Municipalities in India are resource-strapped, they are significantly behind on service provisions and climate change risks continue to exacerbate. Nurturing urban innovations is one way to overcome time and resource constraints. Leveraging novel processes, products and practices, to tackle resource and climate-related challenges, can enable swift and sustainable growth that results in better public service provisioning.
Methodology
At WRI India Ross Center, our aim is to support innovation for cities by providing enterprises with guidance, visibility and access to government, networks and funding for pilot projects. We have created multiple platforms for stakeholder interaction and dialogue along with formulating a unique methodology for accelerating innovation in cities:
Bridge: Once the cohort is selected, a customized accelerator program aims to bridge the gaps between all stakeholders, associated with the problem statement, by bringing them together on a single platform. These include the Indian government (at all scales), investors, consumers, technical and business experts and entrepreneurs.
Accelerate: In order to scale these enterprises, capacity building and piloting opportunities are facilitated. The platform also helps the quadruple helix of the government, the private sector and investors, academia and community to engage with each other, along with assisting entrepreneurs in adapting their offerings and building trust and confidence among these key stakeholders.
Training and capacity building: Creating training modules in subjects critical in reducing the affordable housing gap are undertaken with government partners.
Mentorship and De-risking: We have worked with over 80+ enterprises, across 10 accelerators, to de-risk innovation and enable access to markets, finance and government. We have achieved scale by employing a transparent platform for engagement, creating opportunities for pilots and demonstration projects, and brokering and supporting collaboration and cooperation between stakeholders.
Creation of a Sandbox Environment: Our cohorts have worked with over 3+ national level and 5+ state governments. Low-risk piloting opportunities allows urban local bodies (ULBs) to test and learn about the product/service even as entrepreneurs get the opportunity to gauge ground realities that help them improve their offerings.
"WRI India Ross Center’s STAMP Accelerator (2017) helped Bounce develop their use-case for two-wheeler rentals for last-mile connectivity and launch a pilot in Bengaluru. This exposure led to a tender from Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation to run last-mile operations from 37 metro stations across the city. As of early 2020, Bounce has raised a total of $252.7M in funding over 8 rounds."
An initiative of WRI India Ross Center and the Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF), the Station Access and Mobility Program (STAMP) focuses on refining startup solutions for last mile connectivity with select proposals, that have high potential for impact, moving onto pilot demonstrations.