Global venture capital (VC) firm Antler has inaugurated Antler India Fellowship cohort, a programme for student entrepreneurs in India, which it had launched in November last year, the VC said in a statement on Monday.
The VC firm, which has made over a dozen bets in India, said that the 19 student entrepreneurs in India that are building eight startups, will be a part of the cohort. These startups are in sectors such as web 3.0, cleantech, medtech, agritech, SaaS (Software-as-a-service) and creator economy. The fellowship cohort offers an equity-free grant of $20,000 and mentorship to the students to help them turn their startup ideas into businesses, Antler said.
The fellowship cohort is a 16-week programme, which provides a platform for experimentation, building and scaling, with the support of equity-free capital, mentors and a peer network, Antler said. The global VC had received over 2,400 applications from students across the country, covering more than 375 cities and over 700 colleges, it said. Antler chose eight teams of all the applications, with an acceptance rate of 0.3%, it said.
“It was difficult to narrow the selection down to eight ideas. These students have shown incredible drive and a bias towards action as they have thought through, validated and started building on these ideas on the side, all while juggling academics and the pandemic itself. During the programme, we have planned fortnightly cycles with sessions tailored to the cohort, alongside hands-on problem solving with the Antler India team,” said Nandini Vishwanath, Programme Director at Antler India.
The chosen student entrepreneurs will gain access to a programme, facilitated by domain experts and founders, spanning idea validation, user research, product, engineering and marketing, Antler said. Mentors include Suchita Salwan, Founder, Little Black Book (LBB), Varun Khona, Founder, HeadOut and Ankit Gupta Founder, Quizizz, among others, Antler said.
“We don’t just want to enable existing founders, but create new founders. We believe it’s the students of today who will build to address some of the toughest problems affecting us in the spaces of climate change, unlocking human potential, energy efficiency and upcoming spaces such as metaverse, blockchain and web 3.0. Along with the equity-free grant, the Antler India Fellowship is designed as a safe space for students to ideate, experiment, or even pivot, as they build their startups,” said Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner at Antler India.
Antler is an early-stage VC firm that primarily invests in technology-based companies. The firm has offices globally in London, Berlin, Stockholm, New York, Singapore and Sydney. To date, Antler claims to have invested in over 350 companies globally across 30 different industries. Of these companies, 40% have at least one female Co-founder, and the founders represent 70 nationalities, Antler said. The VC firm now plans to deploy $100-$150 million in over 100 Indian startups over the next three years, it said.