To boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Start up India” campaign and help India’s startups and entrepreneurs, a number of innovative programs are initiated by different organizations in recent time. Accelerators are playing key role in strengthening startup eco-system and modern economy because they are offering strong support system for them all along the delivery of everything what they needed to grow fast. These programs become new helpdesks in the town to nurture startups and entrepreneurs’ future. Managing Director, Pitney Bowes Software India Pvt. Ltd and senior Vice President, Innovation, Pitney Bowes Inc says, “There are many efforts being taken to support entrepreneurship, right from Government incubators, to corporate incubators to industry angels.
Accelerator programs are crucial part of the innovation ecosystem involving entrepreneurs, investors, suppliers, universities, large existing businesses, and a host of supporting organizations. Accelerators help ventures define and build their initial products, identify promising customer segments, and secure resources, including capital and employees.” He is feeling hopeful for better startup ecosystem. He shares, “Accelerators are a promising model for both the ecosystem and the start-ups will continue to play a distinct and significant role. We should see more niches, vertical focused accelerators that might come up and more tie ups within the ecosystem, including non-profits.” Different accelerators have different features to offer but the primary goal is same as they all want to support startups and entrepreneurs to ensure fast growth in their business. Majority of these accelerator are located in Mumbai, Bangalore and Gurgaon for supporting pan India startups.
For startups that are seeking initial fundamental support to nurture their startups, here is a list of the 15 best accelerators whom they can approach to get help:
1. Startup Village (www.sv.co)
Located: Kochi (Cochin)
It was launched in 2011 and supported by the government. Unlike the above mentioned accelerators, it offer support for a long - term until the startups start getting revenue. Apart from this it also help startups to get funding and how to pitch their ideas effectively.
2. Microsoft Accelerator (https://www.microsoftaccelerator.com )
Location: Bangalore
Microsoft Accelerator is empowering startups and entrepreneurs globally. It has supported thousands of startups to create great brands and organizations to rule the world. The accelerator mainly focused on the areas like mobile applications, cloud services, big data and computing and Internet of Things (IoT). It has more than 150 mentors network all along association with noteworthy entrepreneurs, investors, and funding organizations. It offers support to later-stage startups by providing resources, expertise, tools and knowledge sharing opportunities. Its famous programs majorly include Scale Up and Accelerator Plus. It also helps in getting seed funding for idea and series of funding to accelerate growth. It provides five to six months tailor-made help programs twice in a year so that startup can scale well from idea to execution.
3. GSF India Accelerator ( http://www.gsfindia.com/ )
Location: Gurgaon
GSF accelerator program is run by Rajesh Sawhney who is a former Reliance Entertainment President. The basic motto to start this program is to give startups and entrepreneurs opportunities to execute their business ideas effectively and provides all support they seek during the initial days. It is a 13- weeks programme shaped around the concept of hackathon. During the programs, products change a number of times and teams go through intense training and Q&A sessions with mentora and investors. During the program, startups get opportunity to attend minimum 20 workshops majorly based on the themes like technology, marketing, business strategy, funding and idea pitching etc. GSF also funds great idea on equity basis. After the completion of this program, selected startups also get follow- on rounds.
4. Kyron Accelerator (http://kyronglobal.com/ )
Location: Bangalore
Kyron majorly helps early-stage technology startups to raise funds and get mentoring support. It has a strong network of experts from technology and non technology backgrounds that help in strategy making, product design, launching, finance, marketing, innovation and lots more. It also identifies the requirements of big companies and connects them to the innovative technical solutions delivered from the startups to create a great ecosystem. It may also give access to many other resources which are required to grow your business.
5. TLabs Accelerator (http://tlabs.in/ )
Location: Delhi-Noida
TLabs was founded in 2011 with a basic idea of providing help to the startups who are in mobile and internet technology. This is an initiative from The Times Group and offer resources’ access by organizing workshops and events. It is also offering investments upto Rs 30 lakh for 8 per cent equity stake.TLabs accelerator program helps early stage startups with seed funding and majorly focus on mobile technology and internet areas. It was founded by a group of best mentors in 2011 and has been contributed in honing some of the most promising business ideas. During the accelerator program, TLabs offers access to over 100+ mentors and industry experts who guide startup to get effective solutions for their problems. It also organizes regular engagement programs with investors, VCs, and angels etc.
6. Cisco LaunchPad Accelerator (www.cisco.com/c/m/en_in/launchpad/index.html)
Location: Bangalore
IT leader Cisco’s LaunchPad Accelerator program offers great opportunities for those startups who want to be part of an innovative ecosystem. The main motto behind starting this program is to bring together startups, developers and Cisco technologies to provide access of end-to-end digital solutions. It is a 4 months program that mainly helps in networking, collaborations, IoT and many other related things. At a time, it selects 4-5 startups and gives them access of a co-working space, events, workshops and more.
