Village Capital and IIM-Ahmedabad’s CIIE have announced a The Technology for Impact Accelerator to help promising seed stage companies to make sufficient business progress in order to raise their first venture capital round (aka Series A).  The program is focused on Indian ventures that are making innovative use of technology to provide affordable basic services to low-income populations.  Sectors of particular interest are:  health, education, agriculture, financial services and energy.

Village Capital is a US-based venture fund that supports entrepreneur peer review to vet, select and mentor early-stage portfolio companies. Milaap, one of Unitus Ventures’s portfolio companies, is a previous winner of a Village Capital program. Village Capital has been running their program in India now for a few years and have been continuing to improve and strengthen their model.

CIIE is the “Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship” at the Indian Institute for Management in Ahmedabad.  CIIE supports technology-driven entrepreneurship through investments, incubation and mentoring.  The CIIE staff and volunteers are professors, alumnae and current students of IIMA. One of the biggest benefits for CIIE incubated companies is the support of the huge nationwide network of alumnae many of whom are very successful business entrepreneurs and executives.

We are excited about this new program and are going to be looking closely at the participants for potential seed investments.

Apply online at http://www.vilcap-ciie.org/