IBM to give $2.4 million to entrepreneurs in India taking courses from Coursera

IBM India announced today that it will source entrepreneurs with high potential from India to invite them into its Global Entrepreneur program from Coursera’s series of courses under “Full Stack Web Development Specialization”. The series is being offered by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. According to the announcement, at least 20 participants taking the online course and meeting the criteria by IBM will be accepted in IBM Global Entrepreneur. The selected participants will be given $120,000 in credit to access IBM Cloud services in credit in addition to the invites to apply to represent their startup at IBM SmartCamp 2016, a mentoring Bootcamp and pitch competition between rising startups from all over the world. Coursera will also offer Capstone Project for learners who complete all the courses, which is designed to prepare entrepreneurs to launch a company on a web-based platform. “New start-ups are popping up in India every day, and we are pouring significant resources into industry partnerships and content launches to keep up with the demand for tech skills. IBM’s technology expertise and focus on developing the start-up community in the country will significantly benefit our learners by providing them with invaluable financial support and the necessary tools for a chance at success.” Kabir Chadha, India country Manager, Coursera added about the collaboration with IBM. The course is open to anyone with a total five-course specialization taking approximately 6 months to complete based on investing a minimum of 3-4 hours per week and costs Rs 20,000. This collaboration by IBM comes right after the developer’s guide to the Internet of Things created by the company on Coursera.