After discussing about the Delhi & NCR based growth stage startups and the startups that have crossed their Series B crunch, this time we bring to you the list of people & organisations that are building the startup ecosystem in the city of Delhi & NCR.
In this article we will be talking about active angels, mentors, accelerators, investment firms, incubators and other organisations that are boosting the startup ecosystem in Delhi & NCR
Angel Investors
Deepinder Goyal
Deepinder worked as a management consultant with Bain and Company in New Delhi. It was at Bain that Deepinder conceived the idea of an online restaurant information service after seeing the demand for menu cards among his colleagues. He left Bain in 2008 and founded Zomato (then foodiebay) out of his apartment and has since overseen strategy and product development. Deepinder graduated with a Mathematics and Computing degree from IIT Delhi in 2005 and hails from Muktsar in Punjab. He has also made a seed round investment in startups including Grofers, SquadRun.
Kunal Bahl
Kunal is the CEO and co-founder of online marketplace Snapdeal. Kunal is an engineer from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a business degree from The Wharton School. He is focused on innovation in consumer products/technologies/marketing services and in addition to entrepreneurial roles. Kunal has been seen actively investing in Indian startups, a few of his investments include Headout, UrbanClap, Routofy, Zinier, Bewakoof, Ola and Gigstart.
Rohit Bansal
Rohit Bansal is an entrepreneur, co-founder and COO of Snapdeal. Rohit completed his bachelor’s degree in engineering from IIT New Delhi. He has made investments in companies like Headout, Urbanclap, Routofy, Zinier, Bewakoof.com and Gigstart.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay is an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Paytm and One97 Communications – one of India’s fastest growing mobile Internet companies. As an entrepreneur, he started his first company XS Corporations fresh out of college and sold it to New Jersey-based Lotus Interworks LLC in 1999. Prior to this, he worked as a CTO for Startec Global Systems, India. He has also worked with companies like India Today Group Online, Intersolutions India Pvt Ltd and RiverRun Software Group. Vijay has mentored a number of startups and has also invested in quite a few of them which include Sourceasy, ZAPR, GrexIt and Milaap.
Utsav Somani
Utsav is a young tech and startup enthusiast. He is currently working in his family business and looking after its African expansion. Utsav is also looking out for new opportunities in Consumer Internet, Robotics, Fin and Edu-tech, Pharma, FMCG and Hi-tech Manufacturing. Startups with high-growth potential, driven by a dedicated team, addressing under-captured market excites him. Startups he has invested in as if now are Testbook, AdpushUp, Zippr, FabBag and Shephertz.
Subinder Khurana
Subinder is the CEO and co-founder of BankSmarts Solutions. He specialized in analytics, platform-based solutions and marketing. Prior to this, he has the experience of 2 Global startups – EZPower Systems (now a part of Oracle), and marketRx (acquired by Cognizant); he served as VP at Cognizant for 4 years. He has also advised / mentored many startups including Druva Software, JustMyNeighbour, Authbridge and Power2SME. Subinder is Chair of the Entrepreneurship Nurturing Program at TiE, a NASSCOM-Emerge Mentor, and Chairman-Emeritus of NASSCOM-Haryana. He is a B.Tech from IIT Delhi.
Ankur Warikoo
Ankur is the Head of Groupon India and an angel Investor who usually invests in Internet and Technology Startups. He was also the co-founder at Accentium Web, Gaadi.com and StudyNation.com. Ankur is an MBA Graduate from the Indian School of Business and has also done Masters of Science from Michigan State University. Few of his investments include Targeting Mantra and Limetray.
Sunil Kalra
Sunil is a member of Indian Angel Network as an independent angel investor. Sunil started his career in exports and later set up a leather apparel manufacturing unit which succeeded and gave him an opportunity to work with global designers. He graduated from University Of Texas at Austin in Marketing and International Trade(1984-1986). He has made quite significant investments in microfinance and analytics enterprise. He has invested in more than 20 startups as of now, few of them include TargetingMantra, Instamojo, AdPushup, Jigsee, Airwoot, Wishberry, Unbxd, and Qikwell. Sunil is also an advisor at iBot.Club, FTK Technologies and Indcap Capital.
Miten Sampat
Miten is an engineer turned product guy. Currently, he is GM at TimesCity (part of Times Internet) in India. He is also an Advisor and Investor. The companies he has invested in are Dil Mil, Tookitaki, DataWeave, BookAdSpace and Learning Outcomes. A few other startups he is involved with include Haptik, Flat.to and Learning Outcomes. He has completed BS and MS in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Alok Mittal
Alok is an entrepreneur and a founding member of Indian Angel Network. He is a Managing Director of Canaan Partners and has led Canaan’s investments in BharatMatrimony, iYogi, Cellcast, UnitedLex, Chakpak and MotorExchange. Alok is also a co-founder of JobsAhead, and is one of the board members of TiE in Delhi. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Delhi as well as a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He has also made investment in startups including Bite Club, Globalthen, Taxspanner, Knowcross, Adda52, Supafoods, Autoflik, Cardback, Moneyview, Curofy, Wishberry, Qikwell and Letsventure.
