Author name: Anupam

Music Securities is a registered financial services agency of Japan and it launched an impact investment platform called Securite in 2008. The reason was to integrate several services and categories into one web based platform that would support to manage account and customer information in one system. This was extended business opportunities for wide range of industries and customers. It generates funds for businesses of different sectors from music, restaurants, agriculture, IT, sports, energy, manufacturing et cetera.   Idea Studio Nepal (ISN) on the other hand is working towards establishing entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nepal since 2014. One of the essential components for this is financial support to entrepreneurs. In this endeavour Music Securities and ISN collaborated to originate fund for enterprises on July 17, 2019. This is another milestone for ISN.   In 2018 ISN had announced launch of Idea Impact Fund and in 2019 it got closer to fulfilling its commitment. This year the deserving enterprises will receive benefits due to this collaboration.

Infrastructure Idea Hunt Grand 2019 was held on September 12 at Hyatt Regency. Thisis an initiation of Confederation of Nepalese Industries and Idea Studio Nepal. The objective was to encourage Nepalese to come up with innovative solutions to address infrastructure deficit and contribute to the country’s development.Out of numerous ideas sent, Top 10 ideas were shortlisted. Top 10 ideators then went through rigorous rounds of mentoring at Idea Studio Nepal incubation center. They also got an opportunity to pitch their ideas in infront of the members of the Parliament. Finally 10 ideators pitched their ideas to a panel of seven juries. The jury members were from various backgrounds such as engineering, architecture, business, and business incubation. Ideators presented their ideas in three minutes and two minutes was slotted for questions by the judges. Based on the presentations, ideas, and their answers judges scored them and the Top 3 winners were selected. Ideators pitched their ideas to the jury members in front of 70 audiences. One of the ideas was of BidhiMandal, it was brick made of plastic and cement, her project focused on reducing plastic waste and also using it to build houses. She brought her prototype for everyone to see. Another idea was a biogas plant presented by Sanjay Rajbhandari. His idea was to bring some reforms in the plant structure and utilise the bio waste that is generated daily in the urban areas. And KishorPoudel came with an idea of collaborating agriculture with engineering. The idea was to plant genetically modified apple trees in areas affected by landslides and soil erosion. After much deliberation the winners were announced. BidhiMandal with her Project Aawas became the first winner winning a cash prize of Rs 1,50,000. As there was a tie between two ideas thus both the ideas (ShritiAwaleand team for Home Automation, and Ramesh Pathak and team for Traffic Mapp) became runners up wining Rs 1,00,000 cash prize each. All the participants seemed very happy with the results, and were feeling encouraged to work more on their idea and most of them said that this was just a beginning for their project to kick off. Though there were Top three winners at the event, every other idea was a winner. The opportunity they got was rare and most of them got positive feedback from the audience and judges. SoniyaAdhikari one of the Top 10 ideators shared that three investors at the event approached her. And Poudel could not give time speak to all the people who approached him.

UNICEF Eritrea and the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS) recently concluded a 5-day workshop on building entrepreneurship skills among youth in the capital Asmara. Forty-seven youth from different Zobas, including innovators from emerging start-ups, worked under the guidance of Professor Rupesh K. Shrestha from Kathmandu University, Nepal. They created innovative business plans which included solar powered digital libraries, energy saving cooking-stoves, eco-friendly construction materials, education software and access for the hearing impaired/deaf, and low-cost energy-saving laptops. Read Full Story Here

आइडिया स्टुडियो नेपाल र मेलम्ची नगरपालिकाबिच आइडिया स्टुडियो नेपालको सहकार्यमा मेलम्ची नगरपालिकाभित्र रहेका घरेलु कृषिक्षेत्रलाई आधुनिकीकरण गरी उत्पादित बस्तुको बजार प्रबद्र्घन गर्दै व्यबसायिक कृषी कर्जा लगानी गर्ने बिषयमा त्रिपक्षिय सम्झौता भएको छ । Read Full Story Here

In June 2019 Idea Studio Nepal and WWF Nepal came together to create history. The intent of the collaboration is to use the knowledge, resources and networks of both organisations efficiently and effectively encourage green innovation and sustainable business in Nepal in order to contribute to sustainable development in the country. It is essential to create a platform to promote green businesses in Nepal as it is rare. This initiative will help influence and bring change at the policy level when the green businesses will flourish and it gradually will create an ecosystem. Also co-create curriculum and research in the field of green innovation, financing and investmentment will only enhance the system.

