Kerala Daily

Startup accelerators offer an intense, quick and immersive education that focuses on expediting the life cycle of young innovative enterprises by compressing years of learning-by-practice into a few months. Startup accelerators offer education, mentorship and financing to seed-stage startups to help them in their growth journey. These startups enter the accelerator programs for a pre-determined span of time as part of a group of companies.

Accelerator programs are unique because of their distinctive features of being available for a fixed period for a group of similar entities with the intent of mentoring them and culminating in a demo day where they share their learnings and make a presentation. The top performers on this day usually get rewarded with funding.

India has over 20,000 startups and the numbers are growing at 10-12% per annum. There are over 326 verified startup accelerators in India that help startups to manage their teething issues and progress to the next level. Here are a few of the best startup accelerator programs available to entrepreneurs in India.

Village Capital

Village Capital is a global entrepreneur support organization that supports impact-driven seed-stage startups by providing training, expert advice, access to investors and funding, enabling the entrepreneurs to become investor ready and further scale their ventures. Over the past few years, the accelerator has worked with startups across Fintech, Civic Tech and the Future of Work sectors. Most recently in 2021, 18 early startups were selected to participate in the Future of Work India 2021 investment readiness program which saw 4 start-ups selected by peers receive grant funding of $20,000.

For more information visit: https://vilcap.com/

500 Startups

500 Startups offers a 4-month seeding program in Bengaluru that provides advice on marketing, product design, accounting, user testing, sales and more. They focus on startups in sectors like Digital, Retail, Education and financial services and offer funding up to $150,000. Some of their notable startups include Instamojo, PopXo, ZipDial, Sheroes and more.

To learn more about their programs visit – https://500.co/

TLabs

TLabs, backed by Times Internet and located in Noida offers a 4-month acceleration program that offers mentorship advice in the technology space. Funding of up to $50,000 is offered to successful startups. This accelerator focuses on the internet and mobile segments in Information and Technology. Some of their successful startups include EPaathsala, HopOn and GradeStack.

Startup India SAPLabs

Startup India is an acceleration program launched in 2016 with the aim of mentoring and funding tech startups. This accelerator program has been very popular and it has managed to incubate numerous startups. Entrepreneurs get to attend a four-week free online learning program for free. They offer startup centres, research parks, and incubators pan India. This program has a “Fund of Funds” that helps startups gain access to investments.

More info – https://www.startupindia.gov.in/

SAPLabs

A startup acceleration program was launched by SAP Labs India to aid entrepreneurship and technology development in India. SAP Labs has already managed to mentor startups like Niki.ai, an energy solutions provider like Ecolibrium Energy and a logistics solutions provider like Blubirch among several others. They help entrepreneurs with an idea realise their startup dreams by mentoring them. SAP has a 75 seater intubation lab – The StartupStudio, at the SAP Labs campus in Bengaluru that helps to nurture new startups in Big Data and IoT

INVENT

INVENT or Innovative Ventures and Technologies for Development is a collaborative effort between the Government of India, the Department of International Development, Technology Development Board and the Government of UK. The goal of this setup is to provide incubation support to technology-based startups.

More info – https://iimcip.org/programs/invent/

Over 31 social enterprises were funded Rs 8.5 crore as seed fund in a short span of six months in 2018. The six-month program empowers startups across several sectors that have a social impact like agriculture, healthcare, skill development, education, renewable energy. They cover some of the poorer states in India like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal.

India Accelerator

India Accelerator is an early-stage accelerator program for startups offering mentorship, access to technology and network, associated services and funds under a single roof. It is partnered by the much-acclaimed Global Access Network that is one of the most highly respected accelerators across the world serving over 3200 companies. It is a by-invite program and the acceptance ratio of applications is only 2%.

More info – https://www.indiaaccelerator.co/

Summing up

Accelerators have a beneficial effect on the performance of the startups by way of seed capital, a readymade network of contacts, the advantage of mentorship, immersive learning and a structured time-bound program that improves the chances of success. In a vast country like India where there are several entrepreneurs working on ideas that can have far-reaching effects on the community, they live in, having access to a startup acceleration program can open up new vistas. Startup acceleration programs can make a visible difference to the future of several promising startups that need some mentoring, networking and a push in the right direction.

Media Contact
Company Name: Village Capital
Contact Person: Shreyansh Chandak and Eva Waweru
Email: Send Email
City: Kolkata
State: West Bengal
Country: India
Website: https://vilcap.com/