UNAIR NEWS – Business incubator was first established at UNAIR in 2017. One of the goals of establishing the incubator is to help develop start-ups at UNAIR. Currently, the business incubator has grown and changed its name to Business and Technology Incubator, under UNAIR’s Start-up Business and Innovation Development Agency (BPBRIN).
Dr. Achsania Hendratmi, SE or Achsania explained that the technology business incubation is an incubation process to support product development and/or business development of technology-based start-up companies so they can become profitable companies and have proper organizational and financial management. The business and technology incubation also strives to turn the fostered start-ups into a sustainable company, so it positively impacts society.
“There are three main service pillars for business and technology incubator, pre-incubation, incubation, and post-incubation,” she continued.
Meanwhile, UNAIR’s Business and Technology Incubator has seven services that can be accessed or obtained by fostered start–ups: space and share, services, support, development skills, seed capital, synergy, and social networking.
Space and share are office facilities or workspaces provided, such as discussion rooms, production rooms, laboratories, showrooms, and internet connections. Meanwhile, services are the provided technical guidance such as management guidance, marketing, financial, legal, business information and technology aspects.
” Support is intended to provide access to research, professional networks, technology development, and relations with investors,” said the head of UNAIR’s Business and Technology Incubator.
Skill development services are from training in business planning, management and leadership provided. Seed Capital is the assistance to access funding sources and financial institutions.
The synergy is a collaboration of tenant start-ups, universities, institutes, research, private businesses, professionals and the public. Social Networking is a facility to build networks through seminars, exhibitions and agency visits.
Support for Alumni
Apart from the establishment of a business incubator, UNAIR also has a program that supports start-ups of students and alumni in financial aspects. Start-ups that are joined as tenants in Business and Technology Incubator can get funding through two schemes, through internal funding from RKAT, and external funding from various institutions, ministries, and both government and private institutions.
“Even so, the function of the incubator is more to assist and incubate the start-up that has been running for at least 6 months, not at the level of ideas,” explained Achsania.
In February 2021, BPBRIN has also renamed the Business and Technology Incubator to Satria Airlangga Business Incubator (SAIN). SAIN will recruit start-up tenants twice annually. The requirement is that the start-up must have been running for at least six months, both for technology-based and non-technology-based start-ups.
“Start-up practitioners can be students, alumni, and inventor lecturers,” said Achsania.
In the future, continued Achsania, the university incubator is expected to become an incubation vessel, the results of UNAIR inventions which must then be manufactured or commercialized into mass products. The process of an invention product, in order to become commercial, required to have passed to technology readiness level 7, with established institutional structure in the form of a company or an initial start-up then later doing scaling up.
In order to accommodate students who are still at the idea stage, there is a DPPKA as a supply or source of start-up talents. DPPKA also has a role to build entrepreneurial initiation through student entrepreneurship programs and assistance for students’ initial businesses.
“UNAIR also gives award the best start-up, which was given last year at UNAIR’s anniversary,” she continued.
Furthermore, other assistance provided by UNAIR was the inauguration of two co-working spaces, incubator and Coffee Toffee co-working spaces, as a means of building an ecosystem of UNAIR start-ups . (*)
Author: Galuh Mega Kurnia
Editor : Binti Q. Masruroh
