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Former Infosys global sales head, Subhash Dhar, has joined hands with other IT industry executives to form an early-stage fund and startup incubator named Commence Mint, with the backing of California-based venture capital firm Accel Partners, reported ET.
Subash Dhar, former Infosys executive Sanjay Dutt and financial markets veteran Arun Singh, has formed the “startup school” to incubate at least 20 early-stage startup ideas and fully fund each idea for 12 months.
The new fund will offer a one-year programme for startups that will help early-stage ideas reach the stage of proper ventures, and a mentorship programmes for the founders. As per this programme, the fund will also offer to incubate ideas from other angel investors, high net-worth individuals and family offices.
The fund’s initial corpus will be at around $1-2 Mn (about INR 6.8 -13.6 Cr.), and each startup idea will receive funding that will last the course of the programme. Accel Partners has picked up a minority stake in the early-stage incubator for close to $500K (about INR 3.38 Cr.).
Speaking on the development, Subhash Dhar said, “It has become clear to most people that startups are an important part of our economic future. India needs hundreds of problem solvers with ideas that can blossom into sustainable business ventures. With falling cost of starting up, more and more young people are getting attracted to this field. However, to avoid unproductive struggles that they see in front of them, most aspiring entrepreneurs end up taking up regular jobs after graduating from top colleges. That is slowing down our entrepreneurship cycles.”
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