All Posts in Accelerator

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

DesignGild, a first of its kind design led startup accelerator from the house of MIT Institute of Design, announced the launch of its first batch of the accelerator programme with two startups QtPi from Bengaluru and RxHealth from Pune. The boot camp for these startups commences on 22nd May in Pune. The selected startups are from diverse technology spaces.

QtPi and RxHealth will be part of a robust six month immersive accelerator program that leverages the rich design thinking and design doing experience of MIT ID. The program will give startups an exposure to latest design methods, co-working space, access to prototyping facilities, IPR consulting and facilitation, business development support, public relations and processes that will enable them to unlock business opportunities.

A set of experienced design mentors and a dedicated design team will work together with the startups on various stages from design strategy to operations. To name a few, DesignGild’s mentors include Mr. Atindrya Bose – Ex Country Head- Sony [Playstation business], Snehal Vasani – Managing Director, Kitchen Grace [Part of Asian Paints], Sachin Tagra – Associate VP – Brand Capital, Ashish Despande – Co Founder, Elephant Design; Vice President, Association of Designers of India and Apurva Chamaria – VP & Head – Corporate Marketing, HCL Tech, Abhimanyu Kulkarni, Design Head – Philips, Nachiket Thakur – Director – Innovation & Entrepreneurship – Science & Tech Park, Shekhar Badve – Director LokusDesign, Jay Dutta – Design Partner at Saif Partners.

DesignGild also has a strategic partnership with The Institute of Healthcare Design Thinking, USA.

Speaking on the launch of DesignGild’s first batch, Harshit Desai, COO, DesignGild said

We are extremely delighted to onboard the two startups. DesignGild aims to empower these startups and help them build their product with innovation. The focus of the accelerator is towards strategic design consulting, business model innovation, and hands-on design services to enable seamless integration of design in business. We would be happy to mentor the two selected startups, RxHealth and QtPi who are unique in their own fields.

Prof. Anant Chakradeo, Dean, MIT Institute of Design said

DesignGild has been set up by the MIT Institute of Design, as one of the country’s first design-focused accelerators. The aim of the accelerator is to provide high-quality design mentorship and resources to passionate individuals and teams to create design-led businesses. With this MIT ID will add a new offering to its student by creating the much needed ecosystem under one roof.

Here are the profiles of the startups selected for the accelerator programme

QtPi [Robotics for everyone]

QtPi founder Jaison Leon is an industry veteran from MS, Yahoo, Oracle and Tech Mahindra with software and mechatronics background. QtPi has done years of research to eliminate fatigue caused by theoretical learning and mix with exciting practical.

The company has built ‘plug and play robotic kit’, consisting of Arduino based main board, sensors, actuators, building blocks and mobile app. The kit can be used by 7+ year old kids to build infinite types of robots. QtPi has list of projects & tutorials to assist early adapters. It also works with college students to develop innovative projects using QtPi kit or to design their own product.

RxHealth [Bringing DRS in Healthcare]

Founded by Rohan Prakash, RxHealth is the world’s first Health Informatics Company based in Pune that is catering expert system software in the field of computer-aided prognosis. It uses the avant-garde artificial intelligence solutions that recognize accurate and honest medical diagnosis support.

The principle objective is to provide the best healthcare services to every patient everywhere. It’s non-intrusive, seamless technology converts good doctors into excellent doctors by continuously upgrading their knowledge base and reference network. It helps doctors in better diagnosis and prescribing the most effective treatment to patients thus bringing down the time and cost of recovery.

On the patient side, its technology creates more aware and informed patients by providing them personalized information regarding preventions, doctors, consultations, treatment options, cost, time, precautions etc. The long-term objective is to create an effective, efficient and seamlessly integrated technology lead medical services ecosystem for better healthcare delivery.

