India wants to be an early adopter of the fifth generation of wireless networks-the 5G, which will allow consumers to connect with billions of devices like driverless cars and household appliances apart from getting great speed. 
 
In a bid to fulfil its 5G dreams, a government commissioned-research team has already started working on the 5G technology and 10 out of 100 patents have been granted. 
 
It is expected that 5G will be commercially rolled out by 2020. 
 
A team of researchers from IISc Bangalore, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras and CEWiT (Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, IIT Madras) are working on the same and will register a lot more patents in the next few years. Most of these patents have been filed simultaneously in the US and in India. 
 
"We are scaling up fast and switching gears because 5G is just around the corner,” Kiran Kuchi, a professor at the department of electrical engineering at the IIT-Hyderabad, told ET. 
 Even private players such as <keyword id="6354504" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance-Jio">Reliance Jio</keyword>, <keyword id="6359475" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tata-Teleservices">Tata Teleservices</keyword> and Tejas Networks are partnering in the effort by lending their manpower and equipment. 
 
"This is the first time that India has contributed at this level on the global stage. This is a coherent, long-term and a result-oriented project. The fact that we are trying to take so many patents into the global 5G standards will benefit the Indian industry hugely,” said Kuchi. 
 
The research project, which was commissioned by the ministry of electronics and IT, was approved in September 2015 with an outlay of Rs. 36.51crore over a period of three years. 
 
IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said the research team will also jointly develop advanced simulators and technology prototypes and the IP developed in this project will be contributed for 5G standardisation. 
 
Recently, China also hinted at its ambitious 5G plans and rolled out trials. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock) 
 
5G is capable of delivering speeds of over one 1 gigabit per second and support several devices at once.

4G to be passé soon! 5G is just round the corner and look what India is doing to be an early adopter

The Indian government is now planning to provide much-needed help to technology <keyword id="679906" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="incubation-centres">incubation centres</keyword> that help <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> in setting up businesses. 
 
Nearly 500 companies are getting seeded every year in about 200 incubators around the country. 
 
The department of science and technology, which manages 100 incubators, had spent Rs 40 crore last year them. 
 
Academicians are pinning hopes that the increase in incubators will have a huge impact. 
 
"If we get enough number of companies from the incubators, India will be different ten years from now,” IIT Madras professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala told ET. 
 
In an effort to increase the incubation centres, the department of science and technology and the department of biotechnology are enhancing this program. 
 
They will start funding the companies and the science and technology department is mulling to start 25 new business incubators every year. 
 
It will also come up with new scheme for grassroots innovation by starting challenges in five lakh schools, to imbibe innovation in schools. 
ET reported that Jhunjhunwala has been closely involved in incubation at the IIT Madras incubation centres, which has so far formally incubated 99 companies in three incubators in its research park. 
 
At IIT Bombay, the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) has incubated 78 companies. 
 
"The more science there is in a startup, the richer the ecosystem needs to be. Startups need depth of expertise in many areas, and founders usually do not have all the technical knowledge. They need equipment hard to find except in a government lab, but the equipment in labs are not available easily to outsiders. Startups also need help with intellectual property strategy," V Premnath, director of NCL Venture Centre told ET. 
 
Incubators have played a crucial role in expanding Indian economy. 
 
Over the years, parents have encouraged their children to give flight to their entrepreneurial dreams. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Expect more startups to mushroom as the government is planning big on tech incubation centres

MUMBAI: Flush with funds and hungry for growth, a bunch of startups is gearing up to stake claim on talent at India’s top campuses. 
 
As placements unfold over the next few months at the IITs, IIMs and other institutes, these startups look on track to give traditional heavyweights a run for their money in the battle for talent. 
 
Ten startups that ET spoke to are collectively looking to hire more than 850 graduates across leading business schools, engineering colleges and graduate schools this fiscal. 
 From established names such as <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, TaxiForSure and <keyword id="1006428" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Olacabs">Olacabs</keyword> to campus newbies like Vizury and <keyword id="2463175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="CodeNation">CodeNation</keyword>, almost all are hiring in greater numbers than before, armed with attractive pay packages and the promise of greater responsibilities and faster growth for potential hires. 
 
Barely six months after being registered as a company, enterprise software developer CodeNation is already one of the most coveted recruiters at engineering campuses such as National Institutes of Technology (NITs), offering salaries of Rs 24 lakh. One of the last to go to the campuses last season, it hired 12 engineering graduates in March 2014. 
 
