The National Association of Software and Services Companies [NASSCOM] announced the fifth phase of NASSCOM 10,000 Startups ‘Konnect’ and will be impacting applications from technology startups across the country. Phase five is focused on identifying, supporting, incubating & accelerating innovative technology start-ups in India.
Sharing his views, Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10K Startups said
India is the third largest startup ecosystem in the World with immense talent and innovative startups flourishing each day. With the strong support from mentors, industry experts, investors and VCs, we have successfully created a significant impact on the startup ecosystem of the country. Phase 5 is going to be our biggest Konnect to date as we are aiming to create a greater impact across the early stage startup ecosystem.
For the fifth phase, NASSCOM has shortlisted 200+ domain centric applications from startups, which will provide a detailed overview of their business idea and the market opportunity. Startups who have applied in the last 4 months are now being considered for Phase five shortlisting and for the 10K Nurture program.
The shortlisted startups will be pitching to over 100 investors in six locations and will have the access to participate in the intensive accelerator pitch and mentoring Konnect sessions. The program has strong support from 50+ industry experts [NIPP] and close to 100 incubator partners. The sessions will start in the first week of March across Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Kochi & Hyderabad.
In its last four phases, a total of 11,000 startups applied out of which 1,100 were shortlisted and 500 have been impacted by way of funding, acceleration and mentoring. Some of their impacted startups include SmartVizX, Lazylad, EnglishDost, Flutura, SeekSherpa, Faircent, Hiree, Sliderule, Vidgyor, CustomerXPS to name a few.
NASSCOM 10,000 Startups is a startup incubation program whose objective is to create 10,000 domain specific startups in the country by 2020. Phase Four of the NASSCOM 10K Start-ups Konnect had 150+ startup shortlists that went through pitch and mentoring sessions
About 10,000 Startups
Started in April 2013, 10,000 Startups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the startup ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Startups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over the next ten years. The initiative brings together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, startup support groups, mentors, and technology corporations.
Since its launch in April 2013, they have done about 450+ events in 22 cities of the country which were attended by a whopping 25,000 attendees and received 9000 Applicants, 800 Startups Shortlists, and 150 Impacts.
The program is supported by founding partner Google for Entrepreneurs, Microsoft Ventures, Intel and Kotak Mahindra Bank