When Techstars decided to launch Techstars Bangalore, they wanted to contribute to the growth of the startup ecosystem by leveraging their global accelerator experience to help entrepreneurs pursuing opportunities in emerging markets. The program generated incredible interest. They received over 1000 applications from 30 countries around the world. Techstars Bangalore held its inaugural Demo Day on Thursday for 10 startups that were shortlisted.
The final class of 10 startups is technology agnostic, and covers sectors including pharma, tech, healthcare, logistics, transportation, marketplaces, and fin-tech. Common amongst the class, is an immediate focus on the Indian market, with expansion plans that include emerging and developed markets.
Techstars is a global network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Founded in 2007 in Boulder, Colorado, the Techstars Network connects founders with entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners to grow their companies.
This year, Techstars will choose over 500 startups to join their mentorship driven accelerators around the globe, investing $120K in each company and providing lifetime access to the Techstars network.
“The vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem in India and Bengaluru in particular is growing year on year. Today, Bengaluru has become the start-up hub for not just India but for the entire emerging markets. Our experience in India in the past one year has been so encouraging that we are now convinced to grow exponentially in the country. We are looking at expanding our accelerator programs beyond Bengaluru, later this year”, said David Brown, Founder and co-CEO, Techstars.
Over the course of the 13 weeks program, founders from InMobi, Wattpad, Zest Money and many other successful startups shared details of their personal journeys in a weekly event called ‘founder stories’. In total, the companies participated in more than 740 meetings with 80 mentors from India, Australia, US, and Canada, and interacted with hundreds of connections from within the Techstars global network of alumni.
Techstars India also works with corporates to run their innovation programs and with local and state governments to build innovation ecosystems. They are currently engaged with 20 corporates across India.
Techstars is excited and encouraged by the response they have received in the past year and are determined to capitalise on the opportunities India has to offer. They are now poised to launch more accelerator programs in India, beyond Bengaluru, later this year.
Key takeaways from their experience in India are:
a) India is truly embracing entrepreneurship and has an increasingly positive sentiment towards it.
b) Entrepreneurship is not limited to a few cities and sectors but is spreading to far corners of the country and encompassing multiple industries.
c) Majority of startups in India have a deep understanding of their product and the problem they are solving but need significant amount of mentoring from people who are willing to work with them and help them navigate their businesses.