Subhrangshu Sanyal, CEO, IIM-Calcutta Innovation Park
| Photo Credit:
Debasish Bhaduri
IIM-Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) has partnered with the UAE-India CEPA Council (UICC) for identifying promising Indian startups and enabling them to enter the UAE market to scale up and expand globally.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between IIMCIP and the UICC for formalising the strategic partnership to assist the startups to engage with the UAE’s ecosystem in order to unlock new avenues for international growth.
The UAE-India CEPA Council (UICC) is a dedicated bilateral platform established to advance trade, investment, and innovation under the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Under the CEPA Start-up Series, a flagship initiative of UICC, high-potential Indian startups will be promoted and supported.
“This initiative from the UAE embassy under the CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) is to build a bridge between the startup ecosystem in India and the UAE. It was just launched a month back, and as a first initiative, what they are doing there is trying to identify startups from India who would like to set up operations in the UAE. They will provide all support free of cost to set up businesses of these identified startups in the UAE. They will also provide handholding support so that they can get connected to markets,” IIM Calcutta Innovation Park CEO Subhrangshu Sanyal told businessline.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for Indian start-ups planning to expand to the UAE. If you enter there, then you can also access the European and African markets,” Sanyal said.
IIM-Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) is a not-for-profit company established under the aegis of IIM Calcutta to promote entrepreneurship and innovation. In order to support entrepreneurs in creating more jobs in the Eastern and Northeastern parts of the country, IIM Calcutta started this initiative in 2014.
“IIMCIP will help UICC identify some of the promising start-ups from our incubation portfolio who will be able to take advantage of this programme. We are working as an ecosystem partner, helping them identify the startups. We have discussed how we can do more programmes together to encourage more and more startups coming forward and taking advantage of this export market, or setting up a footprint in the foreign markets. We will also build awareness for doing it on a much larger scale,” Sanyal said, adding that market access is an essential part of scaling up for startups.
IIMCIP has so far mentored around 1500 startups overall and funded more than 130 of them.
Published on July 28, 2025