IIM Kozhikode and Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. join hands to support start-ups
Kozhikode: IIMK LIVE – Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship, the Business Incubator and Entrepreneurship Development Centre of the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) has entered into a MoU with the central public sector enterprise Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL) to support innovative start-up ventures.
Both IIMK and MRPL believe that the partnership would leverage individual strengths of these public organizations to contribute to entrepreneurial ecosystem in line with Start-up Mission of Government of India. MRPL has launched MRPL Start-up fund and in collaboration with IIMK LIVE, MRPL intends to nurture and fund new business ideas. IIMK LIVE, set-up by IIM Kozhikode in association with Department of Science Technology, already runs business incubation program and would provide physical, intellectual and networking infrastructure to support start-up companies eligible for the MRPL grants.
Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode hailed the partnership and said in the official press release that “We welcome MRPL to join our efforts in building entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems.”
“Apart from start-up support interventions, IIMK is also exploring wider relationship with MRPL in the areas of executive education and training, consulting, sector-specific research, conferences on issues of mutual interest to exchange the ideas,” He added.
MRPL senior executives in charge of start-up funding, including the Group General Manager, Mr. Vinayakumar and Chief General Manager (R&D), Mr. V Nandakumar visited IIM Kozhikode campus last week to finalize the partnership. “In collaboration with IIMK and IIMK- LIVE, MRPL intends to promote new business ideas relevant to MRPL’s start-up policy to create an entrepreneurial mind set and fresh thinking amongst employees, stakeholders and public for revitalizing corporate culture,” expressed Mr. Vinayakumar.
Steering committee with representatives from IIMK, IIMK LIVE and MRPL would be involved in the selection, monitoring and review of the funded start-ups. Start-ups with innovative, high social impact solutions would be preferred. Under the proposed initiative, to begin with, start-ups which are incubated or would be incubated at IIMK LIVE would be considered for seed grants in the form of soft loan convertible into equity capital.
“We are delighted to have MRPL as a large industry partner in the mission to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship. In just over a year of its establishment, IIMK LIVE is drawing interests from partners from diverse industries who wish to contribute to the ecosystem. With MRPL start-up funds available, we expect high potential, innovative start-ups to get added in our start-up portfolio”, said Prof. Keyoor Purani, Executive director, IIMK LIVE. Admissions to the business incubation program of IIMK LIVE is currently open for the next cohort.