Rajan Anandan
Rajan Anandan is an active angel investor in early stage technology companies and has invested in more than 45 startups. The Google India MD’s previous experiences include being a Managing Director at Microsoft India for 2 years and working for Dell India from 2006 to 2008. In 2014 alone, he invested in more than 14 startups. Rajan has an MSc. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Stanford University and a BSc. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Few of the startups he has invested in include StepOut, Capillary Technologies, Sourceeasy, 24/7 Techies,TargetingMantra, Instamojo, CultureAlley, Social Cops, MissMalini.com, Socialblood.org, Mobilewalla and POPxo.
Satveer Thakral
Satveer is experienced in few industries such as yarn manufacturing and real estate development in different countries. Satveer is a graduate from the University of Virginia (UVa) with distinctions, earned a Bachelor of Science degree from McIntire School of Commerce, with major in Psychology and a minor in Leadership from The College of Arts & Sciences. Few investments include MapMygenome, BabyChakra, AdStringO, Anchanto, Constant Therapy, Ecosense and others all made through Singapore Angel Network.
Sunil Goyal
Sunil is an active member of TiE and a former member of Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels. He is basically a strategic planner and a leader. He is the founder of YourNest Angel Fund, and has worked for well-known companies like Bharti Group and Dabur. As a leader he has actively led transformational change and is a strong proponent of positivity at work place. He has led organizations and has held strategic positions like COO / CEO / Director at Airtel, Beetel and Airtel Africa. He has invested in early-stage ventures namely ZipDial, Jigsee(now VuClip), Hotelogix, appleofmyi, hoopos (now BabyOye / Mahindra), Mobiquest, Vayavya, Gamiana and Taxspanner. Sunil is a qualified Financial Analyst, Cost Accountant (ICWAI) and a Business Economist (MBE-University of Delhi).
Manish Vij
Manish has founded leading internet companies in areas of digital marketing and ecommerce with international joint ventures and leading venture capital firms. Prior to establishing SVG and Vun Network, Manish was associated with Rediff.com for over 4 years and he also started India’s first digital classifieds business- kabadibazaar.com in 1999. His entrepreneurial ventures include Quasar, Tyroo, SeventyNine and Letsbuy. Manish is an MBA in marketing. He has also represented the Indian digital industry in various domestic and international industry forums, events and seminars. Few of his investments include Near.in, ScoopWhoop, Eleve Media, TrulyMadly and KopyKitab.
Amit Ranjan
Amit is the Co-Founder of SlideShare, the world’s largest community for sharing presentations which was acquired by LinkedIn. Currently, he is working with the National eGovernance Division, Dept of IT, Government of India. He is a frequent speaker at Tech/Internet conferences. Prior to his entrepreneurial venture, Amit had Marketing and Sales career in the consumer goods industry and have worked with PepsiCo, Asian Paints and Godrej & Boyce. He holds MBA degree from FMS, Delhi University & Mechanical Engineering degree from NIT/REC Jaipur. Few of his investments include MyPoolin, InstaLively, SquadRun, AdPushup and Touchtalent.
Arun Bansal
Arun Bansal is a senior vice president and head of business unit Radio. Prior to leading Southeast Asia and Oceania, Bansal held Country Manager roles in Indonesia and Bangladesh. He was also responsible for establishing the world’s first Managed Capacity operation with the operator Bharti in India. Arun brings with him a wealth of commercial and sales experience gained from roles in Malaysia, Sweden, the USA and India. He holds a degree in Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing, both from India.
Pallav Pandey
Pallav, previously co-founder Knowlarity Communications Pvt Ltd and had serves as its COO. He is now the co-founder and CEO of OkuTech. Pallav is a serial entrepreneur, a technocrat and passionate about building tech enabled businesses in emerging markets. He graduated from Indian Institute of Technology with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2000. Currently, he plays Board and Advisor role for UniRow Inc and GoldVIP. His investments include Unirow Inc, AdPushup, WhichApp, EZMOVE and Crown-it.
Paras Chopra
Paras is a technology entrepreneur and the founder of Wingify – startup that makes intelligent, affordable and easy to use tools for helping people make more money from their websites. Prior to this, he has worked with Aspiring Minds as an R&D Engineer and Grail Research as an Analyst. Paras completed his Bachelor of Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in 2008. He has invested in Adpushup, Team Indus and others.
