anand Sri Ganesh said the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting digitization helped NSRCEL serve entrepreneurs from all over.
“We also started to see first-time founders moving to rural areas, noticing a local problem or a market opportunity, and innovating for the same. This incubation program is a result of unearthing such ventures with a focus on innovative route-to-market solutions & rural livelihood creation, especially employing local women,” said Anand Sri Ganesh, Commenting on the development, NSRCEL Chief Operating Officer Anand Sri Ganesh
He also said IIMB is excited to work with an experienced partner like Yunus Social Business fund Bengaluru (YSBFB), which has worked with such ventures globally in other emerging markets like Kenya, Uganda, Colombia and Brazil.
“We look forward to having YSBFB team engage with our ventures during our November Bootcamp and ready them for future investments in the impact ecosystem,” said NSRCEL Chief Operating Officer Anand Sri Ganesh.
YSBFB Chief Executive Officer Suresh K Krishna said YSBFB has always supported social businesses that intrinsically work with rural populations, creating decentralised livelihood opportunities or enabling access to essential products and services.
“The Rural Entrepreneurship Program comes at an opportune time to build back a resilient India. YSBFB is thrilled to partner with NSRCEL, which has for the last many years promoted the entrepreneurship movement in India,” said YSBFB Chief Executive Officer Suresh K Krishna.
Below is the list of selected ventures for incubation-
Sahrudaya Foods:
Sahrudaya aims to bring regional rural recipes which are tasty as well as healthy to your doorstep.
Resham Dor:
Resham Dor’s vision is to revive diminishing craft clusters across India and establish artisans as custodians of their craft.
Kulture Street:
Aimed towards building a brand that provides skilled Indian artisans a larger market access (online/offline) and a community of loyal customers that love Indian handmade products, across the globe.
Kalapuri:
Kalapuri embraces artisan communities by giving new opportunities, developing artisans into independent entrepreneurs, training and developing artisan communities and providing global market through Kalapuri platform.
IVillage Social Solutions:
IVillage aims to address the problem of migration of workforce from rural to urban areas by training rural women to manufacture high quality hand-made products and machine-based stitching processes thus giving them an opportunity to be financially independent.
Indian Yards:
Indian Yards up-skills women from the communities in the Nilgiris to become fine macrame artisans and subsequently enables them towards becoming an independent producer group.
ForSarees:
ForSarees is a for-profit social enterprise working with rural artisans, with a vison to revive and popularize indigenous weaves.
Bastar se Bazar Tak:
Based in Bastar, the organization is working towards improving the livelihoods of tribal farmers through non-timber forest produce.
Ayang:
Ayang Trust’s Livelihood program provides training and market access to farmers in the north-east to help increase productivity and income.
