Kaun Bangaya Udyogpati: Life after KBU

Kaun Banega Udyogpati (KBU), a competition recently hosted by Center for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) has been a game changer for the 21 finalists. Since the finale, Moscorp Bio (winner) is busy drawing plans to scale up the business with the prize money that will go a long way in the set-up of the bio-diesel plant.
Horivacao (1st runner-up) and Zaggar Innovations (2nd runner-up) are also working on expansion plans. Indusbuzz and Rohini Gonsalves of Sevarat are rapidly increasing their spread in Goa while Maria Victor from Make it Happen is tying up with Goa Tourism for Heritage Walks. Also, Cycling Zen has launched a unique bicycle to work challenge. Similarly, the meeting app developed by LetsConnect has orders from some of the leading event organisers in India.
A number of other finalists are in the process of incubating at one of CIBA’s two centers located at Assagao and Verna. A special Wattsapp group for the finalists has been formed where they interact with each other on a daily basis and exchange ideas and solutions. Potential investor information is also posted on the group and Rajula Gupta, CIBA’s lead mentor is available for consultation at any time.
It was informed that CIBA is committed to working with all the finalists for a minimum of six months and their team lead by D S Prashant, general manager is in constant touch with all the startups, assisting them on a daily basis, to expand their business and finding them potential investors.
Given the tremendous success of KBU, a number of government agencies and sponsors have pledged funds to make next year’s competition bigger and better with more prize money for the winners. Plans are also underway to provide seed funding for all the top ten finalists next year.
CIBA is planning to host yet another in November 2016 and is expecting not less than 2000 applications. Participants will be provided with better resources and more mentors during the training sessions as part of preparing them for the grand finale, which will be held in March 2017.
Chief Mentor of CIBA Rajula Gupta told Herald, “As CIBA is Goa’s only licensed incubator under the Start-Up India initiative, we plan to incubate all our 21 KBU finalists at one of our two centers. This will give them the opportunity to register at Start-Up India and as a recognized start-up they get a number of unique benefits including access to alternate investment funds, income tax at a lower rate, assistance with registering their intellectual property at a reduced rate and getting assistance from a number of government schemes. One of the finalists, Nellikuru Innovations has already registered under Start-Up India and they are on the verge of offering their technology of reducing the cost of steel production to a number of large steel plants across India.”