Neeraj Kumar Singal
Neeraj has been an entrepreneur from past 25 years, serving the Rail, Defense and Automotive sectors with his pioneering spirit. He is globally networked, widely traveled, and an expert at government Liasoning and contracting. Being a member of organizations like YPO, HBS Club of India (Harvard Business School Alumni), Indian Angel Network, TIE, Neeraj is well connected globally and he loves to connect people. He is always eager to connect with startups. If the values and philosophies match, he is glad to invest too. He is looking for investment in startups in any futuristic businesses. Neeraj also incubates and mentors various startups besides investing. Few of his investments include Baroda Medicare Pvt Ltd.,C&C Constructions Limited, Regan Power Tech, MedPlus Health Services, RBL Bank and others.
Rajesh Sawhney
Rajesh is the founder of GSF Accelerator, India’s first multi-city Tech Accelerator and has recently founded Innerchef. Rajesh is an alumnus of Harvard Business School (AMP), and has a fellowship from London School of Economics. Rajesh has made 50 angel investments as an active and engaged angel investor, which include Viki (acquired by Rakutan for USD 225M), Little Eye Labs (acquired by Facebook), Mobstac, Pokkt, Silverpush, Hackerearth, Browntape, Overcart, Flinto , Timesaverz, Weareholidays, instalively and Nightstay.
Pranay Gupta
Pranay is a co-founder of 91springboard. He has PGP from IIM(A); B.Tech and M.Tech IIT Delhi. Prior to 91springboard, he worked with Lehman Bros & Nomura. He is also a joint CEO at CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad. He focused on incubating and investing in early stage innovation & technology based startups. Board Representation/Observer in startups ike Pinpuff, Zuvvu, Recruiterbox, Rolocule Games, HashCube, Biosense, Ideophone, Innoz, Croak.it, Framebench, Alma Connect, Proof of Performance, Enpower, Innoz, Mantis Technology Solutions. He also acts as an advisor to startups like SquadRun, MangoReader, Primaseller, Mishtag, Frilp (Friends Help), SparesHub, Bioddicted, Wed Me Good, Buttercups and Logicroots.
Nikunj Jain
Nikunj Jain is the Co-founder and CEO of Frankly.me – a platform to facilitate fresh, interesting and honest conversations between people. He has built 2 profitable companies from scratch. Nikunj is a growth hacker at heart, and a sales guy on outside. Nikunj is counted as one of the active angels in Delhi. A few of his investments include Routofy, Tripoto, TheKarrier, Wigzo Technologies, Gingr, Piquor, Agatsa among others.
Ritesh Malik
Ritesh Malik is a doctor by profession but an investor, an Entrepreneur, an Angel Capitalist, a photographer and more. He is driven by his zeal which made him venture into different sectors of business world. He is also the founder of Woodapple Hospitality and ThinkPot, and is also a co-founder AdStuck Consulting and Harvin Academy. Ritesh is an MBBS from M.G.R. Medical University (2007-2012). He had invested in about 8 startups in 2014. Few of them includes RHlvision, Mashinga, Asimov Robotics, SectorQube Technolabs, Bisko Labs.
Deep Kalra
Deep is the founder and CEO of online travel company, MakeMyTrip.com. He currently serves as an independent Director for IndiaMart.com, a leading B2B website. He also serves as a Board Member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Delhi and is an active Angel Investor in the internet space; company he has invested in are 1MG, MangoGames, HealthkartPlus and Touchtalent. Deep is also a founding member of “I am Gurgaon”, an NGO focused on the improving the quality of life in Gurgaon. Deep holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (1990), and a MBA (PGDM) degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1992).
Aloke Bajpai
Aloke is the CEO and co-founder of travel search engine & trip planning site ixigo.com. He is an IIT Kanpur Electrical Engineering alumnus and an MBA graduate from INSEAD, Aloke loves creative writing, history and gadgets. Prior to launching ixigo, Aloke worked in technology roles at Amadeus SAS, Nice, France, where he was part of the team that built web-based cruise-line booking engine for agencies. Since then, his love for Internet products and Croissants has never ebbed. Aloke is a TiE charter member and a mentor and advisor with several startups and accelerators. He has also made investments in companies like Sourceeasy and ZAPR.
Mentors
Deepak Abbot
Expertise: Marketing & Growth
Deepak Abbot currently heads the Mobile Growth at Times Internet. Prior to this he worked with Paytm as a Head Product Marketing, Reliance Entertainment Digital, Zapak and Satyam computers. He loves to write on Mobile Marketing, Product and Data Analytics.
