N/Core, the incubator entirely for nonprofit startups that works for poverty-related issues, celebrated the conclusion of N/1 – its first cohort of incubatees on 9th March, 2018. Selected from 1032 applicants, 9 exceptional entrepreneurs got a chance to showcase their work at Soiree N/1 – an exclusive gathering of philanthropists, sector leaders, Heads of Foundations, and CSR leaders at CoWrks, Bangalore.
The event was hosted by N/Core Partners – Mr. Sanjay Purohit (EkStep Foundation), Mr. K R Lakshminarayanan (Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives), Mr. Ujwal Thakar (former CEO, Pratham and Give India) and Mr. Maneesh Dhir (former Head, Apple India) and was attended by eminent personalities including Vijay Mahajan (Founder – Basix), Mr. Binny Bansal (Founder- Flipkart), Mr. Naveen Tewari (Founder- InMobi), Ms. Sindhushree Khullar (first CEO- NITI Aayog), Mr. Kulmeet Bawa (Adobe) and more.
Highlights
The immense originality of ideas presented at the demo – such as digitizing music to elevate livelihood of folk singers, developing entrepreneurship in remote Bihar, transforming public healthcare using SixSigma and Lean Methologies, measuring contaminant levels using a smartphone, etc. – were testimony to the cohort’s potential for huge success in transforming lives at a large scale.
Commenting on entrepreneurs having mentors and role models, Mr. Madhav Chavan (Founder – Pratham) said, “A successful entrepreneur is one who is his original self and not copying someone else.”
Atul Satija, Founder and CEO of The/Nudge Foundation, was thrilled to see the potential for large scale impact through the work of the N/1 cohort. “The time to make big bets on nonprofits is now” he said. “There’s incredible talent that’s entering the fray, new alliances being forged, CSR partners bringing their technical and financial might to the mix, government and civil society for the first time willing to take a chance and invest in these ideas.”
Concluding the event, Mr. Ramesh Mangaleswaran, Senior Partner McKinsey and company said, “This country is and always has been on the move. All of us from the corporate world end up doing social work with a very narrow lens. These young entrepreneurs have really inspired me today and I am sure that the future of India is bright.”
Over the past 6 months, N/Core has supported and enabled the entrepreneurs on the N/1 cohort to accelerate their journey through an innovation grant, mentoring by N/Core Partners and through interactions with the best and brightest minds in both the development, as well as corporate sectors. The organizations that were part of this journey are:
- Project Potential: Empowering youth in Bihar through entrepreneurship
- Saarthi Education: Increasing parental involvement in education
- Foundation for Environmental Monitoring: An open source platform for monitoring water and soil quality
- Akshar Foundation: Accelerated schooling for community development
- Sukhibhava: Empowering women with access to menstrual hygiene
- Navgurukul: Accelerated skills development for careers in technology
- Sushrat Foundation: Transforming public healthcare
- Anahad Foundation: Elevating folk and tribal music through digitization
- The Education Alliance: Transforming the public school system
N/Core has further plans to incubate 30 nonprofits every year, including technology startups solving problems of poverty.
