Dr Rajeev Roy is an entrepreneurship educator, startup mentor, entrepreneur and investor. Currently he is the Professor of entrepreneurship at XLRI Xavier School of Management Jamshedpur, and the CEO of XCEED, the campus incubator. After completing his PGDM from IIM, Ahmedabad, he had a short corporate stint and then, he started his own ventures. His entrepreneurial ventures include food processing, KPO, dairy products and microfinance.
He has been involved in entrepreneurship development in 14 countries across five continents. He has been a full-time faculty in business schools in India and USA. He has set up 6 incubators and accelerators in 4 different countries. He was founder CEO of 36Inc in Raipur which became India’s 2nd largest Incubator and incubated over 100 startups within a year of being setup.
An online course in entrepreneurship anchored by him has been used by over 300 universities and colleges worldwide. He has trained over 1000 entrepreneurs and over 300 entrepreneurship educators. He has been directly involved in mentoring and advising over 100 startups in their growth phase

In an exclusive interview with CGInnovate he provides his valuable insights.

1)Your views on the development of the start up eco system of CG?

“Effectively what we have seen in the first generation of entrepreneurs here in Chhattisgarh is that they have gone out there , tried a few things, explored other markets and eco systems and brought out a lot of learning from that, and that is feeding into the local eco system of Chhattisgarh!”

2) How are the start ups of the state doing ?

“Earlier there was only 36 Inc which was probably an anchor but now there are other hotspots, for a long time Bhilai was leading and there were a lot of IT enterprises which have come up in Bhilai and a thriving eco system has developed in Bhilai, with Indira Gandhi Agricultural University also having set up their incubator, a lot of enterprises have been coming out of there. And a lot of enterprises formally or informally are coming together, which is a very positive sign for the eco system. Rise of the angel investors is also a very positive sign. Starting with VCATs now also Indian Angels , IP Ventures a lot of support to the local enterprises, however there has not been a lot of cases of local enterprises being funded by other local angels.

Any start ups here which deserve mention?

Some of the local start ups which deserve mention are Vaahak – it started out of 36 Inc, it got funded by a loca angel by the name of Mr. Chandrakar, raised additional funding and now has found reasons to go to Bangalore.
GIM books started off in 36 Inc.and then went to another accelerator in Bangalore, Upekha and now has been selected for as one of the constitutients of 2021 Winter Cohot of Y Combinator.
Minocular looking out growing their clients .Their existing clients include Vedanta Lafarge they are growing at a very good rate.
WeSnapYou a platform for photographers have spread their wings at a National Level.

4) Any particular segment to watch out for?
Interesting thing about startups out of Chhattisgarh, they have a very good revenue focus, unlike other startups from the metros, the focus is on market growth at the cost of a huge burn and that isn’t a very sustainable strategy. Solid businesses starting out of CG which have a very good focus on the top line and bottom line.
Second important characteristic is that the startups here are not trying to ape a start up out of metros, focus is on different industries , basic industries, heavy metal industries, the primary sector. For instance Minocular looks at using IOT and AI in mines, Vaahak looks at intercity logistics streamlining, GIM books looks at making sure that SME across the country as an easy interface for accounting relating issues, very focused on primary industries and traditional sectors.