The best useful resource of all for enterprise founders and entrepreneurs is one another, believes Prayank Swaroop, a accomplice at enterprise capital agency Accel India. That’s the considering behind Accel Atoms, a funding and help programme that goals to construct a neighborhood of entrepreneurs who can study from each other. Accel is right this moment unveiling the second cohort of start-ups it’s supporting by way of Atoms, taking the whole variety of companies locally to 24.
By means of Atoms, Accel invests $250,000 of non-dilutive capital in every enterprise supported, offers entry to a pool of mentors, and in addition runs a 100-day studying and growth course for every founder. Above all, nonetheless, the initiative encourages companies to help each other – each start-up within the Atoms programme can attain out to the remainder for assist with a selected problem or downside, in addition to to different companies in Accel’s community; by pooling their information, they will advance extra rapidly.
“First-time founders are getting youthful, and we see them asking the identical questions over and once more,” says Swaroop. “We’ve been investing in these companies for 10 years, however for founders, their questions are new to them.”
The fact of enterprise capital, says Swaroop, is that no agency could be all issues to all its investee corporations. Whereas Atoms organises a spread of educating and studying periods for founders, in addition to offering entry to one-to-one mentoring help, it can’t be available 24 hours a day. And in any case, corporations typically have points or questions they’re reluctant to boost with their funding backers. They typically really feel much more snug discussing challenges and alternatives with different start-ups going by way of an analogous journey.
There’s additionally a necessity, Swaroop believes, for communities that aren’t merely centered on attending to the following funding spherical. “One of many issues we requested ourselves when organising Atoms was whether or not we have been doing one thing completely different to the accelerators and incubators already on the market,” he says. “We felt these teams tended to be very centered on getting start-ups to the following fund-raising, relatively than offering help with the a whole bunch of questions that founders have about their enterprise every day.”
This isn’t to counsel fund-raising is unimportant. Swaroop factors out that the 24 companies within the two Atoms cohorts have raised $100 million between them in follow-on fund-raisings since becoming a member of the programme. The help that corporations get within the Atoms course of helps transfer them in direction of Sequence A and B rounds extra rapidly and effectively, he argues.
Accel Atoms goals to deliver founders collectively to help each other
Companies acquire entry to the Atoms programme by making use of immediately or by way of a referral from different enterprise capital funds and enterprise angels with which Accel works carefully. Accel is concentrated particularly on the know-how sector, although a broad vary of corporations fall inside that criterion.
The programme can also be increasing geographically. Whereas the primary Atoms cohort was centered on Indian start-ups, this second spherical contains companies based mostly throughout 5 completely different jurisdictions. Accel was notably eager to work with South-East Asian companies, the place the start-up setting is now gathering tempo. “There’s an actual alternative for entrepreneurs in these nations to study from their friends in India, which is just a bit additional forward,” Swaroop provides.
The second cohort of Atoms additionally varies barely in that Accel hasn’t taken all the businesses on on the identical time. It has been including companies to the cohort over time, culminating in right this moment’s announcement of the completed complement (functions for the third cohort are actually open till the top of the yr). The ten companies supported are:
- BRIK: a business-to-business development material-focused aggregator remodeling the best way small and mid-size contractors in Indonesia buy development supplies.
- DataBrain: an information platform enabling non-technical strategic groups to extract and analyse knowledge successfully.
- DhiWise: a synthetic intelligence-powered growth instrument that permits builders to ship production-ready supply code 10 instances’ quicker for all types of apps.
- Dpanda: a decentralised platform enabling manufacturers to remodel their internet presence into micro ecommerce platforms that enable their viewers to make an instantaneous buy on the level of curiosity.
- Fishlog: a business-to-business market and a community-driven ecosystem that goals to streamline the seafood provide chain throughout Indonesia.
- Intestine Wellness Membership: an initiative to heal gut-related issues naturally utilizing conventional meals and yoga.
- Mello: a discovery platform that permits folks to search out one of the best experiences round them.
- Ripik: a software-as-a-service synthetic intelligence and machine studying platform for manufacturing industries, aimed toward serving to the economic sector to function its factories extra effectively and successfully.
- Upflowy: a no-code instrument that permits anybody to construct and optimise personalised types that generate extra and higher certified leads.
- Youshd: a efficiency engine harnessing the facility of client networks to assist direct-to-consumer manufacturers succeed.
