Venture Center is committed to Social innovation and entrepreneurship.
It actively nucleates and nurtures enterprises that:
- Focus on solving socially important problems
- Build sustainable entities (for profit or not-for-profit) to deliver the solutions to society
If you are an innovator and/or entrepreneur committed to creating a business around solutions for societal problems, contact us now.
Focus Areas
- Affordable Health and Nutrition
- Assistive Technologies
- Empowering farmers
- Clean Energy
- Sustainable resource utilization, environment and circular economy
- Water, sanitation, hygiene
- Any other sectors that can leverage Venture Center’s innovation ecosystem
What are Social Enterprises?
Venture Center defines Social Enterprises as those startups with the following features:
- Startups that aim to provide a solution to a significant problem or need of society and people at large especially under-served and under-privileged sections of the populations
- Startups with a financially sustainable business model and/or a for-profit orientation (all though the profit targets may be muted).
- Startups that benefit from good-will from impact investors (patient capital), funding agencies/ foundations/governments, employees, strategic partners, suppliers/customers etc due to the social goods & services that the startup can deliver.
- Startups pursuing an agenda of inclusive innovation. Supporting technologies/ innovations/ enterprises aiming to deliver significant social impact using technologies that deliver more value from less resource for more people.
Our Initiatives
INCLUDE
INCLUDE is Venture Center's program for supporting social enterprises in partnership with CSIR-NCL and the CSIR-800 program.
SPARSH
The SPARSH program (Social Innovation Programme for Products: Affordable & Relevant to Societal Health) is an initiative under BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council). It is designed to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the biotechnology sector with a specific focus on societal health issues.
Social Innovations Campaigns
Via our Social Innovations vertical, Venture Center has launched campaigns round socially relevant themes like:
Social Innovations Lecture Series (SIL)
This lecture series presents social innovators/entrepreneurs, their journey, their models for delivering social impact, the lessons learnt and their tips/pointers for the next generation of social innovators/ entrepreneurs.
Here is a list of the talks conducted : Talks Archive
Startup 101
Start-up 101 series is an induction series designed for young entrepreneurs who are initiating their entrepreneurial journeys. The aim is to expose them to the basic details and requirements in this journey from aspects of human resources, financial compliances, term sheets, how to raise money, technology commercialization, networking, how to pitch, preparing a business plan, venturing basics and such related aspects of entrepreneurship. Some practical tips and pointers based on real-life experiences will be shared by the speakers in this series. The idea is to enthuse and inspire young entrepreneurs and provide them a common launch pad to take off.
Startup 101 : Series 1(2017)
Startup 101 : Series 2(2018)
Startup 101 : Series 3(2020)
Startup 101 : Series 4(2022)
Startup 101 : Series 5(2023)
Startup 101 : Series 6(2024)
Organised under the Start-Up India Mission
SLAP
Startup Launch Acceleration Program 2.0 is designed specifically for early-stage innovators and startups in deep tech domains.
This is a sector agnostic acceleration program of 11 days durations, which focuses on key aspects of science and technology-
based entrepreneurship. The program will include the following:
• on different aspects of entrepreneurship like: Entrepreneurship Essentials; Value Proposition; Business Planning; Company
Operations; Financial Planning; Intellectual Property; Raising Money; Pitching; Marketing and few essential Skills for entrepreneurs
• Mini workshops (total 09) and talks on various aspects of entrepreneurship
• Mentoring clinics (total 05), slots will be available on first-cum basis to participants signing up for workshops
• Diagnostic and Action Clinics
• Visit to deep-tech startup locations
• Group discussions
• Lunch side chats with deep-tech startup founders
SLAP 1
Outline | Project Report
SLAP 2.0
Outline | Project Report
BFI - Biome
BFI-Biome Virtual Network Program, in collaboration with Venture Center, allocates $1 million over three years to drive biomedical innovation for transformative healthcare solutions
Our Team
|
Dr. Mugdha Potnis-Lele |
Niruta Killedar |
