Amazon India on Wednesday launched the second edition of its accelerator programme to help early-stage startups in the consumer products segment go global.
Those selected startups will win an equity-free grant of $100,000 (around Rs 74 lakhs) and Amazon Web Services credit worth $10,000 from Amazon, the company said in a statement.
The second batch of Amazon Global Selling Propel programme will also provide startups to showcase their business propositions to partner venture firms like Accel, DSG Consumer Partners, Fireside Ventures and Sequoia Capital India.
Bollywood actor and angel investor Kunal Kapoor has also joined the programme as a mentor.
“We saw great interest, ideas and entrepreneurial spirit in the inaugural season of the program, and we are excited to now bring the season 2. It is part of our commitment to make exports easier for businesses of all sizes and enable $10 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025,” Amit Agarwal, SVP - India and Emerging Markets, Amazon said.
As part of the accelerator, Amazon has a mentorship board consisting of Amazon execs from India and across the world, VC partners and other industry leaders who will engage with emerging brands and provide them tailored resources, 1:1 mentorship and workshops on the global demand patterns and insights on building successful exports business through ecommerce.
Startups in the consumer products area that have obtained investment in the post-seed to pre-series A stage (if financed) and want to grow their business to international markets can apply for the accelerator programme.
An Amazon-led panel will assess the entries based on the business idea, scalability and strength of the business plan/model, business KPIs in launched markets, and founding team qualifications, among other factors, it said.
Last year Slurrp Farm, Sirona and Wellbeing Nutrition had bagged the title.
“With a mission to expand to global markets, we launched Slurrp Farm on Amazon a few years ago. Our focus was to cater to mothers across the world and help them feed their children nutritious food which is easy and quick to make,” said Meghana Narayan, Co-Founder of Slurrp Farm.
She added, “Today, we have expanded our operations to US and UK markets globally and have also witnessed over 100% growth in sales.’