About DesignGild

DesignGild is a startup eco-system that provides high-quality design mentorship and business development support to create Design-led businesses, based in Pune. It is leveraging the power of Design to create business value. It provides the right platform to incubate & accelerate innovative business ideas through a design focused road map. It achieves this by leveraging its vast network of experienced design professionals, consultants, academicians, researchers and students. DesignGild believes that they can take a start-up from one plane to a completely new and better one by playing on their strength : Design Thinking. DesignGild will support the selected start-ups to convert innovative ideas into valuable business propositions. DesignGild is an MIT ID initiative. For more informaion, please visit DesignGild

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Shell is calling all energy start-ups to enter a national competition that will help develop their bright energy business ideas. The Shell #makethefuture Accelerator India 2017, launched in India for the first time, aims to encourage and accelerate the development of ideas that can help provide more and cleaner energy solutions.

Globally, we are using more energy than ever before. At the same time, the significance of climate change means the world must reduce CO2 emissions. We need innovative thinking to make today’s energy go further and to find cleaner energy to take us towards a lower carbon world. Great ideas come from conversation, collaboration, partnerships; great minds coming together. The aim of the Shell #makethefuture Accelerator India programme is to seek out and support solutions for our energy future.

Commenting on the launch of the programme, Nitin Prasad, Chairman, Shell Companies in India said

At Shell, we believe that collaboration is vital to our purpose of ‘powering progress together for more and cleaner energy’ & to solve the complex global energy challenges. The #makethefuture Accelerator programme provides a platform for innovation, collaboration and conversation around the energy transitions and global energy future while offering a chance for energy start-ups with bright ideas to demonstrate their ability in bringing those ideas to life.

Shell #makethefuture currently supports seven bright energy ideas globally including GravityLight, a UK start-up that, with Shell’s support, recently launched their clean energy solution to communities in Kenya.

Who can apply

The competition is open to startups with products, technologies, services or initiatives that fulfill one or more of the following criteria:

  • improves energy efficiency
  • reduces energy waste;
  • reduces CO2 emissions;
  • generates energy from a new source
  • broadens access to energy.

Enterprises must

  • Operate in an Indian city
  • Have an India registered entity
  • Be in post-pilot or prototype stage

Now, Shell is bringing the #makethefuture Accelerator programme to India to give start-ups across the country the opportunity to collaborate showcasing and developing their bright energy ideas.

Be a part of Make the Future Singapore festival and win ? 10 lakh

Interested energy start-ups will need to apply through an application form available on Shell’s India website. Registration opens on 16th January and will close by midnight 3rd February.

The top 3 finalists will get the opportunity to participate in an Accelerator Event, gather useful insights for their final pitch presentation and connect with like-minded energy start-ups from across the world at Make the Future Singapore, a festival of ideas and innovation for Asia being held in March 2017. During the Accelerator event, the finalists will receive coaching from experts, network and exchange tips with other Asian start-ups on how to grow their ideas into a reality.

These top 3 finalists will then pitch their ideas to an esteemed jury including senior leaders from Shell and Nitin Prasad, Chairman of Shell India at the launch of the Shell Technology Centre Bangalore by March end 2017. Seven semi-finalists will be invited to also showcase their ideas to leaders from business, government and media at the launch event.

The winning start-up will be awarded prize money of ? 10 lakh along with mentorship by senior Shell and industry leaders that will help build a strong value proposition and enable them to access funding to scale.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Google announced the seven promising startups from India, that will join the third class of Launchpad Accelerator along with startups from Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico Argentina, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. These startups will join the six month long intensive mentoring program from Google for mid to late stage startups including a two-week all-expenses paid boot-camp that kicks off early next year [January 30, 2017] at Launchpad Space in San Francisco. Additionally, each startup will get USD 50,000 in equity-free funding.

Shortlisted startups from India include an on-demand wardrobe rentals service, furniture and appliances rental service, top tutor help service, a platform for doctors to discuss medical cases with peers from across the country, an Indian word games for adults and kids, a service that allows you to earn money for playing games and a CRM app that helps businesses to do better lead management.

