Fuelling Passion – Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), Ahmedabad

The Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad (EDI) is an acclaimed international resource centre facilitating all facets of entrepreneurship. And to facilitate that EDI offers 2 year PG programmes in Business Entrepreneurship, In-Development sector & Social Entrepreneurship.

This year, EDI has gone beyond the boundaries of providing education. For the first time ever, EDI has invested in ventures started by its students –

• A food truck restaurant called Restron-Wheel Food Truck and
• An online aggregator Returntruck.com

The primary concept of Restron-Wheel Food Truck is a simple street food truck concept which is yet to be introduced in an organised format in India. Utkarsh Gulati, an alumnus of EDI – Ahmedabad and the Founder of Restron-Wheel Food Truck plans to start his first food truck in Gurgaon's premiere locations habited by multinational corporations such as Cyber Hub, Cyber Park and Info City. He has received Rs. 3.5 lakh from EDI in the form of a grant. 

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Returntruck.com functions on the premise of helping companies book an empty truck which is returning to its original location. The idea of Returntruck.com sprang from the realisation that usually truck operators and individual truck owners have to run their trucks empty while returning. The aggregator allows companies to book such trucks at a 20% discount. The Co-Founder of Returntruck.com is also an EDI student Nitin Gupta, who hopes to be the Ola in truck transportation business. He has received Rs 2.5 lakh from the institute.

At present, Entrepreneurship Development Institute, Ahmedabad has funded the two companies in the form of a grant, as, being a trust, EDI cannot take any equity or acquire a stake in startups. But the professors at EDI are hopeful about them receiving enough funding. Prof Satya Acharya of EDI says, "This is the first round of funding, so that they can immediately start their ventures. And if they need subsequent support, other players can jump in”. Following this funding, EDI Ahmedabad is getting offers from angel investors who are interested in funding such projects.

If the two companies are able to sustain themselves, they will not only do themselves proud, but will put EDI at an all new level. And EDI can fund and motivate more and more of such enterprising ventures in future. With so many start-ups in India in the recent past, one cannot deny that India is at a favourable spot and getting foreign investment is not a far-fetched dream anymore. The need of the hour is to have many more quality driven institutes like EDI, Ahmedabad so that they can shape the Indian economy as a throbbing marketplace.