EDI Ahmedabad students launch Entrepreneurship ventures; set up e-truck business with Rs.6 lakh support

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
May 15, 2015
2 of EDI`s PGDM pass outs instead of participating in campus placement have chosen to start entrepreneurship ventures in truck business unique of its kind
To support the launching EDI has decided to provide financial support of Rs. 6 lakhs to its students entering into entrepreneurship ventures

Why an MBA should search for a job that kills the creativity is probably the motto, the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) Ahmedabad follows while imparting education to its students studying in flagship PGDM (Business Entrepreneurship).

The result is obvious as 2 of EDI’s PGDM pass outs instead of participating in campus placement process leading some not so fruitful work experience, have chosen to start entrepreneurship ventures in truck business unique of its kind and instead of getting recruited have embarked on the path of recruiting other MBAs. Both the ventures are innovative and first of their kind – one is a food truck restaurant named Restron-Wheel Food Truck and other ventures is an e-truck online business named aggregator Returntruck.com which would helps companies book a returning empty truck to its original location at a fabulous discount.

To support the launching Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI) has decided to provide financial support of Rs. 6 lakhs to its students entering into entrepreneurship ventures. Overwhelmed with the entrepreneurship vision of the students, EDI Prof Satya Ranjan Acharya  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".

Returntruck.com

EDI student Nitin Gupta who nurtured the idea and put it into shape and the cofounder of Returntruck.com says that the idea to launch the e-truck transportation business came as they found that most of the trucks return empty to their originating location as they do not have any booking.

The truck operators and truck owners at most of the time do not have any clue on booking from the returning point and hence they come back empty incurring more running costs and compensation to the crew.  Now the Aggregator Returntruck.com would offer numerous such truck transporters to book their trucks on returning journey at a discount of 20%. Nitin Gupta hopes that they will be Ola in truck transportation business very soon. EDI has supported the venture with an investment of Rs.2.5 lakhs.

Restron-Wheel Food Truck  

Restron-Wheel Food Truck is proposed to be launched by Utkarsh Gulati who is based in Gurgaon. Gulati a chef by profession has just completed his PGDM-BE from EDI Ahmedabad. He found that street mobile food concept is not well organized in the country and the small vans and vehicles do not provide hygienic food, facility and space to the consumers to enjoy their food.

Gulati has made good volume of survey and has made good research on the project. Making his entrepreneurship debut, Gulati says most of the MNC employees hang out at street food joints for their daily lunch and dinner but the street food vendors are unable to address the issue of  hygiene satisfactorily while good restaurants near MNC offices provide good food in hygienic ambience, their charges are too high for daily consumption. Gulati is all set to start his first food truck in Gurgaon's  populated areas inhabited by MNCs like Info city, Cyber Hub and Cyber Park.

The food truck venture started by Gulati will focus both hygiene and pricing. Sharing his plans Gulati says “We are also developing an app, so that the employees can book their order, which can be delivered inside their office."  EDI has supported Utkarsh Gulati with an initial investment for Rs.3.5 lakhs to start the venture.  Gulati  plans to raise more funds via venture capital and to expand the Restron-Wheel Food Truck  operations to Delhi, Ahmedabad, Pune and Bengaluru.
Since EDI is a trust, it may not take any equity or acquire stake in such ventures. More investment companies are showing their interest to invest in such type of entrepreneurship ventures started by EDI students. Envisioning the future Prof Acharya of EDI says "Over a period we plan to start our own incubation funding facility, which will be a different entity altogether".

The Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad set up in 1983 is an autonomous and not-for-profit Institute. The B school is sponsored by apex financial institutions - the IDBI Bank Ltd., IFCI Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd. and State Bank of India (SBI) and has sprawling campus on 23 acres of land provided by Govt of Gujarat.

EDI offers Post Graduate Diploma in Management-Business Entrepreneurship (PGDM- BE). Admission to PGDM-BE programme is open and MAT/CMAT/CAT/XAT takers can apply for PGDM

admission 2015 at EDI.

The B school has successfully set up Entrepreneurship Development Centres in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam, a task assigned by Government of India. So far EDI has provided assistance to 70+ countries in their Entrepreneurship Development projects. After completion of their MBA in Entrepreneurship EDI students prefer launching their own ventures instead of participating in placement process. This is evident from the fact that only 10 students participated in the placement process while 45 companies lined-up to make offers to these students. EDI grooms the entrepreneurship among its students through well-conceived and well-directed activities.

Stay tuned to MBAUniverse.com for more updates on EDI Ahmedabad