Avinash Raghava
Expertise: Tech-Expert
Avinash is the co-founder at iSPIRT Foundation. He is also the Chief Evangelist for ProductNation.in – a platform that is trying to build for Software Product Startups in India. He has an experience of over 16 years in the technology sector, with focus on the Web, Mobile, Software Products and interactive marketing space. He acts as an advisor for Govideotoday and is a board member of Innovate Delhi Entrepreneurship Academy and has been actively involved with startups.
Amit Mishra
Expertise: Sales, business strategy and fund raising
Amit currently heads India for the Global Entrepreneur network, F6S. His current role revolves around supporting accelerators, funds and angel investments focused towards India. He is considered a master networker and community evangelist who uses the network effect to help fellow entrepreneurs in identifying the right opportunities. He is an active contributor to various community platforms like SHRM, Nasscom, TiE, Startup Leadership Program etc. He also advises startups on sales, business strategy and fund raising.
Rajat Tandon
Rajat Tandon is part of the leadership team at NASSCOM, the apex body of the Indian IT and ITES/BPO industry. As Sr. Director Startups, Rajat leads NASSCOM’s 10,000 Startups initiative, which aims to foster entrepreneurship, enable incubation, funding and support for technology startups in India.
Sairee Chahal
Sairee Chahal is an entrepreneur, mentor and founder of SHEROES.in, a career destination for women, two others include Fleximoms and SAITA Consulting. Sairee speaks on workflex, social entrepreneurship, development of women, qualitative research and writing, human capital, media, branding and economies of transition.
Prajakt Raut
Expertise: Mentors early-stage companies on strategy, business model and monetization, fundraising/bootstrapping and on preparing the company for growth.
Prajakt has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, marketing professional and entrepreneurship evangelist. He is founder of The Hub for Startups and Applyifi, an online platform to connect startups and investors. He advises startups and early-stage companies on building meaningful business plans and investor pitch decks. He also mentors early-stage companies on strategy, business model & monetization, fundraising/bootstrapping and on preparing the company for growth. Prior to The Hatch, Prajakt had co-founded Orange Cross, a healthcare services management company. Between 2004 – 2007, Prajakt had taken a 3-year sabbatical to be the Asia Director for TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), a global non-profit organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship.
Dr. Shikha Suman
Shikha is founder and CEO of Medimojo and Sampling Research Pvt. Ltd. She is an IIT kanpur Alumni and an active entrepreneur who supports early stage and women entrepreneurs. Currently, she is successfully running research & analytics venture. Shikha is also a Visiting Faculty at IIT Delhi and Director at Founder’s Institute Delhi Chapter.
Saurabh Arora
Expertise: Product Management
Saurabh is founder and CEO of Airwoot – a suite to help brands deliver real-time customer support and engagement through social media channels. Prior to that, he has worked in companies like Filterly (co-founder and CTO), Hasso-Plattner-Institute, Technical University of Denmark. He worked in different fields such as product development, online customer acquisition, product marketing and online revenue generation for one of the India’s leading online job portal. Saurabh holds MBA from Columbia Business School and was in Haas School of Business, Berkeley as an exchange student. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi.
Rishi Srivastava
Expertise: Sales
Rishi is a founder and CEO of AARK TechAccess. Prior to this, he has worked companies such as Microsoft, Digital Equipment India Limited and Onida. Rishi has 26+ years of international experience in technology companies. He enjoys building and executing strategy for scaling businesses in India and other emerging markets. Rishi’s areas of expertise includes sales, marketing and distribution strategy for technology products. He has a Masters Diploma in International Marketing and also holds a PGDBM – Management from Birla Institute of Management Technology.
Nimit Grover
Expertise: Marketing
Nimit was a founder of Shopkul and has been working for ecommerce / digital industry for past 5 years. Previously he has worked as Business Manager at Letsbuy (successfully acquired by Flipkart) and then as the Head – Analytics & Marketing of Tradus (an IBIBO group venture). He has done an Executive Managment – Merger & Acquisitions, Finance, General from IIM Calcutta and B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Roorkee.
Rajat Garg
Expertise: Marketing
Rajat Garg is the founder of Shimply. He has also founded SocialAppsHQ – offers platform of Facebook applications for businesses to engage fans and promote their brand. Previously, he has worked with companies like DataSphere Technologies, Amazon and C-DoT. He has vast experience in ecommerce sector, team building, leadership and vision, business development, online marketing (SEO, SEM, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Affiliate Marketing), business management. Rajat has done MS, Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Chiragh Kirpalani
Expertise: Product Management, Design Management, Mobile Apps (Android, iOS & Windows), User Experience Design
Chirahg currently works as a Product Head for Times Internet. Prior to Times Internet, he has worked for Timescity, Gawbl and OAB Studios. He is specialized in Product Management, Design Management, Mobile Apps (Android, iOS and Windows) and User Experience Design. He has a Bachelors of Design, User Experience Design from Symbiosis International University.
