NIDHI ACCELERATOR PROGRAM

Indigram Labs Foundation

Indigram Labs Foundation was established in 2015. It is registered as a technology business incubator under section 8 (Not for Profit Company) of company act 2013 and received support from NSTEDB, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. The major thrust areas of Indigrams' incubation efforts are Agriculture-Technology & food processing, clean Energy and Automation, rural focused healthcare and wellness and Education. ILF has been promoted by Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals (ISAP). ISAP is having PAN India presence. ISAP has been doing remarkable work over the last 17 years in the field of Agriculture and has a network of around 5, 00,000 farming families across India and has created 233 Farmer Producer Organizations each being owned by around a 1000 farmers each.

As a Technology Business Incubator, ILF networked with all TBIs in the country through various networks like ISBA through which it is networked with AABI (Asia Pacific), European UKBI and US NBIA. Currently, ILF has 30 incubatees and others in the pipeline. It has collaboration with international incubators such as Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab-China, Global Israeli Initiative, Israel; CURAD- Uganda. Our other collaborators include World Startup Factory, Netherland; IT Hub Mahatma Gandhi, Bulgaria; Excel Hort Consult, Uganda; French Chamber of Commerce and Industry, GROW Accelerator, Singapore; Berkeley Skydeck Accelerator, Cleantech ForEst and others in the pipeline like New South Wales Government, Australia.

NIDHI- Accelerator Program

National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) is an umbrella programme conceived and developed by the Innovation & Entrepreneurship division, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, for nurturing ideas and innovations (knowledge-based and technology-driven) into successful startups.Accelerators are playing a pivotal role in startup communities throughout the world. Acceleration programs are critical to improving the startup's outcomes. Startup accelerators support early-stage, growth-driven companies through education, mentorship, and financing. The accelerator experience is a process of intense, rapid, and immersive education aimed at accelerating the life cycle of young innovative companies, compressing years' worth of learning-by-doing into just a few months. Accelerators provide entrepreneurs with access to a large pool of resources including, but not limited to investors, marketing/PR, a network of mentors and business advisors, and a structured curriculum with goals/metrics. The program is intended to prepare them for pitching to the carefully selected angel investors and venture capitalist. The programme is expected to contribute to building a vibrant startup a hub in the region by establishing a network between start-ups, academia, financial institutions, industries, and other institutions.

Objectives of the ProgramThe proposed programme will focus on the following specific objectives to support start-ups to grow:Ÿ To provide initial funding to bring potential & innovative ideas on the groundŸ To provide access to experienced high impact mentorsŸ To provide opportunities to get connected to potential customer and investorsŸ To provide an intensive programme that gives startups a chance to develop their ideasŸ To provide hands-on experience on Product development, design and run experiments on real users and

validation

Design and Structure of the NIDHI-Accelerator Program

The proposed program will follow four stage processes that enable entrepreneurship transformation through deep & long well designed structured mentoring process by the individuals who have already passed the same stages. The program shall decrease the mortality rate drastically and help startups become large global sustainable businesses.

Phase I (Outreach & Evaluation Phase)

I. Outreach for attracting start-up talent: Indigram Labs Foundation will do the outreach for entries of the innovators/entrepreneurs who aspires to see their ventures into the next level. Roadshows will also be conducted in 4 places Pan-India to attract more participants & likeminded stakeholders of Startup ecosystem.

RoadshowsthImphal: 10 Jan 2020

stHyderabad: 21 Jan 2020thChandigarh: 27 Jan 2020

thPune: 06 Feb 2020

Following are the multiple organizations, stakeholders and channels that ILF will engage with, to source and attract start-ups for the accelerator. These include:A. Referrals from entrepreneurs affiliated with the acceleratorB. Impact investors (individuals and investment funds)C. Commercial investorsD. Entrepreneurial associations in the social impact spaceE. UniversitiesF. Industry associations focused on specific sectorsG. Sector-specific conferences (e.g. agriculture, food & clean energy)H. Social entrepreneurship or impact investing conferencesI. Inbound requests from program marketing efforts and social mediaJ. Outbound direct, recruitment (e.g. finding and contacting entrepreneurs on the web, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.)

ii. Registration & Application Stage: The early stage entrepreneurs/ innovators having MVP/PoC of its innovative solutions along with social impact irrespective of product and stages of the startups within stated theme areas will register & submit the online application form on ILF 's website. The accelerator management team will do the initial screening of the submitted forms to assess the viability of the idea, product-market fitment, team experience and scope of the market.

iii. Evaluation & Cohort selection Stage: After shortlisting, top 30 startups will be asked for a Skype interview to learn more about the applicants and top 20 invited for 10 min face–to–face interviews and being asked to pitch and present their business. In each stage expert evaluator comprises of strategic partners, mentors, investors will screen as an individual jury member. A selection committee will be created for the final selection of the Top 10 ideas.

