With flagship initiatives such as ‘Open Innovation Challenge,’ ‘Learn Next,’ ‘Saturday Mentoring Clinic,’ ‘Project to Product Series’ and MAGIC Headon,’ the Aurangabad based MAGIC is building a robust entrepreneurial base for the manufacturing startups across India. Supporting them with funding, corporate connect, and patenting the products, MAGIC has been supporting and mentoring 138 startups all over India. Besides this, MAGIC has incubated 28 startups in Aurangabad region, making them a better bespoke of Indian Manufacturing.
The startup ecosystem with mystifying ideas has immense potential of turning the ideas into transformable products. All they need is incubation in the form of corporate connect, government support, and technology advancement. Recognizing the startup’s potential and incubating them with the requisite support drives the industrial aspects of the startups, who are bringing up the manufacturing every day with the innovations.
One such organization is the Marathwada Accelerator for Growth and Incubation Council (MAGIC), which is driving the startups to the leading-edge forefront, in the best interest of India’s talent pool. Based out of Aurangabad, the team of 11 members-MAGIC is a sector-agnostic Incubator and SME Accelerator, with recognition from the Maharashtra State Innovation Society and Ministry of MSME and Govt. of India.
Exclusively interacting with Machine Maker, Ashish Garde, Director, MAGIC, spoke on the journey of the MAGIC as a section-8 Non-Profit organization from a small district that, overcoming the lack of startup ecosystem in local regions is now supporting and mentoring around 138 startups across India, with its pan-India presence.
“Every startup has its own journey, and with our mentors, who are industry leaders, we are connecting the dots. This entire activity is done with the motto of contributing the society and inculcating the entrepreneurial spirit among the youth,” said Ashish Garde, on the mission statement of MAGIC.
From regional to national: Driving country’s startup drive.
By turning the ideas into a product of utility, the unprecedented Innovations in manufacturing have been benefitted from the surge of young startups and entrepreneurs. With 12-15% year-on-year growth and more than 60,000 startups, India now has the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. Such a large network of startups demands the right market reach, corporate mentorship, and seed funding.
While working with the German Development Agency GIZ, Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture (CMIA), the apex body representing MSMEs and large industries addressed the need for incubator and SME accelerator for startups in India. Subsequently, CMIA initiated MAGIC in 2015, which is recognized as the ‘Special Purpose Vehicle’ brought by CMIA. MAGIC is targeting to boost the establishment of early-stage Startups by Mentoring and Facilitating the talent pool and opening new opportunities for growth.
“In its early age without government’s recognition, MAGIC incubator brought a unique incubation model, where the mentors who were the directors of different industries adopted Grassroot Innovators in their own premises. Subsequently, in the first two years, the organization successfully graduated 8 such startups,” narrated MAGIC's spokesperson on the initial journey of MAGIC.
Getting recognition from the government of Maharashtra in 2018, MAGIC became India’s first regional incubator and SME accelerator for incubating startup ideas in diverse fields such as Agro-tech, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, 3D Printing, etc.“Being a non-academic and sector-agnostic incubator, we support startups in various fields. With our dedicated workshops and seminars, we provide mentorship which is better than the industry-academic interactions which last only a few hours,” he conversed on the Industry-Institute Initiatives adopted by MAGIC.
Seeding the Manufacturing heroes
Giving insights into some of the manufacturing startups incubated by MAGIC, Ashish said “the startups we incubated are now, speeding up the up-bringing of manufacturing to an excellent level. Since the establishment, we have collaborated with more than 40 leading organizations including Research Centres, NGOs, and the Government organizations to help the startups to scale their technology-driven operations in manufacturing.”
With support through MAGIC’s workshop, Namdev Anerao, a 34-year-old farmer-turned entrepreneur addressed the inability of the local farmers to use high-cost large agrotech machinery on their small fields. He developed a small tractor called ‘Chhota Tractor,’ to help out the farmers of his community. With its 9000 Sqft. Manufacturing unit located at Pimpalner Village, Beed district, the tractor costs just Rs 65,000 and performs all the functions that big tractors and machines do in the field. With his innovative tractor which is locally manufactured, Anerao obtained revenue of 65 lakh in the last year.
Another innovator incubated by the MAGIC is Vilas More, founder of Moraj Industries, who with MAGIC’s support brought the magic of turning disruptions of COVID 19 into opportunity. He developed and patented disposable safety razors to help the salons to meet their needs of hygienic operations to battle the pandemic spread. Notably, the effort of Vilas has been recognized at the national level.
Moreover, Yogesh Gawande, Founder, Niyo Innovative Solutions LLP addressed the health hazards while carrying pesticides on the back and has Developed a low-cost Pesticide Spraying Machine. Another is Yogesh Pawar's IPRO3D Technologies LLP which is providing Manufacturing services using 3D printing technology and an online marketplace for buying and selling 3D printed products.
“Local and interiors regions, such as Marathwada have massive startup potential. With proper nurturing and support from the government, they have the capability to scale the manufacturing to the next level,” he said on MAGIC’s contribution to the startups.
Bringing Womentrepreneurs ahead
Not just limited to the startup boot camps, MAGIC has put its incessant efforts to inspire women entrepreneurship with seminars such as ‘Women Startup Accelerator Program’ and Women Entrepreneurship Workshops. As a conscious to ensure women's participation in the startups, MAGIC has signed MoU with various associations such as MACCIA, Mumbai, Wadhwani Foundation, and Aamhi Ugyogini Pratishthan for promoting the Women Entrepreneurship, which has reach across the whole state of Maharashtra.
“For years with our seasoned mentors who are eminent experts from every industrial sector, we have brought initiatives to inspire women to opt for entrepreneurship. Through our MAGIC Interviews series, we especially address the girls at our workshop by introducing them with the women industrial leaders,” he commented on the MAGIC’s efforts to foster ‘Womentrepreneurship.’ He believes that with the remarkable changes in the education policy, college ranking based on the entrepreneurial facility will definitely help women getting into entrepreneurship.
Incubating innovation amid disruptions: Virtual Startups Event
Speaking on the impact of the pandemic earlier and now, Omicron disrupting the manufacturing, Ashish told that during the pandemic, when the whole manufacturing operations were shut, MAGIC turned the pandemic disruptions into an opportunity by switching to virtual mode.
“Exhibitions have been postponed but partnering with TATA Technologies, we have been organizing virtual events exclusively for the startups. With such virtual events, we extended our pan India reach and gain the participation of the startups from whole India,” he told on the virtual incubation support.
MAGIC along with TATA technologies and collaboration with CII has been hosting a virtual event at the national level called ‘Tata Technologies Magic Innovation Hub (TMIH),' which was inaugurated on 28th December. Hosted on a platform 'ICONN 21,' the event will be live for three months, more than the exhibitions which are organized just for some days or weeks. The event TMIH@ICONN 21 has been entailing the participation of various stakeholders of the startup ecosystem. Just like ordinary, MAGIC has allocated a virtual booth for interacting with the visitors.
During this year, MAGIC has provided ‘One on One’ Mentorship to over 100 Startups from the Marathwada Region, Maharashtra State and now supporting them with national reach. With core competency and strength to instantly connect the young startups with the industries, MAGIC also facilitates the startups who participate for more than three years with the incubation agreement for technical support, filing patents, funding, and corporate connections.
“Just one year younger to the Startup India Initiative, our 11 member team at MAGIC aims to create job creators than job seekers by enabling them to scale their Engineering and Technology-led operations and convert their innovative ideas into commercially viable enterprises,” concluded Ashish on the MAGIC’s futuristic vision about India’s startup potential.
