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The primary role of any incubator is to help nascent companies – by providing resources, access to industry mentors, interactions with other entrepreneurs and perhaps most importantly, patient capital, to get through the survival stage.

It’s no secret that the startup ecosystem in India has evolved exponentially in recent years. According to a recent NASSCOM report, India is the third largest startup ecosystem in the world and is expanding to become more global.

In fact, factors such as improving investor sentiment, higher success by local players and government impetus under the “Startup India Stand-Up India” initiative, there has arguably been no better time to be a startup in India. The rise of startups has paved the way for the birth of support systems focusing on mentoring, driving innovation and boosting scale and commercial success in the form of incubators and accelerators.

How has the incubation ecosystem evolved?

Today, India ostensibly has the third highest number of incubators and accelerators in the world with 140 entities proclaiming themselves as such. A significant challenge facing startups is understanding the role that these players have within the Indian ecosystem – while terms like incubator and accelerator have become common nomenclature, there is still a lot of ambiguity around the actual value that they bring. This ambiguity is compounded by the corruption of terms due to inappropriate usage, with every second organisation labelling themselves an “incubator” or an “accelerator”.

The list of questions we receive from startups has therefore grown longer every year – for example, are incubators providers of “free” working space? Do they provide access to resources and mentors? Do they provide capital and help in generating returns? Incubators should, in fact, provide all these things and more.

“The primary role of any incubator worthy of the name is to help nascent companies – by providing resources, access to industry mentors, interactions with other entrepreneurs and perhaps most importantly, patient capital, to get through the survival stage.”

DAVID Powell

We all know everyone has many stuff on the table

What makes incubators different from accelerators and VC firms?

One of the big differences between accelerators and incubators is in how the individual programs are structured.
Accelerators typically support technology based startups, who have crossed fledgling stage.
The selection process undertaken by accelerators is highly competitive and they take applications nationally/ globally. Y Combinator accepts about two percent of the applications it receives and Techstars usually has to fill its 10 spots from around 1,000 applications.
The duration of program often offered by accelerators range between 3-6 months and the resources provided by them include rapid test and validation of ideas, mentorship and support from industry experts, seed funding.
Accelerators mostly invest 10-12 percent equity for funding provided

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