IIM Ahmedabad’s business incubation centre, CIIE – Centre for Innovation Incubation and
Entrepreneurship has been instrumental in fostering innovation driven entrepreneurship since
2007. The centre does that by providing mentoring, infrastructure support, industry connect and
investment to early stage startup. Every year, CIIE supports 30+ startups in renewable, social and
ICT segment.
iAccelerator, CIIE’s flagship program for Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
startups, has opened up application for its 2013 batch.
Last day to apply is 15th July, so if you are a startup in Internet & Mobile domain and at early stage (6 months to a year since inception and MVP/prototype ready stage), this is the best program in the country for you.
One of the key differentiator of iAccelerator is that it is backed by an academic institute vs. private
entity. iAccelerator started with a goal of not only generating return on investment (RoI) but also
creating ecosystem for early stage startups in this domain. This allows iAccelerator-CIIE to keep
best interest of participating startups in mind, which translates into startup friendly termsheet/
agreement, mentoring/networking/infrastructure support even after the program and of course,
IIMA community access. Moreover, RoI from portfolio is utilized to invest/support more startups.
The iAccelerator program:
- Selects up to 10 startups per batch: Since its inception in 2009, the program has run four successful batches and supported 34 startups. iAccelerator is scaling up this year and will run one batch every six month. The application will remain open all year long.
- Is best suited for early (prototype/MVP) stage startups: During the boot camp, startups get mentoring in four key areas – business model refinement, produce strategy, UXUI design and initial user acquisition.
- Supports startups in Internet & Mobile domain: Such startups can grow significantly in short span if receive right mentoring, connection, investment and infrastructure support. The program is specifically designed to create technically excellent, well-run, profitable companies in this domain.
- Provides 5L+ in investment: The program not only provides 5L investment to selected startups but also brings angel investors (who are also internet and mobile industry expert) to co-invest Angel investors together can invest upto 10L in a startup.
- Is three-month long: We have tried different models such as running a program for as short as 10 days to as long as four months. Three months, we believe, is the optimum time frame for startups to spend at iAccelerator. The program is divided into three section of one month each. The first month focuses on helping startups with refining business model, defining MVP and incorporating the company. The second month focuses on other business related mentoring such as customer discovery, UXUI design, user acquisition, sales & marketing etc. Lastly, the third month is focused on investment mentoring, investor connect and demo day.
- Not a one-man-show but a mentorship-drive platform: iAccelerator has created a strong network of relevant mentors from IIMA Alumni, industry leaders, successful entrepreneurs,investors and functional experts. The network collectively help selected startups to achieve higher grounds.
- Residential vs. Virtual: Selected startups move to beautiful IIM-Ahmedabad campus for three months to spend time with iAccelerator team, mentors, investors and peer startups. On an average, our startups meet four to five mentors in a week. The exposure and acceleration enable them to achieve abnormal growth during their time at iAccelerator.
- IIM-Ahmedabad Week: Though relevant IIMA Alumni visit iAccelerator startups through out the program, one week is specifically dedicated to give startups an opportunity to interact with IIMA students and faculty. IIMA community connect provide our startups an opportunity to discuss management challenges, and potential co-founder and create mutually beneficial relationships.
- Global Launchpad: Significant number of startups that come to iAccelerator are developing product for the Global market. The program is in the process of establishing partnerships that will provide its startups a global launchpad to promote their product and connect with relevant people across geography. In the past, iAccelerator startups have been selected by entities such as Rajeev Motwani Foundation to form linkages with entrepreneurs and seed investors in Silicon Valley.
For more information on iAccelerator and application form, visit us at www.iaccelerator.in or send
us an email at iaccelerator@ciieindia.org
