London-based accelerator and company builder Entrepreneur First has launched a six-month program in Bengaluru, India.
The program will help build 50 deep tech startups in India, focusing on technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics along with tech-focused consumer companies.
The company builder has been already running these programs in Paris, Berlin, London, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
It is no surprise that the UK-based accelerator has chosen Bengaluru for its next destination, considering it is also called the “Silicon Valley of India”. It is also to be noted that, according to a research firm Genome, Bengaluru’s startup ecosystem is valued at $19 billion, supporting around 1,800 to 2,300 active tech startups.
Founded by Matt Clifford and Alice Bentinck in 2011, Entrepreneur First is a company builder that helps startup founders find right co-founders, helping them build their startups, along with helping them raise funds through local and global investors.
Through the new initiative, Entrepreneur First will be investing $55,000 in the startups during its biannual programme. It will also help the cohort members to develop their ideas by providing them with a monthly stipend of $2,500 for the first three months.
The cohort members will also get an opportunity to pitch to leading local and global investors at Investor Day, to secure funding.
Entrepreneur First’s winter cohort of the programme in Bengaluru will begin on 29 January next year.
Commenting on investment plans, Matt Clifford, Co-Founder and CEO, Entrepreneur First, said, “We will roughly invest $20 million in India over the next three years just on the stipends and initial investment. But we could invest many millions more in the next stage of the investment and there is no geographical limit on that.”
Entrepreneur First claims to have helped build more than 80 companies and its portfolio companies have raised over $100 million in venture investments.
So far, Entrepreneur First has raised around $200 million in funding and is backed by prominent investors like Reid Hoffman’s Greylock Partners, Mosaic Ventures, Founders Fund, Lakestar Capital, and DeepMind founders Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman.