Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seen on a screen outside the Bombay Stock Exchange, is working hard to revive India’s economy.Rajanish Kakade/The Associated Press
Ryerson University is betting big on helping startups in fast-growing emerging markets.
The Toronto university is expanding its partnership with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), effectively doubling the size of a joint business incubator located in the heart of Mumbai – in some of India's priciest real estate –and modelled on the university's Digital Media Zone in Toronto, said Ryerson president Sheldon Levy in an interview.
Ryerson and the BSE are also launching a dedicated India investment fund with $15-million for pumping seed capital into promising Indian startups, he said. The university is also taking its successful model to South Africa, where it is developing a partnership with Wits University that will give companies a gateway to the African continent. "We've had ambitions to look beyond India," Mr. Levy said, noting there was also interest in bringing the model to Dubai.
For India's premier stock exchange, Mr. Levy said, the partnership has been about promoting economic growth and nurturing entrepreneurs into creating high-value jobs in an era when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying desperately to revive the country's economy. There are currently about 40 small companies working in the stock exchange's tower in Mumbai, and the expansion would see that grow to about 80 firms. For Ryerson, the initiative's investments in early-stage companies not only funnels money back to the university – in a manner similar to the for-profit Ryerson Futures Inc. – but it also plays into what Mr. Levy believes will be the digital jobs of the future, whereby small companies can pioneer groundbreaking technology and pursue new consumers wherever the world's economic growth happens to be.
"It's a win-win. We help the company get going, we help it get investments, and then Ryerson Futures, and thus the university, have a stake," Mr. Levy sad. "Unless we get our young people involved in this, we will only be the purchasers, we will not be the creators of this technology."
Naiyya Saggi, the co-founder and CEO of Baby Chakra, a site that features peer-reviewed services for new parents, said the collaboration at the stock exchange incubator has been crucial. In mid-February, Ms. Saggi, a Harvard Business School graduate and former McKinsey & Company consultant, recalled an impromptu conversation with another entrepreneur: It was about how to motivate technology-focused members of her team as they refined and built out their projects.
"That was incredibly helpful for me," she says, noting consultants like herself are generally focused on outcomes. "We were literally drawing a framework. I knew it was going to help me as I build out my team."
Ryerson's efforts have also built connections between entrepreneurs in emerging markets and those in Canada. The Toronto location already hosts fellows from India and Israel, among others.
For Satyen Kothari, the founder and managing director of Citrus Pay, a growing mobile payments company, his time at the Digital Media Zone in Toronto introduced him to various consultants – and helped inspire him to carry on. Now based in Mumbai, with 130 employees and 11 million users, he pops by the incubator at the stock exchange to mentor others.
"An entrepreneur's journey is very lonely. You wake up, and think 'What the hell am I doing this for?'" said Mr. Kothari in an interview the morning after a late-night return from meetings in New Delhi. "Seeing this incubator, with four [now five] floors of startups, it just kind of inspires you – seeing so many other people, working so hard with the same odds … I think that's the super turbo boost."
Mr. Kothari said there is a blossoming new age of business in India resulting from a combination of the nascent state of Indian e-commerce – particularly compared to the massive Chinese e-commerce market – and the booming growth in Indian mobile Internet subscriptions, which are empowering new consumers. He summed up the opportunities with a reference to ancient Indian history: "This is the second golden age in India."