IMI Incubation Foundation

Pick the right door

• You are a founder or student from another college or a startup outside IMI: use the Incubation Registration form on the IMI Bhubaneswar website, under About IMI as Startup Application.
• You are an IMI PGDM student: the Entrepreneurship Internship Programme and the Capstone Project in Entrepreneurship are your routes. Both need entrepreneurship coursework first.
• You want to learn first: watch for the foundation's awareness programmes, development programmes and boot camps, which are run with sponsors and often open to students from other colleges.

How the application works

• There is one application form. It asks for the startup name, founders and co-founders, contact details, the institute you are associated with, and a short brief on the startup.
• It also asks whether you are a registered entity and its registration date, whether you have received funding, your annual revenue, your number of customers, and whether you have invested your own money.
• It asks for a link to your pitch deck and a link to an elevator pitch video. Have both ready.
• No intake dates or deadlines are published, so treat it as a rolling process and ask how soon you will hear back.

How selection works

• The Screening Committee, led by the CEO, does the first round and gives early mentoring.
• Applicants who pass appear before a Selection Committee of the foundation's board, mentors, funding agencies, industry bodies, government and partner incubators.
• Selection is for an initial one year, extendable by one more.

Before you accept

• Ask about the fee. The policy says a nominal fee, with no amount published.
• Ask about equity. The policy says 3.00% to 5.00% equity, and that equity is not diluted beyond 9.5% including the mentors' stake. Get the terms in writing.
• Ask what the space holds. The pages do not describe the incubation space beyond its size.
• Ask who your mentor will be and how often you will meet, since mentors are the main service on offer.

IMI Incubation Foundation is the startup incubator of International Management Institute (IMI) Bhubaneswar, a business school in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. It is a separate Section 8 company, not a department of the school, and it is recognised as an incubator by Startup Odisha, the state government's startup body. It takes applications from outside startups as well as from IMI students.

Who it is for

There are two doors. The first is for outside founders and young startups. Anyone with a startup or an idea can fill in the Incubation Registration form on the IMI Bhubaneswar website, whether or not they study at IMI. The form asks whether you are a registered entity, but it does not say registration is required. It also asks which institute your startup is associated with, so founders from other colleges are expected.

The second door is for IMI's own PGDM students. Under the institute's innovation and entrepreneurship policy, a student who has finished the entrepreneurship coursework can do an Entrepreneurship Internship Programme of 8-10 weeks in place of the summer internship, or take the Capstone Project in Entrepreneurship, which runs for six months in the second year. Both go through the foundation. A Capstone student must sign an MOU with the foundation, form a company, build a business model and an MVP, and pitch to investors. Those routes are open only to IMI students.

How incubation works

The policy sets out the steps for outside applicants. You send in the application form. The foundation's Screening Committee, led by its CEO, does the first evaluation and mentoring. Applicants it finds suitable then appear before a Selection Committee made up of the foundation's board, industry mentors, faculty mentors, and representatives of funding agencies, industry associations, government, academic institutions and partner incubators.

Selected startups get support services for a nominal fee and a stake in equity, for an initial period of one year that can be extended by one more year. The policy says the foundation seeks 3.00% to 5.00% equity, and that with the mentors' stake included, the startup's equity is not diluted beyond 9.5% during incubation. The amount of the fee is not published. The policy is an institute document, so ask the foundation to confirm the current terms before you apply.

The services listed in the policy are access to business mentors from industry, access to academic mentors from IMI's faculty, help obtaining statutory approvals, a business startup kit, help with legal and IPR protection, industry linkage, linkages with R&D labs for technology sourcing, training in entrepreneurship and skills, business networking, access to angel investors and venture capital, access to seed capital support under different government schemes, and loan assistance from banks. The foundation also says its virtual mentoring reaches startups beyond Bhubaneswar.

Short programmes and outreach

Alongside incubation, the foundation runs short programmes for students, young people and rural entrepreneurs, often with a sponsor. Its page lists the Entrepreneurship Awareness Programme with EDII and DST, the Entrepreneurship Development Programme with IEDO, IMI boot camps run between 2018 and 2024, Startup Express in 2022, Startup Yatra and Startup Express in 2023 with Startup Odisha, grassroots cluster development for artisans and farmers under the SFURTI scheme of the Ministry of MSME, a mutual fund distributor course with BFSI SSC, and a programme with NCDEX. It gives approximate participant numbers for each, for example about 2300 for Startup Yatra and Startup Express 2023 and about 840 for the boot camps. These count people who joined short programmes, not startups incubated, and they are the foundation's own undated figures. The latest programmes on the page are from 2023 and 2024, and no upcoming dates are published.

Space

The foundation says IMI has provided a dedicated space of 5400 sq. ft for its activities. The pages do not describe what is in it, so do not assume desks or labs. The Startup Odisha list gives a slightly different area, so confirm the space on a visit.

Who runs it

The foundation was started informally in 2016 and registered as a Section 8 company on 25 February 2019. Its page names Prof. P. C. Biswal as Director and Prof. Devesh Baid as CEO. A core advisory committee lists people from the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell and AICTE, the Wadhwani Foundation, TISS, IIT Bhubaneswar and MDI, along with startup founders and investors. IMI has campuses in Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata, and this foundation belongs to the Bhubaneswar campus.

Recognition

The foundation says it is a recognised incubator of Startup Odisha under the Department of MSME, Government of Odisha, and that it is registered with Startup India. Startup Odisha's own list of recognised incubators includes IMI Incubation Foundation, with recognition dated 25 February 2020. That list shows a designation was granted, not whether it is current, and the foundation does not claim funding from DST or the Atal Innovation Mission.

Location

IMI Bhubaneswar is at IDCO Plot No. 1, Gothapatna, PO: Malipada, Khordha district, Bhubaneswar 751003, Odisha.