Indian startups selected for the Google Accelerator Program
Indian startups selected for the Google Accelerator Program

The program begins with determining each startup’s critical challenges, in order to deploy precise mentorship, actionable solutions, and Google resources to enable their product/service app to scale. The seven start-ups will then get tailored expert guidance from Google engineers, product managers and other mentors from top technology companies and VC’s in Silicon Valley.  Additionally, they will receive equity-free support credits for Google products and work closely with Google for six months in their home countries.

Paul Ravindranath G, Program Manager, Launchpad Accelerator said

We are delighted to help Indian startups in their journey and help them to scale and find success in their endeavors. Access to good mentoring and advice at early to mid -stage can make a meaningful difference. Over the last one year, thirteen Indian startups have participated in the program and many have already gained from the program and have successfully raised funding. Nestaway who was part of our first batch from India closed a $30M series C investment. MagicPin that offers deals and discounts for Restaurants, Spas, Salons implemented a progressive web app that has helped them to drive over 10% of their total daily transactions. We hope the next batch will continue to find value in the program and help them to succeed.

Amarendra Sahu, Co-founder of Nestaway from India said

Launchpad accelerator program made us believe that even we could build a world class product and the mentors helped us to understand what was needed to get there. We have recently asked for follow-on engagement with mentors. If you are a startup who believes in changing the world through tech product, then this is the program for you.

For those interested in applying for future Launchpad Accelerator classes, follow Launchpad Accelerator updates

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

T-Hub, India’s fastest growing startup engine catalysing Innovation, Scale and Deal flow, announces the launch of AgriTech Accelerator Program in partnership with ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics), powered by RViP (Riverbridge Ventures Innovations Platform). The program will begin on 15th February, 2017 and is accepting applications from 2nd November, 2016.

During the three-month acceleration period, RViP in association with ICRISAT & T-Hub will engage with start-ups through its unique scaling model and work as a full-time partner for enabling and scaling the efforts of the participating startups.

Jay Krishnan, CEO, T-Hub said

The potential to innovate and scale innovation from startups is what we are trying to achieve through the AgriTech Accelerator. With AgriTech being a specialized vertical at T- Hub, we are sourcing the top startups globally to come up with solutions which will solve the myriad challenges faced by the sector. Through this sector and stage-focused approach, we are banking on providing interventions to the top startups that get selected for the accelerator to allow them to scale and go-to-market with the right methodologies.

This initiative is designed to enable the participating startups to scale their projects through real-time management, full-time engagement and knowledge sharing. The selection process involves up to 3 levels of application screening including manual screening to curate the most relevant applications to finally identifying the top 10 participants of the program.

ICRISAT Director General Dr. David Bergvinson commented

In order to double Indian farmers’ income by 2022, we need to accelerate the development and delivery of demand driven innovation that gives economic agency to farmers. The AgriTech Accelerator program will bring together agriculture, IT and finance entrepreneurs to develop tailored services, technologies and market integration to support sustainable (social, economic, environmental) rural development at scale.

This program will help develop a working model for the AgriTech start-ups/innovative ideas through practical business models and perfected products with market acceptability.

Vishnu Gorantala, Founder, Riverbridge Ventures Innovations Platform said

Scaling platforms need to redefine the conventional accelerator programs through well designed and differentiated engagement to ensure ‘Enable to Scale’. We at RViP intend to address this gap.

Interested startups can register at http://signup.t-hub.co/agritech

About T-Hub

T-Hub is a unique public/private partnership between the government of Telangana, three of India’s premier academic institutes (IIIT-H, ISB and NALSAR) and key private sector leaders. T-Hub aims to forge many such partnerships with governments and corporates across the world to setup T-Bridge centers, strengthening trade relations and attracting investment into the state of Telangana. For more information, please visit T-Hub

About RViP – Riverbridge Ventures Innovations Platform

RViP engages with startups and innovations through partnership mode that helps enable and scale innovations into successful businesses worldwide. This engagement is beyond capital and advisory models and functions like a partnership by sharing equal or more responsibilities than the promoter/entrepreneur himself. RVIP aggregates functionaries to address the job functions while the promoter/ founder focuses on his/her core competencies. For more information, please visit Riverbridge Ventures Innovations Platform

