Rajesh Sawhney, the founder of Superangels of India and the former President of Reliance Entertainment has launched a first multi-city start-up accelerator called GSF Accelerator. The program will launch on October 15, 2012 and has received backing from 30 leading founders and 5 venture funds. This year, GSF accelerator will provide 12 startups with personalized mentoring, access to funding and business networks, and initial capital.
Rajesh Sawhney told India Digital Review that the accelerator is focussing on companies that offer digital, mobile, cloud and technology products. “In case we plan to mentor a company from some other sector, then this will be because of its exceptional founders,” said Sawhney.
The program will run simultaneously in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru between October and November, 2012, with each location hosting 4 start-ups. Extensive coaching will be provided to each of the 12 GSF start-ups over a period of 7 weeks by a mentor pool of over 200 leading co-founders and digital masterminds from across the world. The GSF accelerator start-ups will attend 25 intensive and proprietary workshops conducted by global experts.
GSF Accelerator Advisors include Naveen Tiwari, Founder-Inmobi, Avnish Bajaj, founder of Matrix Partners India, Saul Klein, Partner at Index Ventures, co-founder of TAG and Seedcamp, Dave McClure, Founder-500 start-ups, Atsushi San-Softbank, Ashish Gupta, Founder-Helion Partners, Sharad Sanghi, Founder-Netmagic, Fred Demopoulos, an investor in many successful Chinese start-ups, Steven Lurie, GM-Zynga, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder-One97, Phanindra Sama, Founder-Redbus, and Sid Talwar, serial entrepreneur.
Leading Indian funds such as Kae Capital, and Blume Venture have also partnered with GSF Accelerator. GSF has entered into key strategic partnerships to provide a global springboard for these start-ups.
Rajesh Sawhney explains, “GSF Accelerator program is designed to create the next wave of product-oriented technology start-ups in the areas of mobile, social, local and cloud. There is no reason that Indian entrepreneurs cannot create the next Instagram, or the next twitter, or the next Inmobi. 12 start-ups will receive initial funding from GSF this year. This is the single largest funding platform for the Indian start-ups. GSF Superangels will provide further funding to a few start-ups at the end of the program. The 12 start-ups will also be showcased at the GSF2012 (The Second Global Superangels Forum) on Nov 26/27, 2012, where 400 leading early stage investors from across the world will meet start-ups.”
Dave McClure, said, “India is booming with innovation, and 500 start-ups is excited to be partnering with GSF Accelerator in one of the world’s most exciting entrepreneurial ecosystems. 500 has already made several investments in India and we plan to do more in the future. Kudos to Rajesh and his team for putting together this awesome accelerator program.”
Naveen Tewari, said, “This is a truly exciting program for Indian start-ups. Fostering innovation in an environment that brings out the native creativity of founders is critical to the future of the Indian Tech industry. GSF accelerator will develop a grass root tech culture and set the platform for long term success.”
Avnish Bajaj, founder of Matrix Partners India, said, “Rajesh has been involved with the internet since its inception in India and has been playing an active role as an angel investor, mentor and an “ecosystem creator” for the past few years. He has identified the GSF Accelerator as the best way to provide further institutional support to the entrepreneurial ecosystem and I am truly privileged and delighted to support this effort in every way possible.”
