Accel launches SeedtoScale programme for consumer tech companies

Venture capital and private equity firm Accel India has had some big success stories like Flipkart, Swiggy, BookMyshow, and Ola. And with this success also comes the knowledge to share with upcoming founders.

To help founders at the seed stage scale fast, Accel launched SeedtoScale programme in August this year for SaaS founders. And now, it has called for applications for consumer tech companies in the idea stage to apply to the SeedtoScale - Consumer Tech cohort.

Accel said the applications for this programme will close on October 20, and only ten startups will be selected to be part of the programme.

SeedtoScale is a curated platform and involves a founder-for-founder approach, where the startup community can work with experts and get insights to build a successful business. Consumer tech companies include any business that has a direct touch point with the end customer. It includes D2C brands, retail tech, insurance tech, and edtech.

In the earlier SaaS cohort, six companies were funded from various VCs as part of the programme. Accel believes the programme can help consumer tech founders learn from the best.

“This programme is not an accelerator programme. It helps founders to take the idea forward by finding a product-market-fit. This graduates the founder to an accelerator programme if they want to get into one," said Anand Daniel, Partner at Accel.

"Remember, coming to this programme gives them access to knowledge and founders who have scaled companies. It is not a programme where we will take any equity in the company," he added.

Accel, which has been investing in SaaS, healthtech, and fintech sectors, believes that consumer tech is a going to be big since the fund was one of the early investors in Flipkart. Over the last 15 years, it has grown to become one of the most successful VCs in India.

Siddharth Ram, entrepreneur in residence at Accel, said:

"In February, we launched the FounderStack programme. We had conceptualised this as a forum where we can help multiple business models where peer-to-peer exchange of ideas is very high. We decided that for better outcomes, you need amazing coaches who can share the real mistakes that startups make at every stage of the business.”

The 12-week programme will have sessions for founders, where they will learn what to expect from the market in the first 500 days, and they will also learn what it takes to get to 100,000 users. The programme offers two sessions: one on Tuesday where founders talk to founders, and on Thursday there will be lessons on growth.

There will be lessons on how a founder can plan paid marketing and organic marketing. The coaches will talk about growth channels, market sizing, and which markets to chase. They will provide insights on what is working and what can be fixed.

“Every founder wants to know what the product market fit is, they want to know how to scale organically and what the finance funnel is. The current programme is a digital programme because of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Siddharth.