Startup Mentorship Program with Top Experts opens up on MAARG portal

Aiming to bring the expertise of top sectoral experts with start-ups that it plans to nurture, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, has called for new ventures to register with its MAARG portal.

The Centre, which has launched a slew of schemes to promote Startups refers to the MAARG portal as the National Mentorship Platform by Startup India. 

“To further boost the Indian startup ecosystem, currently ranked 3rd largest globally, Startup India is focused on catalysing the startup culture and building a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India. In this context, the MAARG portal - Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience, and Growth, is a one-stop platform to facilitate mentorship for startups across diverse sectors, functions, stages, geographies, and backgrounds,” the DPIIT said in an official statement. 

The objectives of the MAARG portal are – 

• To provide sector-focused guidance, handholding, and support to startups throughout their lifecycle
• To establish a formalized and structured platform that facilitates intelligent matchmaking between the mentors and their respective mentees
• To facilitate efficient and expert mentorship for startups and build an outcome-oriented mechanism that allows timely tracking of the mentor-mentee engagements

Startups can now effectively connect with academicians, industry experts, successful founders, seasoned investors, and other experts from across the globe, through Artificial Intelligence (AI) based matchmaking, to get personalized guidance on growth and strategy. 

The key features of the portal include customizable mentorship programs for ecosystem enablers, a mobile-friendly user interface, recognition for contributing mentors, video and audio call options, etc.

The MAARG Portal is being operationalized in three phases. The first phase, which was launched was related to mentor onboarding. Four hundred-plus expert mentors have been onboarded across sectors. 

As per the plan, the second phase relates to - Startup Onboarding. DPIIT is launching the onboarding of startups on the MAARG Portal with effect from 14th November 2022

In the third phase, the mentors will be matched to the startups DPIIT has initiated the onboarding process of startups under Phase II. All interested startups are encouraged to apply at MAARG website, the ministry said. 

“Innovations are the inevitable engines of growth for a nation, and India alone is home to more than 82,000+ DPIIT recognised startups and over 107 Unicorns. Entrepreneurship is the foundation of our great nation’s economic wealth and prosperity, and we are quickly transforming from a nation of job seekers to a nation of job creators,” the DPIIT statement said.