Bengaluru | 4th March 2020: Chiratae Ventures, a leading India based venture capital funds advisor, today announced the launch of its “Huddle by Chiratae” program series that aims to support seed and early-stage high-impact start-ups. The first of this series ‘DeepTech Huddle Program’ is scheduled for April 6th & 7th. Chiratae will shortlist the most promising 20 start-ups for the two-day immersive program. The start-ups will get focused time with some of the best industry experts and an opportunity to scaling their business. Chiratae will also invest in some of the most promising start-ups. The existing DeepTech portfolio of Chiratae comprises of Axio Biosolutions – MedTech to revolutionize bleeding control & wound healing, SigTuple – intelligent screening solutions to aid diagnosis through AI-powered analysis of visual medical data, PlayShifu – AR based interactive learning toys for kids, Zumutor Biologics – a leading Immuno-Oncology company in the space of targeted NK cell therapeutics and Emotix – makers of Miko, an educational companion bot.
Over the years Chiratae has hosted innovation and frontier tech programs, which led to investments in Hevo Data and Deepfence. The Huddle program is the 6th program consolidating all the previous editions and targeting at seed and early-stage start-ups with a focus on solving real, major problems through deep-technology across sectors – start-ups that can have an exponential impact on the future of humanity and the world. The application process will focus on selecting the first 20 high-promise start-ups. The criteria for selection will be solidity of the idea, founders’ profile, ability to scale and global relevance. The sectors Chiratae will be focusing on will be 1) Robotics, 2) Horizontal Tech like Nanotechnology, 3D printing, IoT, AI, NLP, Blockchain, Cloud & Quantum Computing 3) Aerospace and Outer space, 4) Health-tech and med-devices covering disability tech & medical robotics, 5) Agriculture & Food Tech, 6) Automotive and Mobility, 7) Biotech and life-sciences, 8) Energy.
Chiratae over the last 13 years has evolved into a firm that provides a 3600 support system to start-ups they invest in – from mentoring start-ups to derive the best from themselves to helping them grow rapidly and target global markets. In fact 25% of start-ups that Chiratae has invested have been able to successfully expand to international markets. This enables seed and early stage start-ups to build their offerings with a global outlook. The start-ups participating in the 2-day huddle, therefore, will be able to benefit immensely. Apart from Chiratae’s leadership team, the program will host tech experts, industry evangelists to create a high-level learning and knowledge sharing experience. Also, leading corporate brands are partnering with Chiratae for this program – they will not only share their deep tech knowledge but also provide access to markets.
Speaking about the Program, Sudhir Sethi, Chairman and Founder of Chiratae Ventures, said, “As Investors, we need to reinvent in order steer India into its next growth phase. We are witnessing a boom in innovation in the country and we at, Chiratae, want to be a catalyst for this transformation by supporting entrepreneurship. Through this DeepTech Start-up Huddle Program, we aim to bridge the gap that seed and early-stage start-ups are facing in terms of accessibility to talent, mentorship and capital. We, therefore, urge all aspiring entrepreneurs to sign-up and be a part of our long-term tech innovation journey.”
As Indian start-ups community matures in their deep-tech capability, they are limited by the eco-systems ability to provide a market for their solutions and as an extension of the problem, the start-ups’ ability to attract investments. Chiratae is committed to building a robust start-up community in India with a two-fold objective of solving India specific problems and to scale those solutions globally. This “Huddle By Chiratae” program series is, therefore, a manifestation of Chiratae’s objective of enabling Indian start-ups by solving the three key problems they face 1) bridge to markets, both local and global, 2) access to high level of mentorship and 3) a robust supply-chain of capital.
Application for the DeepTech Start-up Huddle Program is open from March 3rd to March 30th. The selection process will stop as soon as Chiratae shortlists 20 start-ups. The shortlisted start-ups will be announced on April 3rd for the huddle scheduled for April 6th and 7th. Start-ups can use huddle.chiratae.com for checking eligibility and to apply.
