Chiratae Ventures has announced the launch of their 7th edition of the Innovator’s Program. This will include a 5-week foundational initiative for the final set of selected startups to empower seed & early-stage founders to enable their growth journey through mentorship, customer connects and access to capital.
The Innovators Program is the longest running program in the country and over the past six editions of the program, Chiratae Ventures has partnered with 14 companies through the program and include some of the pioneering names in technology. This program also acts as the beachhead for the seed and early-stage investment practice at Chiratae Ventures. Since inception, Chiratae Ventures has invested over US$ 125 mn in 50 seed investments including companies such as Uniphore, NestAway, PlaySimple, Rentomojo, Unbxd and CloudCherry (acquired by Cisco). Collectively these companies have raised over US$ 500 mn and are valued at over US$ 1 bn.
In the 7th edition of the Innovators Program, the focus is on companies solving real-world problems through technology across sectors like consumer tech, deep tech, health tech, enterprise/software tech and fin-tech. The criteria for selection will be market opportunity, team, innovation, scalability and building a dominant brand in India with global relevance. The program will also invite experts and founders from across the Chiratae portfolio from companies such as Lenskart, FirstCry, Cure.Fit, PolicyBazaar, Bounce, Uniphore to name a few. With the COVID impact, emergence of new business models and the push for digitization, now is the time to champion such homegrown businesses.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Sudhir Sethi, Founder & Chairman, said, “The Indian startup ecosystem has witnessed steady growth over the past few years but with the ongoing pandemic, the entire ecosystem has been challenged to innovate and overcome. This has given us an opportunity to support stellar entrepreneurs and founders who are building and solving for real world challenges using technology. With our program in its 7th edition, we aim to discover more innovative ideas and partner in their journey to scale up.”