Amazon announce winners of its India-first start-up accelerator

Amazon and Make investments India have introduced Slurrp Farm, Sirona Hygiene, and Wellbeing Diet as three winners of the Amazon International Promoting Propel Startup Accelerator. The three start-ups have been awarded a mixed complete of $50,000 from Amazon as an equity-free grant.

Speaking in regards to the imaginative and prescient behind this accelerator program, Abhijit Kamra-Director, International Commerce, Amazon India advised BusinessLine, “Prime Minister Modi had put out a said goal of accelerating exports from India. So, we have been considering on these traces that there’s a possibility to assist start-ups take into consideration creating international merchandise from day one. Together with serving to them succeed at creating massive firms, make use of extra folks, and understand the future of being international manufacturers whereas being primarily based in India. And with that thought, late final 12 months we determined to create an India-first accelerator program known as Propel.”

He added that the purpose of Propel start-up accelerator has been to carry collectively all of the ecosystem companions that play a significant function in constructing profitable firms. These embrace e-commerce operators like Amazon, logistics companions, authorities entities like Make investments India, and VCs like Sequoia and Fireplace.

The accelerator program obtained 500 functions, out of which 10 finalists have been chosen to current their enterprise proposition to a jury panel together with Kanwaljit Singh, Founder and Managing Associate from Fireplace Ventures; Sakshi Chopra, Managing Director from Sequoia India; Abhijeet Muzumdar, Head of Amazon Smbhav Enterprise Fund and Company Improvement at Amazon; and Aastha Grover, Head, Startup India Hub, Make investments India.

The panel evaluated the entries on quite a lot of parameters together with enterprise thought, scalability and power of the marketing strategy/mannequin, enterprise metrics in launched markets and founding crew credentials, and extra. A few of the different members in this system included manufacturers like D’Moksha Properties, Soulflower, Rage Espresso, W2 Why Wait, Azani Lively, Femora, and True Components.

As a part of the start-up accelerator, Amazon had constituted a mentorship board consisting of Amazon leaders from India and internationally, VCs and senior leaders from Make investments India, who engaged with the manufacturers to offer them tailor-made sources, 1:1 mentorship on the worldwide demand patterns and insights on constructing profitable exports companies by e-commerce. Amazon additionally hosted open digital mentorship periods targeted on peer studying by inviting veteran entrepreneurs and members from its mentorship board for start-ups, to community and study from their present ecosystem.

“The Indian start-up ecosystem has reworked India right into a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship. Digitisation has propelled the democratisation of entry and alternative for Indian companies. Via this accelerator program, we’ll faucet the huge potential of rising companies and MSMEs to make an indelible mark in international markets,” stated Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Make investments India.