The Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter was launched in 2016 with the aim to help housing markets better meet the needs of the low-income households. It achieves this by working to mobilize investment capital to the housing sector, facilitate and advise housing market actors and companies, and share knowledge around affordable housing. As a market facilitator, the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter aims to catalyze both the demand and supply sides of affordable housing markets to achieve a vibrant housing ecosystem around the world. The Center's ultimate goal is to significantly reduce the housing deficit, thereby, reducing poverty and increasing the quality of life for low-income households. The Terwilliger Center currently works on projects in eight developing countries, has run a similar ShelterTech Accelerator in Mexico and is running one in Kenya in 2018.
Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) is one of India's leading centres catalyzing the entrepreneurship ecosystem in the country through its various interventions and initiatives. CIIE was set-up by IIM Ahmedabad with support from the Government of India and the Gujarat Government to provide seeding and incubation support with a focus on technology and mass impact areas. We deliver disproportionate impact to entrepreneurship in India by backing purpose-driven entrepreneurs harnessing the power of technology to solve some of India's toughest problems using business models that are specific to India. CIIE is India's largest incubator with over 75+ full-time and part-time employees now spread across major cities including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Pune - enabling us to work very closely with our entrepreneurs. CIIE has mentored over 5000 entrepreneurs, accelerated over 500 startups and invested in over 100 startups over the past decade. 80 of the startups of CIIE's portfolio has raised follow-up funding.
Peer founders are often the biggest source of learning, inspiration and support. Become a part of CIIE's exclusive founder network of over 300 amazing founders like you who are building awesome companies that are solving India's challenges.
As a founder, you are in the business of serial problem solving. Business issues like customer segmentation, pricing, go-to-market, customer service, partnerships; or Product problems like MVP validation, value proposition, user experience, product lifecycle management, technology; or Organizational problems like team structure, organizational processes, recruiting - might create several bottlenecks in your journey. We will help you unpack your challenges, identify the root cause and take the right decisions through highly customized one on one problem solving clinics. One problem at a time.
Building solutions is not enough. You need to get connected to the right domain experts or service providers to get you problem solved. Our startup coaches will ensure that you are able to follow through and offer you a helping hand wherever required. Your coach is literally a call away.
Companies selected for the accelerator will have access to seed funds through the program. Depending on the progress made during the accelerator, a maximum of 2 to 3 startups will receive financial support in terms of equity investments, grants, or both.
In addition, the start-ups will have the opportunity to present to our corporate & VC partners during our Investor Demo Day in July 2019. Start-ups that achieve a higher scale of business will have the opportunity to pitch to the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter's global venture fund for larger investments.
ShelterTech Accelerator is a global program with cohorts in Mexico and Kenya. Plug into ShelterTech's network and expand your understanding of the affordable housing challenge. This kind of exposure will not only help you build new mental models, but will also help you startup in exploring if your solution can be expanded to international markets.
ShelterTech Accelerator is designed as a four-month long program, during which two cohorts of start-ups will receive acceleration and business support. Four start-ups were selected to join the first phase of the program, which kicked-off in December 2018. The second phase and cohort selection of the Accelerator will begin in April 2019. The program ends with a demo day in July 2019, when startups from both cohorts will pitch their ideas. Details about the various steps in each phase are as below
This is your chance to apply to the program. The call for applications is live for 31 days. You will be expected to fill a detailed application form on the website here. Dates for the second batch are between February 04, 2019 to March 06, 2019.
Once the call for applications closes, the top 10 to 15 startups will be invited to CIIE for a selection pitch, around 06 April, 2019. You will be expected to pitch to the panel of domain experts, and mentors who will evaluate your business idea. The final accelerator cohort of the top 4 to 5 startups will be selected and announced in the second week of April 2019.
The Accelerator for the second batch will officially kick start in April 2019 for the top 4 to 5 startups. The Accelerator is designed as a 4 month non-residential program. This phase will kick-off with a three day workshop at CIIE for all founders. During the acceleration phase, the founders will be supported through a series of Business Clinics which will focus on solving critical problems for the founding team. Startup coaches from CIIE will offer customized problem solving and hand holding support to the founders in helping them validate their key assumptions. In addition to the startup coach from CIIE, the founders also have access to an extended team.
During the accelerator, partners may choose to offer seed funds to selected 1 or 2 startups. These funds can be offered as equity free grants, investments or both.
Startups from the Accelerator will pitch to investors and donors for funds and investments during a common Demo Day where the cohort of both phases will join. The demo day is scheduled in July 2019.
We are looking for market based and scalable solutions that solve some of the critical challenges in the housing sector. This means your startup should have a for-profit and scalable business model. We are quite keen to look at startups that are building innovative and scalable solutions that
or
Generally, all startups that we select would be required to have
Finally, while we would like to see startups with some pilots, early customer traction or even sales; we realize that this tough market to crack open. So if you wish to apply only with an idea and no validation of your product or proof of concept, make sure that you backup your claims with details about your IP, background, team and anything else that you may need to make us believe your solution.