 "BSE Institute's startup accelerator program eyes trilateral agreement")
Having completed one year, Zone Startups India, an accelerator programme by BSE Institute (a subsidiary of the Bombay Stock Exchange) and Canada-based Ryerson University, is in talks for a trilateral agreement with Ryerson University, Toronto and Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg.
With an objective to encourage and promote innovation and entrepreneurship between the three centres, the trilateral pact will facilitate knowledge exchange, student exchange, startup exchange and faculty exchange, said Ajay Ramasubramaniam, director of Zone Startups India.
The agreement, which will create a global network of skilled entrepreneurs, will give more visibility to Indian start-ups, he said. "We also want to help enable international markets and companies who are seeking the best technologies and investment opportunities in innovative start-ups that we can create together. Overall, each member of the trilateral will help drive local economic growth as start-ups drive more productivity."
The acceleration centre began in February 2014 and is situated at BSEI office in Mumbai. It has on-boarded 43 start-ups across consumer-tech and enterprise domain, ranging across education, health care, retail, FMCG, manufacturing, e-commerce and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance).
Founders who have relevant industry and/or technical expertise, with a willingness to build a world- class team who are solely focused on the opportunity is one of the main factor in the selection criteria.
Zone Startups India focuses on early stage mobile, internet and digital media start-ups that cater to consumer, enterprise and social verticals.
More From This Section
One of the important features of the accelerator programme is 'investor connect', where the start-ups get access to the investor community and help them close their rounds. "We regularly host angel investors, venture capital firms, corporate venture arms, etc to keep an ongoing interaction between our start-ups and the investor community," added Ramasubramaniam.
A couple of our startups have closed a $500,000 institutional round, said Ramasubramaniam, hesitating to disclose their names.
The accelerator has a mandate to invest in 12-15 start-ups annually. In the current batch, they plan to invest $50,000-$500,000 in various start-ups.
One year at Zone Startups India saw the start-ups adding new customers, grow in team sizes and raise funds.
Some of the prominent start-ups accelerated include, BabyChakra, a platform for young parents to discover products and solutions for their children aged 0-5 years; Focus Analytics, an indoor navigation technology that will enable businesses having a retail footprint, to serve their customers better as well as manage productivity of their employees in a non-intrusive manner; FOSengage, a mobile app for large organisations to manage and communicate their large retail/distribution channel; Bug clipper, solution for mobile developer teams to detect bugs at development stage and communicate seamlessly with co-developer teams and thereby, reducing timelines for bug detection and bug fixing and Intugine Technologies, a wearable device for gaming enthusiasts.
In the second year, Zone Startups India will accelerate close to 80 start-ups. "This year will see us launch newer initiatives in partnership with academic institutions," said Ramasubramaniam.
Zone Startups, India, is collaboration between Ryerson Futures Inc, the technology accelerator and investment arm of Ryerson University and Digital Media Zone, the incubator of the university. "We were approached by the Bombay Stock Exchange to assist in building out an eco-system for early stage technology companies in Mumbai and we agreed to enter into a joint venture with BSEI and launch a program in Mumbai," said Ramasubramaniam.
The relative absence of a strong accelerator program in India's financial capital, coupled with factors like a strong partner in the form of Bombay Stock Exchange, investor networks and the general demand for innovation by the industry, made it an easy decision for us to launch Zone Startups in Mumbai, he said.