If you are an Internet based start-up founder and you are
looking for seed founding to let your business starting in India,
there are two interesting opportunities to evaluate:
Morpheus
Venture Partnersand
iAccelerator.
Morpheus Venture Partners is a Bangalore based firm, which
aim is to provide seed capital and mentoring to startups in India.
On 10 September 2008, MVP announced the 11 recipients of its
first round of investments.
MVP portfolio is composed by companies that have existed for
about 6-9 months with team sizes of 5-7. Their investments range
from $15,000-$25,000. Unlike YCombinator, who has a geographic
focus on Boston and San Francisco, MVP’s investments are all over
India.
Each of the companies are either self-funded or have received
seed/angel funding in some cases by partners of MVP. MVP, at
the moment, does not invest in companies directly but plan to close
a fund of about 5Millioin $ by the second quarter of 2009, so that
they can directly invest in the companies.
For its firts round of investments relocation is not the best
operating model. MVP work closely, yet remotely with companies and
spend a minimum of 5 working days in a month face-to-face with
companies located outside Bangalore. However the firm may require
for its second batch of startups to re-locate to Bangalore.
iAccelerator is an IIM Ahmedabad initiative done in
conjunction with Microsoft, Kuruvindum, NASSCOM and Kickstart.in
bringing a unique opportunity for young developers to start their
firms.
The aim of iAccelerator is to build a few good products out
of India. The iAccelerator would comprise of intensive monitoring
of product development, mentoring by VC, business and technology
experts. Once a product/prototype is developed, IIM Ahmedabad
students shall work closely with the start-ups in commercializing
the prototypes developed by the teams.
Participants will be given a monthly stipend of Rs. 8,000
(equivalent to about $200 /mo), internet connected computers, an
office space, mentoring, networking and accommodation at IIMA.
