All Posts in Accelerator

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The CoWrks Foundry, a premier acceleration program, announced the completion of its first cohort, comprising of five innovative startups. The CoWrks Foundry is an initiative by CoWrks, one of India’s largest shared office space providers. The program is designed to nurture early-stage startups in the field of Urban Tech, Enterprise Tech, and Social Impact Enterprise, through a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, designed by industry veterans & experts. The Foundry’s well-architected framework nurtures durable and scalable businesses by investing in the ideas and the minds behind them.

Image Source

Out of the 350+ startups that applied to the program from across India and some even international, the final five that were selected to be a part of the accelerator are Wagonfly, Understand Better, Ayasta, Betterly and T-Scale Hub. These companies were assisted with everything from initial seed capital and client acquisition to the art of crafting a stellar pitch.

The 24-week intensive program concluded with a Demo Day on November 14. The 5 startups had the opportunity to pitch their products, ideas and business models to venture capitalists, and prominent industry leaders at the city’s newest entrepreneurial hub – CoWrks Koramangala. In order to fuel entrepreneurship and create an environment where innovators and companies thrive, The Foundry also invited applications from the startups housed within the CoWrks community to pitch on Demo Day.

In addition to providing an initial influx of smart seed capital of upto $30K, The Foundry has been instrumental in equipping home-grown businesses with a solid foundation and the resources required to fully equip, refine and fortify their companies. Situated within CoWrks’ HQ in Bengaluru, the startups in The Foundry have been able to access premium workspaces within CoWrks, and the opportunity to work alongside a carefully curated community of startups, freelancers and large enterprises. Each of the 5 startups were assigned dedicated mentors and experts from relevant industries, to provide targeted coaching and guidance.

The First Cohort of Start-ups Graduated from The CoWrks Foundry

As a part of the part of its post-program support, The Foundry will continue to aid these start-ups in terms of mentorship and guidance.

Nruthya Madappa, Managing Partner, The Cowrks Foundry said

Despite the start-up growth spurt in India, businesses in the Urban Tech, Enterprise Tech and Social Enterprise space, lack the guidance to overcome unique challenges. The CoWrks Foundry is our answer to India’s fractured entrepreneurial ecosystem. In comparison to the sturdy framework and incredible support afforded to thriving startups in Israel, Shanghai and Singapore, India lags far behind.

Therefore, it has been our endeavor to provide them with world-class mentorship and expertise, technology and infrastructure support, as well as access to investors and customers so they can scale from idea to execution at an accelerated speed. It has been a grueling yet amazing journey so far, with like-minded peers interacting and learning from The CoWrks Foundry panel, mentors and each other.

Ravi Teja Avasarala, Co-founder of Ayasta said

What drew us to the Foundry was the team behind it.  They have an inherent understanding of what startups need in order to succeed and what sort of help is required at various stages. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that during the program, the Foundry team worked harder on solving our problems than we did.

The networks we got access to would be invaluable to us in our journey. Foundry put in the effort to understanding our Ayasta’s offerings and then helped remove our biases by identifying where we are underselling ourselves. The Foundry program made us better founders which would eventually lead us to become successful entrepreneurs.

Further to the success of the first cohort, The CoWrks Foundry is inviting applications for the second one by the end of November 2018. The 24 week-long program at the state-of-the-art CoWrks Millenia office in Bengaluru will commence in January 2019.

Startups Graduated from the First Cohort

About CoWrks

CoWrks is India’s largest and fastest growing large-format co-working space provider. Established in 2016, it has quickly become home to several leading entrepreneurs, a launch pad for startups and a work hub for millennials in large enterprises and Fortune 500 companies. Headquartered in Bengaluru, CoWrks currently operates out of four cities, and is spread across 1.5 million sq. ft, with a community of over 15,000 members.

