The Canada-India Acceleration Program (CIAP) focuses on empowering female entrepreneurs of technology ventures. The Program consists of three components:
Bootcamp
A 1-week invitation only bootcamp that helps ventures to grow early, rapidly and securely (GERS). The bootcamp will be a mixture of face-to-face and online for content delivery, local awareness, worksheet preparation, presentations, takeaway products and administration.
The content is drawn from the GERS model and from our experiences with the award winning Lead To Win (LTW) program. (The bootcamp will be held in Ottawa during the week of October 22 and travel and living expenses will be covered.)
Softlanding
After the bootcamp, the ventures are offered soft-landing experiences (1-week to 3-months) in India chosen by CIAP-associated market experts. With funding support(C$5,000 for living expenses) from CIAP, the ventures will be offered fully functional office space, mentorship, advisory services (e.g., legal, taxation and accounting), dedicated sessions for co-development opportunities with Indian ventures, networking sessions with relevant potential stakeholders, pitching sessions to Indian angel investors and venture capital funds, and accommodation and basic food plans. (Soft-landing will be January – March 2019.)
Investment
On return from India, the ventures have an opportunity to compete for up to C$200,000 in seed funding. Ventures will be required to pitch to a CIAP-associated Investment Panel. If a venture is successful in securing seed funding with the Panel, a formal contract will be designed to detail the partnership. The cost of the contract will be borne by the venture.