This time, it plans to net the best early on from the IITs, NITs, IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology), DTU (Delhi Technological University) and PESIT (PES Institute of Technology). "We went to campuses very late (last time), but do not want to do the same this time. We plan to hire 50 students from the best colleges," said Anuja Sivaram, head of operations at CodeNation. 
 Another relatively new name is Bangalore-based big data analytics startup Vizury. Last year, it went to two <keyword id="2470783" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="BITS-Pilani-University">BITS Pilani University</keyword> campuses with seven offers. The startup, which in June saw a third round of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> totaling $16 million from new and existing investors, is planning to recruit more this year. "We plan to hire 25-30 engineers from IITs, BITS Pilani University, NITs and IIIT campuses for our product engineering team. Students will be working on cuttingedge analytics and advertising technology platforms," said Subra Krishnan, vice-president in charge of products. 
 
Taxi-service startup Olacabs, fresh after raising Rs 250 crore last month, is on an expansion mode. 
 
To drive its growth plans, the company is in the market for 100 new hires from IITs and IIMs, compared with 40 it recruited last year, said co-founder and Chief Executive Bhavish Aggarwal. 
 
Rival TaxiForSure, on its part, is heading to engineering campuses for the first time this year. Until now the company hired engineers laterally. "We will head to IIT-Madras and IIT-Bombay for the first time. Now we have five engineering managers who can train the new recruits and therefore there is sufficient leadership to hire from engineering campuses," said human resources head TN Hari. 
 While it hasn’t decided on the number of engineering students to be recruited, the startup will hire 25 from IIMs in Bangalore, <keyword id="6354925" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kolkata">Kolkata</keyword>, Ahmedabad and Lucknow as well as the <keyword id="6357275" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Indian-School-of-Business">Indian School of Business</keyword>. 
 Online retailer Flipkart, last year’s biggest <keyword id="41007" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="recruiter">recruiter</keyword> in the startup space, declined to share numbers for this year but is expected to at least match last year’s hiring tally. 
The Bangalore-based company, which made an entry into the ET Top Recruiters at B-schools survey for the first time this year, hired more than 275 students from across campuses, including 90 management trainees, 115 graduate trainees and 70 software development engineers last season. 
 
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What helps these startups attract talent other than strong hiring numbers is a vibrant work environment, and salaries that are as competitive as many established organisations. TaxiForSure, for instance, will be offering packages ofRs 8-10 lakh at IITs. At IIMs, salaries will range between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, compared with Rs 12-18 lakh last year. 
 Mobile marketing and communications startup <keyword id="416397" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ZipDial">ZipDial</keyword>, which intends to hire around 20 students this year, says while its fixed salaries may be slightly lower than market rates, top performers stand to make much more in terms of variable bonuses and employee equity grants. LimeRoad.com, which operates an online shopping platform for women, will offer employee stock option programmes. 
 Restaurant-guide startup <keyword id="830092" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Zomato">Zomato</keyword> is offering around Rs 15 lakh a year while property listings portal <keyword id="1960231" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Housing-com">Housing.com</keyword> will be shelling out anywhere between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 18 lakh. 
 Mumbai-based Housing.com, which raised Rs 115 crore in a new round of funding in June, was in fact, a <keyword id="2470782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="first-day-recruiter">first-day recruiter</keyword> at <keyword id="2470784" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="IITKharagpur">IITKharagpur</keyword> placement rounds last December, sharing space with the likes of <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> and <keyword id="43340" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Oracle">Oracle</keyword>. 
 
This year, as well, several startups are likely to be among the first and second day recruiters at prestigious campuses, a privilege usually reserved for big-ticket recruiters. 
 
"The culture of entrepreneurship that startups provide, the growth opportunities and the challenging work environment are all very attractive to a number of students," said Punj Rajan, a student placement committee member at IIT-Kharagpur. "They actually want several startups to be among the companies slotted in the first few days of placements." Rajan had interned with Jabong.com during summer. Even B-schools are ready to make extra efforts to attract more startups. 
 
IIM-Bangalore last year organised a separate day for startups to come and hire from the executive MBA batch. "Startups often offer senior positions and if they need more time and rounds, we are ready to stretch for them. In the near future, we may have separate startup fairs for our flagship PGP batch too," said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM-Bangalore. 
 
Not surprisingly, Advitiya Sharma, co-founder of Housing.com, says he has been flooded by invitations from top colleges. His plans are not firmed up as yet, but he intends to hire around 25 people from IITs and a similar number from IIMs across software, analytics, operations and tech roles. 
 