About ICRISAT

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid-Tropics (ICRISAT) is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. ICRISAT innovations help the dryland poor move from poverty to prosperity by harnessing markets while managing risks-a strategy called Inclusive Market-Oriented development (lMOD). ICRISAT, headquartered in Hyderabad, is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. For more information, please visit ICRISAT

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Couple of days back, we had covered the #StartSomething initiative by Espark-Viridian, a startup accelerator which is a joint-venture between the Entrepreneurial Spark, UK and Viridian Ventures, India. Today we have a chat with Mr Vibhuti Channa, Director of Viridian Ventures about the accelerator, how to apply for the October cohort, entrepreneurship, scaling up, etc.

So, lets start with the Q&A…

Espark-Viridian(EV) is a JV, can you please give a brief about the team and Viridian’s association with Entrepreneurial Spark?

We have a partnership with Entrepreneurial Spark under which we have been operating accelerator centres in India for over a year now.

Can you please walk us through the complete programme or what is the planned curriculum over that 18 month period?

The programme is a comprehensive one that gives access to the entrepreneurs to dedicated enablers, mentors, service providers, suppliers, office space and potential investors for their businesses.

Off late there are many accelerators- Microsoft Accelerator, Kyron, TLabs, GSF, etc. why should an entrepreneur choose EV accelerator (or how does it differ in offerings) over other accelerators (that are present in India for quite sometime)?

The fundamental differentiator is the enablement programme which envisages a dedicated enabler who works with an entrepreneur on a one on one basis through the entire relationship that an entrepreneur is with us in the programme. This facilitates a regular tracking of the business and the entrepreneur is challenged and stretched at every stage to ensure that the outcome is robust and in line with his dream for the business.

How strong are your connections to mentors/investors etc. involved with the accelerator? How much time would the selected startups get with the mentors?

The mentors and entrepreneurs are linked up at a stage when it is believed that the entrepreneur requires the necessary intervention and support. The duration is determined by the specific need that may arise for such support.

Do the selected startups have to part away with equity? Are there any fixed costs that selected startups need to bear during the tenure of the programme?

The accelerator does not take an equity stake in the entrepreneur’s business.

How are the previous cohorts of Espark-Viridian (EV) doing right now? Can you please share some details about the traction, revenue, funding, etc. of couple of startups from the previous cohort.

We have 25 graduates from our programme thus far of whom 5 have successfully secured seed funding.

What does the EV team look for in the startup team that is applying for the accelerator programme?

We look for people who have an entrepreneurial mindset – someone who is willing to take the risk, is open to being challenged and work hard. This is not an easy journey and one should be resilient to ride the tumbles with equanimity in the quest for success.

EV is present in select cities in India, is it mandatory for the shortlisted startup to relocate to any of these cities or they can work remotely (and get necessary support from mentors etc.)?

It is possible to operate from locations where we are not present and be a part of the programme.

When you choose a startup, do you look at companies which are solving local problems or companies which have a global mindset?

We are sector agnostic and are open to companies that are addressing areas across sectors and geographies.

Should a startup be in any particular stage (i.e. Idea/Growth etc.) in order to apply for the Programme?

We are happy to support start ups at any stage between idea and scale up.

Any priority or focus on sectors that the programme would focus on (Can a hardware startup apply for the programme)?Is your programme also open to Social Enterprises?

We are open to people from any sector and do have people on board from the social enterprises space as well.

Apart from Idea, what are some of the key things your team looks into while assessing the applications?

We look at the entrepreneurs mind set which is critical to the success of the business. We look for openness, resilience and a spirit to get challenged in a positive manner.

Some insights into the industry partners for the Programme?

Some of the partners we work with include banks, payment gateways, cloud space, software support apart from other service support areas.

