visakhapatnam iimvisakhapatnam foundation for incubation entrepreneurial learning and development iimv field launched the nidhi accelerator programme on wednesday the programme is funded by the department of science and technology according to programme director prof m shameem jawed the programme aims to handhold those ventures who already have their minimal viable product and are ready to scale up their operations by raising external financingas many as 15 startups were selected from an application pool of about 85 for this 18month long programme the programme includes sixmonth intensive training and mentorship via structured inputs from iimvisakhapatnam faculty and industry experts on various matters of business model costing and pricing cashflow management and fundraising gotomarket and operational strategies and preparation of pitch deck among otherseach startup will receive 70 hours of onetomany inputs via a series of workshops masterclasses and knowledge series lectures along with dedicated 50 hours of onetoone mentorship the startups will also get an opportunity to pitch in front of investors at the end of their sixmonths on the demoday the top three performing ventures will also get a takeaway grant of rs 35 lakh eachiimv field will also provide postprogramme support to these 15 startups in their endeavours of fund raising for additional 12 months after the demoday fundraisingmanaging partner go magic trails and member board of governors iim visakhapatnam uma sudhindra delivered the inaugural address she encouraged the entrepreneurs to solve the pressing problems of the country she appreciated the initiatives of iimv field in helping the budding entrepreneursparticipants also got valuable inputs from iimv vizag director prof m chandrasekhar dst observer dr balachandran a tie grad chair bhanu prakash reddy and shareef of fundenableprogram director prof m shameem jawed explained the plan for next six months and thanked the programme partners and the leadership of iimvizag and the department of science and technology for the opportunity provided