Google today announced the third batch of Indian startups that will join the Launchpad Accelerator programme at Google Headquarters in Silicon Valley, California. The seven Indian startups selected to be a part of the programme include Flyrobe, HashLearn, Rentomojo, KaptureCRM, Curofy, Happy Adda Studios, and Playment.
The selected startups will become a part of the six-month mentorship programme for mid to late stage startups will include $50K in equity-free funding, a two-week all-expenses paid boot camp at Google Headquarters, six months of ongoing mentorship and access to Google’s full suite of Launchpad initiatives and connections and product credits including Google Cloud and other products. They will join the programme from January 30, 2017 at Launchpad Space in San Francisco.
Paul Ravindranath G, Program Manager, Launchpad Accelerator said, “We are delighted to help Indian startups in their journey and help them to scale and find success in their endeavours. Access to good mentoring and advice at early to mid -stage can make a meaningful difference. Over the last one year, 13 Indian startups have participated in the programme and many have already gained from the programme and have successfully raised funding. We hope the next batch will continue to find value in the programme and help them to succeed.”
These startups will join other startups from Brazil, Indonesia, Colombia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mexico. The two-week boot camp will start by determining each startup’s critical challenges, and then deploy precise mentorship, actionable solutions, and Google resources that enable their product/app to scale.
More Details About The Shortlisted Startups From India
Flyrobe: It is a fashion rental service that offers users access to premium apparel and accessories at a fraction of the retail price. One can get access to a curated collection from designers such as Ritu Kumar, Masaba Gupta, Quirk Box, Outhouse, etc. It is currently operational in Mumbai and Delhi.
HashLearn: It is an on-demand mobile-tutoring platform. It is building a scalable platform connecting educators and students, starting with test-prep. It covers subjects like physics, chemistry, math – board & entrance exams from class 8-12.
Rentomojo: It is an online home appliances and furniture rental startup, and the startup recently has also started offering motorcycles and bike rentals. It gives lifestyle rental access with a line of sight of 11 months.
KaptureCRM: It is a cloud-based technology that automates and fastens business processes. The platform helps clients in the FMCG, healthcare, real estate, hotels and other sectors to manage their entire sales, marketing, operations, collections and other functions seamlessly using any mobile device.
Curofy: Curofy is a doctor-only networking app, that offers doctors a spam-free and secure environment to communicate with each other. The startup’s online medical directory pre-populates profiles of doctors based on the public data. Doctors provide their basic details to enter into the premium network post verification.
Happy Adda Studios: The startup’s flagship product, Jalebi is an Indian word game for adults and kids. It can be played in different Indian languages. While the questions themselves are the usual general knowledge questions, users can select the respective Indian language they want to play them in. Each language has its own set of questions for different users.
Playment: It is a two-sided marketplace that helps large companies bring cost-effectiveness and speed to their operations, and on the other side helps smartphone users supplement their income on the go. In simple terms, it enables large companies to crowdsource completion of process oriented tasks that are typically done by in-house or outsourced teams (BPOs).
Prior to this in December 2015, Google announced the launch of the Launchpad accelerator program. At that time six Indian startups, Frankly.me, Holachef, Justride, Murmur, Nestaway and English Dost were selected for the programme from India. Earlier this year, six Indian startups were selected for the second batch of its accelerator programme. The startups included Taskbob, MagicPin, Programming Hub, ShareChat, RedCarpet, PlaySimple Games.