Fostering innovation among startups, Amity Innovation Incubator backs 10 early-age businesses

Run by Amity University, Noida-based Amity Innovation Incubator is a not-for-profit initiative aimed at fuelling the growth of startups. It hopes to mentor budding entrepreneurs across the country with its virtual incubation programme across 17 cities.

2008 was the year when the global entrepreneurial revolution started making its way to India and the nation witnessed the birth of unicorns like Ola, Zomato and Quikr, marking the emergence of the startup era. Nearly 10 years ago, when incubators, accelerators and co-working spaces were relatively new terms in the startup ecosystem, Amity Group backed by Department of Science and Technology, GOI, launched Amity Innovation Incubator (AII) to mentor budding entrepreneurs and transform innovative business ideas into reality.

With an advisory body consisting of industrialists, venture capitalists, technical specialists and managers, AII helps entrepreneurs realise their dreams through a range of infrastructure, business advisory, mentoring and financial services. AII incubates companies in the areas of e-learning, bi-fuels, software testing, mobile testing, clinical data management, media and e- commerce. Besides mentoring, the programme also provides virtual incubation to companies and training programmes in venture capital, certified business planner course, along with Intellectual training programme, software training programme, skill development programme and technology enterprise development programme, among others.

So far, AII has incubated more than 100 companies and claims to have generated employment for around 3,500 people. Eleven incubated companies have raised funding under ‘Support of Entrepreneurial and Managerial Development of SMEs through Incubators’ and four companies raised risk capital under SIDBI-SAS Scheme. Since inception, over $40 million has been invested in incubatee companies through mergers and acquisition, and angel investments. The centre also has strategic collaboration with incubators in Europe, Asia, and the US.

In its endeavour to support startups and entrepreneurs financially, Amity Innovation Incubator has strategically tied up with Amity Capital Ventures for financial advisory and investment support. Amity Capital Ventures as an entity raises and invests funds into startups.

Incubated startups at AII

1. Ritsan Media Ventures: The company's core offering Aduncle, has been amongst the top 10 Affiliate Ad networks with over 700 clients spread across the globe. As a fast-growing digital media company, Ritsan aims to expand into several niches and also create a foothold in the global market. The company has been earning an eight-figure revenue and targets a nine-figure revenue by 2020.
2. AmBio Research: The company provides contractual clinical research and development services to pharmaceutical, healthcare, and biotechnology industries. The company’s services include medical writing, data management, biostatistics, clinical monitoring, and regulatory affairs. In addition, it conducts clinical trials and develops investigator networks. AmBio is offering its services to several players in the health sector like Odyssey Research Services, Inc. and RML Pathology Lab, among others.
3. GVC Systems: An electronic equipment manufacturer, GVC Systems designs and develops electronic-embedded devices that are used at home, offices, buildings, and industries. The company chooses components from over 200 hardware, software modules and puts them together to build products catering to the client needs.
4. MereExams: Leveraging the power of technology, MereExams aims to handhold students in getting admission to higher education. The platform claims to be India’s first edtech startup to offer educational consultancy solutions through software and algorithms with features such as personal reminders across platforms, progress trackers, form management systems, and so on.
5. Novasys Labs: The startup aims to provide users with an easy way to consume the most engaging news across different categories that are curated locally using artificial intelligence. It aims to come up with a better way for users to watch relevant news on mobile and TV.
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7. Sporto: When it comes to playing a sport, there is a general tendency to give up or retire from playing it, when one begins work life. The reasons for this are many and one ends up giving up playing altogether. And then there is the passionate sports lover who wants to play but can't seem to find the place or the right kind of players to play with. Sporto aims to tackle all these challenges for sports enthusiasts, with a mobile application that connects people sharing the same sport interests, thereby helping them play and follow their passion for sports.
8. Indian Craft Shops: An online seller of handicrafts, fashion jewellery, apparels, home decor, men and women ethnic apparel and many more, Indian Craft Shops aims to become a reliable online handicrafts marketplace especially for rural artisans. This handicrafts marketplace is providing a business-driven platform for rural artisans and craftsmen where they showcase and sell their handcrafted products to the world without any investment.
9. Zipzap Deals: It is a hyper-local online platform that enables customer and local merchants to discover and engage with each other. The platform offers online deals across a range of categories including food and drinks, entertainment, amazing hangouts, health and fitness, and spa and salon.
10. Placio: Fostering community-based living, Placio is building a network of student housing properties that provide boarding, food, security, air-conditioning, internet, and housekeeping. The platform offers fully furnished shared room, private room and personal apartment for few nights to longer leasing periods. Placio offers carefully curated places of living which are not only comfortable but also affordable for college-going students without any unnecessary restrictions. The startup has over 1,000 beds and aims to reach 10,000-bed capability in 12-16 months.
11. Cloud Shope Technologies: The platform provides cloud telephony products and its core offering is TechnoReseller, a user-friendly software that claims to be solving all pain points of customers. Some of the Cloud Shope Technologies services include Intractive Voice Response (IVR), Missed Call Services, Bulk Voice Calls and Custom IVR Integrations, among others. The company also provides free demo of all services to ensure customer satisfaction.

Understanding AII service model

Amity Innovation Incubator currently uses a balancing model to accommodate startup incubation requests. The model consists of the three aspects — rent, equity, and royalty.

A balancing model is a hybrid form of a dedicated equity or rental model that uses a blend of equity percentage and rent on a per month per seat basis. The value percentage of equity would vary between 5-15 percent of the total equity with rent varying between Rs 5,000 to 12,000 on per month per seat basis. The equity percentage and the rentals depend on a number of factors including growth potential, stage of the startup and risk involved, among others.

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