Narendra Nag
Expertise: Sales
Narendra previously founded Sutra, currently he is the senior most digital leaders at MSLGROUP – Publicis Groupe’s Strategic Communications and Engagement Company. He has an experience of 16+ years with companies like epixel consulting, Mint, NewsX, Hindustan Times and CNN IBN, which earned him a vast knowledge in marketing, mainstream print and TV journalism, and computer programming. Narendra has done digital practice in Asia where he lead a multinational team of a 100+ people for innovative and impactful marketing and communication solutions.
Nav Chatterji
Expertise: UI/UX
Nav is the founder of KHOOBH and is an early stage technology entrepreneur, executive creative director. He is an alum from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also an expertise in UI/UX.
Above mentioned angels & investors are also very much active with startups for providing them mentoring and other helps.
Abhishek Gupta
Abhishek currently heads Times Internet’s startup accelerator TLabs. Abhishek is actively involved with startups and is easily approachable. He holds 12 years of experience managing high-growth organizations, leading technology, engineering and IT teams and bringing complex products to market on schedule.
Accelerators and Incubators
Tlabs
TLabs, a Times Internet Ltd. initiative, is an accelerator in India that operates a 4 month program with 60+ mentors supporting the companies that become part of it. TLabs had launched its accelerator in Bangalore a few months back. With 6 Batches and 36 startup being accelerated uptill now, TLabs has seen a tremendous success rate with over 65% of the companies getting funded raising over $200k investments per team. It offers USD 50K in investment for 8% equity and over $100k worth of free tech tools and infrastructure support.
GHV
GHV Accelerator stands for Green House Ventures Accelerator, founded by Vikram Upadhyaya. GHV Accelerator provides startups with a controlled environment, optimized & appropriate resources, along with sustainability funding, helping them to grow multifold in a shorter timeframe.
GSF
GSF Accelerator is a funding and mentoring platform for Indian startups. It is to spur innovation and entrepreneurship through angel and seed investing. Their aim is to encourage flow of informed, knowledgeable mentorship capital to the startups in India and beyond. The program is built around 3 unique values: intensity of mentorship, deep collaboration with the ecosystem, and creation of a global springboard for the next generation of Indian startups. This program is designed to create the next wave of product-oriented technology startups in the areas of mobile, social, local and cloud.
Jaarvis Accelerator
Jaarvis Accelerator offers mentorship, capital, seed funding, tech, infrastructural support and everything else startups need to build a strong and lasting foundation. Its pursuit is to grow the size and value of a company as fast as possible, and prepare them for the initial round of funding. The accelerator has so far selected 5 startups which will be mentored during their 4 month program; startups are Spotwrks, Promon, EduRev, Donna Dialer and Scorloc.
Pitney Bowes Accelerator
Pitney Bowes accelerator program focuses on startups that leverage software for customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, ecommerce management and machine learning. They provide a six month program starting in April and October every year; this program is a part of NASCOMM’s 10,000 Startups initiative. In this program, the selected startups have unlimited access to Pitney Bowes’ software, application programming interfaces (APIs) and data for the duration of the program. Training, technical and business guidance and mentoring are also provided to the start-ups from Pitney Bowes engineering and innovation leaders, and from software industry experts. Startups in its current batch are Ideata Analytics, Audianz, BrownTape, Heuristics, RetailNav, Tagalys, Teritree, and Yo-app.
Incubators
Technology Business Incubator, IIT Delhi
Proposals are accepted from ventures that should be initiated by one or more members of academic staff, students or alumni of the Institute or a faculty-student led company for this technology incubator. They are strict on venture selection and interested companies should exploring tying up with college professors. DST and MSME grants are available for venture’s fund requirements.
Veddis
Veddis Ventures is an independent investment management company head-quartered in Gibraltar and it runs a startup accelerator in Gurgaon. Veddis Ventures has since invested over $70 Mn across various early stage companies and projects across industries. The company seeks investments in businesses with significant growth potential run by good entrepreneurs. Veddis has been investing in media, social networking, and information technology companies in Europe, the US and India. Few companies they have invested in includes Imagistx, invino, Kidaptive, Favista Real Estate, Ticket ABC and SocialGO.
