icreate, an incubator in Gujarat invites application for second batch

This article is part of the series called Startup Hatch, about incubators and accelerators in the startup ecosystem.

International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (icreate), an incubator setup through public private partnership in Gujarat is inviting applications for its second batch of aspirants. The first batch of the grooming program commenced on March 7, 2013 with 9 promising entrepreneurial talents. The participants come from a diverse backgrounds and have experience ranging from 1 year to 20 years. The applicants have diverse career backgrounds in hospitality, IT, telecom, BFSI, pharmacology, consulting and chartered accountancy.

icreate model is built on the founders early experience with Nirma Labs to help budding entrepreneurs. The program offers grooming & incubation service to all the shortlisted candidates. Through the course of 13 week program, among other things, individuals get to practise how to ideate, evaluate and select an idea, market the idea, build a team and raise finances. At the end of the grooming program, the participants have a choice and an opportunity to pitch their project ideas for incubation & seed funding to icreate.

For its first batch, icreate had sought applications from aspirants through word-of-mouth, references as well as advertising. The first batch had received 25 applications of which 17 were shortlisted and made offers to join, of these 9 participants finally took up the offer. Selected applicants have to pay Rs 35,000 as a deposit and in return they have access to icreate office space, resources, mentors and other networking resources to help them connect to people who can help them convert their idea into reality. Devesh Rathore of icreate says the deposit is taken to ensure applicants are serious about their effort. This money is refunded after six months to the participants. Incase of applicants who’s idea get selected for seed funding from icreate at the end of the 13-week period, this deposit amount is assigned as notional debt to the startup that is created.

icreate is currently inviting applications for its second batch of individuals/projects commencing from June 13, 2013. More details can be found here.