Hong-Kong based Jaarvis has launched the pilot of its India specific accelerator which will invest up to $50,000 in startups that offer services and products in online-to-offline ecommerce services, Internet of Things, mobility and other new technology verticals.
The accelerator will consist of 20 startups in each batch, with three batches conducted every year. The platform will provide office space and mentoring to these startups at its 20,600 sqft office space in Gurgaon. Post completion of this program, startups will be given an opportunity to pitch to investors and venture capitalists for potential funding.
As of now, Jaarvis is working with five startups – Sportwrks, Promon.in, Donna Dialer, EduRev and Scorloc, which will be incubated for four months and guided by in-house and guest mentors. The company is looking to adopt another 10 startups soon and will take an equity stake of 7-15% in each startup it incubates. The platform mentions it has the capacity to incubate up to 50 startups at a time.
GSF IoT Accelerator: In February, Rajesh Sawhney’s GSF Accelerator in collaboration with networking giant Cisco said it would launch an accelerator programme for startups in the Internet of Things and cloud space. The programme would focus on IoT and cloud ventures on both software and hardware platforms. It was to select five startups for a 16 week session and was to be based in Bangalore with a four-week visit to Silicon Valley in the US.
GSF would provide US$45,000 in funding to each of the selected startups and additional mentorship through GSF’s mentor network and Cisco. Note that Sawhney had earlier said that the company would discontinue its internet and generic startups focused accelerator and concentrate on launching more specialized mobile-internet focused accelerators instead.
Other Accelerators in India:
– HT Media recently launched an accelerator program called MediaHack in partnership with media investment firm North Base Media (NBM), specifically for early-stage startups in the media entertainment and content segment. The company would provide an investment of $50,000 to $100,000 in selected startups for a minority stake.
– In November last year, GSF announced it would launch a mobile accelerator program dubbed the GSF M-Accelerator, to mentor and fund 10 mobile first startups in the country. The platform had also launched a cross-border accelerator program last year in tie up with AngelList. For this program GSF said it would select twelve tech startups, of which eight startups will be from India and the remaining four will be from its strategic alliances in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.
– In April last year, US-based technology solutions company Pitney Bowes set up an accelerator as a part of NASSCOM’s 10,000 startups initiative. The company focuses on software startups in areas such as mobile, data analytics, location-based services, and e-commerce management.
– At the same time, NASSCOM also setup a ‘startup warehouse’ along with the Karnataka government to incubate 25-30 early-stage technology startups. As part of the incubator, these startups would participate in monthly hackathons, work closely with other entrepreneurs, receive mentoring and receive funding from investors.
Corrigendum: The company name is just Jaarvis, not Jarvis Technology.
Image source: Flickr user Dennis Skley