2016 is a tough year for startups (especially for companies that are in the growth stage), can you please some tips for entrepreneurs looking to raise funds and how they can see through these turbulent times?

It is critical that entrepreneurs remain hard nosed and ruthlessly focused on driving value for their businesses. The fundamentals of doing business and driving the bottom line will never change irrespective of the industry or times we live in. As long as entrepreneurs bear that in mind they will not have a problem riding through these times.

If you are an entrepreneur and willing to apply for the October 2016 cohort of the Espark-Viridian accelerator, please visit the Application Page. If you have any further questions about the accelerator, their offerings etc. please leave a comment and we would have it answered from the EV Team.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Espark-Viridian, a joint venture between Viridian Ventures and Europe’s most dynamic business accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark, UK, is now accepting applications for the October 2016 Batch.

Image Source - Twitter
Image Source – Twitter

Espark-Viridian : Build People who Build Businesses

Espark-Viridian is a business accelerator that aims at growing the Indian startup ecosystem by helping entrepreneurs transform their ideas into realizable and feasible businesses, through its 18 month programme. A tested model adopted from its parent accelerator, Entrepreneurial Spark, UK, has an amazing track record and so far, there is a success rate of 88% with more than 650+ Startups enabled* [Entrepreneurial Spark, UK figures].

In sync with the government’s growing support to the young entrepreneurs, around the country, Espark-Viridian has expanded its acceleration programme to Chandigarh and Mumbai with the launch of #StartSomething campaign.

Espark-Viridian : What’s in it for YOU, the entrepreneur

Through a national network of accelerator centers that follow a programme based approach to building entrepreneurs, Espark-Viridian will provide a comprehensive platform that includes infrastructure, access to seed capital and mentoring.

In the initial 45 days of the Programme, shortlisted startups would go through an Idea Validation and Market Feasibility phase. This phase would help them understand the ground-level impact of their idea. An Enabler would be assigned to each team. The Enabler keeps track of the progress of the startup and helps them shape their ideas into a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or make it market ready. Successful entrepreneurs, Mentors and experts from the industry act as Mentors in the Programme. Shortlisted startups would get the necessary support in the Fund Raising Process so that they can take their startup to the next-level.

The Espark-Viridian has the following to offer for entrepreneurs:

  • Multi center and multi sector innovation environment
  • A large portfolio of mentors and passionate enablers
  • Opportunities to raise seed funding
  • Pool of service providers to smoothen daily processes
  • Access to global markets and networking opportunities
  • World class infrastructure and other amenities
  • Weekly workshops and events to enhance business skills

In the last one year of its entry into India, close to 25 startups have graduated from Espark-Viridian accelerator across sectors ranging from tech to farming, with a belief to not only build a business, but also the entrepreneur behind the business.

Espark-Viridian : Graduated Startups

Some of the startups graduated from their earlier batch are below

Startups Graduated from espark-viridian accelerator
Startups Graduated from the Espark-Viridian accelerator

Espark-Viridian : #StartSomething and How to apply

Espark-Viridian has key industry partners namely AWS Activate, Paytm, HeadStart, IAmWire, YourStory, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The intake of early stage startups and entrepreneurs, for the first batch commencing this October is in process.

Along with inviting applications for the October 2016 batch for all the four centers (Mumbai, Delhi, Gandhinagar and Chandigarh), Espark-Viridian will also be hosting #SparkSessions in all the four cities, to meet aspiring startups and entrepreneurs.

You can follow Espark-Viridian on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.  To apply for the Programme, please visit ESpark-Viridian Application Page. If you want any more information or have any doubts about the Programme, please leave them in the comments section or email at himanshu.sheth@gmail.com

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

GenNext Hub is the startup scalerator by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) that is nurturing digital entrepreneurship in India. At GenNext Hub, RIL is catalysing a unique start-up ecosystem, which rests on the tripod of talent, technology and trust. This venture is aimed at spotting and encouraging talent, helping them harness their technology and backing them by putting total trust in them. The applications for the Winter 2016 program are open until Sunday, 2nd October 2016.