CoWrks caters to all demographics of the workforce with an array of membership options, including flexible and dedicated desks, customizable private studios and even virtual membership. With 24*7 access to select workstations, a sweeping gamut of amenities, and unique networking opportunities, the co-working space is creating a work culture that boosts creativity, productivity, cross-collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill upgradation.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

SMARTup is a series of round table knowledge sharing and networking events being organized by ah! Ventures & meetingsandoffices as part of their endeavour to connect the start up fraternity and create valuable business centric conversations between domain specialists and entrepreneurs.

The focus of these events would be to deal with issues and problems that plague young companies and divert their focus from their core competences and business. Issues such as business planning and strategy development, aligning immediate and long term goals, generating investor interest, scaling a business, managing cash flows, building sticky relationships & customer loyalty, getting paying customers, regulations, compliance, understanding term sheets, understanding how to go about building your tech as a non-techie without a tech co-founder, sales and marketing processes, how to focus on and enhance the logic of business, what is the role of IoT in business, when do you need AI and what does Ai mean beyond chatbots for your business etc. will all be amongst the critical topics that would be covered under the series. [Source]

Note – Himanshu Sheth’s Blog is also an Outreach Partner for the event !

SMARTup is a focused and enriched networking and knowledge sharing experience that will bring tremendous value to entrepreneurs and young businesses. Each SMARTup event shall have limited seating.

SMARTup has travelled across 10 cities in India and of the 190 startup companies that participated, 10 are already shortlisted for funding on the ah! Ventures Funding Platform. Chennai startups, it’s your turn now to talk in 1-on-1 Meetings with investors to scale your business and reach the next level. You could be the next startup on the funding shortlist!

Minimum 3 1-on-1 Investor Meetings Guaranteed to Gold Pass Participants !!!

The event would be held at CoWrks OMR, Chennai on 16th June, 2018. For registration, please click on the link below

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

In its continued efforts to strengthen the collaboration between startups and corporates, Microsoft ScaleUp [known previously as Microsoft Accelerator] has selected 12 startups to be part of its new 12th cohort. ScaleUp is part of the recently announced Microsoft for Startups initiative, a new program that delivers access to technology, go-to-market and community benefits that helps startups grow their customer and revenue base.

Image Source – ScaleUp

The selected startups in the 12th cohort are focused on areas of Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, Big Data analytics, among others to build solutions for the market. Microsoft ScaleUp focuses on late stage B2B start-ups and helps them accelerate their business growth through mentorship, streamlined Go-To-Market [GTM] activities and most importantly access to world-class technology.

During the six-month program, these startups will work closely with Microsoft leaders, industry experts and leverage the Microsoft Partner Network to scale their business models and serve enterprise clients. These startups will get access to Microsoft’s rich technology expertise, infrastructure and Azure cloud platform to build a strong technology backbone for their business. As part of the program, these startups will also have access to a vibrant global alumni network of over 730 startup graduates, which will foster peer support and networking as well as access to Microsoft industry and customer events.

