North East Growth Labs

Empowering Startups in North Eastern India with Knowledge, Mentorship, Connects and Capital

North East Growth Labs

Empowering Startups in North Eastern India with Knowledge, Mentorship, Connects and Capital

About the Program

IIMA Ventures, in collaboration with SAP, proudly presents the NEGL (North East Growth Labs) program, a transformative initiative to foster innovation and entrepreneurship across Sikkim, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur. This program is designed to empower early-stage startups by providing financial grants, technical assistance, and comprehensive business support to help them scale and address regional challenges.

Program Objectives

Provide financial and strategic support to early-stage ventures in the North Eastern region.

Encourage groundbreaking solutions in key sectors like agriculture, climate tech, clean tech, health tech, sustainable tourism, fintech , edtech, and crafts and livelihoods.

Offer mentoring, financial reviews, and business development support to ensure sustainable growth.

Provide opportunities to entrepreneurs from the North East to connect to markets, specifically businesses and corporates

Strengthen the entrepreneurial ecosystem in North Eastern India, creating opportunities for local talent and businesses.

Accelerator Offerings

2-day intensive bootcamp at Guwahati for the top 25 startups

Grants: 15 startups will receive grants averaging Rs. 3.25 lakhs.

15 diagnostic and mentoring clinics per selected startup

Gain access to industry pioneers with mentorship from IIMA Ventures

Portfolio support, monthly office hours for one year.

Who Can Apply

Operating Location

  • Startups based in Sikkim, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, or Manipur.

Development Stage

  • Early-stage startups with scalable, innovative solutions, incorporated up to 5 years before the program start

Target Sectors

Focus Area

  • The program focus is to support Agri & Rural Livelihoods entrepreneurs.

     

Frequently Asked Questions

We strongly encourage you to think through and submit only one application for the innovation that you are most focused on building through. If you are submitting two applications for the same innovation, the duplicate application with less context and poorly articulated thoughts will not be taken forward.

It is good that you are working out of other geographies, however, in this program, we are looking for startups registered in India with its founders and operations based out of India.

Yes, you can apply to this program, regardless of whether you have received grants or awards or raised funds.

We are looking for startups with a strong founding team, unique and innovative solution, alignment to the sector, and the potential of the business to scale.

The startup can be based out of any other geography in India. However, if their operations are based out of NE and the impact is being created in the NE, they are still eligible to apply.

For any query, general or technical, write to us at abhimanyu@iima.ac.in