IEF Entrepreneurship Foundation and Impact Hub have partnered to support the development of sustainable Impact Hubs across India. The partnership will initially focus on developing two Impact Hubs, one in a metropolitan city and another in a tier two town.
IEF works to empower countless small-scale entrepreneurs that conduct business in India. It is a leading Indian organization that provides learning and development tools, hard- & soft-skill development programs, and networking and showcase platforms for local entrepreneurs and small & mid-size businesses.
Practicing professionals from various industries and functions come together to share their knowledge, skills, and experiences with small-scale entrepreneurs in IEF MasterClasses, which include time for implementing the learnings from their enterprises. This process also includes contemplation and discussion sessions with mentors, allowing our entrepreneurs to absorb and accept change as well as drive the growth of their enterprises.
“Innovations focused on positive social and environmental impact need to be well grounded in their local context and developed together with the communities they aim to serve,” said Petr Skvaril, Impact Hub Global Partnerships Manager. “Successful innovations then need to be supported in scaling beyond the location of their origin and work in a diversity of new contexts. Our partnership with IEF will help us identify and support local founding teams in translating the Impact Hub model for the Indian market. Over time, they will build a network of Impact Hubs across India that will be connected to a global network – providing both a local support and global access to thousands of Indian entrepreneurs.”
Impact Hub is a rapidly expanding global network of more than 16,000 social innovators. Our 90+ locations on five continents host a diverse community of entrepreneurs, practitioners, investors, and organizations; offer collaborative working and meeting space; and provide a variety of incubation and acceleration programs to drive entrepreneurial action for a more just and sustainable world. All Impact Hubs are initiated, developed, and run by local teams. They are both deeply rooted in their local markets and communities as well as globally connected through platforms like Impact Hub Passport and enabled to scale solutions worldwide.
IEF and Impact Hub are in the process of identifying teams of local entrepreneurs who would be interested in establishing Impact Hubs in large Indian metro cities, such as New Delhi, Gurugram, and Pune, as well as smaller tier two towns such as Gangtok, Rajkot, and Guntur.
Selected teams will begin an Impact Hub onboarding process, with dedicated support throughout from seasoned co-founders and various experts from within the network.
Once Impact Hub teams are approved, IEF will connect them with mentors, angel investors, and potential partners so that each founding team can establish relevant learning and acceleration programs, attract member entrepreneurs, improve management, and ensure sustainable development.
Post successful onboarding and becoming official Impact Hubs, IEF and Impact Hub have identified various opportunities to collaborate for further development and exploration.
“Enterprise creation is not a solitary activity. It needs a community that supports the growth and success of the enterprise and the entrepreneurs who dream it,” said Bhairavi Jani, Chairperson, IEF Entrepreneurship Foundation. “We see our collaboration with Impact Hub as an opportunity to build a local support system for entrepreneurs in India’s small towns and large metros alike. Our hope is to facilitate and mentor a community across India that is connected to a network of knowledge and enterprises across the globe, led by the entrepreneurs themselves.”
Committed to energise and empower small-scale Indian entrepreneurs to scale new heights in their businesses, IEF looks forward to further enriching our economy in partnership with Impact Hub’s expanding network.