The curriculum was launched in Season 3 and it was developed to learn better entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge. There are two parts of the curriculum, one was developed in partnership with Oulu University of Applied Sciences- Oamk, Finland, and Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSoM) called i-lad studio model which is based on intensive experiential lab based learning and human centric design thinking. Another is called i-venture creation developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

Since Season 1 College Idea Hunt has been effective to identify innovative business ideas that has the potential to be launched as a start up business in around 300 business schools. The intention is to promote innovative thinking and entrepreneurship among the students and provide a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to refine business idea and give it a shape. Owing to this Idea Studio Nepal’s (ISN) endeavour was to encourage such entrepreneurs and finally in Season 3 ISN was able to recognise three innovative  ideas selected from College Idea Hunt as first, second, and third position. Each winner received a cash prize of NRs 1,00,000, NRs 75,000, and NRs 50,000 respectively.

Ideastudio Season 3 Gala Event was held on March 24, 2019 at Hotel Yak and Yeti (Durbar hall). Idea Studio completed three seasons successfully and it helped foster social entrepreneurs and ignite social change in Nepal.The approach is based on core values: social innovation, investment, knowledge creation, social justice and promoting human dignity.   Incubation period for Season 3 with 30 finalists commenced from September 28, 2018 onwards. It lasted for a month. From thereon ideators did not look back because they constantly learnt from the mentors. With the end of airing the last episode of Season 3 we wanted to gather to witness the growth of these social entrepreneurs at the Gala Event.    Idea Studio Nepalis a not-for-profit company that provides encouragement, resources, space, and network to the entire ecosystem for socially conscious business ideas of Nepal. The approach is based on Social Innovation, Investment, Social Justice, Knowledge Creation,and to promote Human Dignity. Idea Studio works in close collaboration with academic institutions like Kathmandu University, nine commercial banks, Confederation of Nepalese Industries, the Government of Nepal, media houses and many institutions to foster entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nepal. Idea Studio is also a popular reality television show, broadcast from the two national televisions of Nepal. Idea Studio runs the ‘College Idea Hunt’ to encourage entrepreneurship amongst students. And ‘Idea Talk’ is another channel through which successful entrepreneurs share their stories giving valuable lessons to aspiring youths and academicians. We are constantly exploring and creating the best platform for the start-ups, scale-ups and for the link up for the innovative ideas and businesses.    The event commenced with emcee of the event, Malvika Subba, welcoming everyone and with Anil Basnet, CEO of Metrotarkari.com and former ideator speech on biggest challenges while growing his business, its initial and present turnover, and three lessons learnt while scaling the start up. Metrotarkari’s business model is to become the sole agent to transfer goods from farmers to consumers. Due to single commission they are able to reduce up to 60 per cent margin levied on goods. The initial turnover was around Rs 50,000-Rs 60,000 a month and within four years of operations the company has grown by 600 to 700 per cent.   Followed by this Sumitra Poudel gave an inspirational speech on her incredible journey as a garment manufacturing entrepreneur. Under the mentorship of Idea Studio she made her business plan in Season 2 and registered her company Sunsari Collection Pvt Ltd. Poudel’s never give up attitude led her to where she is today. However, it has not been easy. She says it is 75 per cent more difficult for women to establish their business compared to men, because women have additional burden of unpaid care work. This doesn’t deter her from achieving her goal of being a successful entrepreneur. Apart from her work she aspires to write due to her interest in literature and at the age of 58 she completed her +2. Her mantra is one should move forward no matter what and age should never be a barrier to achieving anything in life.    It was a learning experience for those present at the event. Panel discussion from Season 1, 2, and 3 shared their leanings on establishing a startup business idea to utilise the under-utilised resource of maintenance workforce, finance as an important aspect for any enterprise to function, and on scaling up the business. Keynote speakers and also business gurus – CEO of National Banking Institute, Sanjib Subba, and Veteran Comedian/ActorMadan Krishna Shrestha boosted their confidence to move forward with their vision and dreams. The event continued with various announcements on Idea Studio Season 3 ‘I have an Idea’ event winners. After the welcome speech by Dr Tshering Lama, Executive Chairperson, Co-founder of Idea Studio he welcomed three new board members and introduced new international board of advisors of Idea Studio. Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM) and Meeting Point were also welcomed as institutional members of Idea Studio. Along with this Co Founder of Idea Studio and Assistant Professor of KUSOM Rupesh Krishna Shrestha launched Idea Studio entrepreneurship curriculum.     The event neared with end with Pema Lama’s live performance on his new release Dherai Dheria Maya. The song left everyone smiling and mesmerised. The event concluded on a high note with announcement of three winners of seed investments who were presented with Rs 5,00,000 each and thank you note by Rupesh.