Phase II (Boot Camp Phase)

The Top 10 will undergo for an entrepreneurship Boot camp which will be an intense interaction between startups & speakers that unfolds knowledge on entrepreneurship in a training program through two-week interactive classroom session and workshops. The result of the Boot camp is processed through parameters driven scorecard that helps determine the potential of an Idea irrespective of the stage it is. Based on the 'score' and employing deep research to scale of the problem and its unique solution from development, execution and marketability point of view, the startup proceeds to the next stage – the Incubation.

Imphal

Hyderabad

Chandigarh

Pune

Phase III (Acceleration Phase)

Mentoring like IncubationThe earlier stage 'Boot Camp' will be conducted to bring all top 10 startups at the same level of understanding on 'how to build a venture'. In the next two weeks, participants will have one-to-one interaction with the respective Mentors assigned to them. By end of this stage, an entrepreneur will be able to demonstrate the proven market traction through real customers and revenues.

Acceleration for FundingAt this phase, the cohort will undergo for one-week Funds raising training programs/workshops. The program will conclude with a pre-demo day (one week) and power pack event Demo Day, where Investors from various arenas will join with the thought of investment.

Supports offered to Start-ups: Indigram Labs Foundation will provide incubation support to the potential ideas that will be absorbed for acceleration. It will also provide funding support for the prototype development and/or seed fund (max. upto INR 25 lakhs). Besides this, following support will be offered to the startups through the proposed program:

Ÿ Co-working space – important for knowledge sharing and collaborationŸ Regular interactions with the management team – to review progress and provide business adviceŸ Networking opportunities – with experts and professionals, in the form of a structured mentoring programŸ Training program – includes seminars and vocational training courses covering topics such as finance,

product design, IPR, marketing, legal aspects, and other subjectsŸ Intense Mentoring Session- During the program, there will also be guests (workshops, lectures etc.) from

other startups, partner companies etc. These will be arranged online and/or on-site, as neededŸ Pre-demo Days- Before initiation of the demo day, one-week pre-demo day will be conducted for the

startups in order to make them ready for pitching and finalize the startups that can present their innovation in front of dignitaries

Ÿ Demo days – At the end of the program, a demo day will be arranged to allow start-ups to pitch to a group of carefully selected angels and venture capitalists

Accelerator Activity Modules

Ÿ Mentor Days- The entrepreneurs will experience one-to-one meeting with a series of mentors with domain experience that is best suited to provide real value to their needs. This will connect the entrepreneurs not to mentor but their network too.

Ÿ Build Days- Under the guidance of the experienced mentor, the startup will plan, conduct pilot tests & compare the results to ensure ongoing business model accepted by the market and create efficient revenue streams to become a future sustainable and scalable enterprise.

Ÿ Board Meetings (On monthly basis)- In every month a Board meeting will be organized to ensure that the program is going in the right direction and to assess challenges facing by the startups in their progress.

Ÿ One-to-one support (12 weeks period)- The core team members will support the cohort all along the 12 weeks during the program.

Ÿ Funding & Pitch Practice (2 weeks)- The accelerator program will provide one-week training to the cohort about raising funds from the VCs/Angel Investors etc.

Ÿ Pre-demo day- one week prior to the Demo Day, the cohort will have pitch training and practice to prepare for the demo day. They will receive support from professional pitch coaches, with a background in active coaching, to ensure delivery, content, and style to perfect their pitch.

Ÿ Demo Day- At the end of the program, a demo day will be held to allow the startups to pitch to a group of carefully selected Angels, and Venture Capitalists. This will be arranged in an intimate room where investors have the chance to ask in-depth questions and get to know the startup better

TimelineIndigram Labs Foundation will conduct NIDHI-accelerator program for six months for which the activities along with the timeline has been developed and presented below in the table:

Program Partners

Act ivit ies Accelerator Program Tim eline (Dec’19-M ay’20 )

Phase I

Ap p licat ion op en Dec’ 2019

Coh ort Select ion From : 1st w eek of Jan ’20

Till: 3rd w eek of Feb ’20

Phase II Valid at e via Boot Cam p Feb’ 20

Phase III

M en t orin g like

In cu b at ion

From: 3rd week of Feb’20 Till: 2nd week of May’ 20

Accelerat ion for

Fu n d in g M ay’ 2020

Follow on fu n d in g an d in cu b at ion st art at In d ig ram Lab s

Fou n d at ion

Outreach Partner

Knowledge Partner

Technology Partner

Investment Partner

Media Partner

Ecosystem Partner