Another startup, Wooqer, has already made three pre-placement offers at Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. It plans to hire 25 students across IITs and a couple of NITs, and intends to reach out to IIM-Indore, IIM-Bangalore, SP Jain Institute of Management &amp; Research and NMIMS soon. 
 
Salaries will range from Rs 13 lakh toRs 17 lakh. Other institutes including graduate and design schools are also being targeted by these startups. 
 
Upasana Nath, chief recruitment officer at Zomato, said besides the 40 students it will be hiring from engineering colleges like the IITs and senior leadership profiles from IIMs and ISB, it will be taking on board 200 for front line sales and content operations from graduate colleges in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Suchi Mukherjee, CEO &amp; co-founder of LimeRoad.com, said the startup intends to get 30-50 people from campuses alone. IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Mumbai and Chennai will be the focus for technology and IIMs in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata for product managers, marketing and category managers.

Indian Startups Compete With Bigger Firms For Campus Recruits

Larsen and Tourbo (L&amp;T) is going to export like never before as the engineering and manufacturing giant will be assisting South East Asian nations in enhancing anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
 

	For the first time ever, L&amp;T is going to export ships to the South East Asian countries and with the new DPP Policy of the government, L&amp;T is expecting significant growth orders on the defence side.
 

	L&amp;T’s plans also coincide with PM Narendra Modi’s "Act East" policy.
 

	Steering this initiative along with company's domestic and international defence sector plans is L&amp;T’s Senior Vice President, Head of Defence &amp; Aerospace, Jayant D Patil. 
 

	An alumnus of IIT-Bombay, Patil is responsible for the entire defence and aerospace strategic business sectors of L&amp;T. 
 

	In an exclusive interview, Patil divulges details on L&amp;T’s export plans and the type of ships they will be exporting
 

	Q: How has the journey been so far? Did you face any bottlenecks as far as DPP policy is concerned?
 

	A: At L&amp;T, we have been building solutions in-house and have been looking at select export opportunities for some time. Wherever we looked at an export opportunity, one limitation we saw was that we needed complete end-to-end solution to create unique value-additions. That necessarily meant that if you look at any platform technology, we did not have 100% platform solutions in-house. For example, if we decided to offer somebody an anti-submarine warfare capability, we needed to import a weapon for want of indigenous products. Now how do I import weapons or sensors in this country and re-export and get export permissions?
 

	Today with the change in policies leading to easing and expeditious clearances of the export applications, this has been made possible.
 

	Q: What kind of solutions are you looking at?
 

	A: So, one can look at something like a "Brahmos" subject to specific clearances. These are end-to-end integration solutions, which we have matured while working with our armed forces for 20 years in India. 
 

	Today, we can architect such complete solutions and integrate them on ships backed by policies. We are actually working out with few countries, and in next six months, we expect to make an announcement that we have actually sold ships and modernisation solutions to at least one friendly nation. Today, we do just about 150 crore a year in export sales, even this is not small as most Indian companies don't do that much as annual sales in defence. 
 

	Q: What about the exporting ships to Vietnam?
 

	A: This ‎is one serious opportunity being pursued and is under discussions. While we look forward to expeditious conclusion, we will have to wait for formal announcements.
 

	Q: How do you see your company’s overall exports growing on the defence side?
 A: I see it growing over years to come. We believe that this is aligned with the government's plans and agenda of <keyword id="6354869" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="make-in-India">Make in India</keyword> for export and expect the government’s support in growing exports in this sector. All defence exporting nations do this and India cannot be an exception. We have not put numbers to our export targets. Maybe in a couple of months, I should be able to share some numbers with you. 

	Q: What kind of ships you will be exporting?
 

	A: First that we built were small ships, which were essentially interceptor boats. The difference is that these are designed in-house at our ship design centre to compete in Buy Global RFP conceptualised post 26/11 Mumbai attacks to outrun and catch anyone in sea.
 

	We have developed an amazing solution, we have a ship that can do 90-100 Kmph in water and nobody in India has ever done anything of this kind. We won the global RFP and are building 54 for Indian Coast Guard. These are built at our Hazira as well as Katupalli shipyards. We are currently building OPVs for Coast Guard and Floating Dock for Indian Navy, all designed in-house. 
 

	Q: What are your expectations from the defence ministry?
 

	A: Going forward, we expect the MoD to give larger warships to us and not only to the MoD shipyards, whom we work with as Tier1 to built and install weapon systems, platform specific engineering systems and logistics solutions. We believe that this will see us build requisite track record for exports across platforms as well as systems.
 

