SAP, ISB collaborate to jumpstart social enterprises

NEW DELHI: German multinational software company SAP SE (SAP) and the Indian School of Business (ISB) have announced a collaboration to nurture the social entrepreneurship ecosystem with relevance to national priorities.

The ISB-SAP Social Enterprise Jumpstart will identify five social enterprise startups and provide training, mentorship and access to networks to accelerate their growth.

SAP’s collaboration with ISB is in tune with its strategy to drive social entrepreneurship through alliance with leading Indian academic institutions.

With this initiative, SAP will expand its thought leadership to much wider segment in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. SAP will bring in expertise on go to market, technology trends, customer acquisitions, design thinking methodology among others for social enterprises under this programme.

The four month fixed term mentor-driven program will provide identified startups access to business, academic mentors and subject experts through the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at ISB and SAP. Startups will be identified through a nation-wide selection process with the involvement of the SAP, ISB and other relevant experts from the startup eco-system.

“Our objective is to create investible and growth oriented social enterprises that would address unmet social needs and create significant employment opportunities” said Dilipkumar Khandelwal , Managing Director, SAP Labs India and EVP, Enterprise Cloud Services, SAP SE.

“We will provide mentorship and connects to technology experts to speed up the growth of the social enterprises," he added.

Commenting on the new initiative Rajendra Srivastava , ISB Dean and Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation said, “Entrepreneurship is core to ISB’s DNA and our focus on engendering a spirit of entrepreneurship among our students is showing success. We are now extending this spirit of enterprise beyond our students to help startups in the social enterprise space by leveraging our partnerships and the startup ecosystem at ISB.”

The five early stage social entrepreneurs identified under the ISB-SAP Social Enterprise Jumpstart will be admitted to and supported as one cohort and will be part of the entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem to receive mentorship, training and networking opportunities with academia and industry.

To qualify for the programme early stage social entrepreneurs will be invited to apply and put through a selection process that will include experts from ISB, SAP and the startup eco-system. Two persons from each social enterprise will be selected to undergo the programme which will have two residency modules at ISB and one boot camp at SAP. These social enterprises will have an opportunity to present their business plans to venture capitalists and angel investors to raise funds.