The opportunities under EIR Programme shall include

• Guidance from experienced, innovative, and highly successful entrepreneurs in the business concept, strategy, or venture and insight into specific industries or markets.
• Best practices for starting a business and broadening the professional network.
• Infrastructural support for developing the idea into a marketable product.
• Financial support to aspiring or established entrepreneurs to experiment with innovative ideas that can become commercial ventures.

Program Guidelines

• Seed Support is given as a grant to the incubator for providing to startups as a soft loan or against equity or a combination of both.
• The Seed Support would be disbursed to startups incubated at the incubator only on the recommendation of the Seed Support Management Committee constituted by the TBI as per the program guidelines.
• The incubator can disburse Seed Support to a startup as a debit/royalty sharing agreement /minority equity stake.
• The seed support would generally cater to early-stage financing for the commercialization of indigenous ideas, innovations, and technologies.
• IP generated using funding from this scheme will vest with the startup.
• This seed support would be used by the incubated entrepreneur only and would not be used by the incubator for facility creation.
• A startup should be only funded once under this program.

Who should apply

• Individuals looking to get groomed for an entrepreneurial journey.
• Individuals with innovative ideas and a strong desire to become an entrepreneur.
• Individuals who are a single founder exploring a business idea and looking for potential partners.
• Individuals that have tried entrepreneurship before unsuccessfully and want to use the learning in another attempt.
• Experienced professionals/entrepreneurs looking for their next innovative business idea.

Program Guidelines for applicants

• The EIR applicant should be a citizen of India. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of a government-approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id, etc.
• EIR is a full-time position. The support recipient should not treat this support as a stopgap arrangement in their academic pursuits or transition between jobs.
• EIR support recipients are expected to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations full-time. EIR cannot be concurrent with any other remuneration or fellowship.
• Once the candidate raises funding or investments for their business ideas, the grant support shall be discontinued from the date of receipt of the first tranche of funds under this program.
• The applicant shall spend 80% of the time exploring their business idea and 20% of the time supporting initiatives at the host incubator.
• The maximum duration of the program is one year. Progress evaluation will be done periodically (at least quarterly) by the incubator to decide on the continuation of support.

Benefits

• Access to IIT Mandi’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem
• Monthly financial support of up to INR 30,000 for a period of 12 months. The funds are not tied to a specific purpose. The duration can be extended to a maximum of 18 months for deserving candidates, based on a decision of the EIR management committee.
• Guidance on product development, commercialization, business concepts, and market strategy.
• Access to workspace, based on availability and as per the norm of incubator.

Expected Outcome

• EIR candidates will explore a technology-based business idea and find clarity, potential team members, and move into the next stages of venture creation i.e, prototyping, product development, and commercialization.
• Recipients should convert into start-up companies.