N/Core selects 10 nonprofit startups, with less than 1% selection rate for its incubation program

September 1, 2017, Bangalore: N/Core, an incubator exclusively for nonprofit startups, today announced its N/1 cohort with 10 early stage nonprofits selected for a 6-month incubation program. The organisations were picked from a pool of 1032 applications from 2654 entrepreneurs from 19 countries across the world, showcasing an increasing inflow of highly talented and motivated entrepreneurs to solve for poverty in India. The applicants include graduates from institutions such as IITs, IIMs, ISB, NIT, JNU, Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, Yale University, INSEAD, University of Maryland, NUS Singapore, Oxford, and many more.

The applicants come from diverse sectors such as agriculture, disaster management, education, employability, energy, financial inclusion, gender equality, healthcare, human rights, nonprofit ecosystem, sanitation, water and others. The selected nonprofits are solving some of the most impending challenges in India related to poverty in diverse sectors and through varied innovative approaches.

Sushrat Foundation, one of the selected nonprofits, founded by Shitij Malhotra with past experience in Stanford India Biodesign, is planning to improve healthcare for patients from poor backgrounds in India by putting in place a better process and methodology in government hospitals. Another selected incubatee is Samuel Rajkumar, founder of Foundations for Environmental Monitoring who works to solve the problem of access to
clean drinking water in India through a smart mobile based water quality testing solution. Mazin Mukhtar, a University of Maryland alumnus and founder of Akshar Foundation has a unique approach to teaching young children from underprivileged backgrounds in Assam by training and leveraging teens of the same community. Part of the N/1 cohort is also Abhinav Agarwal, founder of Anahad Foundation who registered his nonprofit while pursuing his degree from Berklee College of Music and is committed to build a technology based infrastructure for folk music and musicians thereby saving their art through a modern, tangible medium.

Talking about the diversity of the applications received, Atul Satija, Founder of N/Core, said: “It is an exciting phase in India where some of the best young innovators are readily entering the social sector and providing out of the box solutions to age old challenges. N/Core is eager to work with these passionate founders and give them the ecosystem needed to structure and scale their organisation, resulting in accelerated and bigger impact.”

N/Core is offering an innovation grant of INR 10 Lakhs to each selected nonprofit. They will also be personally mentored by renowned industry leaders as N/Core Partners namely, Sanjay Purohit, ex-Chairman of Infosys Consulting; Maneesh Dhir, former MD of Apple India and current Partner of Social Venture Partners; K R Lakshminarayan (LAN), Chief Endowment Officer of Azim Premji Foundation, and Ujwal Thakar, ex CEO of Pratham and GiveIndia. Each Partner will invest their time and expertise to provide deep support to the startups throughout the 6 months of incubation, and beyond. The N/1 cohort is being supported by BookASmile, the charity initiative of BookMyShow - India’s largest online entertainment ticketing brand, and philanthropists like Deep Kalra, Founder - MakeMyTrip and Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder - PayTM . Other organizations supporting the program include Dr. Reddy’s Foundation.

Speaking on the occasion, N/Core Partner K R Lakshminarayana (Lan) said, “An idea alone is never enough, especially in the nonprofit sector. N/Core is connecting deserving entrepreneurs to experience, expertise and funding resources thereby catalysing their intent with an intensity to solve problems at scale.”

N/1 incubation program will kickoff from September 11 in Bangalore. N/Core plans to incubate 100 nonprofits over the next 5 years, by incubating around 10 such startups twice every year.

The/Nudge Foundation is a collective of some of India’s best leaders and entrepreneurs, with a dream to see a poverty-free India within our generation. We currently have two initiatives - N/Core and Gurukul. Our goal is to pull 1 million people sustainably out of poverty.

Through N/Core, our nonprofit incubator, we are nudging top talent to work on poverty alleviation, ​with an aim to kickstart a breed of scalable nonprofits, and provide them resources (grants, co-working office), environment (culture of innovation and collaboration), and direction & support (mentors, partners). We are working towards incubating 100+ nonprofits over the next 5 years.

Through our residential Gurukuls, we build a strong 360-degree life, learning and economic foundations for underprivileged youth, and provide them jobs, along with a lifelong support system. We are graduating 2000+ youth annually, with 100%+ placements (into data-entry, driving, beauty, plumbing verticals) across our 8 Gurukuls in Bangalore now.

The/Nudge Foundation, C9, 1st C Main Road, MCHS Colony, HSR Layout, Bangalore, India, PIN - 560102

This release was published on openPR.