Indigram Labs

A government-supported technology business incubator

Indigram Labs Foundation, known as ILF, is a technology business incubator in India. It was founded in 2015 with the support of the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board and the Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India. The foundation holds that entrepreneurs have a unique chance to make positive change while staying profitable, and that business growth can ripple out into communities at the grassroots.

What its record shows

Its website quotes figures for its work to date: 123 startups supported, more than 90 events held to build entrepreneurship, 14 patents filed by incubated companies and over 1,100 full-time jobs created. It reports that 6 lakh farmers have benefited from the work of its startups. These numbers come from the foundation's own pages and are not independently checked here.

Services for incubated startups

The support list covers mentoring, technical guidance and financial assistance. Funding assistance is offered from both government and private sources, and the foundation also provides help with intellectual property and legal matters. The services are paired with a set of named programmes.

Programmes

A women's entrepreneurship programme includes a bootcamp that teaches participants practical steps to analyse market opportunities and challenges, closing with a pitching session where they share what they learned. The NIDHI Accelerator is a programme to identify and support early-stage agriculture and food entrepreneurs from India that are innovative, sustainable and scalable, and it has run more than one cohort. Agripulse aimed to recognise promising early-stage entrepreneurs in the North-East region and to build a supportive ecosystem so they can scale.

Rural development angle

The incubator has also written about village economies. It argues that many schemes for rural India help people earn only a basic livelihood rather than lifting the rural economy as a whole, and says a balanced approach is needed so that rural and urban quality of life stay in step. It frames its Adhunik Gram, or smart village, work around that view.

Areas of operation

It lists thrust areas of operation on its site, with agriculture and food technology prominent among its programmes.

Indigram Labs Foundation is a technology business incubator in India, set up in 2015 with the backing of the Government of India's science and technology bodies, NSTEDB and DST. It believes entrepreneurs can create positive change while staying profitable, and that their businesses can lift the communities around them. It says it has supported 123 startups so far.

What Indigram Labs offers

• Funding assistance: help reaching government and private funding.
• IP and legal support: guidance on intellectual property and legal matters.
• Mentoring and technical guidance: support for innovations at an early stage.
• Women Entrepreneurship Program: a bootcamp ending in a pitching session.
• NIDHI Accelerator: a programme for early-stage agriculture and food entrepreneurs.
• Agripulse: a programme for early-stage founders in the North-East region.

Clients

Startups in agriculture and food, rural and smart-village ideas, and women-led ventures.

Key facts

• Founded: 2015.
• Startups supported: 123, with more than 90 events run.
• Patents filed by startups: 14.