Techstars Bangalore Concludes 2020 Class; Invests $1.2 million in 10 startups focused on efficiency, inclusivity
Bengaluru: The sophomore class of the mentorship-driven Techstars Bangalore Accelerator concluded the 2020 programme here today with a virtual version of Demo Day, featuring 10 innovative startups. For the companies in the 2020 class — ChintaMoney, Fliqpay, Game Theory, FinKraft, Lancify, Lightwing, ODWEN, Picxy, Q Blocks and Rose Bazaar — Demo Day is the culmination of three months of rigorous focus on strategy development, customer insights, key metrics growth, and narrative creation. The results are shared with investors, community members, and members of the global Techstars network.
The intensive programme provides support to the startups through an investment of $120,000 in each company, mentorship and support resources as they develop and refine aspects of their businesses to enhance product-market fit and position themselves to scale.
The Techstars Bangalore Accelerator 2020 companies are solving problems in a variety of industries including floriculture, media, sports-tech, cloud computing, payments, tax compliance, financial wellness, and warehousing-logistics. During the programme, several companies made pivots to focus on solutions that address the impacts of the global Covid-19 pandemic in emerging markets. All companies in the 2020 class have a common purpose to enable a positive impact on society through improvements in resource efficiency and digital inclusivity.
While the majority of founders are of Indian origin – representing Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bombay and Delhi – one team travelled to Bangalore from Lagos, Nigeria. The 10 teams met in Bengaluru for the first six weeks and then moved back to their home locations as the Covid-19 pandemic cast its net. Techstars quickly shifted the programme to a virtual format to continue supporting the startups, drawing on its expertise running virtual programs to make the experience as seamless as possible.
“This year, the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator brought together ambitious and enthusiastic founders, experienced mentors, investors and alumni for over 800 meetings, to fuel needed innovation and make powerful connections,” said Ray Newal, Managing Director of Techstars Bangalore Accelerator. “We believe the members of the 2020 class will make a significant and positive impact that will ripple throughout the world in the years to come.”
“While our pivot to virtual programming in light of the Covid-19 pandemic was unforeseen, we were able to draw more broadly on the global Techstars network through virtual engagements, which exposed our founders to even more connections and expertise”, said Newal.
“The ideas and commitment of the founders from the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator program inspire me. While the world may seem uncertain right now, we need the innovative mindset of entrepreneurs more than ever. I’m proud to represent Techstars here in India and to be a part of these founders’ journeys,” adds Newal, who has led the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator since its inception in 2018.
Techstars Bangalore Accelerator Inaugural Class of 2020
View the pitches at http://demoday.techstars.com/bangalore-2020-t1.
• ChintaMoney: An intelligent spending solution that improves financial wellness by helping people make informed purchase decisions based on savings goals.
• FinKraft: An invoice and data reconciliation service which helps Indian companies obtain GST credits quickly and easily.
• Fliqpay: A cross-border payment system which makes it seamless and affordable for Africans to digitally transact with the rest of the world.
• Game Theory: A fitness experience that makes casual sports convenient, addictive, and exciting.
• Lancify: Uses 60-day training modules to build a young workforce of experts on trending SAAS tools.
• Lightwing: An intelligent control system that dynamically optimizes cloud resources to reduce cloud costs by up to 90%.
• Odwen: India’s largest and fully integrated on-demand warehouse network.
• Picxy: Solving the relatability problem in Indian digital content through highly contextual stock photos.
• Q Blocks: Secure and affordable supercomputing applications on demand, powered by idle crypto-mining and gaming machines.
• Rose Bazaar: Bringing efficiency to the $1.2 Billion unorganized traditional flower supply chain through innovations in packaging and distribution.
Link to the photos
Techstars Bangalore Class of 2020, Covid-19 related pivots:
o Lightwing – With companies increasingly relying on cloud computing as a major component of virtualized operations, due to lockdown restrictions, Lightwing has launched a free cloud audit tool called the Lightwing Smart Advisor to help companies assess cloud compute costs and implement compute optimizations in under 60 mins.
o Fliqplay – Fliqpay is helping raise donations through cryptocurrencies to feed members from the most vulnerable communities in Nigeria. fliqpay.com/covid
o Picxy – Picxy has rolled out a campaign to allow companies and journalists to access COVID-19 related images at no cost. Picxy is also helping Give India (a charity supported by Omidyar, Xiaomi, Walmart, and others) by providing images for their campaign which has already raised $5 Million for frontline healthcare and poor families.
o ODWEN – Measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 have added strain to the local supply chains that provide food and other essential goods to businesses and consumers. Through a national pharma partner, ODWEN is providing local warehousing options to store PPE for medical workers across several large Indian cities.