	Today, submarines are there around the corner, you'll see the artillery guns getting concluded in the near future, we see that the communication suite will mature in the next 2 to 3 years and in the fourth year we will start having some revenues on that, FICV development about to begin. We have also developed a wall penetrating and ground penetrating radars that reveal what is going on across the wall and see mines buried underground.
 

	So in about next few years, we would have moved ahead of others not only in India but also target exports. These capabilities and track record has been built leveraging L&amp;T’s own R&amp;D investments and using indigenous knowledge.
 

	(Anupama Airy is the Founder and Editor of EnergyInfraPost.com and DefenceAviationPost.com. She can be reached at <a href="mailto:anupama.airy@gmail.com" target="_blank">anupama.airy@gmail.com</a>​, Twitter handle: @anupamaairy)
 

	(Image: Indiatimes)

L&T is going to export ships to South-East Asian nations for the first time ever. Here are the details

Do you have a little extra cash that you want to spend for a good <keyword id="22752" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="cause">cause</keyword>? Have you always wanted to help a cause but didn’t know where to put your money? Or do you own a company that focuses on corporate social responsibility and wants to make sustainable <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword>? One way of doing it is to donate the money, but there’s a small snag. The money you spend is gone for good – it can’t be used multiple times to help more people. But how about helping people as many times as you want, using the same capital you have spent in the beginning? And getting the entire amount back in monthly repayments? Call it sustainable giving or crowd lending, this kind of financial model enables you to do all these and one <keyword id="6404679" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="start-up">start-up</keyword> is leveraging it to enhance life at the <keyword id="140518" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="bottom-of-the-pyramid">bottom of the pyramid</keyword>. 
 Welcome to <keyword id="2108864" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Milaap-Social-Ventures">Milaap Social Ventures</keyword>, a social enterprise operating from Bangalore and <keyword id="6356662" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Singapore">Singapore</keyword>, which has developed an online crowd-funding platform to help the unbanked and the <keyword id="2108896" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Underprivileged-masses">underprivileged masses</keyword> in <keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>. Simply put, <keyword id="6734688" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Milaap">Milaap</keyword> (it means ‘connecting together’ in Hindi) offers an RBI-approved micro-lending platform that allows the organisation to receive ‘loans’ from all over the world. Although <keyword id="2108903" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Individual-lenders">individual lenders</keyword> don’t get ‘financial returns’ on their investments (after all, you are putting in your money for a ‘good cause’), they get the principal back after the stipulated period. They can then re-deploy the money to help another person/project or cash out their principal. This helps create a <keyword id="2108904" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Continuous-funding-cycle">continuous funding cycle</keyword>, more effective and sustainable than one-time donations. Want to know more about how Milaap is connecting the haves and the have-nots in a bid to help implement life-enhancing projects? Here is a snapshot that captures the start-up’s vision and viability. 
 
Who runs Milaap (milaap.org): A team of three co-founders – <keyword id="1270675" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sourabh-Sharma">Sourabh Sharma</keyword> (<keyword id="5645" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="CEO">CEO</keyword>), <keyword id="2108870" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Anoj-Viswanathan">Anoj Viswanathan</keyword> and <keyword id="2108865" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mayukh-Choudary">Mayukh Choudary</keyword>. Sourabh, a graduate from the <keyword id="87108" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="National-University-of-Singapore">National University of Singapore</keyword>, started his first company, a mobile app start-up, straight out of college and ran it for more than two years. Next, he had a stint with corporate houses but soon joined hands with the other two co-founders to start Milaap. 
 Anoj holds a degree in Engineering from the National University of Singapore and he is also a StartingBloc Fellow (2010). Prior to co-founding Milaap, he had worked with SKS <keyword id="113684" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="microfinance">Microfinance</keyword> and focused on the energy and water services space. Earlier, he had been at <keyword id="2108863" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ReEx-Capital-Asia">ReEx Capital Asia</keyword>, a cleantech investment boutique in Singapore, and served as a fellow at D.light Design. He is also a founder member of the <keyword id="2108877" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Microfinance-Society-in-Singapore">Microfinance Society in Singapore</keyword> and leads the Milaap team in India. 
 Mayukh is an <keyword id="198748" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="electrical-engineer">electrical engineer</keyword> from IIT Madras and holds a PGDM from IIM Lucknow. He specialises in building technology-enabled financing models and worked as a <keyword id="2108874" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="financial-risk-consultant-in-Dubai">financial risk consultant in Dubai</keyword> before starting up Milaap. 
 