Selected startups for the 12th cohort

  1. AppICE has built a proprietary platform that can take soft and hard sensor data from connected devices like smartphones and use machine learning to generate actionable insights.
  2. Appiyo Technologies’ Twixor is the first of its kind ‘customer engagement platform’ which brings together the power of ‘bi-directional actionable messaging’ and Business Process Management [BPM]. Twixor delivers actionable customer engagement in a PWA [Progressive Web App] capsule powered by their versatile BPM engine.
  3. Avanseus Technologies delivers AI based enterprise solutions for Mobile, Fixed, Transmission and IP Backbone Networks, Industrial Analytics, Security, Railways and the Internet of Things, transforming massive amounts of data into useful business insights and actions.
  4. eGovernments Foundation aims to build and drive government transformations across India using open source technology.
  5. Gaia Smart Cities Solution is a Data Automation and Analytics Company focused on bringing together multiple IoT and digital data streams into a single platform to enable the clients to measure, monitor and manage performance and service delivery.
  6. GrowthEnabler Pii [Personalised Intelligence Interface] provides insights and intelligence on Technology Disruption, Digital Innovation and its impact on large corporations to solve their business issues and create competitive advantage. Their unique Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning engine connects business issues to global innovative emerging companies and startups.
  7. Karo Sambhav is a tech-enabled, environmentally beneficial and socially responsible Producer Responsibility Organization [PRO] that is setting up a robust India-wide transformative solution on e-waste management.
  8. Kogence brings flexibility, agility and productivity in the High Performance Computing [HPC] based workflows.
  9. MachineSense has developed a patented Industrial IoT system for Predictive, Preventative and Electrical Maintenance of Industrial Machines. The company aims to build an IIoT platform for factory and building utilities that includes electricity, compressed air, water, HVAC, vacuum, etc.
  10. SmartVizX is developing VArch Suite, a virtual reality product that improves interior design collaboration in the Architecture-Engineering-Construction [AEC] industry by offering immersive visualization, spatial awareness, interactivity with design elements, data management and communication features.
  11. Sprinkle Data provides Search based Insight discovery and adaptive data management software-as service.
  12. Xurmo Technologies is a self-service data ingestion, preparation and analysis platform built with the vision to simplify and automate data-driven decisions. By simplifying the analytics process, Xurmo enables faster adoption of data-driven decision making in enterprises.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Brigade REAP, an accelerator program with a focus on technology that Impacts the real estate industry, announced the graduation of its third cohort of five startups during the Brigade REAP Handover Day. Located in the premises of the iconic World Trade Centre – Bangalore, the Brigade REAP accelerator program is Asia’s first-ever startup accelerator, designed to help enterprise startups in the Real Estate sector.

Image Source – Brigade REAP

REAP was Launched in October 2016 with an intention to mentor startups leveraging technology which can help in delivering greater efficiencies to the Real Estate sector. Over 100 plus start-ups were evaluated for Cohort three and after two rounds of intense jury selection, 5 start-ups were inducted into the program. The start-ups inducted in the program went through a rigorous four and a half month mentorship and acceleration program before being handed over to the real estate Industry for consumption of their products and services.

The five start-ups reaped immense benefits from mentoring, stakeholder development, tech evaluation, business modelling and investor & enterprise connects. The six pillars of engagement focused by REAP are product development, Technology road-map, people strategy, go-to-market strategy, marketing-branding-PR strategy and strategies to make startups investment ready.

At the Handover Day of the 3rd cohort, these five start-ups demonstrated their ventures to eminent developers from the Real Estate Industry, Investors, HNI’s, other startup founders and senior management of global corporates. The event marked the culmination of the third cohort’s technology and market acceleration journey. Even as alumni’s, the startups will have continued access to mentorship and go-to-market opportunities with Brigade REAP, as well as eco-system connects.

Nirupa Shankar, Director, Brigade REAP, said

The main focus of the accelerator program is to make startups ‘industry ready’. Many of them need to tweak their business model in order to work seamlessly with established real estate developers who have their own idiosyncratic way of working. We try to work with startups that can help developers either increase revenues or decrease cost and time taken to deliver on products or services. We look at startups in the Real Estate, Hospitality, Office and the Retail Sector. We hope to add value to the industry and ecosystem through our efforts. ” said Ms. Nirupa Shankar, Director, Brigade REAP speaking on the occasion.

Startups that graduated from the Brigade REAP program

ECOSTP – A ‘Zero Power’ sewage treatment technology. Compared to conventional STP’s that consume energy, ECOSTP produces energy. A 200 KLD ECOSTP based sewage treatment plant can generate 50KL/day Biogas, energy equivalent to 25 liters of Diesel.

Tharun Kumar, Co-Founder, EcoSTP, said

REAP helped us succeed and coached us on all aspects of our business. If you have an idea which can disrupt the realty market place, REAP is the place to knock.

QuickQuotes– An enterprise procurement platform for construction, infrastructure & interiors. With a month on month growth of 100% in GMV since inception, they have over 300 QuickQuotes trained vendors dealing with a client base of over 150.

Prem Shankar, Founder, QuickQuotes, said

I had a great experience with REAP and the learning will continue despite graduating from the program.

Synconext– An IoT based building workplace technology that does energy monitoring for commercial Real Estate. They have successfully saved 157K kw/h of energy within an area of 561K sq.ft.

