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Techstars Bangalore selects start-ups for its 3rd Cohort in India

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 15 May 2021, 03:11 am

Bengaluru: Techstars Bangalore has announced names of nine Indian startups for its 3rd cohort in India. The Techstars trademark mentorship-driven acceleration program will run virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. Each selected startup will get an investment of US$120,000.

Announcing the names of chosen start-ups Techstars Bangalore Managing Director Dhritiman Hui said, “It’s heartening to see how Indian founders are increasingly focusing more on IP, and building for global markets, and not just India. These only go to create better outcomes, sustainable business models and more value creation for investors.”

Besides investment of US$ 120,000, the program includes mentor madness sessions during which the startups connect with over 70 mentors from India and abroad. Among the mentors who chip in during the initial weeks include Priya Mohan of Venture Highway, Hari TN of Big Basket and Vir Kashyap who co-founded Babajobs.

Building upon the success of Techstars' 2019 and 2020 cohorts in India, the Techstars Bangalore search team met several hundred start-ups before selecting the nine startups      focused on building proprietary software solutions for developed North American and European markets.

Techstars was equally keen to back entrepreneurs building affordable solutions for India and other emerging markets. Techstars' massive global network is ideally set up to help both these sets of entrepreneurs.

The Techstars search team was amazed at how founders drove down product costs, often on shoestring budgets, where incumbents missed the opportunity. Almost all the start-ups struck out to secure business from around the world - highlighting that they were solving real problems.

This year the entire program is virtual and the Demo Day in early July 2021 is also slated to be a virtual event.

The nine chosen start-ups, in alphabetical order are: AfterShoot, that is creating the ‘Grammarly for Taking Photographs’ in a world where taking pictures has become zeitgeist for expressing oneself; Asanify, a Human Resources Platform that simplifies HR, Payroll and Salary payments for small businesses in emerging countries; Asvin Tech, which provides low-cost, high precision 3-D scanning solutions to dentists that are 10x cheaper and faster than competing 3-D scanners; CogniSaaS, which aims to reduce churn in the enterprise SaaS industry by helping enterprise SaaS cross-functional teams to collaborate and deliver maximum value; and CustomerGlu a low code platform that helps companies solve the $400 Bn ‘lost revenue’ opportunity by creating interactive workflows that drive user stickiness.

Dara.network is creating the world’s finest alumni engagement platform that allows alumni to engage with fellow alumni from their class, their school and ultimately across schools; EasyLokal, a translation solution enables businesses to localize mobile apps and websites easily and quickly using its cloud-based software tools; General Systems provides robotic solutions for the multi-billion-dollar global construction industry, starting with a robotic arm that builds walls using 50 per cent fewer labour force and 10 per cent lower material costs and Xook, that makes robotic food kiosks for office canteens, college, university campuses and apartment complexes, and is integrating with office canteen operators and apartment complexes to provide their first kiosks.

While Techstars Bangalore alumni founders -- Rephrase and Redwing -- made it to the Forbes 30 under 30 for 2021, the 2019 acceleration batch alumni Nira Finance raised US$3.1 million, Rephrase.ai raised a round of US$1.5 million led by Lightspeed partners and the 2020 batch alumni Lancify raised an Angel round of US$300,000.