IIM-A incubator to support 100 craft startups by 2025
Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE.CO), the startup incubator of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, will support over 100 early-stage craft startups by 2025.
It will also provide over 15 innovative craft startups access to portfolio support. It will provide seed funding and capital support of up to ₹50 lakh.
Chintan Bakshi, Partner, Incubation, CIIE.CO, told BusinessLine, “Passionate entrepreneurs working directly with craft clusters in India can help India leapfrog from a fossil-fuel-based economy to a green and sustainable economy. At the same time it would create millions of sustainable rural livelihoods.”
Interventions in design, materials, and technology to develop and market sustainable, socially conscious, and eco-friendly products will fuel the growth, he added.
Bharat Innovation Fund: IIM-A incubator is betting big on deep-tech startups
Raising early-stage funds is an uphill task for deep-tech startups. The first product is often expensive to build and takes years to launch. Not many are willing to back such bold startups until they make a breakthrough in the technologies they are building. It was this that led to the launch of IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship Continuum (CIIE.CO)-backed early-stage venture firm Bharat Innovation Fund (BIF) in 2018. It was meant to provide pre-Series A and Series-A funding to deeptech and IP-focused startups, which remain outside the profile and deal flow of most venture capital (VC) funds at their initial stages.
This category-I VC firm has so far funded seven deep-tech startups, and has seven other investments in tech infrastructure/inclusion solutions, deploying almost 40% of its fund pool of $100 mn. The fund has secured commitments from institutional investors like SIDBI (Fund of Funds), ICICI Lombard, SBI Life, RBL Bank, and Federal Bank, and corporates such as Philips and Bajaj Electricals, along with global entrepreneurs, family offices, and HNIs.
“Under our deeptech umbrella, we have experience in running both tech-focused as well as industry/sector focused startup support programmes,” says Priyanka Chopra, chief operating officer and managing partner – seed investing at CIIE.CO, and a venture partner at BIF. “We are currently running the Sustainability Value Accelerator in a partnership with Accenture and plan to launch more programmes this year.” The $100-mn corpus is allocated to two major funds – BIF and Bharat Inclusion Fund. BIF focuses on deep-tech start-ups while Bharat Inclusion Fund backs India Stack-based products that target the next billion internet users.
Gig workers are young, financially stressed and largely uninsured: report
(PTI) Over 52 percent of gig workers or contract employees feel that their work environment makes it challenging for them to upskill or find new job opportunities, according to a report.
However, over 52 per cent of gig workers said the gig working environment makes it difficult to upskill or find new job opportunities, it added.
“Only about one in three individuals we spoke to had clear plans for shifting jobs in the near future. This was despite the vast majority reportedly working overtime in their current shifts and having no resources for up-skilling at the jobs they held,” said the report.
If they are not upskilled and placed in good organisations with better income, it leads to underutilised human capital within the country, it stated.
The CIIE.CO report is based on a survey among 4,070 platform based gig workers, including the high earning knowledge workers and daily-wage agricultural workers.
The report further said that 50 per cent of platform workers today find their jobs through traditional referral networks despite 80 per cent having internet access.
“In many ways, gig workers are channels through which the old and new India interact. We’re in 2022, it is about time that each of us has access to our own data. Enabling gig workers to own and use their employment, financial, health etc. data will improve their well-being and unlock the growth of both traditional and new economies,” CIIE.CO Partner – Insights Supriya Sharma said.
Being powered by declining internet and hardware costs, technology-based platforms are becoming a lifeline for employment at a time when traditional sectors dwindle in size and reach, it said.
Empowering the gig worker with owning and using their own data would improve her wellbeing, including job prospects and financial health, the report added.
Over 52% gig workers feel work environment makes it difficult to upskill, find new jobs: Report
(PTI) Over 52 percent of gig workers or contract employees feel that their work environment makes it challenging for them to upskill or find new job opportunities, according to a report.
According to the report by CIIE.CO, a startup platform built at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, most young respondents increasingly look towards gig economy platforms for their first jobs.
However, over 52 percent of gig workers said the gig working environment makes it difficult to upskill or find new job opportunities, it added.
The report further analyzed that gigs offered by platforms initially hook individuals with the opportunity of short-term income but keep them employed for prolonged periods of time in a career without a long-term growth trajectory.
“Only about one in three individuals we spoke to had clear plans for shifting jobs in the near future. This was despite the vast majority reportedly working overtime in their current shifts and having no resources for up-skilling at the jobs they held,” said the report.
This skills gap, however, has another significant impact on the long-term growth of the economy, the report said, adding the data has revealed that platforms today are increasingly becoming the source of a first job for young graduates leaving university.
If they are not upskilled and placed in good organizations with better income, it leads to underutilized human capital within the country, it stated.
The CIIE.CO report is based on a survey among 4,070 platform-based gig workers, including high-earning knowledge workers and daily-wage agricultural workers.
The report further said that 50 percent of platform workers today find their jobs through traditional referral networks despite 80 percent having internet access.
“In many ways, gig workers are channels through which the old and new India interact. We’re in 2022, it is about time that each of us has access to our own data. Enabling gig workers to own and use their employment, financial, health, etc. data will improve their well-being and unlock the growth of both traditional and new economies,” CIIE.CO Partner – Insights Supriya Sharma said.
Being powered by declining internet and hardware costs, technology-based platforms are becoming a lifeline for employment at a time when traditional sectors dwindle in size and reach, it said.
Empowering the gig worker with owning and using their own data would improve their well-being, including job prospects and financial health, the report added.