Canadian accelerator and incubator Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC) announced plans to assist Indian startups and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in globalising their businesses.
Vikram Khurana, TBDC chairman, told Inc42 that TBDC will nominate 100-300 India-based startups to the Canadian government by 2025 through its Land and Expand programme, which targets mature startups, and Soft Landing programmes, which focus on early-stage startups.
Furthermore, to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in Ontario, the TBDC has collaborated with the Ontario government on two policies: the Entrepreneur Success Initiative (ESI) and the Move for More campaign.
“TBDC’s new initiative OINP ESI will promote entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth in India and Canada,” Khurana said of the aforementioned initiatives. The Move for More campaign, on the other hand, will allow immigrant entrepreneurs to buy or start businesses outside of the Greater Toronto Area.”
To date, TBDC has partnered with various Indian ecosystem partners, including Startup India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Chamber of Commerce, T-Hub, and NASSCOM, to support the Indian startup ecosystem.
TBDC primarily provides a six-month incubation programme for startups that is divided into three distinct phases. In the first phase, TBDC provides Indian startups and entrepreneurs with a three-month pre-arrival virtual training to give them a comprehensive understanding of the Canadian business market.
Following that, the next three months of the incubation programme take place in a classroom-style setting, where startups are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to launch their ventures. Furthermore, over the next three months, startups will have one-on-one mentoring sessions with veteran industrialists to help them secure orders, raise capital, and recruit employees.
