McKinsey to support 165 IT projects

MUMBAI, APRIL 4: McKinsey's India Venture 2000 has selected 1,100 entrepreneurs from the 4,500 responses it received early this year for c...

MUMBAI, APRIL 4: McKinsey8217;s India Venture 2000 has selected 1,100 entrepreneurs from the 4,500 responses it received early this year for converting ideas in the infotech and e-commerce space into successful business ventures. Of these, 165 will be supported closely and receive active coaching and monitoring, senior engagement manager Rajat Gupta told reporters on Tuesday.

Around 15 to 20 of these ideas are expected to launched as businesses and will receive seed funding by June this year. The ideas, which were screened for completeness of entry, uniqueness, and clear and detailed definition, are now entering the second phase or the business planning phase of the programme.

quot;A virtual market place has been created for entrepreneurs at their website. The market place will help cater to the needs of a start-up business and assist budding entrepreneurs in solving problems that crop up at the inception stage,quot; McKinsey said about the second phase.

The advisory board for India Venture 2000 comprises entrepreneurs like Ajit Balakrishnan of Rediff, Rajesh Jain of Indiaworld, Sunil Mittal of the Bharti group and L N Mittal of the Ispat group, among others. The venture capital committee comprises Chrysalis, ICICI Ventures, ILamp;FS Ventures, Infinity, Walden and Blueshift. The programme has over 250 mentors and coaches from India and abroad, entrepreneurs, professionals and McKinsey consultants.

Most of the ideas were from professionals, while entrepreneurs and students accounted for 29 per cent and 18 per cent of ideas respectively. Over 75 per cent of participants were from the top 10 cities with the highest coming from Mumbai. Percentage-wise, 31 per cent of participants were from Mumbai 14 per cent from Delhi and 10 per cent from Bangalore. Participants also came from towns like Ranchi, Meerut, Imphal, Kakinada and Kochi. quot;People in small towns and cities were also able to benefit from expert advice because of the programme,quot; said Gupta.

He hoped the programme could be institutionalised, once McKinsey had shown proof of concept. Organisations like The Indus Entrepreneurs had expressed interest in adopting it, he revealed. quot;The response to the programme has exceeded the target of 1000 responses and 300 valid ideas8230; It is first time in the world that McKinsey is executing the programme on such a large scale,quot; said Gupta.

The teams will be assisted by four business-building enablers: coaching, reference material on the website indiaventure2000.com, interactive marketplace at the site, and events like venture capital clinics and funds and business-building marketplace. The entrepreneurs also have access to information proprietary to McKinsey on the website.