India Inc wants to stay close to startups with incubators and accelerators
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Large companies and late-stage tech companies, along with government agencies and venture capital firms, are increasingly looking for ways to stay close to the startup ecosystem, launching in-house accelerators and incubators to remain agile and fend off competition that's nipping at their heels. While edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah launched its PW School of Startups in September, gaming unicorn Games24x7’s TechXpedite was renewed for a second edition this month.
The PW School of Startups and TechXpedite are accelerators, which are structured programmes that support early-stage companies through education, mentorship and financing. “PW will in turn benefit from access to early trends in the marketplace. When companies grow large, they often lose some nimbleness as you can’t be both large and small at the same time," Vijay Shukla, director of PW Foundation, told Mint.
Apart from accelerators, companies are attempting to build more flexible in-house incubator models. Kolkata-based FMCG company Emami has been developing an incubator in its M&A team, where, unlike in traditional deals, the founding team of the incubatedcompany continues to manage it while receiving support from Emami. “In the startup acceleration ecosystem, as strategic investors, we focus on categories or sectors with high growth potential, especially those that offer entry into evolving segments where we currently have no presence," said Harsha Vardhan Agarwal, vice chairman and managing director of Emami Ltd.
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