What inspired the venture: A sabbatical that changed life. In 2008, Anoj took some time off to be with SKS Microfinance and worked on a project to provide solar lanterns on credit in a few tribal villages in <keyword id="6357961" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Odisha">Odisha</keyword>. There he met Mayukh who was then working with the solar lantern-maker D.lightdesign. While on this project, Anoj noticed how <keyword id="6621346" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Small-loans">small loans</keyword> impacted life in a big way, especially at the bottom of the pyramid, and the idea of Milaap came to his mind. Developing a crowd-funding platform to connect India’s underprivileged with prosperous individuals and <keyword id="2108906" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Institutional-lenders">institutional lenders</keyword> across the globe seemed the right way to go about it. Anoj, who knew Sourabh from 2006 when he interned at his previous start-up Microappli, got him and Mayukh together to give shape to the idea of Milaap, which finally went live in June 2010. 
 
What’s the pitch: <keyword id="2108919" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lend-a-little">Lend a little</keyword>, <keyword id="2108920" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="change-a-lot">change a lot</keyword> – that’s Milaap’s motto and it has started happening. “India has a large pool of people who don’t have access to traditional banking, but they do require <keyword id="2108923" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funds-for-self-employment">funds for self-employment</keyword> and developmental initiatives. So we are leveraging the global reach of the <keyword id="6357247" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Internet">Internet</keyword> and trying to ensure that people – either individually or through their <keyword id="23045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="social-networks">social networks</keyword> – can raise and lend capital to the millions who are unbanked and underprivileged,” says Sourabh. 
 Milaap is currently targeting over 700 million Indians who are mostly living in the rural &amp; semi-urban areas and unable to access formal sources of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword>. According to the social enterprise, less than 5% of them are able to procure reasonably priced, life-improving loans for their small businesses, vocational training or other essential household assets, and that’s where the ‘loans’ raised by Milaap come in . 
 
How it works: At Milaap, the work is done in two stages. One part is <keyword id="2108932" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Shortlisting-borrowers">shortlisting borrowers</keyword> and publishing their profiles/projects on Milaap.org for crowd funding. Second part is deployment of the loans, monitoring their usage and ensuring timely repayments. Understandably, the second part is more cumbersome and requires a lot of offline work. Milaap has already tied up with 20-plus carefully selected ‘field partners’ (chosen from a wide range of <keyword id="164768" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Microfinance-institutions">microfinance institutions</keyword> or <keyword id="113682" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="MFIs">MFIs</keyword>, <keyword id="1417942" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Social-Businesses">social businesses</keyword>, <keyword id="2108940" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vocational-training-institutions">vocational training institutions</keyword>, etc.,) to identify the most deserving candidates/projects for loans. Once they are selected, each <keyword id="2108943" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Borrowers-profile">borrower’s profile</keyword> is uploaded on the site, along with the fund raised till date and the amount still required for completing the loan. 
 Lending online is quite simple, though. Browse through the profiles to choose a borrower or select one from an impact area that you feel strongly about. You can also use various parameters such as cause, <keyword id="6379164" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="LOCATION">location</keyword>, <keyword id="2108946" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Project-urgency">project urgency</keyword>, <keyword id="2108948" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Repayment-period">repayment period</keyword>, women-centric projects to fine-tune your <keyword id="2108951" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Borrower-search">borrower search</keyword>. After the loan payment is made online, Milaap disburses the amount to the concerned <keyword id="2108956" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Field-partner">field partner</keyword> and the end-borrower gets it from the field partner. When repayment is done (end-borrower – field partner – Milaap), ‘credits’ are accumulated in your Milaap account. When the loan is fully repaid, you can either withdraw the money or roll it into another project. As for diehard do-gooders, there are even more options to <keyword id="2108961" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Start-fundraising">start fundraising</keyword> for the projects you prefer. 
 
