Nasscom shortlists 332 application for its 10,000 start-up programme

Initiative started by Nasscom to provide entrepreneurs with angel funding, infrastructure, incubation

After shortlisting 332 applications for Angel Funding and Acceleration under its recently launched ‘10,000 start-ups’ initiative, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today organized a first of a kind Startup Pitch Sessions where Entrepreneurs pitched their start-ups to more than 20 Angel Investors and Accelerators under one roof.

"After a comprehensive evaluation process carried by our partners, we have selected 332 of the country’s best early stage tech start-ups for the second round of the program. In order to provide a much larger canvas to these companies, we are organizing Pitch Sessions around the country where we are providing these start-ups an unprecedented opportunity to pitch to multiple angel investors and accelerators on a single platform," said Rajiv Vaishnav, Vice President, NASSCOM.

The initiative started by Nasscom provides entrepreneurs with angel funding, infrastructure, incubation, and access industry connections. The latest meet-up was held in Mumbai. "Despite a much more vibrant investing landscape, Mumbai ranks as a distant third behind Bangalore (23 per cent) and Delhi NCR (20 per cent) in terms of the number of applications. Pune on the other hand, is emerging as a strong contender by contributing with 6 per cent application and 8 per cent start-ups from Pune making it in the shortlists," said Vaishnav.

The application procedure revealed some interesting insights about the emerging tech entrepreneurship landscape in Mumbai. Out of the total applications received from Mumbai, about 22 per cent start-ups aimed at providing solutions pertaining to education and skill development followed with 21 per cent providing solutions in Retail. Although Mumbai is known as the national media hub, only 12% applications aimed to solve problems in media which is even below the national average of 15 per cent.

With reference to the demographics of the applicants, about 63 per cent applications came from applicants under the age of 30 and about 12 per cent applicants were women. From a technology point of view, a whopping 60 per cent of the applications came for web/internet start-ups, followed by mobile start-ups occupying a share of 24 per cent. Applications from Cloud and Big Data were at 14 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.

NASSCOM had commenced the 10,000 Start-ups program with the support of Google, Kotak, Microsoft and Verisign.