Startup incubation has matured as a business practice and as an industry over the last decade or so. India now has over 550 central and state government-recognised technology and business incubators, over 60% of which are located in tier 2 and tier 3 geographies of India. These incubators are being increasingly looked at as the harbingers of the next wave of startup led innovations in the years to come. However, startups from tier 2 and tier 3 cities have unique characteristics and ecosystems. Typically, these regions do not have prolific startup or technology entrepreneurship ecosystems, while they may have a strong socio-economic infrastructure.
It was in this context that the ‘Incubators for the Next Generation of India: A Playbook’ was written.
This Playbook heavily draws upon CIIE.CO’s experience of coaching incubators over the last 14 years and authoring India’s first Handbook for Non-Profit Incubator Managers. Specifically, it is based on CIIE.CO’s experience in implementing successful incubation over 14 years, across the geographies of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. The Playbook is dense with insider perspectives and plug-and-play frameworks and checklists curated to aid incubator managers in their goals of unlocking entrepreneurship at a large scale.
CIIE.CO’s journey into the world of regional startup incubation has been bolstered with support and encouragement from SAP. The support has enabled setting up physical and virtual incubation products that have enabled incubating and accelerating over 1000 entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs-in-making. We are also grateful to the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem including Incubation managers, investors, startup founders and their teams for supporting this initiative and the creation of this playbook and look forward to the larger startup ecosystem benefitting from this playbook.
It is our hope that the Playbook will become the go-to tool for incubator managers building the future of the country and the world.