7. SAP Labs Accelerator (http://www.sap.com/india/ms/sap-labs-india.html )
Located: Bangalore
SAP Labs India accelerator program name is SAP Startup Studio. It aims to provide infrastructure and technology support to early-stage startups all along mentoring support from industry experts. While the company researches and develop designs in leading-edge software applications that support businesses to accomplish their business goals faster. It addition, it mainly chooses startups who are in Big Data Sharing technology, Cloud computing and Internet of Things. The company claims to enable about 3,10,000 companies to operate their businesses efficiently worldwide.
8. 5Ideas (http://www.5ideas.in/)
Located: Gurgaon
Next is 5Idea, which is a seed fund and accelerator program. It helps startups in scalable distribution, communication, brand building, design creation and finding ideas and connections for growth. It provides seed funding between Rs 25lakh to Rs 15crore. 5 ideas mentors network include successful & talented entrepreneurs, resourceful founders, investors, domain experts and many other leaders from big internet & mobile companies. It is mainly focuses within tech space and look for ideas which are distributed on internet. It mainly offers support to the startups who are particularly from Big Data, Urban Parenting, Ad Tech, Ecommerce, B2B/ SME focused SAAS, Inersection of mobile & geo and Education.
9. FORGE Innovation Accelerator (www.forgeforward.in)
Located: Coimbatore
FORGE is an innovation accelerator program launched by Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator (CIBI) which is joint venture from The Sakti Group and Kumaraguru College of Technology (KCT). FORGE supports to activate innovative tech business ideas and accelerate them to become investable startups. It covers innovative ideas either of hardware or software and ideas from traditional service industry.
10. GHV Accelerator (www.ghvaccelerator.com/ )
Located: Gurgaon
Green House Ventures Accelerator (GHV) was launched by investor and entrepreneur Vikram Upadhyaya in 2014 for helping cockroach startups. The accelerator program offer funding and mentoring support to the startups that are between incubation and venture capital stage. Recently it has selected the startups like Applop, Fitmein, Lazylad, CaRPM, and Pindrop during NASSCOM Innotrek 2016 Program. All the selected startups can get access of Ignite Talks, networking sessions, expert roundtables, investor panels, TiECons and meeting opportunity to the global tech giants.
11. Jarvis Accelerator (jaarvisaccelerator.com )
Location: Gurgaon
Launched in June 2015, Jaarvis Accelerator takes early stage technology based startups and helps them rapidly build a sustainable business. The accelerator offers four-months program to provide mentorship, capital, seed funding, tech, infrastructural support and everything else startups need to build a strong and lasting foundation. It has 20,600 sq feet space to accommodate upto 50 startups.Some of the Jaarvis Accelerator startups of its recent batches include ExtraCarbon, DrinksOnMe, PsychD and R2 Robotronics.
12. ZoneStartups (http://india.zonestartups.com/ )
Location: Mumbai
Recently launched ZoneStartups is a joint venture from Ryerson Futures, a Toronto-based technology startup incubator and Bombay Stock Exchange Institute. It offers support in the form of mentoring, work space and many other tailor made resources. It announced 6 weeks accelerator program in April 2016 and offered seed funding of Rs.10 lakh, Rs.7 lakh, and Rs. 5 lakh to three women founded startups. During the program, the 15 founders got an opportunity to meet and intract with over 40 mentors.
13. iAccelerator (www.iaccelerator.org)
Location: Ahmedabad
iAccelerator was started in 2008 by Indian Institute for Management Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship. It offers 3- months’ residential programme majorly for the startups that are in the mobile and internet domain. They get everything from expert advice to technical help.
14. Venture Nursery (http://venturenursery.com/)
Location: Mumbai
VentureNursery could be a great support for startups from retail, e-commerce, consumer, media, technology and clean technology. It was launched by a group of angel investors in 2012. It offers 3-months intensive training, mentoring and coaching sessions to help startups. It also organises regular interaction sessions with angels and other industry leaders.
15. Pitney Bowes Accelerator (accelerator.pitneybowes.com/)
Location: Noida
Pitney Bowes, a global technology leader has launched its accelerator program in 2015 to help the Indian Startups. Its offers a six month program starting in April & October every year. Recently it has announced "Scale-Up" a six-month program to give access of Pitney Bowes cloud services and APIs to young and emerging startups. It will also provide access to reach venture capitalist, mentoring, networking and many other things.
These are few names from a long list of accelerators currently announced in India! I believe that they can create an environment that can promote startups, innovations and their businesses.
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