Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Wadhwani Foundation’s National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) to extend mentoring support to the existing awardees of SIDBI ET India MSE Awards and Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) identified from different regions/locations by SIDBI or its associates from pan India. While SIDBI shall provide list of MSEs to NEN under this arrangement, NEN would provide mentorship support to shortlisted MSEs through strategic guidance, advisory and execution support by NEN and its advisor network, for accelerating their growth.
On this occasion Shri Mohammad Mustafa, IAS, Chairman and Managing Director of SIDBI said, “The partnership will be useful for MSEs in a structured way leveraging the presence and global experience of Wadhwani Foundation for MSEs mentorship and growth. SIDBI ET India MSE Award winners will also benefit from this initiative as they would be offered mentorship as a reward. The partnership aims to accelerate growth of small businesses and help them to take the next growth leap. The target is to onboard 500 MSEs in the first year for mentorship from across India.”
Dr. Ajay Kela, Global CEO and President of Wadhwani Foundation expressed his excitement and happiness for partnering with SIDBI as he believes that SIDBI brings curated Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and he will make sure that Wadhwani Foundation will take them through the journey of transforming them.
Shri Samir Sathe, Executive Vice President of Wadhwani Foundation said, “We are delighted to partner with SIDBI to help small business entrepreneurs. We have an immense opportunity to transform thousands ofSMEsto accelerate their growth and create millions of jobs in next decade. As a self-funded global philanthropy, we are in a unique position, to make the SME ecosystem robust and India realize inclusive growth.”
After onboarding the MSEs on NEN, a diagnostic study of the MSEs would be taken up to develop a transformative roadmap. The mentors would be selected /matched with MSEs based on the assessment and free mentorship support (pro bono of around 8-10 hours per quarter) shall be given to MSEs. The focus areas of mentorship for MSEs under this arrangement is aimed at establishing a growth path, providing advisory, strategic and execution support services through Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled network of mentors, coaches, and consultants. It would also include deep engagement of up to 12months and handholding support of up to 3years through AI-enabled Wadhwani Foundation’splatform.