Claim to fame: The concept and the build-up. According to the co-founders, crowd-funding is still a niche concept in the country but it is gaining traction gradually. Till date, Milaap has raised and disbursed over Rs 8.4 crore in 8,633 loans, impacting more than 46,393 people across 11 states in India. These loans are essentially raised to fulfil a wide range of <keyword id="2108963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Developmental-requirements">developmental requirements</keyword> including <keyword id="566897" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="basic-education">basic education</keyword> &amp; vocational training, <keyword id="572926" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="seed-capital">seed capital</keyword> for small businesses, <keyword id="2109008" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Access-to-clean-water">access to clean water</keyword> &amp; <keyword id="49770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sanitation">sanitation</keyword>, and <keyword id="2109012" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Safe-lighting">safe lighting</keyword>. Moreover, Milaap boasts 100% repayment of loans till now, indeed a rare feat when banks and big <keyword id="34503" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="financial-institutions">financial institutions</keyword> (<keyword id="4776620" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="FIs">FIs</keyword>) are suffering from the rise in bad loans. 
 The organisation is also focusing on <keyword id="2109025" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pan-India-expansion">pan-India expansion</keyword>. “Earlier, we were mostly operating in states like <keyword id="20154" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="tamil-nadu">Tamil Nadu</keyword> and <keyword id="13126" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Maharashtra">Maharashtra</keyword>. But now we are scaling up our operations and growing in states like Odisha, <keyword id="65591" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mizoram">Mizoram</keyword> and even Gujarat,” notes Sourabh. 
 
Show me the money: While a borrower gets the entire sum offered by the lender, Milaap charges its field partners a 5% fee on the loans disbursed through them, to cover its operating costs. Its field partners, in turn, charge affordable interest from the end-borrower to meet their operating costs. Milaap also makes sure that all fees are disclosed upfront. 
 
Unlike many other ventures in this space, this social enterprise is a for-profit concern, but has not reached break-even yet. However, it has found some solid backers and already raised $1.1 million in Series A venture funding in May 2013. The money raised is being utilised for developing the online platform further and scaling up operations. “We want the number of lenders to go up to 100,000 in the next 18 months. That is the tipping point from where we can gather momentum and look at break-even,” adds Sourabh. 
 The <keyword id="2026013" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Series-A-round">Series A round</keyword> was led by Singapore-based <keyword id="969909" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jungle-Ventures">Jungle Ventures</keyword>, an early-stage investment firm and an approved <keyword id="2109042" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Technology-incubator">technology incubator</keyword> under the <keyword id="2109044" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Singapore-National-Research-Foundation">Singapore National Research Foundation</keyword>’s Technology Incubation Scheme. Other investors included <keyword id="2109045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Toivo-Annus">Toivo Annus</keyword> (<keyword id="170488" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="co-founder">co-founder</keyword> of <keyword id="6377887" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Skype">Skype</keyword>), <keyword id="2072941" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="LionRock-Capital">Lionrock Capital</keyword> (a Singapore-based <keyword id="2109046" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Family-investment-office">family investment office</keyword>), <keyword id="2108869" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jayesh-Parekh">Jayesh Parekh</keyword> (Co-Founder, Sony Entertainment Television) as well as existing investor, <keyword id="1509738" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Unitus-Seed-Fund">Unitus Seed Fund</keyword>. The company is looking to raise a Series B round worth $3-5 million in the second half of CY2014. 
 Earlier, between August 2010 and January 2012, Milaap raised $250,000 in seed investment from Unitus Seed Fund, <keyword id="211897" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="First-Light-Ventures">First Light Ventures</keyword>, <keyword id="198636" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Vijay-Shekhar-Sharma">Vijay Shekhar Sharma</keyword> (Founder, <keyword id="338385" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="One97">One97</keyword>) and <keyword id="2108867" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rajiv-Madhok">Rajiv Madhok</keyword> (Founder, <keyword id="312199" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Oorja">Oorja</keyword>). 
 Interestingly, only 40% of the total lending amount comes from individual lenders (mostly from India, Singapore, the US and <keyword id="6356687" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword>) while 60% funding comes from institutional lenders, social funding and even family offices. But unlike <keyword id="2109229" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Small-lenders">small lenders</keyword>, large institutional and <keyword id="2109230" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="HNI-lenders">HNI lenders</keyword> get 3-4% return on their loans. 
 
Biggest challenge: There is competition from a few sites like <keyword id="1658892" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kiva">Kiva</keyword> or Wishberry, but it is still a niche space and <keyword id="2109065" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Discoverability">discoverability</keyword> is the main challenge now, feels Sourabh. “We need to do more marketing and promotion to let people know such a platform exists. That will help us get more lenders on board, more field partners and subsequently, help more and more people get life-changing access to capital,” he says. 
 
A word for wannapreneurs: Take the plunge and do it. ‘Now’ is always a good time to do it – so don’t hesitate. I always feel that the risk part is overrated in entrepreneurship. You actually need the experience before you can succeed. So start early and make sure that you get the kind of experience you need for long-term success. Your first initiative may not be all that great but at least, you would have learnt from all your mistakes. Try fast and fail fast before you can succeed.

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