Incubated at IIM-A,put on show in Bangalore

“The business ecosystem is already developed in Bangalore,since you have Google,Nokia and all other big names over there,” said Pranay Gupta,Joint-CEO of CIIE,which helped the start-ups establish contacts,gave them initial funds and managerial assistance,and facilitated them to stay at the campus hostels and work in the campus office.

“They will be able to get more active help there,” Gupta said.

Some of the start-ups CIIE has been incubating include business ventures that have developed technologies ranging from software that will simplify micro-finance transactions to a search engine to help businesses trace online reviews for their products. Another software will help personal website owners “promote their website by bringing social network onto their site and get better reader-engagement”.

Prashant Mishra,owner of the micro-finance software business (called Audech),said he had made “a lot of contacts in Ahmedabad which will be very useful in the future”,but was now looking to Kolkata where he has found his first customer.

Mishra said his business venture — software that can be used in both mobile phones and computers to help micro-finance agents file their entries and weekly repayments — can hardly be based in Bangalore,or any city for that matter,since it will target rural and semi-urban markets. The roadshow is designed to give the start-ups a chance to demonstrate their techno products and find investors who can help them start on their own.

“They were doing very well in Ahmedabad,and I feel they will be able to do even better in Bangalore,” said CIIE’s Gupta,adding,“If you want to take up farming,you have to be in the farm.”