Accelerating seed-stage startups

India Accelerator launching a dedicated fund along with venture capitalists and engaging with academia to nurture innovation early

Hyderabad: India Accelerator, a seed-stage accelerator that helps startups grow with mentorship, network, technology and peripheral services, is going to launch a startup seed fund soon. The accelerator is working with venture capitalists to provide funding access to promising startups, which are in the early funnel phase.

Ashish Bhatia, founder and CEO, India Accelerator, told Telangana Today, in an exclusive interview, “We realised the strengths of India in creating a startup ecosystem and a clear need for a massive private accelerator to enable that. We have invested in over 80 startups so far, which would have raised more than $10 million (about Rs 70-75 crore) so far as follow-on funding. We have been focusing on providing seed funding, competencies and mentor connections to startups besides extending legal, accounting & financial support.”

He added, “We have developed specific programmes in verticals such as cybersecurity, healthtech, agritech and social impact. We are about to launch a vertical for fintech. We have largely remained domain agnostic. We are not constrained by any sector, rather we have been focusing on solving problems across verticals. We have however realised that a startup in every domain needs a specific and different intervention. In the future, we anticipate growth in the consumer goods segment, with equal growth opportunities in healthtech and agritech, where we see a lot of disruption.”

The accelerator started in 2017, is a part of Global Accelerator Network (GAN), and is creating a conducive startup ecosystem in tier II and tier III cities of India, leading to new job creation. Almost 40 per cent of the startups the accelerator works with, are from these cities.

In terms of criteria, India Accelerator primarily looks to support startups that have some traction and revenues. They should also have created a reasonable customer base. He adds, “In the industry, there is too much emphasis on which startup has been funded, but we don’t give too much weightage to such track record. We want startups who can solve problems in each vertical.”

Accelerators need to work with early-stage startups and encourage their innovation. India still lacks a push for product-based startups, as there is over emphasis on the services sector, and this needs to be addressed if we want to see product innovation. India Accelerator is working with IITs to help turn research into commercial products. There is a need to encourage entrepreneurship in academic institutions, Bhatia emphasised.

Startup engagement

India Accelerator has supported Hyderabad-based Roll Number Technologies, which is a platform that aids companies in employee screening/background verification using blockchain. Pan-India, it is working with several startups including Gurugram-based Kuants, a fintech stock trading platform catering to retail & institutional customers and New-Delhi based Insurance Samadhan A grievance redressal platform for insurance policy holders, besides other startups.

“Through GAN, we have helped Indian startups establish their presence in global markets. We have established ties with the Canadian government to enable footprint there. We are also in talks with several partners in Southeast Asia and Africa. India too remains a large market for startups, and those who have fully tapped this market, can look at overseas market opportunities. We are also actively helping startups to work and network with each other, to bring together their synergies,” added Bhatia.

India Accelerator has received interest from several startups from Hyderabad and has included suitable businesses into its programme. Besides strengthening its current base in the north, it looks to build a network in the north east and other parts of south.

SME support

Small and medium enterprises in India have been viewed largely as unfundable businesses in India from the venture capital perspective as the businesses cannot scale up. They have been left out from the entire ecosystem.

“To address this, India Accelerator launched a dedicated SME vertical six months back, with a revenue, equity, business and intervention model that is different from what we do for startups. We are handholding SMEs in wide ranging areas as basic as improving their time management practices to major aspects such as procurement, vendor selection and adoption of technology to enhance efficiencies and increase revenues. We have also partnered with NBFCs to meet the financial needs of small businesses,” Bhatia informed.

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