EDII ties up with YES BANK to lend to start-ups

June 9, 2017: Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), an acknowledged national resource Institute for Entrepreneurship Education, Research, Training & Incubator, has tied up with YES BANK, India's 4th largest Private sector bank, to lend to start-ups supported by EDII. In the first such initiative, YES BANK is going to provide a loan of Rs 50 lakh to EDII supported start-up, Green Ideology under the CGTMSE program (Credit Guaratee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises). Founded by Abhishek Lodha and Neerja Lakhani in 2013, Green Ideology has introduced India’s first premium organic antimicrobial lingerie brand ‘Inner Sense’.

Speaking about this initiative, Dr. Sunil Shukla, Director, EDII said, “Since many years, EDII has been mentoring and supporting start-ups, especially those founded by alumni of our Institute. But, our ability to lend to these start-ups was miniscule as we are an educational institute. Now, in association with YES BANK, EDII is in a position to provide debt to many of the start-ups whom we support in various ways. Additionally, EDII’s recently set up technology business incubator, Centre for Advancing & Launching Enterprises (CrAdLE), will also nurture start-ups in the fields of manufacturing, food/agri business, renewable energy and healthcare.”

Commenting on the tie up, Rana Kapoor, Managing Director and CEO, YES BANK, said, “Start-ups are critical to the growth of the economy as they create job opportunities in addition to contributing to economic dynamism by spurring entrepreneurship and innovation. As an extension of our YES Head-Startup program, we are pleased to collaborate with EDII to help start-ups scale up and grow rapidly, thereby creating a multiplier effect on the Indian economy. YES BANK remains committed to growing this dynamic partnership, offering sector specific solutions and emerging as the Banking partner of choice for start-ups across India.

Green Ideology’s founder Abhishek Lodha is a B.Text. in Textile Chemistry, while the other promoter, Neerja Lakhani, holds a degree in apparel design from NIFT, Gandhinagar. They observed that India’s humid climate makes women more vulnerable to unhygienic conditions which are further compounded by unavailability of healthy and quality inner-wear in the market. Sensing this gap, the two founders came together to create ‘Inner Sense’ that is fashionable, eco-friendly, and most-importantly healthy.

Green Ideology had initially received a grant of Rs. 5 lakh from the Government of Gujarat acting through its nodal institute EDII, to commence its operations and launch its product range. With the Rs. 50 Lakh debt funding from YES BANK, the start-up can now scale-up its operations.

Elaborating on their business trajectory, Abhishek Lodha of Green Ideology said, “It was difficult at first to explain the concept of ‘organic and antimicrobial’ innerwear range to our customers. To top it, we also had to meet the requisite standard of yarn and fabric processing MOQ for this type of product. Our first collection had only eight styles and today we have more than 60 styles under our brand Inner Sense. Apart from our own e-commerce portal, our products are available on all major e-commerce sites. We are also selling our products in the US, UK, and Malaysia.”

Neerja Lakhani of Green Ideology added, “We will be increasing the width and depth in products and categories. We want to revolutionise the shopping experience by developing an innovative software as a fitting and styling guide. Our aim is to become one of the top 5 brands in the Indian lingerie industry.”

Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) is an acclaimed International Resource Centre facilitating all facets of Entrepreneurship Development. EDII’s mission is to be a catalyst in facilitating emergence of competent first generation entrepreneurs and transition of existing SMEs into growth-oriented enterprises through entrepreneurship education, training, research & institution building.

EDI’s mission has led to the emergence of several programmes under strategically planned centres to generate awareness, sensitise environment, strengthen institutional linkages and networking and impart training in specialised areas. EDII’s focus areas are: 1) Entrepreneurship Education & Research; 2) Micro Enterprises, Micro Finance and Sustainable Livelihood; 3) SMEs & Business Development Services; 4) Cluster Competitiveness, Growth & Technology; 5) Social Entrepreneurship & CSR; 6) Women Entrepreneurship & Gender Studies.

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This release was published on openPR.