AskSid, an AI startup serving global flagship retail and consumer goods clients with live implementations across 23 countries, announced their successful graduation from the prestigious and coveted Techstars Hub71 Accelerator program in Abu Dhabi.
Techstars is a global platform for investment and innovation that helps entrepreneurs scale their business into international brands. The three month program focused on strategy, execution, fundraising, and helping entrepreneurs build their networks. Techstars also had 9 other promising startups along with AskSid in its class of 2021.
Techstars is globally recognized for its mentorship-driven accelerator. It gives startups and founders a unique opportunity to receive hands-on mentorship and guidance from more than 100 global industry leaders, accessed from Techstars worldwide network.
The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala Investment Company, has partnered with Techstars to run its program at Hub71, the fast growing global technology hub based in Abu Dhabi.
The founder and CEO of AskSid, Sanjoy Roy, says that the Techstars Hub71 program has not only transformed the company’s growth trajectory, but has also helped the company get funding ready. AskSid is currently raising a seed round of $1M, which it is confident to close within the next 3-6 months.
“Less than 2% of the total applicants received worldwide made it through to the Techstars program. Which is why AskSid’s acceptance was a great validation that we offer a differentiated product within an overcrowded AI space that can win in the global marketplace on its own merit. Our pipeline has grown 3X in the last 3 months, with active discussions with several global retail and CPG brands across USA, EU, ME and APAC”, said Roy.
Abu Dhabi’s Techstars Hub71 Accelerator programme is confident of raising $15M from investors for this year’s cohort of 10 startups, despite the market disruptions caused by Covid-19.
“Our first batch of startups raised $15M last year and we are aiming to raise in the same range this year as well,” said Vijay Tirathrai, managing director of Techstars.
Techstars has worked with more than 2,000 startups, totalling $11.4B in overall funding since 2006.
