Zone Startups India has launched an accelerator for international start-ups, ‘Gateway91’ to host and support global, growth-stage startups looking to build in their India market.
Earlier this month, Zone Startups hosted a bunch of Canadian FinTech startups as a part of this endeavour, and showcased them to industry partners at another new initiative - Fintegrate Zone - a three-day FinTech conclave.
"That makes us the only startup accelerator programme in India, to have set up a programme to support international startups. We look forward to assisting many international growth stage technology companies in their market validation and customer acquisition phase in India,” said Alan Lysne, Managing Director at Ryerson Futures.
Zone Startups India is a bed of innovation and entrepreneurship. Since its launch in February 2014, Zone Startups India has on-boarded 108 startups till date and is rapidly growing. It has firmly entrenched its name as a leading startup accelerator in India by setting up multiple accelerator programmes including the Rise Accelerator in partnership with Barclays, Thought Factory Accelerator with Axis Bank and empoWer (a tech accelerator for women entrepreneurs).
The startups at "the Zone", as it is popularly known, have resulted in the creation of 650 new jobs. The rolling accelerator programme is focused on product validation, customer acquisition, and investment readiness. On an ongoing basis, Zone Startups India brings in top CXO's to interact with its portfolio startups and creates opportunities for them to get their first set of customers, and jumpstart their revenues. Some of the alumni from ‘the Zone’ include FlexiLoans, BabyChakra, Obino, vPhrase, AasaanPay to name a few.
"The last year has been really busy for us, with several new initiatives launched such as corporate accelerators with Barclays and Axis Bank, as well as launching empoWer. We have also had good success with our flagship program, with several startups having raised their funding, such as FlexiLoans raising Rs 100 crore, BabyChakra raising its Series-A and Dimension NXG, Shirsa and vPhrase raising their angel rounds. Over the next few months, we will be launching a few more new programmes, focussed on specific domains,” Ajay Ramasubramaniam - Director, Zone Startups India, said.