Following the success of the 10,000 start-ups programme, National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) has announced the launch of the second phase to boost the entrepreneurial landscape in India.
It is inviting applications from technology start-ups across the country for Funding, Acceleration, Mentoring and Enterprise connects (F.A.M.E).
The programme has devised new focus areas to scale up. While one stream would focus on providing opportunities to convert ideas into prototypes and share preliminary industry feedback, the other would focus on functional areas like Product Development, Go-to-market strategy, Talent acquisition and Industry connects.
Som Mittal, President of Nasscom said, “The way India's economy has grown in recent times is phenomenal. And to sustain this growth it is imperative to have more entrepreneurs in the country that will transform the landscape and propagate development. We are very pleased with the response that the 10,000 Start-up program has received so far and are significantly enhancing the scope of the program in its second league. Adding value at various stages for technology start-ups in addition to the erstwhile proposition of funding and acceleration would be the primary focus of the program going forward.”
Also being launched is Startup-in-residence mentoring program where NASSCOM is collaborating with successful and entrepreneurial Tech companies in Consumer Internet and Software product space.
This collaboration will enable incubation of early stage start-ups in their premises and support them through vertical experts specifically in the areas of Product Management, Technology, Marketing, Business Development and Human Resource.
In the previous cycle, Nasscom received 4000 applications for funding and acceleration and short-listed 332 and about 80 companies were supported by the programme.
With the added aspects under the 10,000 Start-ups program, NASSCOM aims to successfully impact over 200 companies. The selected start-ups will be provided with a start-up kit worth Rs 10 lakh and a host of free business tools from Microsoft, AWS and Google.
Nasscom had commenced the 10,000 Start-ups program with the support of Google, Kotak, Microsoft and Verisign and Zinnov as the consulting partner.