India Accelerator Aims To Be Spawning Ground For Emerging Start-ups

In a country like India where once a year a start-up would make it to the news, Indian start-ups have been causing quite a stir in the global start-up ecosystem. From rising record-high funding to minting unicorns, India has become a breeding ground for start-ups.

The start-up funding rose to USD 42 billion and the start-up mortality rate plummeted to 1 per cent in 2021 as changes in the acceleration and innovation landscape unlock the next stage of growth for Indian start-ups.

A proven springboard for over 100 Indian start-ups, India Accelerator, the brainchild of Ashish Bhatia and Mona Singh, has been an active facilitator in the Indian start-up ecosystem. It is the only GAN-partnered and mentorship-driven incubation programme in India.

India Accelerator (IA), a leading Seed Accelerator in the country aims to be the spawning ground for new and tech emerging start-ups by providing seed funding, advice and mentoring and connections and all the other critical inputs required to enable them to be launched successfully.

The company is also a part of Global Accelerator Network (GAN), a highly selective group of 100 odd top accelerators in the world. IA model closely follows that of TechStars and other internationally-known accelerators.

Turning Tech-Driven Ideas Into Viable Solutions

Ashish and Mona work with a structured approach to identify high-potential early-stage tech start-ups in India. Over the years, they have built an extensive IA team and network that provides end-to-end services such as technical, financing, digital marketing, working space, legal assistance to these early-stage start-ups.

India Accelerator has established and curated three programmes to improve the chances of success and sustainability for these start-ups. These are cohort-based acceleration programme, intense mentorship-driven programme and ‘The Start Up Academy’.

The cohort-based acceleration programme is a fixed-term programme conducted twice a year in two 90-day cycles from January-April and August-November. The intense and rapid mentorship-driven programme, aimed at accelerating growth, culminates with graduate companies pitching to a selected group of marquee investors.

‘The Start Up Academy’ helps founders during the ideation phase to build a real business model. The academy provides these start-ups access to all the essential resources, helps them validate their idea, build an MVP, conduct POC and interact with founders of co-start-ups.

Creating An Ecosystem Of Partnerships

When they founded India Accelerator, Ashish and Mona were intent on influencing a new paradigm in the Indian start-up ecosystem. To catalyse this ecosystem, India Accelerator has struck strategic partnerships, expanded its geographical footprint and extended its start-up portfolio. The start-up nurturing platform frequently co-invests with larger funds like EMVC Ventures, Alfa ventures, Omnivore and YourNest to lend a helping hand to an extensive range of start-ups.

Unlocking The Next Phase Of Growth

Building on the growth momentum, India Accelerator plans to leverage its experience and launch more IA accelerator hubs in India. The company aims to create vibrant start-up hubs in Indore, Jaipur, Pune and Ahmedabad. Additionally, the founders are eyeing global expansion for India Accelerator, planning to expand its network in Dubai, Singapore, UK and USA. The growth and development of IA will inevitably translate into the progress of its start-ups.

Speaking to Opportunity India Ashish Bhatia, CEO & Co-founder of India Accelerator said, “Our dream is for India to accelerate and Indian start-ups to put our country on the global map. To turn this dream into a living reality, we plan to foster a vibrant start-up ecosystem in India where young founders have the right mentorship, early-stage start-ups have all the resources when they need them the most and all key stakeholders collaborate to propel Indian start-ups and India in this direction.”

In 2021, India Accelerator funded 45 start-ups and, is planning to mentor 70 start-ups in 2022. It has closed 45 funding transactions in the last year and more than USD 5.5 mn has been raised so far by portfolio start-ups. The 2/3rd of portfolio companies have raised their follow-on round of funding. 

IA has got an extremely strong portfolio of almost 80 start-ups at different stages including Lawyered, Insurance Samadhaan, Galaxy Card, Prithvi, Cab Bazaar, Dhurina, Ingenium, and Playtoome are a few from the first three cohorts that have done wonderfully well.

Key Programmes By India Accelerator 

Corporate Accelerator Programme: Corporate Innovation Programme helps corporates gain access to early stage innovations, attract entrepreneurial talent, and elicit new ideas and early stage innovations from outside its four walls on how to solve important business problems. The goal of iCAP will be to make shortlisted solutions enterprise-grade, and integrate them into the corporate business. 

Academia: It collaborated with the incubator centers of different IITs like IIT Guwahati and IIT BHU to accelerate their startup, and is planning to collaborate with others.

I-Angles: They have their own group of angel investors. IA helps to connect startups and those investors to help startups.

Cohort: IA will offer a sixteen-week long accelerator program to a cohort of 5 to 7 emerging startups operating in this space.

Co-Working Space: With the coworking wave revolutionizing work modules and office environments in India, India Accelerator, aim to take this phenomenon to the next level.  Their shared office spaces in Gurgaon are aesthetically pleasing, ergonomically designed, and staffed with warm, helpful individuals who stop at nothing when it comes to assisting members.