Corporates and newly emerged billionaires are willing to spend their CSR funds to help the young startups in flourishing. These firms are also coming up with specialized incubators to lend a hand. Three years ago, 58-years ago Dapu Khan was a folk artist in a small village.
A few years ago, two fresh graduates of the Berklee School of Music, Abhinav Agrawal and Satyam Sangwan along with lawyer Shuchi Roy came to his life. They recorded his music in Jaisalmer, designed a website for him, and helped him in translating his songs into English. Since then, Khan performs across Germany, India, and the US.
This has set up a trend in creating and accelerating innovative non-profits. An initiative, N/Core, founded by former InMobi executive Atul Satija and supported by a host of corporates; Edumentum, founded by Infosys co-founder S D Shibulal and former Infosys top executive Sanjay Purohit; and Social Ventures Incubator of IIM-Bangalore’s NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) demonstrates the same philosophy.
“Corporates have started actively spending time with incubators, helping them create business models and get funds. CEOs of established startups like Naveen Tewari of InMobi and Binny Bansal of Flipkart speak at our programmes”, says Satija, whose N/Core just completed its first batch, which included Anahad.