IIM Calcutta Innovation Park joins the focused effort of the Government of Mizoram to take entrepreneurship activity to the next level by helping scale business enterprises in the state.

IIMCIP partnered with the Government of Mizoram and MEDMOC to kickstart the one-year-long Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator programme in the state of Mizoram on December 21, 2020. Pu Lalrikhuma Sailo, the Principal Advisor cum Additional Secretary, Planning & Programme Implementation Department, Govt. of Mizoram, inaugurated the program online, which was followed by the first boot camp attended by 20 entrepreneurs from the state. The Accelerator aims to identify promising start-ups with proven business models in revenue stage and provide them with intense handholding and mentoring through a structured programme to achieve sustainability and scale operations within and outside the state.

The Mizoram Kailawn Accelerator looks at structured intervention that ranges from capacity building to mentoring and from market linkage to funding support. This coupled with intense mentoring support and handholding will help startups align with their growth aspirations. Additionally, entrepreneurs in the North East also need to build capacities and widen their knowledge base especially in business processes, customer identification and acquisition. This fast track accelerator with multiple cohorts is in line with the Mizoram Government’s Startup Policy. In addition to mentorship and investment opportunities, the Accelerator aims to facilitate access to logistical and technical resources as well as shared office space. in collaboration with other incubation centres. The selection of businesses/start-ups for acceleration was competition based.

IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, with its large network of mentors, investors, market and startup connects, will facilitate customized need-based engagements for these entrepreneurs. The accelerator will consist of two cohorts – Growth Certification Cohort and Growth Mentoring Cohort. For 20 of those start-ups supported by various Govt. programmes/schemes, a curriculum-based structured certification programme has been designed on various aspects of attaining sustainability and scaling up and presented in a blended virtual and physical 6-month programme. Out of these 20 startups from the Growth Certification Cohort, IIMCIP will select 10-12 of the most promising start-ups and offer them dedicated mentoring, handholding and acceleration support over the next 6 months, to enable faster scale-up.

With the growing interest in entrepreneurship, the active support provided by an equally growing entrepreneurial ecosystem and the able backing of Mizoram State Entrepreneurship Development and Monitoring Committee (MEDMOC), this year-long accelerator aims to take entrepreneurship up the next step on the “Kailawn” (ladder in Mizo).