GD610 – Green and Digital Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Lectures, case studies, reports, and other course materials are available via Moodle.

Case examples:

IoT Enabled Yulu: An Eco – friendly Solution to Urban Mobility (2020) – by Case Centre (Rookie entrepreneurs, Amit Gupta, Hemant Gupta, RK Mishra and Naveen Dachuri founded Yulu, an eco – friendly Urban Mobility as a Service facility for first mile, last mile, and short distance urban commutes in 2017. Using technologies like Internet of Things, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Yulu tried to bring forward sharable, scalable, green and affordable solutions by its dock – less bicycles and electric scooters called Yulu Miracels launched in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In November 2019, Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) had partnered with Yulu to manufacture customised electric scooters for the latter. With its attempts, Yulu wanted to solve the problems of traffic congestion and air pollution in the c ities. The company’s average rides per day were used to be around 30,000 – 35,000 including 12,000 – 13,000 electric scooter rides by the end of 2019. As of April 2020, the startup was operating in Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Pune. With 1.6 million users and 10,000 eco – friendly vehicles, Yulu was one of the largest EV – led micro – mobility platforms in India. Further, it wanted to increase the number of Yulu Miracles to 100,000 across seven major cities by December 2020. However, the Bengaluru based startup was facing competition from sector specific rivals, disappointment of customers due to high deposits and concern of lack of infrastructure. In such a scenario, would Yulu be able to fulfill its aim to build an EV – led micro – mobility ecosystem across India?)

Women Entrepreneurs and Tech Ecosystems: One City, Two Realities, and Four Diverse Women (2020) – by HBS
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/321083 – PDF – ENG (Four diverse women entrepreneurs launched their ventures in a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem that was part of a shift to a creative technology – driven economy for Miami. Although Miami was rated the #1 U.S. city for startups in 2017, the region contained structural barriers and cultural biases unfriendly to women and people of color, including lack of access to capital and relationships. The case highlights women founders’ backgrounds and experiences with an ed – tech startup, a coding school and events for Black entre preneurs; an incubator for green businesses with a Black leadership focus; and an accelerator for social impact ventures that also runs social media campaigns for problems such as climate change. The women CEOs reveal the barriers they faced, how they over came them, and how they attempt to enrich the ecosystem for other women and people of color. This case raises the question of what must be in place for cities to take advantage of the innovation and job – creating potential of a wider population of entrepren eurs and gain the benefits of diversity, and for women founders to thrive.)