In a bid to help early-stage startups take their brands to global audiences, Amazon has partnered with Startup India, Sequoia Capital India and Fireside Ventures. The collaboration, announced on January 19, will launch an accelerator programme to help and guide the startups. As part of the Startup Accelerator, Amazon has constituted a mentorship board consisting of Amazon leaders from India and across the world, VCs and senior leaders from Startup India. The application process will be open for about three weeks, following which 10 startups would be chosen for the accelerator.
Here’s How the startups will benefit from the Startup Accelerator
- Amazon will provide the support for these startups to launch their products worldwide through its exports programme – Amazon Global Selling.
- These startups will then get an opportunity to showcase their business proposition to partner VC firms – Sequoia Capital India and Fireside Ventures and three of them will get a chance to win a total equity free grant of USD 50,000 from Amazon.
- Amazon will also host open virtual mentorship sessions focused on peer learning by inviting veteran entrepreneurs and members from its mentorship board for startups, to network and learn from their existing ecosystem.
- Abhijit Kamra, Director – Global Trade at Amazon India, said that the programme will feature a six-week 1:1 mentorship module for the shortlisted participants where they will get to interact with Amazon leaders from India and worldwide and get firsthand knowledge on building and scaling up exports business through e-commerce.
The Amazon Global Selling Propel (AGSP) programme has been designed to support early stage startups (raised funding in post seed to pre-series A stage, if funded) in the consumer products space to launch in international markets and create global brands from India through Amazon’s Global Selling programme.
Deepak Bagla, MD and CEO of Invest India, said that the adoption of technology and digital transformation has paved the way for India to be at the forefront of innovation, giving rise to some of the best startups in the world. He said there are many promising, emerging brands that have the capability to become big and go global. Bagla said that his is a timely initiative by Amazon which can prove to be a big stepping stone for startups to build their business and get access to global markets.
Launched in 2015 with about 100 exporters, Amazon Global Selling today enables more than 70,000 Indian exporters to sell ”Made in India” products through its 15 international websites and reach customers in countries such as the US, the UK, UAE, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Australia and Singapore.