The NEN Trust was setup in 2008 to play the critical role of establishing an entrepreneurship ecosystem in a large number of tier 1 and 2 academic campuses across India. The goal was to enable young people on campuses to ‘do’ entrepreneurship while still on campus so that they could actively build aspiration, skills, confidence and networks which would increase their chances of starting new ventures successfully sooner rather than later upon graduation.

Since its inception, NEN has worked with 500+ academic institutions including the founding institutions of its network IIT Bombay, IIM Ahmedabad, BITS Pilani, S P Jain Institute of Management and IBAB. NEN spent its initial years creating and establishing student E Cells actively running activities, competitions and start-up sessions across hundreds of campuses; trained 1500+ faculty in ‘doing experiential entrepreneurship programs’ including workshops and courses on campus; helped spur the development of 100+ entrepreneurship and innovation centres within its network institutions; and enabled 100,000s of students to get the exposure, and develop skills in entrepreneurship and venture creation.

Today, NEN enables campuses and incubators to run virtual accelerated programs to maximise startup success. NEN is partnering with State startup policy makers, Govt. incubators, MHRD IICs and Innovation Labs. NEN’s program structure, tools & resources, digital content, technology platform, facilitator development and wide network of mentors is helping build healthy startups and empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs.

In its journey, NEN tied up for funding with Wadhwani Foundation (https://wadhwanifoundation.org/) for their programs in India. The Foundation is a not-for-profit with the primary mission of accelerating economic development by driving job creation in India and other emerging economies, and in the US, through large-scale initiatives in entrepreneurship, small business growth, innovation, and skilling. Wadhwani Foundation’s mission to achieve ‘job creation at scale’, the methodology, digital content and technology platform is in alliance with NEN’s goals of igniting and establishing a nationwide culture of entrepreneurship.