Amity Technology Incubator
Amity Innovation Incubator which is a registered ‘not for profit’ society supported by an advisory body consisting of industrialists, venture capitalists, technical specialists and managers established to help entrepreneurs realize their dreams through a range of infrastructure, business advisory, mentoring and financial services. Amity Innovation Incubator offers a range of incubation services to nourish entrepreneurial talent such as – Business Planning, Company formation, Legal & IPR assistance, Managerial Support, Technology Support. It’s core team has decades of experience in assisting entrepreneurs through Incubation and Venture Capital Funding. Few companies they have invested in include Apna Circle Infotech Pvt. Ltd., Marksman Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Anduril Technologies, ITCONS e-Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Kinetic Media Solutions and Mactabilis Arts.
SEED-MDI
MDI is a front runner B-School of India. The PG Programmes in Management offered by MDI are recognized and accredited by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) New Delhi. It was accredited by South Asian Quality Standards (SAQS) in 2005 and by Association of MBAs (AMBA) in 2006. The Board Members of MDI include eminent personalities from both industry as well as academia. It follows an organizational chart that has four layers. MDI is headed by its Director, followed by 5 Deans – Dean (Graduate Programmes), Dean (Executive Graduate Programmes), Dean (Research), Dean (Continuing Education and Consultancy) and Dean (Placement & Corporate Affairs). This is followed by Chairpersons of institutional activities, management areas and academic areas. General administration is headed by the Registrar and Secretary. All academic activities are faculty driven. The faculty decides on the curriculum content, delivery, duration and management of each programme.
Technology based Incubator Society (TBIS), University of Delhi , South Campus
BITS Pilani in association with the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India had established a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in the area of Embedded Systems and VLSI Design. BITS has set up a Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) to give a specific boost and emphasis to entrepreneurship development. The organization can house, in its office space, between 10-12 companies at a time. BITS also provides training to the startups in business communications and provides short courses on business management.
Shriram Institute for Industrial Research
Shriram Institute-Technology Business Incubator (SRI-TBI) has been setup in the premises of Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, Delhi under the sponsorship of Department of science & technology (DST), Government of India. It provides services in the fields of plastics, rubbers, specialty chemicals and waste management. Their aim is to promote and contribute to the growth of indigenous industry and economy by fostering the entrepreneurial spirit. Its focuses on becoming a premier centre of International standards for promotion, development and multiplication.
Investment Firms
Outbox Ventures
Outbox Ventures is an investment firm that specializes in seed funding and early-stage support for startups in India. Outbox strives towards a critical role in building and nurturing the Indian startup ecosystem by helping young entrepreneurs in their early steps towards building truly innovative products and services. Companies they have invested in as of now are Tripoto and Wigzo Technologies.
GrowX Ventures
GrowX is an early-stage investment firm based out of Delhi. GrowX helps startups scale by investing time and money in the businesses, and typically works closely with the investee companies at a strategic and operational level. GrowX investments are focused on seed and angel stages across a wide range of sectors. At GrowX, they don’t care what sector the idea belongs to, as long as it’s brilliant. They invest 25-250 lakhs depending on need, evolution and the mood of course.
Accel Partners
Accel Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices located in India, Silicon Valley, New York, London and China. They typically make multi-stage investments in internet technology companies. With over $6 Bn under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful category-defining companies including BBN, Etsy, Facebook, Macromedia, metroPCS, Polycom/PictureTel, Portal Software, QlikTech, Rapt, Real Networks, Riverbed, Walmart.com, Webroot, XenSource, and Zimbra.
Saif Partners
SAIF Partners is a leading Asian private equity firm, currently managing over $4 Bn in capital. SAIF makes privately negotiated equity or equity-linked investments across several growth sectors, in particular Internet, mobile Internet and IT, healthcare and clean technology and/or energy. With professional investment teams located in Hong Kong, China (Beijing, Shanghai) and India (Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi), SAIF is an active lead investor working closely with their portfolio companies to develop their business both organically and through acquisitions, seek synergistic cooperation among them, as well as enhance shareholder value via promotion of good corporate governance and best management practice. Currently SAIF has made around 146 investments in 119 companies; few of them includes TrucksFirst, Toppr, TravelTriangle, Tracxn, UrbanClap and PepperTap.
Palaash Ventures
Palaash Ventures is an investment fund floated by veterans of media industry. It’s investment objective is to fund such opportunities which are backed by a robust and Thinking Team, ideas which are innovative, disruptive and have the potential to be highly scalable. Palaash intends to invest in early and growth stage companies to propel its own growth. They are on the lookout for vibrant problem solving opportunities for funding. In the short period of 8 months they have closed 11 deals in early stage as well as growth stage in sectors as varied as Agri, technology, Food delivery. They have invested in more than 10 companies which includes Tripoto, Greymeter, SIS, VoxApp, Ecosense, SafeHarvest, TravelKhana, SilverPush and Teewe.
