Incubation centres, govt schemes boost student entrepreneurship

While student startups struggle with funding, B-school incubators and government schemes are helping get ideas off the ground with both seed-funding and mentorship

- By Sheena Sachdeva

Incubation centres across business schools are providing mentorship and programmes for more student-led startups to flourish. However, limited exposure and smaller networks still make it hard for student founders to access the right investors or navigate fundraising effectively, said Priyanka Chopra, chief operating officer and managing partner, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad Ventures, its incubation centre.

Institutes like IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Indian School of Business (ISB), Goa Institute of Management (GIM) and Amity University have setup incubation centres to support student led-startups. While some offer mentorship and entrepreneurship training, others also assist with acceleration of the ventures. The Atal Incubation Centres have a key role in this process.

Funding for early-stage startups is slow and that is where university-supported incubators step in. Chopra added, “The positive shift is that student-focused funds and university-linked incubators are now filling this gap, helping young founders build credibility and investment readiness early.”

Atal Incubation Centres

Many B-schools have setup Atal Incubation Centres, a Government of India initiative that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship with grants of upto Rs 10 crore for capital and operational expenditure. Institutes like ISB Hyderabad and GIM have centres through which they have created hubs and programmes to not only support in-house student ventures but also incubate outside startups as well.

Sumit Garg, chief operating officer, AIC-GIM said: “We offer an ‘Entrepreneur in Residence’ programme where students get to know the basic function of commencing a startup and learn to work on their own ideas.”