During the four-month-long programme, GenNext Hub conducts workshops and mentoring sessions for start-ups in the areas of customer development, market traction, operations, product road-map, fund raising and pitching. It also provides expertise in IP, legal, financial compliance, HR and specific sectorial expertise. GenNext Hub is uniquely positioned as a global programme that helps start-ups think big and grow fast.

With its structured program, GenNext Hub is able to revisit, refine and reinforce the startups’ core product offering and business model. Its rich mentor panel consists of thought-leaders, industry icons, subject matter experts and established entrepreneurs. Along with the external mentors, startups at GenNext Hub also have access to select leaders of RIL for business and technology guidance. The resources made available through GenNext Hub’s global partner network including Microsoft Accelerator, offers startups a holistic support system. Startups leverage the networking events organized by GenNext Hub for both customer and investor connects.

What truly makes GenNext Hub a Scalerator is the unparalleled access to RIL for the startups to potentially collaborate and co-innovate. With its diverse portfolio of businesses across various sectors and domains, RIL is able to provide the testing bed for the startups to validate their technology and business, execute Proof of Concept (PoC) and develop win-win partnerships.

Startups of Summer 2016

Codemojo: Retaining users is a tough job in today’s competitive world of apps and websites. Codemojo offers customer engagement with 10 lines of code & 10 minutes of API integration for omni channel businesses to increase daily & monthly active user base through loyalty, behavior, gamification, referral, wallet, etc. According to the company, the cost of retaining a loyal user is currently $4 with a 125% Year-on-Year (YoY) increase translating into a $40 Billion market. Codemojo has recently raised investment from CIO Angel Network (CAN). For more information, please visit codemojo.io/

Dattus: About 75% of the industrial equipment are over 20 years old and costs $100 Billion annually due to downtime. DATTUS is an industrial IoT company providing seamless hardware and software solutions to sense, connect, visualize and analyze industrial equipment to ensure a long lifespan and to reduce the cost of maintenance. The company was founded by winning multiple business plan competitions through which they raised $250,000. They are the winner of the MIRA Awards, ‘The Best of Tech in Indiana’ for 2016. Recently they have raised Series Seed round from U.S. based venture capitalists. For more information, please visit https://www.dattus.com/

Don’t Scratch Your Head (DSYH): Lack of seamless reconciliation of sales and inventory causes significant losses for sellers on e-commerce market places. DSYH is next generation data-analytics company that solves the reconciliation problem with a cloud-based solution. The company has engaged major market places and retailers in the Indian ecosystem to address the $500+ Million opportunity and has raised $250,000 angel investment from Venture Catalysts. For more information, please visit http://www.dsyh.in/

Happy2Refer (H2R): It is a pain to reach and engage quality passive talent through traditional job portals and recruiters. H2R is changing the way of hiring by leveraging the power of multi-degree referrals to spot and engage passive talent. The company says that the Indian staffing market is a $4.2 Billion opportunity and it has already acquired an impressive list of clientele including Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Shaadi.com, etc. For more information, please visit happy2refer.com/

Headspin: With growing number of mobile devices being used in various cellular networks, it is very challenging for app developers to understand how their apps behave from remote locations. Backed by Google Ventures and other major Silicon Valley based investors, Headspin makes it possible to test apps on any device with real SIM cards over cloud on massive scale. Potentially all apps with 500,000+ global users will need Headspin. For more information, please visit https://headspin.io/

Megdap: Only 10% of India’s population speaks English while majority of the digital communication happens in English. Megdap solves this problem through TexLang, a language technology platform for near time & accurate language translation. Megdap is engaged with major banking customers. For more information, please visit www.megdap.com/

NavStik: Each commercial drone application is unique and requires high level of customization. Through a single platform called FlytOS, NavStik Labs is able to address the unique need of every commercial drone application. The market opportunity is estimated to reach $100+ Billion by 2022. NavStik has recently raised investment from 7 prominent angel investors. For more information, please visit www.navstik.org/