Vishal Jain, Co-founder, Synconext, said

The REAP team is very experienced and provides all round mentorship which is critical for any startup to succeed. REAP’s connects in the ecosystem is brilliant and this has helped us in opening doors for acquiring various leads.

WeGoT Utility Services – An IoT based water usage Analytics Company which helps track user consumption of water. In more than 2000 homes they have saved over 30 Million liters of water within the first 2 years of existence.

Abilash Haridass, Co-founder, WeGoT, said

Being part of REAP has given us the opportunity to interact and connect with various stakeholders in the industry that are striving to bring about a real change in this space.

Woodzon – An Online B2B marketplace for woodworking industry. They have 20,000 plus products with categories ranging over 200 plus.

Binesh Viswanath, Co-founder, Woodzon, said

Being a startup it’s really hard for us to have an acceptance in the market but the brand name Brigade REAP gave us a huge push to the market. The program helped us in improving our conversion ratio which was one of our biggest ask.

Applications for the fourth cohort are now open. Selected startups will receive technology and business mentorship as well as access to markets and investors. To know more, please visit Brigade REAP

About Brigade REAP

Brigade REAP is focused on technology startups whose end product/service is applicable to Real Estate be it Residential Commercial or Hospitality projects. The sectors range from IoT, Nano Technology, Cleantech and Renewable energy, Logistics and Visual Computing. The program is mentored by John Kuruvilla, Chief Mentor for the program and Apul Nahata, Mentor-in-Residence and has a stellar line up of mentors and advisors.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Microsoft Accelerator, a global program built to empower start-ups, and Accenture Ventures, which partners with and invests in growth-stage companies that create innovative enterprise technologies, today announced a new ecosystem partnership that aims to strengthen the start-up ecosystem in India.

Image Source – e27.co

The two companies will help growth-stage technology B2B start-ups boost their enterprise readiness and go-to market, and help achieve scale in national and international markets. This was announced at Microsoft Accelerator’s flagship event, ThinkNext 2018. The event, which was attended by over 400 business and industry thought leaders, start-ups, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs also marked the graduation Microsoft Accelerator’s 11th winter cohort.

Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures will support growth-stage technology B2B start-ups in India specializing in artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, Augmented/Virtual Reality, Blockchain, Fintech, Big data, Security and Customer experience solutions, and provide access to Accenture’s global clients and Microsoft’s global network. The ecosystem partnership will help start-ups deploy solutions in large India and global client environments, improvise on their business model and sharpen their go-to-market strategy. Start-ups stand to gain by developing innovative solutions for enterprise use cases created out of the synergy between Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures and their shared innovation ecosystems consisting of start-ups, venture capitalists, universities and corporate R&D Labs.

[L-R] Bala Girisabala, Managing Director, Microsoft Accelerator and Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director, Accenture Ventures India on the signing of MoU between the two entities

Speaking on the ecosystem partnership, Bala Girisaballa, Managing Director, Microsoft Accelerator, said

Start-ups are the centers of innovation, and over the past decade they have played a crucial role in disrupting many industries worldwide. Today, the need is to create a collaborative environment and bring start-ups and corporates together to co-create and co-innovate. Our partnership with Accenture showcases our commitment to connect start-ups with large corporates and help them scale up to become successful businesses.

Commenting on the ecosystem partnership, Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director, Accenture Ventures, India, said

At Accenture Ventures, we believe that an open innovation approach can help enterprises accelerate adoption of ‘The New’, underpinned by innovation and digital. This ecosystem partnership is an example of how we orchestrate the innovation ecosystem and create opportunities for start-ups to grow and scale-up. We are excited about the unique value that Accenture Ventures and Microsoft Accelerator can together create for start-ups and enterprises.

Through this ecosystem partnership, Microsoft Accelerator and Accenture Ventures together will host various start-up events and summits in India which will enable them to engage deeply with the start-up network and bring new opportunities to innovate for clients. In the process, the ecosystem partnership will significantly strengthen the Indian B2B start-up network and support Startup India and Digital India programs.

