SITG the company behind digital agency Quasar and startups like Tyroo and Zoomtra has initiated an incubation centre in Gurgaon. Smile always has been in the business of incubation and this move just takes that strategy further ahead. Both tyroo and zoomtra have been outcomes of incubation at the SITG office and it has worked for them as well with Yahoo buying equity in Tyroo.
This incubation centre at Gurgaon is fully facilitated and has in-house managed services like Finance, Legal, HR and IT. Consultation available from the top senior and respected digital industry professionals in India. Its obvious that Smile Interactive which has these facilities inhouse wants to leverage them to incubate newer ideas.
Though the world over such models have hardly worked (besides exceptions like Ycombinator which is still invests cash) I feel in India this may recieve some success. The reasons are multifold starting from setup problems, to low risk taking capability of experience middle managers looking towards entrepreneurship to the reach that SITG has built in the digital space with successes like Quasar and ofcourse the Yahoo investment in Tyroo ratifying their incubation model.
We had done a WATShow with Manish Vij of Smile Interactive earlier last year and had questioned him about their incubation model. Check out the WATShow here.
Smile has continuously showed leadership in the digital media fraternity in India. I’ve been following the startup team closely and it’s great to see the success they have achieved. Harish is a rockstar, and I have no doubt this will be a $100M company in 5 years.
I was recommended this blog by my friend. He was totally right, thanks!