ISB Hyderabad to set up incubator for entrepreneurs

Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) is all set to establish an entrepreneurship incubator for its students, alumni and even outsiders. The institute only has a virtual incubator, called K-Hub, at present, which supports the start-ups and growth of high technology ventures.

“With more than 20% of the students being involved in entrepreneurship in some way or the other, there is huge growth happening in this area. Hence, we are working on a physical incubator model,” said Prof. Kavil Ramachandran, professor of family business and entrepreneurship at ISB.

The incubator, which will take at least one year to come into being, will help those with an entrepreneurial bent of mind, those who run family businesses and others who want to set up their own ventures by mentoring them through the start-up and growth phases. Besides idea validation, the incubator will help in business plan preparation, strategy creation and business development support.

The current K-Hub is a hybrid business incubator created in collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh government. It provides virtual incubation support to new and emerging SMEs. Through specialised mentoring, the programme aims to accelerate growth and self-sufficiency of these enterprises. More than 100 SMEs have already benefitted from the programme.

“Setting up the physical incubator is a priority item for the institute and it will be based on the virtual incubator model,” said Ramachandran. The incubator will be initially set up at ISB’s Hyderabad campus and may be extended to its upcoming Mohali campus later.

Source: The Financial Express, September 27, 2011