Dave McClure’s 500 Startups has inducted 33 startups to the Fall 2012 batch of its accelerator program. The accelerator mentioned that this is the fifth batch overall, however it was the first batch where startups were also inducted through an open application process, rather than solely depending on the referrals it received. The three month program started off on October 4, 2012, and will end with Demo Days scheduled to take place in Mountain View, San Francisco and NYC (New York City) in February 2013. What does it offer? As per the company website, 500 Startups will offer up to $250,000 seed funding, a company workplace and access to more than 100 startup mentors and designers in residence. It will also offer distribution strategies for customer acquisition and access to Internet platform companies. AngelList Partnership: The incubator mentioned that it had partnered with AngelList for the open application process and claimed that it received hundreds of applications, of which it selected eight startups for the batch. Of the 33 startups shortlisted, 500 Startups has selected four Indian startups in the current batch. These include: - WalletKit: WalletKit is a Chennai-based company which offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform allowing businesses to create, manage and distribute digital passes to mobile wallets like Apple's Passbook and Google Wallet. These passes include boarding passes, event tickets, store cards and digital coupons among others. The company is currently in Private Beta and was founded by Kevin Rajasekaran and Ramakanth Dorai. - TradeBriefs: TradeBriefs is a Mumbai-based company which provides…