About Microsoft Accelerator

Microsoft Accelerator is a global program built to empower startups around the world on their journey to build great companies. We work with market-ready startups to provide the tools, resources, connections, knowledge and expertise they need to become successful companies. Our goal is to help startups mature into enterprise-ready companies by scaling every aspect of their business. For more information, please visit Microsoft Accelerator

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

NetApp, the data authority for the hybrid cloud, announced the graduation of its first cohort of six startups during the NetApp Excellerator Demo Day. Located in the heart of Bengaluru’s technology neighbourhood, the NetApp Excellerator program is NetApp’s first ever startup accelerator, designed to help enterprise startups to achieve  their full potential through mentorship with one of NetApp’s largest R&D teams.

Ravi Madhira, CEO, Scalend Technologies, one of the startups graduating from the NetApp Excellerator, said

NetApp mentorship helped us focus our market research, and identify the right target market and target customers we could go after. Offering us the support of its large and experienced sales machine, NetApp made the program even more compelling. Our new-found status as a NetApp Alliance Partner has given us a sure foothold in the data driven enterprise domain.

The first NetApp Excellerator Demo Day event commemorated the completion of the first cohort, all six participating start-ups : Lightmetrics, Adya, Vaultedge, Vitacloud, Enclouden and Scalend, demonstrated their achievements & progress to venture capitalists, NetApp executives and prominent industry leaders present. Sports icon and entrepreneur, Anil Kumble, was the guest of honor for the demo day event held at the NetApp campus in Bengaluru. The event marked the culmination of the first cohort’s technology and market acceleration journey. Now as alumni, the startups will have continued access to mentorship and go-to-market opportunities with NetApp, as well as eco-system connects. They will also share their experiences with startups in the future cohorts.

Ajeya Motaganahalli, Director and leader of the NetApp Excellerator program, said

With our rich history of innovation and expertise in data management, we have been able to provide the right mentorship, both technical and sales related, to the startups in our first cohort. We leveraged expertise from across NetApp to help the six best startups selected from the 250 applications received. In addition, we got them the best-in-class global industry experts to help them qualify the target markets better and supplement their technical capabilities.

Strong mentorship helps build credibility and confidence for the participating startups. For example, during their time in the program, one participant, Adya, raised an angel round of funding to the tune of USD 250,000.

Commenting on the program, Deepak Visweswaraiah, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, NetApp India said

Mentoring the start-ups in our very first cohort was a valuable learning experience for us. It allowed us to reconnect with the startup that we remain at heart. We will continue to support the startups through the NetApp Excellerator program and provide them with the best ecosystem to achieve success.

Applications for the second cohort are now open. Selected startups will receive technology and business mentorship as well as access to markets and investors to realize the full potential of their ideas and products in the global market place. Applications are invited from startups working in the areas related to IOT, cloud, big data and analytics, machine learning, virtualization, data security, storage and data management, and other adjacent areas. To know more please visit http://startup.netapp.in/

About NetApp Excellerator

The NetApp Excellerator Program has been designed to help start-ups create innovative world-class products and solutions that are market-ready. The program enables start-ups to use NetApp expertise and its ecosystem of partners, subject matter experts and customers to realize the maximum potential of their innovative ideas. Startups that are selected will have access to NetApp platforms and technologies, tools, co-working space, HR, marketing, legal and tech support. NetApp will provide an equity free grant of USD 15,000 to these startups upon completion of the program. The startups own their IP and NetApp would not seek a stake in the same. For more information on this program and to apply, please visit http://startup.netapp.in; follow #NetAppExcellerator

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Target announced the fifth cohort of startups to graduate from the Target Accelerator Program. A technology that makes it easier for shoppers to use self-checkout with fresh produce and an in-store digital shopping assistant powered by artificial intelligence were two of the unique solutions to emerge from the latest accelerator program.

The startups in the fifth cohort – the biggest batch yet – participated in a Demo Day today at Target’s office in Bengaluru, showcasing the products and solutions they developed and refined during the four-month accelerator program. The startups focused on areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, analytics and digital experiences.

