Part of the Wadhwani Foundation’s fast expanding global footprint with upcoming launches in Pakistan and Malaysia followed by Africa
Wadhwani foundation [NEN] will provide a systematic and structured strategy towards building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in Indonesia
Wadhwani foundation [NEN] and BIC will collaborate to use and synergize their network and resources to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in academic and professional circles
Wadhwani foundation [NEN] and BIC are hopeful of contributing significantly towards increasing the number of entrepreneurs in Indonesia from 500,000 to five million
Indonesia, 11th December, 2014: The Wadhwani Foundation today launched its decade old flagship Initiative, National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in Indonesia. The Foundation’s foray in Indonesia is in collaboration with Business Innovation Center (BIC), Jakarta which has been at the forefront of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the core sectors of academia, business and government.
This expansion of Wadhwani Foundation’s global footprint is in line with its objective of creating impact opportunities in emerging economies through entrepreneurship development as a key tool for sustainable job creation. Statistically, the economic growth of a nation, and subsequently the creation of new jobs, is fuelled by large numbers of high potential entrepreneurs starting and growing enterprises. Therefore, the Foundation will seek to enhance the entrepreneurial capacity in Indonesia, with an intent to have a multiplier effect on job creation and the growth of Indonesian economy.
Expressing happiness on expanding the global footprint of Wadhwani Foundation in Indonesia, Dr. Ajay Kela, President and CEO, Wadhwani Foundation said, “Wadhwani Foundation for over a decade has pursued its mission of economic development in emerging economies by creating millions of jobs through promoting entrepreneurial and employment skills and driving policy changes to jump-start economic opportunities. It gives me great pleasure that the Foundation’s flagship initiative, National Entrepreneurship Network is now expanding its network and capacity building model to Indonesia. I am confident that this will greatly enhance the entrepreneurial opportunities in Indonesia. We hope that by sharing our IP, resources and experiences; and forging strong and deep partnerships we will play a key role in contributing to the economic growth of Indonesia”.
BIC, the Jakarta based innovation intermediary, has been promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in Indonesia along with the help of several organizations, funding agencies, and the ministry. However, such efforts are fragmented and BIC realized that a structure needed to be put in place in order to drive their efforts in a more effective and co-ordinated manner. Hence a key role of Wadhwani Foundation’s NEN will be to provide a systematic and structured strategy towards building an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country.
Kristanto Santosa, Executive Director, Business Innovation Centre, Jakarta says, “Business Innovation Centre (BIC) has been at the forefront of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in Indonesia by facilitating an extensive network of academics, businessmen, and bureaucrats, albeit in a fragmented manner. The advent of Wadhwani Foundation’s National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in Indonesia and its partnership with BIC will consolidate these fragmented efforts by leveraging NEN’s experience and resources to build a robust and vibrant eco-system which will not only support entrepreneurs, but also benefit businesses and the national economy in the long run. NEN brings immense value derived from a decade-long experience in creating an entrepreneur eco-system in academia, developing an exhaustive knowledge bank and supporting emerging entrepreneurs across a vast network of educators, mentors, investors and organizations. This is a significant development towards achieving our objective of increasing the number of entrepreneurs from 500,000 to five million.”
NEN has a substantial repository of resources to build an ecosystem which includes tailor-made programs to build entrepreneurial capacity in academia, and also to support entrepreneurs through events, workshops, and webinars. NEN’s rich experiential content and its scientific approach towards building a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem will be leveraged over a wide network of beneficiaries in Indonesia such as universities, entrepreneurs, educators, businesses, investors, and the government among others, with the operation assistance of BIC.
Sunita Singh, Co-Founder NEN and Vice President, Wadhwani Foundation, says, “NEN has a rich history of creating and supporting entrepreneurs and innovators leading to job creation. One of the salient features of NEN’s resources and IP is that they are contextualized for emerging economies and deployment of these is critical to scaling our efforts and impact across the globe. At the same time in each nation we have the opportunity to develop more nuanced approaches and content which increases the effectiveness of the Wadhwani Foundation’s work with entrepreneurs. Our partnership with BIC will enable us to bring together the right stakeholders in Indonesia including the government, academic institutions, entrepreneurs and associations to enhance the resources and connectedness of the eco-system. We hope to leverage the Wadhwani Foundation technology platforms for aspiring and new entrepreneurs to help scale support for entrepreneurs to the different parts of Indonesia thereby supporting and harnessing the country’s innovation and entrepreneurial potential.”
A robust entrepreneurial ecosystem will open up new channels of communication within the community to drive innovative and entrepreneurial projects in Indonesia. The ecosystem includes students and entrepreneurs who will be supported by a growing network of educators, mentors, and investors along with the steady introduction of a host of programs, resources, and policies to enhance their learning and progress.
About Wadhwani Foundation:
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, the Foundation’s primary mission is economic acceleration in emerging economies. The Foundation is driving economic growth in India and other Asian countries through large-scale initiatives in job creation and skill development. To achieve this the Foundation has launched five high impact Initiatives in India, with the goal of creating 25 million jobs in the next 5 years.
For job creation, Wadhwani Foundation established the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in 2003. NEN has built a strong network with 600 colleges, 4000 mentors and 3200 faculty in India that continue to inspire, educate and support emerging entrepreneurs. Thousands of practicing entrepreneurs and startups are also supported through NEN’s Entrepreneur Academy www.nenonline.tv that features hundreds of short videos from experienced entrepreneurs, angels, VCs along with dozens of longer video courses and blog posts. Since inception, NEN has resulted in 2,000 new startups with 12,000+ direct and 50,000+ indirect jobs and is now tracking 1,500+ new companies each year.
Other Initiatives of Wadhwani Foundation include Opportunity Network for Disabled (OND) aimed at mainstreaming the educated disabled into sustainable high quality corporate jobs, Research and Innovation Network (RIN) aimed at upgrading India’s research eco-system by catalyzing ‘Centers of Innovations’ in partnership with existing research Institutes and Policy which provides data driven research inputs for informed policy actions towards creating a human-capital driven growth economy.
About BIC:
Business Innovation Center (BIC) is an institution established by the Ministry of Research and Technology to bridge the innovation process contained in Academics, Business and Government (ABG). BIC’s activities are focused towards identifying and facilitating technology transfer and the commercialization of research results to drive development. The core mission of BIC is to serve as innovation intermediaries, bringing together the academics and businesses to collaborate and work on innovations.
BIC believes that as an innovation intermediary it has a highly strategic role in the future. Aside to technical capabilities in understanding various disciplines of sciences and technology; BIC strives to mingle within the multidisciplinary academic space, various business sectors, and the government bureaucracy, sometimes simultaneously. In carrying out this ‘delicate yet dynamic’ mission, BIC always puts forward the values of integrity, creativity, collaboration for synergy, mutual trust, and entrepreneurship.