Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan is looking to tie up with 7-10 educational institutes across India over the next three years to offer entrepreneurship development programmes through which it plans to incubate start-ups either in an advisory capacity or as a partner.
In a first-of-its-kind initiative in India, the firm has rolled out a programme under which it will hand-hold start-ups or entreprenuers who are enrolling for the course and help them fine-tune their idea and advise in capital raising and customer management.
“At times, the advisory can be free while paid in some instances. Also, if we are sure that the idea will work, we can pick up a stake in the start-up as well”, Aroop Zutshi, global president and managing partner of Frost & Sullivan (F&S) said here.
The company has so far picked up an equity stake in 250 start-ups globally.
It is targeting between 150-250 such start-ups under the newly introduced course in India. The consultancy company has recently tied up with The Neotia University in Kolkata to offer such a module.
“Under this programme, we are open to both government controlled institutes as well as private ones”, he said.
Besides, it may also consider introducing an incubation centre in India as well. Currently, it has one such centre in the Bay area in USA where it has invested $30 million, while another one is coming up in Argentina this year.
F&S currently offers such entrepreneurship development modules in USA, Malaysia and Argentina.
Asked about the challenges the start-ups are facing in India, Zutshi said “Funds is a major challenge. Even after one gets funding, one is not so sure how to use it wisely to get the maximum benefits”.
Customer development is another key area of concern as per the senior official.
“Start-ups in this country have a number of challenges and we can help them address their concerns with our expert advisory”, he added.
He pointed to the situation that out of 10 start-ups globally, about nine fail but showed optimism about the central government’s recent initiatives to boost up the start-up scenario.
