Indian Angel Network’s Vikram Upadhyaya launches GHV Accelerator

Mumbai: Vikram Upadhyaya, an investing member with the Indian Angel Network, has launched GHV (Green House Ventures) Accelerator for start-ups in Gurgaon. Upadhyaya has been an investor in Druva Inc., Stayzilla.com and a few other companies.

This news was first reported by the Economic Times.

The accelerator is looking to assist 25 start-ups through one-year-long programmes that will help them to raise a first institutional round of funding.

"We are not looking at start-ups in an idea stage, business and revenue models have to be well defined," said Upadhyaya over the phone. The first programme is expected to begin next month. Each start-up will receive up to $100,000 in sustainability funding at the end of the programme, in addition to an opportunity to showcase its product to institutional investors from Japan and Singapore.

An accelerator programme is designed to help start-ups refine business ideas and reduce risks. Such programmes speed up the development process of start-ups by providing a number of business support resources and services.

GHV has on board entrepreneurs, industrialists and investors as mentors. It is in talks with a Silicon Valley-based fund for a strategic partnership, where the fund may invest in the start-ups graduating from GHV's accelerator programme.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley said in the July budget that the government plans to set up a technology centre network with a corpus fund of Rs.200 crore. In addition to this, a nationwide district level incubator and accelerator programme is the agenda to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. The government taking such an initiative would allow entrepreneurs from smaller cities to get access to mentors, advice and incubation facilities.

Mint reported on 5 September that Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) signed a deal with Microsoft Ventures to set up a GenNext Innovation Hub at Navi Mumbai. RIL's GenNext Ventures, the company's venture capital arm and Microsoft Ventures, are looking to invest seed capital in start-ups, incubate them and assist with mentorship and technology in a four-month long programme.

Pitney Bowes Inc., an American technology solutions provider, will be running its accelerator programme in India, which is part of software lobby body Nasscom's '10,000 Start-ups' initiative launched in March 2013 according to a Mint report dated 25 August.

In addition to the Deshpande Foundation, founded by philanthropist Gururaj Deshpande, which focuses on building an ecosystem for innovative social businesses, Microsoft Ventures signed a three-year partnership to launch Sandbox Startups, a Hubli-based incubator to focus on mentoring and providing support to start-ups in tier-II and tier-III cities in India.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.