Techstars' Bengaluru accelerator announces 10 startups in its second cohort
Of the 10 selected startups, eight are based out of Bengaluru, India, while the rest two startups are from Canada and Nigeria.
Colorado-based startup accelerator Techstars on Monday announced the second class of its Bengaluru cohort.
This cohort, as the India MD of Techstars Ray Newal says, builds upon the success of its inaugural class in 2019. The inaugural class had companies that were solving emerging markets' problems in the areas of environment, medical care, financial inclusion, developer tools, transportation, and enterprise communication.
The Bengaluru cohort for this year comprises of 10 startups that expands the accelerator's reach into new verticals including floriculture, media, sports-tech, warehousing-logistics, and cloud computing.
Shipra Vinay, Program Manager at Techstars India; and Ray Newal, Managing Director
"While all of our companies are for-profit businesses, I’m personally very inspired by their shared purpose to enable a positive impact on society through improvements in resource efficiency and lifestyle inclusivity. After thousands of office hours and applicant interviews with founders from around the world, the majority of this class ended up being selected from within India, except for one team which is arriving all the way from Lagos, Nigeria," Ray said in a statement.
Founded in 2007 in Colorado by serial entrepreneur David Cohen, Techstars has more than 2,000 startups from across the world in its portfolio. It connects founders with entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporate partners to grow their companies. Each year, Techstars chooses over 500 startups around the globe, investing $120,000 in each.
Techstars launched the India chapter last year, looking for startups that focus on the Indian market, with expansion plans that include emerging and developed markets. It received about 1,000 applications from 30 countries by June 2018.
The accelerator also conducts ‘startup weekend’ for aspiring entrepreneurs to experience the process of starting up. This has been done in more than 120 countries already while connecting the tech talent pool in Bengaluru to its portfolio startups in Germany, the UAE, and Sri Lanka.
The 10 startups that were shortlisted and announced today are:
Broadsheet - A Bengaluru-based startup that gives millennial women a combination of valuable information and tools needed to fulfil their ambitions.
ChintaMoney - Also a Bengaluru-based startup that has an open banking method, merged with proprietary tools to provide financial well-being to its consumers.
Fliqpay - Lagos-based Fliqpay is a cryptocurrency payment gateway that helps African businesses receive crypto-payments and facilitates instant settlements in local bank accounts.
Game Theory - Bengaluru-based Game Theory is a sports tech company with a vision to bring a video game-like experience to the world of sports. It also runs and manages sports facilities and coaching programmes.
GSTInput - A Mumbai-based startup that claims to be India’s largest service provider that helps corporate avail GST credit on travel expenses.
- Bengaluru-based Lightwing helps enterprises optimise on their cloud expenses with consumption-based automation.
- Based out of Noida, ODWEN is a warehouse booking platform that is on-demand and follows a pay-per-use model, with the discovery of curated warehouse spaces.
- Hyderabad-based Picxy is a stock photo company that caters to the Indian market.
- Ontario-based Q Blocks is building a distributed supercomputer to help companies get 10 times faster computing results.
- Bengaluru-based Rose Bazaar is a flower subscription service catering to the vast demand for traditional flowers in India for daily prayer.
(Edited by Suman Singh)
