Turbostart to invest up to Rs 50Cr in 25 startups

Business accelerator firm Turbostart on Thursday announced the second series of funding round, Cohort II, with a Rs 50 crore corpus for startups.

The accelerator will select 25 startups in this round, beginning from August 15, and fund up to Rs 2 crore to each of the entities.

"Turbostart opens applications for Cohort II. Twenty-five startups have a chance to win up to Rs 2 crore funding each," the accelerator said in a statement.

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The firm said the funding programme is conducted bi-yearly, under which it invites early-stage startups that are looking for funding to commence their businesses.

Winners will also receive mentorship by industry stalwarts, such as Jyothy Laboratories Joint MD K Ullas Kamath and Novozymes former Regional President and MD G S Krishnan, who are part of the advisory, investment, and governance boards of Turbostart, the statement said.

Turbostart Founder and CEO Ganesh Raju said last year's programme received over 1,000 applicants from over 30 countries globally and 300 cities, including startups from various sectors such as edtech, healthtech, and internet of things.

"Taking into account the current dynamic situation of the startup ecosystem, funding has become even more challenging," Raju said.

He added that Turbostart aims to provide a platform for budding startups where they get not only funding but also encompassed guidance from industry stalwarts and advisors.

Earlier on July 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge to reduce dependency on foreign apps. It saw participation from 6,940 tech entrepreneurs and startups across the country.

The challenge aims to help identify the best Indian apps in eight categories — office productivity and work from home, social networking, e-learning, entertainment, health and wellness, business, including agritech and fintech, news, and games — already available for use and scale them to world-class standards.

Among the winners was Chingari, one of the contenders for the banned Chinese app TikTok, and a Twitter alternative Koo App, both in the social category. 

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)