JIS Group, one of the largest educational conglomerates in India, on Thursday announced ‘JIS Idea-O-Meter’,an online funding platform where creators can share and gather interest on a particular project they would like to launch. It is entirely driven by crowdfunding and will be available to more than 37000 current JIS students along with its teachers, staff and millions of JIS alumni members who have been a part of the group for the last 20 years. After teaming up with atleast one JIS community member any individual will also be entitled to submit projects at ‘JIS Idea-O-Meter’.This is a first of its kind crowdfunding initiative introduced by any educational institute in Eastern India for its larger community members.
The main objective of ‘JIS Idea-O-Meter’ is to find the next generation entrepreneur within the larger JIS community.Anyone associated with this largerJIS community would be able to put up their innovative projects online along with their funding goal. There will be various categories under which projects can be submitted. Categories would range between Robotics, Film, Music, Books, Social Responsibility, Franchise idea and others. Like other crowdfunding platforms the most innovative and cost effective idea would draw the attention of the larger community members to receive requisite funding to make it a reality.
A recent report of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows that more than 27 million youth in the age group of 20-30 years have lost their jobs in April 2020 itself in India following the nationwide lockdown. The International Labour Organization now estimates a loss of 305 million full-time jobs across the globe due to this Covid19 pandemic. With this launch of ‘JIS Idea-O-Meter’, students can now bring creative ideas to life with a self-developed entrepreneur skill where money will not be a hindrance to execute the same.
A panel from JIS management would oversee all the submitted projects to check its eligibility. The panellists would ensure that submitted projects are not illegal or illegitimate. Though the panellists would not judge the idea or the feasibility of the projects. The idea would be democratically judged by the JIS community at large, based on the amount people donate.
After submitting the project, the creator would have to wait for gaining support from the JIS community. The URLs for the submission projects preview page can be shared with the creator’s trusted peers so that they can offer feedback on the submission after launch. JIS Idea-O-Meter urges the creators to embrace new strategies to promote themselves on social media and campaign more actively for their submission which will help reach their funding goal. After putting their projects online, the members will have to convince the community at large to invest in their idea. They will receive the raise amount if they are able to reach their funding goal.
Speaking on the launch occasion, Mr Taranjit Singh, Managing Director, JIS Group said “The ongoing pandemic has had a devastating impact on millions of people.This endeavour which aims to boost the economy, will provide a host of opportunities to aspirants and help them become entrepreneurs from creators. JIS Idea-O-Meter will help promote the ideas that are really unique by bridging the angel investing gap, but that is along the mentoring aspect of the platform. Based on the eligibility criteria, the project ideas and their promotion is the responsibility of the candidate who will be submitting the ideas. We will be promoting active participation of the community for ideas to be discussed, shared and funded on the platform. We are excited to be able to assist and guide our members in making their dreams a reality.” He further added that JIS may do an equity investment in the projects it finds the most appealing through its Angel Investment fund. Furthermore JIS Idea-O-Meter mentors and JIS will also help to get more funding if needed for the brightest projects by bridging the gap for new founders to Venture Capitalists and more angel funds.
