Attention entrepreneurs: IIM-A, Village Capital kickoff accelerator program in Goa

Startup incubation outfit Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at Indian Institute of Ahmedabad (IIM-A), in partnership with Village Capital, kicks off the first series of accelerator workshops this month at CIBA, Goa. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, The Last Mile Access Accelerator is a program that aims to help scale innovative enterprises who are increasing access to under-served populations.

The CIIE- Village Capital Accelerator is a partnership between two organizations with a track record of identifying, supporting, and funding early-stage companies. The program places heavy emphasis on peer mentoring and selection of best ventures within the cohort.

Throughout the program, participating entrepreneurs assess one another. Two top-ranking startups will receive Rs. 30 Lakh each in investment funding.

[caption id=“attachment_85431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Thinkstock[/caption]

More from Startups

Pune-based startup, Guruji on Demand, to launch online funeral management service in times of social distancing NASSCOM teams up with IoT, AI startups to provide low-cost solutions to combat COVID-19

The program starts today, May 21, 2014, with two additional five-day workshops in July and August at CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad.

On-going online collaboration, meetings and presentations with expert mentors, investors and sector practitioners will provide additional real-time feedback. At the end of the program, participants will have an opportunity to pitch to Indian and international investors for additional funding. Over 200 enterprises have applied to the program, representing a cross-section of the best energy, healthcare, waste management, sanitation, agriculture and distribution companies.

Among other factors, each enterprise’s stage of development, team, value proposition, scalability and potential to create an impact were assessed. The following startups comprise the final cohort of the program:

Blackmelon Advance Technology Company Pvt. Ltd works to channel e-waste using an innovative and economically viable collection model, followed by environmentally friendly recycling.

Bodhi Health Education leverages low cost mobile technology coupled with eLearning to create scalable, high quality training solutions for BoP health workers

Hi-7Agri Bio-solutions manufacture and sell crop specific, foliar spray micronutrients that increase the yield and quality of farmer crops.

Karabi Software Pvt. Ltd. simplifies critical processes for data capture in real time, enabling organizations to make informed decisions

Krishi Star works to lift small farmers out of poverty by creating a food brand that represents them; It has set up a farmer-owned food manufacturing capacity to supply this brand

MicroX Labs develop lab-on-a-chip based miniaturized point-of-care medical diagnostic devices, currently focuses on Complete Blood Count (CBC) chips in order to provide affordable, accessible and quality diagnostic solutions

Parvata Foods Pvt. Ltd. aim to ameliorate the living conditions of local farmers by building a value chain of organic produce in Sikkim

Pulse Savings is a mobile-based commitment savings tool that enables the poor to save money when and where they shop

Rural Spark Energy India Pvt. Ltd. is growing the next energy network. Rural Spark’s service is smartly distributed, viable and sustainable; facilitating and empowering people and local systems to emerge

Sickle Innovations Private Limited develop and design farm mechanization solutions for small farmers

Suma Agro works toward revitalizing the physical, chemical, and biological processes that are essential for sustainable agriculture production

Uber Diagnostics provides affordable healthcare diagnostics through mobile application and data analytics.

Urjas Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is a cleantech company focused on biomass to energy and solar applications