Excitel Cofounder Floats Incubator For J&K Startups, Eyes 24 Investments By FY25 End

Excitel cofounder Vivek Raina has joined hands with startup founders and other executives to launch an incubator to foster startups in Jammu & Kashmir.

The incubator is led by Raina, along with Vivriti Capital director Namrata Kaul, Western Digital senior director Khalid Wani, FlapKap chief commercial officer (CCO) Kunal Harisinghani, KashmirBox cofounders Muheet Mehraj and Ishfaq Mir and Thundr executive Dawood Khan. 

Called “Launchpad Kashmir”, the initiative has earmarked an undisclosed amount of funds to incubate 24 early stage startups based out of the union territory by March 2025. The programme will offer mentorship to startups to accelerate their growth. 

Speaking with Inc42, Raina said that the sector agnostic fund will dish out average cheque sizes in the range of INR 20 Lakhs to INR 25 Lakhs. He also said that the initiative will handheld startups right from the ideation stage to the proof of concept stage and will offer coworking spaces, training, and funds for proof of concept. 

Additionally, Launchpad Kashmir will also facilitate connections between entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and angel investors to help founders scale up their businesses.

“Kashmir is my home and therefore it holds a special place in my heart… From our interactions with the budding startup community in J&K, I understood that these entrepreneurs face significant challenges in how to take ideas to the national and global level. Therefore, we took it upon ourselves to start this initiative and look forward to building a larger, sustainable ecosystem that can truly transform startup opportunities in the region,” said Raina. 

Kaul added, “We want to nurture the startup ecosystem and provide incubation and mentoring facilities. The intent is to create a close-knit community of startup entrepreneurs, academicians, and industry practitioners and provide a space where they can learn from each other, network, and flourish. I feel very excited about this initiative and look forward to seeing it flourish”.

In lieu of the investments, the fund will take around 5% stake in the mentored startups, added Raina. He further told Inc42 that the incubator will bet on startups that can be easily replicated and scalable at the national level. 

The Excitel cofounder also said that the new incubator will leverage synergies with the new J&K startup policy, unveiled earlier this year, to foster a new wave of entrepreneurs in the UT. 

Launched in February 2024, the new policy plans to incubate 2,000 startups in the UT by 2027 with the local administration establishing a venture capital (VC) fund with a total outlay of INR 250 Cr to fuel entrepreneurship in the area.

This comes a month after the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) urged various corporates and unicorns to set up manufacturing-focused incubators. In April, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Startup Hub (MSH) also organised an  “Investor Connect Programme” to help incubated startups showcase their products. 

In March, South Korean game giant KRAFTON also announced the first cohort of its gaming incubator initiative, which will foster 5-6 local gaming startups. 

At the heart of all is this growing wave of startups in the country. Despite the ongoing funding winter, homegrown new-age tech companies have raised more than $151 Bn in funding between 2014 and June 2024. 

The country also is home to 115 unicorns and 112 soonicorns, who are on their way to mark their entry into the coveted unicorn club. With a vibrant ecosystem comprising nearly 10,000 investors, as many as 31 Indian startups have gone on to list on the bourses.