Partnering with 11 India business accelerators and incubators to graduate more startups that can raise money quickly.

6 February, 2015 – Bangalore. Today Unitus Ventures announced the launch of Speed2Seed, a nationwide program to help more promising early-stage startups to raise angel and seed capital in order to grow and realize their potential. Unitus announced that it has signed on 11 business accelerators and incubators including Catalyzer, Khosla Labs, IIM Calcutta, Deshpande Foundation and Startup Oasis as program partners. Over the next 2 years, Speed2Seed partners are looking to dramatically increase the percentage of their graduates receiving venture capital within 6 months of graduation. India incubators have an industry average of less than 5% of graduates receiving funding in that time frame. Accelerators are often more successful, with an industry average of 25%.

Unitus Ventures announces Speed2Seed, a programme to help Indian startups raise venture money

Venture Capital is Critical for India’s Economic Growth

A 2012 GOI planning commission report stated that job growth in the Indian economy will come primarily from new companies, not existing large public and private players. There is a broad consensus that the next break-out companies will require venture capital financing if they are to achieve their scale potential. Unitus’ research with a sample of over 50 incubators in India indicates that only about 5% of incubated graduates are receiving angel or venture capital investment. Comparatively, accelerators that work with later stage startups are finding more funding – on average about 25% of their graduates get financed.

The good news is that once the incubator and accelerator ecosystem matures, there is promise for a much higher success with venture funding. As a comparison, in the USA, Techcrunch recently estimated that 60% of top-15 accelerator graduates now receive venture funding shortly after graduation.

Speed2Seed Seeks to Combine Best Domestic & Global Incubator Practices

Unitus will be working with Speed2Seed partners for up to 2 years over multiple program cycles to experiment with new ideas, refine recruitment strategies, develop broader investor networks, better leverage advisors, implement curriculum enhancements, and help high-potential entrepreneurs to better pitch their business plans to early-stage angel investors and venture seed funds. Unitus will help facilitate access to domestic and international best practices along with peer learning opportunities amongst Speed2Seed partners.

Speed2Seed Launches with 11 Business Accelerators and Incubators

“We are excited to see the enthusiastic response from accelerators and incubators that are willing to journey with us towards improving the investability of their graduates,” said Will Poole, Managing Partner at Unitus Ventures. “We believe that there will be a lot of value created through peer-to-peer learning opportunities, as well as via outside expert and advisor support.”

Unitus Ventures is pleased to announce that the following accelerators and incubators have joined the Speed2Seed program:

Amity Innovation Incubator (Noida): Help entrepreneurs realize their dreams through a range of infrastructure, business advisory, mentoring and financial services
Catalyzer (Hyderabad): A Mentor, Accelerator, Investor & Kick Starter for Startup Entrepreneurs
CIBA (Goa): Dedicated Towards Entrepreneurship Development
CIE IIITH (Hyderabad): India’s largest Technology Incubator with over 60 startups in 30,000 square feet of space
Deshpande Foundation (Hubli): Accelerating the creation of sustainable, scalable enterprises with significant social and economic impact
IIM Calcutta (Kolkata): Supporting enterprises addressing the problems of the masses
Khosla Labs (Bangalore): We Ideate, Prototype, Validate and Launch
Startup Oasis (Jaipur): Platform for fostering innovation driven enterprise in Rajasthan
Startup Village (Kochi):  Changing the Way Indians Look At Entrepreneurship
Sylvant Advisors (Bangalore): Anticipate, Advice, Accelerate!
VIT TBI (Vellore): A great place to build “Technology Enterprises

The Speed2Seed program is part of Unitus’ India Impact Acceleration Program, which is made possible in part by U.S. Global Development Lab, a program of USAID.

About Unitus Ventures

Unitus Ventures is the leading venture seed fund supporting startups innovating for the masses in India. Unitus invests in healthcare, education, mobile commerce & value-added services, marketplaces & e-commerce, retail & distribution, agriculture, and water & energy sectors. Founded in 2012, Unitus Ventures is part of the Unitus Group, a premier financial services group operating in India and other emerging markets since 2000. Unitus Ventures is based in Bangalore and Seattle.

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Speed2Seed is a trademark of Unitus Seed Partners LLC.