Seedfund
Seedfund is an early-stage venture capital fund, with operations in Bombay, Bangalore and New Delhi. Due to their networking, they have huge connection in areas like advisors, mentors, consultants, evangelists, managers, and founders. Its investee companies include Redbus, AFAQS, CarWale, EduSports, Healthizen, Ixsight, Printo, RupeeTalk, ThinkLabs, Vaatsalya, Uhuroo, Nevales Networks, My Dentist, Jeevanti Healthcare and Level10. Seedfund was founded in 2006 by Bharati Jacob, Mahesh Murthy and Pravin Gandhi and the team has grown to include Anand Lunia, Paula Mariwala, Sanjay Anandaram and Shailesh Vickram Singh.
5ideas Startup Superfuel
The Startup Superfuel Fund is a seed and early stage fund focused on digital assets based in India. 5ideas.in is a platform aimed at fueling the tech startup ecosystem in India through its multi-pronged offerings, the 5ideas Startup Superfuel Fund, 5ideas Advisory and 5ideas Founders-in-Heels initiative. The firm invests up to $500K in selected startups as well as deeply collaborates as operating partners with the startup teams for a period of 6 months to a year. As of now, the company has invested in a seed round for KartRocket.
Smile Group
Smile Group is an Asian Internet group with extensive holdings in the consumer internet and media space and is led by Harish Bahl. It partners with local entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and global companies to build digital companies from scratch, expand operations and increase their footprint by going out globally. The Group’s highly successful flagship ventures / partnerships include FreeCultr (partnership with Sequoia), FashionAndYou in the Fashion retail space and Juvalia & You (in partnership with Ru-Net), that has emerged as India’s first international fashion jewellery brand. Additionally the Group is a formidable force in Digital media and advertising networks, through the companies it built. These include, Quasar (acquired by WPP), Squad (a JV with WPP), SVG Media (India’s largest ad-network – a past JV with Yahoo including leading companies such as Seventynine, DGM, Precision Match, Platform Play and Velocity), to name a few.
Trifecta Capital
Trifecta Capital provides venture debt financing to companies. Recently obtained pre-approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as a Category II AIF, it will invest in secured debt instruments with attached equity warrants of high growth companies backed by leading VC funds and provide domestic investors a unique opportunity to co-invest with the best. The firm may start investment operations within the next few months.
Indian Angel Network
Indian Angel Network is network of angel investors who wish to invest in early stage businesses, which potentially has value. Due to strong operational experience of successful ventures of the member, they are able to provide constant access to high quality mentoring, vast networks and inputs on strategy as well as execution. They have over 300 investors across 10 countries with over 80% investors actively investing / leading, etc. IAN also has 400 mentors for the startups whom it incubates. Few startups in which it has invested include BOX8, HashCube, Zippr, Fareye, Lucid Colloids, AdSparx and others.
Sol Prim ero
Sol Primero is an early stage, industry agnostic investment firm focussed on high growth, emerging businesses that can demonstrate the ability to scale quickly. A few of its portfolio companies include Zostel, The Karrier, Cubito, Curofy.
Coworking Spaces
Investopad
Investopad is a flourishing campus for technology startups. They work with with teams all the way from the idea through to the market stage, and bolster startups with access to mentors in the form of late-stage entrepreneurs, angel investors, corporate clients and venture investors.
91Springboard
91Springboard provides lots of facilities like internet, comfortable workspace, conference rooms, photocopy/print/scan, network with startup community, free or discounted access to events, access to a mentor network, projector and screen, freebies from partners and much more. Most of all you do not have to worry about management overhead, micromanagement of costs or long term leases. It’s all in one simple bundle.
Sprout box
Co-working space provider Sprout Box is all set to strengthen the local entrepreneurship ecosystem and provide mentorship to early-stage entrepreneurs and startups. It has setup places that are friendly for both a single entrepreneur driven startup to medium sized teams of up to 10 people, as well as provides spaces for people who are looking at a great place to work. It’s a house for startups in the areas such as Social Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Education, Digital Media, Internet of Things, Clean Technology, Smart City and Mobile which will help to drive sustainable economic growth and innovation, and help make Digital India Real.
NKUBE
NKUBE is an open co-working space and business incubator for budding entrepreneurs and startups, equipped with swanky, state-of-the-art facilities and comfortable, easy-going ambiance, ready to give wings to creative minds. The startup comfortably accommodates around 100 work-stations in approximately 5000 sq.ft. area.