The Target Accelerator Program, which was launched in December 2013, gives startups a unique platform to develop, scale and test their products in a live retail environment while also accessing Target mentors in India and the U.S. To date, 30 startups have graduated from the program and worked with Target teams across stores, marketing, finance, legal, merchandising, mobile and digital.

All eight of the startups will continue to test their products with Target beyond the program. The startups that presented at Demo Day are as follows

  1. Cogknit – A tool that automatically generates transcripts and closed-caption files enabling accessibility of online video content [Site]
  2. Cognitifai – A video analytics solution that uses computer vision for varied applications such as detecting the placement and removal of products for inventory tracking and creating ‘to-scale’ digital images for online shoppers [Site]
  3. Hyperworks – A self-checkout solution for fresh produce that uses gray-scale images [Site]
  4. Jumper.ai – Enables shopping on social media through hashtags [Site]
  5. Light Information Systems – A conversational bot that can be used to answer employee questions [Site]
  6. Moonraft Innovation Labs – An interactive, in-store digital shopping assistant powered by Artificial Intelligence [Site]
  7. Streamoid – Enables personalized product recommendations and natural-language search that suggest outfits and helps improve product discovery [Site]
  8. vPhrase – Generates automated, natural-language insights from structured data [Site]

IoT product innovation from India

In addition to the Accelerator program, Target is looking for innovative ideas from Indian startups for Target’s Open House, a connected-device concept store based in San Francisco. Open House gives consumers hands-on interactions with new IoT products and services, and provides the entrepreneur community a spot to gather and learn from one another and consumers.

For the first time, a startup from India, Lumos, was selected to be featured at Open House. The startup was selected for Garage, a platform which serves as an area for companies with products that are still in prototype or early go-to-market stages, to showcase their smart products and get real-time feedback from consumers. Successful products from the Garage may be sold at Open House and eventually at Target stores or Target.com.

Inviting startups to apply

Target is now accepting applications for the sixth batch of the accelerator program. Startups interested in applying for the accelerator program or learning more about Target Open House can write to accelerator@target.com

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

FoodCloud, India’s fastest growing marketplace for home chefs has been accepted into Food-X, Global Food Innovation Accelerator. Food-X invests and partners with companies from across the food supply chain and helps them grow rapidly by deploying investment and some of the best mentors in the food industry.

Food-X’s parent company, SOSV is a global accelerator VC with a 250 million dollar funds under management dedicated to finding & accelerating 150 startups in some of the most human critical industries annually. FoodCloud was a top choice from more than one thousand applicants, joining because of it’s scalable business model that empowers independent entrepreneurs, the largest proportion of which are female.

Andrew Ive, Managing Director at Food-X, responsible for building, innovating and supporting the emerging Food-X ecosystem, said

The factors which impressed us most about FoodCloud were the committed team and their passion to bring great healthy fresh home cooked food to the world by empowering new entrepreneurs and in particular, women.

FoodCloud brings 1500 registered home chefs and their expertise to their customers in Delhi, NCR and Kolkata, serving more than 15,000 monthly meals. Customers now have the ability to order delicious, fresh and healthy home cooked food 30% cheaper than restaurants.

Food Cloud is growing quickly with 1500+ registered chefs. The company was co-founded by Vedant Kanoi, Sanjhi Rajgarhia and Shamit Khemka. Shamit is a founding investor who is runs the successful IT outsourcing company, SynapseIndia with 350+ employees.

Sanjhi Rajgarhia responsible for Operations and Marketing for FoodCloud, said

Food-X is a fantastic opportunity for FoodCloud. We already have the foundation to become the the customer choice in the food delivery market in India and, if we continue to put the customer first, then the world. In just a week, we have learnt so much from the very experienced mentors who are giving us one on one time to help us identify the best way forward for our company. It’s truly an exciting time for FoodCloud!

Thus far, FoodCloud has successfully delivered over 150,000 meals. FoodCloud is also a part of the Start Up India Programme run by the Government of India and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.