In collaboration with German aid agency GIZ, Citrix, Ericsson, Harman and IKP Knowledge Park, Zinnov, a management consulting firm, has announced the launch of a social start-up accelerator programme, SIGMA.

Sigma will focus on social start-ups in five key areas of healthcare, clean tech, smart agriculture, sanitation, and education. This social accelerator programme aims at boosting for-profit social enterprises that have created affordable, scalable solutions for the under-served population in the country.

“Our goal is to bring together a consortium of corporate entities who will pool in money from their CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds to run SIGMA, and also provide tools to run the business and resources to mentor start-ups in the social space,” said Vaibhav Gupta, Principal / Lead – India Market, Zinnov who leads the start-up engagement and digital transformation programmes in India.

“We will shortlist 15 early stage social start-ups who are in the pre-Series A stage or have received seed funding, have a clear business model and a minimal viable product that can be sold to an identified customer base,” as told in The Hindu Business Line.

Through the Sigma social accelerator programme, start-ups will have access to mentorship, customer access, tools, ecosystem connects, co-working space, technology and business support, advisory services, and grants.

Application for the programme has opened from July 18 and will be closed on August 4. The selected start-ups will each receive a stipend of rupees 15,000, and on graduation, the top three start-ups will receive seed grants. The first SIGMA cohort will begin on August 10, and plans are on to host two cohorts per annum.