Moonlighting
Moonlighting is an informal entrepreneurial community hub. It’s a members house in South Delhi, having space to hangout, work and stay, both ad-hoc and long term. It supports independent professionals, social entrepreneurs, creatives, researchers, hackers… anyone with an open mind and some freedom to explore.
Social Offline
Social Offline is a space that blends the best of office and cafe. It’s an urban style hangout for work as well as play and designed in a way to take you offline while still keeping you connected. Social Offline is a collaborative workspace, a hub for artists and innovators.
Stirring Minds
Stirring Minds is an initiative to support, help grow and nurture the entrepreneurial mind. They have set up a 8000+ sq ft coworking hub at the centre of Delhi NCR. It is open to all types of innovators, freelancers, nomads, as long as they have something to contribute to the community and those who could fit the culture of the space and should be willing to collaborate. Mainly It has tech ventures at its place.
The Studio
The Studio is a co-working space for freelancers, designers, developers, entrepreneurs and writers looking for a peaceful place to do some kick ass work independently. It provides facilities like, a large working hall with proper desks, informal seating, a conference room, an outdoor area, a kitchen, a very clean washroom and ample sunlight and greenery around. There is a projector, 95% power uptime and ultra fast wifi internet.
Cercles
Cercles are housing under one roof young entrepreneurs, startups, creative individuals to connect, collaborate and co-work with like-minded people with a simple philosophy that any small idea can click big with the right opportunity. Besides, the community also helps in transforming the startups by accelerating them and introducing them to investors to convert a vision or business into a brand.
Base Station
An informal, café-styled co-working space with open seating, good coffee and ambient music. Few facilities it provides includes internet connections (6 Mbps and 4 Mbps), laser print with scan and copy machine, inverter backup, essential office stationary and I Locker-on request.
Organisations
F6S
F6S stands for F-ounder-S which is the largest startup community. It is the network for founders with the highest-ranked startup programs globally, 5700+ startup organisations, 110k startups and 1k+ deals. F6S is the platform which supports all the accelerators across the globe like Techstars, JFDI,Microsoft. In simple words, it is where startups grow together through startup programs, deals, jobs, discussion and events. As a startup you really cannot miss not being there on this platform.
Adianta
The Adianta School promotes a radical approach to innovation education. It advocates hands-on project-based learning-by-doing instead of teachers in classrooms and exams. The curriculum provides experience in nine core leadership practices across the three pillars: Innovate, Build and Lead. Adianta’s specialties are Post Graduate Program, entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, design, management, startup operations, product development, mobile app development, user research, systems thinking and digital media skills.
TiE
TiE is a non-profit network of entrepreneurs fostering entrepreneurship, mentoring and education. It focuses on generating entrepreneurs as well as hosts events known as TiEcon, which is a professional and networking conference for entrepreneurs. It also hosts a wide range of programs events catering to various industry verticals, educational events hosted by TiE Institute, TiE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE) program to foster entrepreneurship in youths and TiE Women’s Forum for empowering women entrepreneurs.
CIIE
CIIE stands for Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship. It was setup by IIM Ahmedabad with support from the Government of India and Gujarat Government and operates through an autonomous not-for-profit entity. It is an innovation centre through its investment arm, CIIE provides seed-fund and incubation support to aspiring entrepreneurs in IT, cleantech, healthcare and education space. CIIE partnered with several initiatives like INFUSE, Power of Ideas, iAccelerator, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, MentorEdge among others.
UKTI
UK Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP) helps overseas entrepreneurs and early stage technology businesses or startups that want to relocate their business to the UK. Their goal is to discover the next billion dollar technology superstars and have already helped some of the world’s most innovative early-stage companies, across a broad range of sectors, move to the UK.
iSPIRT
iSPIRT – Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable – is a non-profit industry think tank. They believe that with focus, investment and indeed encouragement, the software product industry can become a multi-billion dollar force to reckon with in the future. This could help in having a multiplier effect on the economy in terms of growth, employment, consumption, investment and so on.
Delhi Startups
Delhi Startups is a facebook group, currently with around 15,000 members. It brings together a specific set of people who are interested in startups to help them brainstorm their ideas, seek help to remove roadblocks, share articles and present feedbacks.
Delhi Startups
Delhi startups is an active community which discusses about startups, ideas & Job opportunities in startups. This community is blessed with over 16000+ awesome contributors along with investors & mentors which helps startups to nurture their ideas. It also organizes startup events every month where aspiring minds get chance to meet with investors one-on-one.
Don’t worry if we missed out anyone, we will keep on updating the list.
[Thanks to Amit Mishra from f6s for helping us put together this list.]
This is part of our special series, In Focus: Indian Startup Hubs, in which we highlight the numerous established as well as upcoming startup hubs in the Indian Tech Ecosystem!
