Y Combinator Witnesses A Spike In Applications From Indian Startups This Year

Silicon Valley accelerator Y Combinator has witnessed the entry of 18 Indian startups for its two batches in 2017. This is more than the aggregate of 12 between 2011 and 2016. The winter 2017 batch that ended this March had 11 Indian startups, while the summer batch that finished in August had seven Indian startups.

Commenting on this trend, Kat Manalac, a partner at Y Combinator told ET, “In the last two years, India is the country that has sent YC the most applications (after the US). I believe that will continue to be true for this coming batch (winter 2018), and I hope we’ll see more applications from India after our coming visit.”

Three partners Gustaf Alströmer, former product lead for Growth at Airbnb; Homejoy founder Adora Cheung, and Anu Hariharan, who heads Y Combinator’s growth equity fund, visiting India this month, will host talks and office hours in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi. During the course of their India visit, Y Combinator aims to address startups’ queries regarding the application process of the incubation program and questions in general. The Office Hours will be of 20 minutes duration for each startup.

Since 2005, YC has funded over 1,464 startups across the world.

Widely known for its three months long intensive incubation programme followed by demo date, Y Combinator provides Seed funding for startups, the earliest stage of venture funding. YC invests $120K for a 7% equity stake in the selected startups. Once selected, the startups move to Silicon Valley, the accelerator takes care of their living expenses at the YC campus. Besides, the financial aid and fine-tuning their pitch, YC also help these startups in dealing with investors and acquirers.

Around 10 companies from Y Combinator are valued at over $1 Bn each and all companies put together have raised over $13 Bn.

Earlier this year, the Indian startups that were shortlisted for YC’s Winter 17 mentorship programme included Playment, Bulk MRO, Servx, WiFi Dubba, Supr Daily, Dost Education, Credy and DocTalk. As per the stats shared by Y Combinator on its blog, over 28% of the companies in the batch came outside of US.

(The development was reported by ET)