Techstars launches its first center in Asia. Founders explain what’s special about it.

Techstars co-founders David Cohen and David Brown had a chat with entrepreneurs at Microsoft Accelerator in Bangalore. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.

Techstars launched its first Asian center in Bangalore today, boosting the Indian city’s status as a Silicon Valley of the east. Techstars India is a joint venture with Ansr, which has been running offshore centers and corporate accelerators in India for global corporations. Techstars too has a corporate partnership orientation for its startup accelerators, which aligns it with Ansr.

Bangalore’s startup scene saw fireworks last week with Japanese giant SoftBank’s US$2.5 billion investment in Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart. Now the pyrotechnics extend to the other end of the spectrum: the American accelerator aims to help early stage startups with the ambition and ability to go big globally.

Places like Singapore are going to be interesting for us, and I would expect to grow into them.

Techstars co-founders David Cohen and David Brown, who are in Bangalore to get this off the ground, explained to Tech in Asia that the India center is more than an accelerator. It will also run corporate innovation programs and expand opportunities for startups as well as corporations in the region by connecting them with Techstars’ global network of entrepreneurs, portfolio companies, and large partner corporations.

To a question on when the accelerator program would begin in India, Cohen said: “You can expect that soon, but it’s a bigger entry into the market. We’ll have a part of our executive team here, who will deliver the various products we have, including accelerators… This will be the ninth country in which we’ll be investing through our accelerators and venture capital arm.”

Techstars invests US$120,000 into a startup in exchange for equity as part of its accelerator program. It also has a venture fund – “currently at US$300 million” – to invest in seed and series A rounds, and extend its involvement in the startup’s funding and growth. This business model will be replicated in India. “We would put in capital at the start of the accelerator and we already have a fund than can invest after that to help more targeted capital come to India,” said Cohen.

There could also be a separate India-focused fund in due course. “Today it’s one fund, but the vision is that we’ll have a fund for each of the markets we enter,” Cohen added.

Why it matters to Asian startups

That Techstars invests in the startups joining its accelerators, both at the beginning and after the program. By having skin in the game, it stays focused on the interests of startups while forging relationships between them and clients from among the many large corporations that are partners of Techstars.

Techstars has invested US$3.5 billion into startups that entered its accelerators and created more than US$10 billion in value.

“We’re clear about who our customer is – it’s our entrepreneurs,” says Brown. “We want to help them build huge companies, and that’s clear in our business model. We’re investing in these startups, so it’s in our best interest to see that they succeed.”

Over the past 10 years, Techstars has invested US$3.5 billion into startups that entered its accelerators and created more than US$10 billion in value, adds Cohen.

The other distinguishing feature of Techstars is its large number of partnerships with global corporations, thanks to a corporate orientation from the outset. The likes of Barclays, Amazon, Disney, Honda, and Ford are part of its network, as are thousands of alumni companies.

“Becoming a part of that global network at an early stage can be a gamechanger for a startup. If you need an expert in a particular field or a connection for your early stage company, the Techstars network can deliver that,” says Cohen. “I have a thousand built-in customers for a new B2B [business-to-business] startup, for example, who have an affinity to buy such products early. There’s also a large array of corporations that want to see these innovations from Asia early and engage with them.”

It’s not going to be a one-way flow either. Techstars’ portfolio companies are looking to expand globally, and the Asian center can facilitate that. “We’re expanding the network for everyone, including US and European companies that want to access the market in India,” says Cohen.

And the “missing piece”

Techstars invests US$120,000 into a startup in exchange for equity as part of its accelerator program. It also has a venture fund – currently at US$300 million.

The Techstars founders have been seeing a number of startups coming into their US and European accelerators from India. “The quality of those entrepreneurs is what’s brought us here in the first place,” says Brown. “If all that’s coming through is a little trickle of people from far, far away to create their business through a Techstars accelerator, there must be a well behind that trickle, and that’s what attracted us to coming to india.”

On whether this will be a springboard to other hot markets in the region, Cohen indicated Singapore may be the next stop. “China is a difficult place to enter for a US company. Not having the right partner there yet is one of the reasons we haven’t done that. But places like Singapore are going to be interesting for us, and I would expect to grow into them.”

“We want to expand into Southeast Asia, but India’s a big country, and we want to do it right, here,” adds Brown.

In India, they’re focusing at the outset on understanding the local ecosystem. That’s why they’ve partnered with Ansr, and seem in no tearing hurry to start the accelerator program.

Ansr’s founder Lalit Ahuja, who was earlier the country head in India for Target, roped in Wall Street investment banker and Bay Area entrepreneur Venkat Raju to head Kyron, which ran corporate accelerators for Ansr’s partners like Target and Swiss Re. Raju now continues as an advisor to Techstars India, which is in the process of appointing an India head.

See: He was skeptical of accelerators, but now he runs one with a twist

What the Techstars’ founders have seen so far on their first visit to India hasn’t belied the impressions they had formed from outside. “We’ve looked at ten startups in the last couple of days, and we’ve definitely seen some impressive tech in AI, AR/VR, automated rendering of photo-realistic scenes… There’s some really interesting tech here,” says Cohen. “I realize that people showed us the best stuff, so I don’t know how deep that goes. But it’s clearly coming from here at a high quality level.”

What impressed him less is how they present their startups. “I don’t know why that is, because the people are really smart and articulate. But there’s a lack of storytelling sometimes, about how the technology will be impactful, why it’s more than a technology. It may be a totally unfair statement, because i’ve only got a limited view, but nothing else really jumped out at me as a missing piece.”

This post Techstars launches its first center in Asia. Founders explain what’s special about it. appeared first on Tech in Asia.

from Tech in Asia https://www.techinasia.com/techstars-launches-center-in-asia-bangalore
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