Y Combinator coming to Bengaluru for start-up school interviews

Seeing India as a hotbed of emerging start-ups, Silicon Valley's storied start-up school Y Combinator (YC) will host interviews in Bengaluru to recruit for its upcoming summer batch starting June.

This is the first time YC is hosting interviews outside the US. Start-ups chosen for the program will join other successful applicants for a three-month program at YC's campus in Mountain View, California.

"Indian ecosystem is at the beginning of something big- it's like a Rocketship right now. And frankly, when you have great start-ups like Flipkart and Ola and Paytm, they (entrepreneurs) see what success looks like," YC Partner Adora Cheung told this reporter in October 2018. 

After a scrutiny process, founders will be invited to appear for interviews on May 7 to May 9. The registration ends April 12. In a blog post, YC said it will reimburse certain travel and accommodation expense for founders coming from outside Bengaluru. 

“We’ve received an increasing number of applications from India and this will allow us to interview more Indian founders. So far, we’ve funded over 40 companies from India, including ClearTax, Meesho and Razorpay. And we hope more of you will join the YC network soon!” the blogpost read.

YC is considering only start-ups and founders from India for the May interviews. Very early-stage start-ups, even those that have not registered formally, will also be considered. 

YC has been around since 2005. It has pioneered a model of its own where it hosts start-ups for a three-month accelerator-style program, twice a year. The program comprises mentor sessions, company building exercises, and networking with YC alumni and investors network, which seen as one of the best in California. YC also invests in start-ups- $150,000 for a 7 per cent stake.

Some of top start-ups like Airbnb, Dropbox and even quirky ones like 9GAG have come out of YC. The start-up school has also grown over the years to accommodate more applicants every year.