Seattle- based non-profit organization Upaya Social Ventures has launched its 2017 accelerator programme targeting small businesses which are creating jobs by ‘organizing the unorganised sector.’ The accelerator will have three different cohorts of 8-10 ventures across six months which will extend over the next year and a half. The first cohort starts in April of 2017 going up till September.
For the first batch, Upaya is looking for business models that create opportunities in the informal sector.
“We are looking at business which employee rickshaw pullers and maids to give services to another strata of the society,” said Sreejith Nedumpully, investor at Upaya social venture told.
The programme will give the entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch and raise investments, offer one-on-one mentorship, and give them a chance to interact with experts and colleagues from the industry, Nedumpully said.
The selected start-ups will go through weekly programmes covering different aspects of running a business ranging from establishing a target segment, identifying its selling proposition, financial modelling, figuring out working capital requirements and pitching for investments. The accelerator is looking at entries from the sub sectors including vocational training institutes, rural BPOs, home services providers (domestic maids, security guards), waste management service providers, energy and rural or eco-tourism, among others. For a start-up to be eligible it has to be a for-profit, early-stage venture that has started generating revenue or has established proof of concept, provides job placement, skilling opportunities and organized sector benefits to manpower sourced from the poorest of communities.
Further the venture should not have received any institutional funding and should have a commitment towards creating jobs for the poorest communities in India. The next two cohorts will be launched subsequently in the next year and half. The second cohort will be focused on ventures in agro processing, which are working with small and marginal farmers. And the third cohort will be for startups involved in labour intensive manufacturing.
Source: The Times of India