Recipe Book: Figuring out what to cook on a daily basis is always a challenge given today’s busy lifestyle. Recipe Book is an app that makes it extremely easy to discover new and interesting recipes. The app is an intelligent recipe recommendation and discovery platform based on Image Recognition and Natural Learning Processing (NLP). They were featured in Google I/O 2016 and was the first Indian app to be in Google Play Editors’ Choice. Recipe Book for Android can be downloaded from http://tinyurl.com/z8xxub8

Tagalys: Personalizing online retailers’ website to match the individual users’ taste is a big challenge that leads to lower conversion to sales. Tagalys maximizes e-commerce revenues by personalizing visitor-product engagement across features like site search, browsing and recommendations. Tagalys is targeting customers with more than $5 Million of annual revenues which leads to an estimated total market opportunity of approximately $5 Billion. For more information, please visit www.tagalys.com/

Applications for the Winter 2016 program are open until Sunday, 2nd October 2016. Interested startups may click here to apply now!

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Swiss Re has announced the launch of its first-ever corporate InsurTech accelerator to help startups develop business solutions that could revolutionize the way (re)insurance conducts business. The accelerator is a program managed by Kyron.

A number of themes identified for the program include the Internet of things [home, industrial, health and motor], Systems of engagement [innovative distribution channels and models, digital assistants/Robo advisors etc.] & Smart analytics [across insurance value chain].

[Image Source - InsurTech]
[Image Source* – InsurTech]

Jason Richards, Head P&C Business Management and Technology , Reinsurance, Swiss Re said

Fintech is already disrupting the wider financial services world and is now starting to make its mark on insurance. We are seeing Fintech being used to engage with customers in novel ways: new methods of delivery, new products and new data sources will all have an impact on underwriting and our understanding of risk. Swiss Re aims to be at the heart of these changes, helping to make the world more resilient to shocks.

Jason Richards added

The Accelerator program provides a great opportunity for innovative startups to develop their products and business case. And it allows Swiss Re to connect with innovative, new companies to share ideas and learning. For the first program, up to five startups in India will be selected. Managing risk may have been our core business for more than 150 years but we have never stood still. We want to continue to collaborate and learn so that we can create smarter solutions for our clients, helping the world rebuild, renew and move forward.

Speaking at the occassion, Alok Kumar, Managing Director, Swiss Re Bangalore said

The world, today, is constantly changing and to keep pace with the risk landscape, we need to continually innovate around how we offer risk protection products. Through this program, we are creating an innovation platform that reinforces our long-standing commitment to bring out new and improved solutions that directly addresses real-world business challenges for the insurance industry.

Vidhya Shankar, Head – Partnerships, NASSCOM 10000 startups said

We are excited about our partnership with Swiss Re to discover, mentor and accelerate high potential startups in the larger fintech space. Given NIPP’s [NASSCOM Industry Partnership Program] endeavor to bridge disruptive startups with global enterprises keen to adopt Open Innovation we enable collaboration at multiple levels – M&A, Go to Market, Domain specific Mentorship, Acquihire. The InsurTech accelerator program by Swiss Re is pioneering and will go a long way in bringing Indian innovation to the global business community.

During the program, startups will have access to global expertise and insights from the Swiss Re team, strong mentoring support from global thought leaders and technical enablement to work effectively from the Swiss Re, Bengaluru office. At the end of 16 weeks, the selected startups will present their learnings and achievements to Swiss Re’s ecosystem partners, potential investors and panel of judges.

Additional program benefits

  • Engagement with global reinsurance leader
  • Opportunity to work for global markets/business topics
  • State of the art facility located in Bangalore
  • 3+1 months of office space
  • Invitation to participate in industry related events

This initiative is the first-ever initiative by a reinsurance company to foster technology innovation amongst startups in the insurance tech area in India.

Program will commence in July 2016 and interested startups can apply for the program here