Venture Center launches MeitY SAMRIDH Accelerator to help scale digital tech-based startups

New Delhi: Venture Center, a not-for-profit technology business incubator hosted by CSIR-NCL has launched the “SAMRIDH Accelerator at Venture Center” at the hands of Jitendra Vijay, CEO, MeitY Startup Hub, MeitY, Government of India.

The accelerator program will run for 6 months with a highly selective cohort of digital technology startups, helping them unlock their full potential to raise funding and investments.

Dr. Ranjan Srikanth, Co-President at Keiretsu Forum, Chennai was an invited guest at the launch event, and shared his insights on “What Venture Investors look for in Startup Pitches”.

The SAMRIDH Accelerator at Venture Center brings on board a powerful investor network to accelerate and scale digital technology-based startups working on solutions that solve India’s problems while creating positive social impact. Our investor partners include Social Alpha, TiE Pune, 1Crowd, Indian Angel Network, Inflexor Ventures, Pentathlon Ventures, Lavni Ventures, Enzia, BioAngels, Keiretsu Forum, and more.

Speaking on the various schemes and initiatives of MeitY, Mr. Jitendra Vijay said “Scalability of start-ups is an important factor in achieving economic growth, and the SAMRIDH scheme is a great opportunity for market ready start-ups to scale be it through customer connects, international market expansion, portfolio diversification etc. The goal of the current pilot- level SAMRIDH scheme is to support 300 startups in the next 2 years, and we’re looking to run the program on a much larger scale in the future.” He also spoke of other upcoming MeitY schemes that will target women, start-ups outside of Tier 1 cities, and disadvantaged sections of society.

The accelerator program will run for 6 months under two tracks (Track 1: Digitech Launchpad and Track 2: Investor Readiness Program) with a highly selective cohort of eleven participants across both tracks. Selected candidates will receive in-depth and tailored hand holding from the very experienced mentors at Venture Center. Other benefits include an opportunity to pitch to a curated group of investors, for investments in range of Rs 50-400 lakhs. The cohort participants will also benefit from our high-quality master classes on fund-raising and a professionally designed and developed pitch deck.

Dr. Premnath, Director, Venture Center, said, “This accelerator program brings together the very best of Pune’s innovation ecosystem – in terms of mentors and investors – to help the cohort participants raise money for their companies and identify key areas of business that need improvement to expand sales and business opportunity. This accelerator also marks our first association with the MeitY Startup Hub, and we look forward to a long and fruitful partnership in supporting and scaling start-ups across India. We are also delighted to partner TiE Pune and connect the cohort to the excellent mentoring team at TiE Pune.”