Souad Tenfiche-Ancelle, CEO

What gets built from scratch grows with the perfect structure. Numa started in Paris as a non-profit organisation, building an association of digital entrepreneurs. With hard work and dedication, this association soon established itself as the first innovation space for digital entrepreneurs in France. With time, Numa came to be known as the first digital acceleration program in the country and grew into one of the largest non-profit innovation hub. In 2012, it decided to become a for profit company because it was growing and already making its own revenue. At the same time, it decided to go global. “The strategy behind this was the fact that we had experience building ecosystems from scratch that is the reason why we wanted to work with emerging ecosystems instead of developed ecosystems. We, therefore established a presence in the developing markets around the world” says Souad Tenfiche Ancelle, CEO, Numa Bengaluru. NUMA created offices in Moscow,

Bengaluru, Mexico, Casablanca and later on to offer landing zones in developed markets they launched New-York and Berlin.

Impact on the Market
India is rapidly growing as the third largest ecosystem in the world and Bangalore happens to be a major part of it. The startup revolution being on the rise has penetrated the most in this city. Out of 700 Research & Development centres of international companies in India, 500 happen to be in Bangalore, tapping into a huge tech talent pool.. These were the reasons that drew Numa to India and finally to Bangalore with the motive to bridge the gap between the startups and large corporationsto enableco-Innovation. Since then NUMA Bengaluru has supported innovation initiatives in India for many groups like Total, Airbus, Tata Motors or Societe Generale.

Addressing the Obstacles
The on-going emergence of the Indian ecosystem creates a lot of friction for enterprises and entrepreneurs along the way. Operations are getting stabilised and infrastructure is on the rise. With so many aspects growing simultaneously, execution becomes a major challenge. Our underlying belief is that technological innovation aims at human progress, hence the origin of our name, a combination of "digital" and "human".. With several entrepreneurship programs and innovation initiatives, Numa is constantly delivering quality

assistance to the growing startups of the country. Souad asserts, “e are evolving with the needs of the market. . I think that when you work in an industry that is so new, ever changing and demanding, you need the capability to adapt. We are changing and we are growing with the ecosystem.”

Until Now and Ahead
NUMA Bengaluru has been a strong partner for startups, corporates and Government bodies in India for their internal and external innovation in programs such as DataCity, Intrapreneurship bootcamps and Acceleration for startups. “We will be expanding in Southeast Asia with new partnerships in acceleration and innovation. Our goal is to become a global Asian innovation and learning hub. we believe that the bold vision, ingenuity, adaptability and determination of entrepreneurs are essential factors in initiating action, driving change and making what seemed impossible happen.

NUMA has also recently launched powered by NUMA Acceleration Programs in Gurugram and Mysore. Souad added,“There is a huge gap in the startup ecosystems of Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad as compared to other cities in India. There are unicorns waiting to be unleashed in these cities that just need the assistance to make the mark. Our objective is to expand to 6 new tier-2 cities in the year 2019 and support these entrepreneurs.”