PrISE — Promote and Incubate Social Enterprises

PrISE is the incubation programme at Bala Vikasa CSRB. It runs for nine months and takes a cohort at a time; the home page says a fourth cohort has started, with seven startups in health, agriculture and other sectors. BVCSRB calls it a non-funded programme — it does not invest in the startups it takes, and what you get is space, structured work and introductions instead.

What you get

• Coworking space on the campus, and a furnished office desk seating two that can serve as your permanent office address.
• A meeting and conference room, printers and campus infrastructure.
• An induction session with the BVCSRB team and the rest of the cohort, then goal setting covering impact, scalability, stakeholders, business and financial model and management.
• Customised training in strategy, execution, leadership, soft skills, personal growth and relationship building.
• Workshops and seminars with in-house and industry experts on market assessment, communication, branding, legal and governance, finance, vision, strategy and investment management.
• Help building environment, health and safety practices into core operations.
• Introductions to sector experts, funders, mentors and grassroots testing grounds and potential customers.
• Periodic business reviews by in-house and external reviewers.
• A demo day pitch to investors, mentors, NGOs, industry figures and funding agencies.

Who can apply

• A highly motivated, committed social entrepreneur.
• An early-age startup with an innovative, impactful idea addressing a social issue.
• A working prototype for pilot studies, or a technological fix to a social problem.
• Willingness to learn and experiment.
• The cohort pages add: mission-driven, a scalable solution and a viable business model, and working in healthcare, education, environment, livelihood or another area of social impact. Startups with a minimum viable product and growth-stage startups seeking non-financial support are also invited.

How selection works: applications are shortlisted on impact potential, scalability of the solution and its impact, team capabilities, founders' background, market and financial attractiveness, and business feasibility. Shortlisted startups then go to a final interview with a panel of entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, in-house experts and industry experts, and the finalists make up the cohort.

How to apply: the programme page's apply buttons lead to a short registration form — your name, contact number, email and the name of your enterprise — which has to be filled in before you reach the full application form. Dated cohort pages link to their own application form instead. Cohort pages on this site go stale, so confirm which cohort is open before you apply. The numbered cohort pages also state an incubation fee, and one charged a separate application fee, while the standing programme page mentions none; ask which applies to you.