Slurrp Farm, Sirona Hygiene and Wellbeing Nutrition named the top 3 winners; get a cumulative equity free grant of $50,000 from Amazon
Over 500 entries were received for the Startup Accelerator launched earlier in the year to help emerging businesses in the consumer products space create global brands from India
Bengaluru, NFAPost: Amazon and Invest India announced the winners of the Amazon Global Selling Propel Startup Accelerator (the Accelerator). Slurrp Farm, Sirona Hygiene and Wellbeing Nutrition were named the top 3 winners of the program winning a combined total of USD 50,000 from Amazon in equity free grant.
The Accelerator was launched on Startup India Hub earlier in the year with the aim of helping emerging Indian businesses and startups to get access to customers across the world through Amazon’s ecommerce exports program and create global brands from India. The Accelerator got an overwhelming response from startups and emerging businesses across India, with over 500 entries from across the country.
The top 10 finalists presented their business proposition to a distinguished jury including Kanwaljit Singh, Founder and Managing Partner from Fireside Ventures, Sakshi Chopra, Managing Director from Sequoia India, Abhijeet Muzumdar, Head of Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund and Corporate Development at Amazon and Aastha Grover, Head, Startup India Hub, Invest India.
The panel evaluated the entries on a variety of parameters including business idea, scalability and strength of the business plan/model, business metrics in launched markets and founding team credentials and more. Some of the other participants in the program included upcoming brands like D’Moksha Homes and Soulflower from Mumbai, ‘Rage Coffee’ and ‘W2 Why Wait’ from Delhi NCR, Azani Active from Bangalore, Femora from Jaipur, and True Elements from Pune.
Invest India MD & CEO Deepak Bagla said the Indian startup ecosystem has transformed India into a hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.
“Digitization has propelled the democratisation of access and opportunity for Indian businesses. Through this accelerator programme, we will tap the vast potential of emerging businesses and MSMEs to make an indelible mark in global markets,” said Deepak Bagla.
Amazon India Global Senior VP and Country Head Amit Agarwal said the Amazon Global Selling Startup Accelerator is created with a vision to help take the local expertise and innovation, global.
“We are truly excited about the innovation and passion we have seen and would like to congratulate all the winners. He added, “We worked with partners like Invest India, Sequoia Capital India, Fireside Ventures and others to attract some of the best minds in the country and provide them a springboard to create global consumer brands from India. We will continue to work with businesses of all sizes, helping them grow by reaching customers across India and the world,” said Amit Agarwal.
As part of the Startup Accelerator, Amazon had constituted a mentorship board consisting of Amazon leaders from India and across the world, VCs and senior leaders from Invest India, who engaged with emerging brands to provide them tailored resources, 1:1 mentorship on the global demand patterns and insights on building successful exports businesses through e-commerce. Amazon also hosted open virtual mentorship sessions focused on peer learning by inviting veteran entrepreneurs and members from its mentorship board for startups, to network and learn from their existing ecosystem.
About Amazon Global Selling
Amazon Global Selling is a flagship program that helps lower the entry barrier for Indian MSMEs to start or expand their exports business using ecommerce. The program was launched in India in 2015 to support Indian exporters reach customers worldwide through Amazon’s international websites and marketplaces. I
t provides an avenue for businesses of all sizes to build global brands. Today there are more than 70,000 exporters across India on the program, showcasing millions of Made in India products to customers in 200+ countries and territories across the world. Many of these businesses are first generation entrepreneurs and emerging brands.
Amazon Global Selling has been witnessing remarkable growth and Indian MSMEs exporting through the program have surpassed $3 billion in cumulative sales till now. This reflects in the fact that it took the program 3 years to enable the first 1 billion dollars, the second billion came in 18 months and the third billion came in just 12 months. In January 2020, Amazon made three important commitments to India – digitally enabling 10 million MSMEs in India, enabling exports worth USD 10 billion and creating 1 million incremental jobs – by 2025.
About Invest India
Invest India, set up in 2009, is a non-profit venture under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. As the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, Invest India focuses on sector-specific investor targeting and development of new partnerships to enable sustainable investments in India.
In addition to a core team that focuses on sustainable investments, Invest India also partners with other investment promotion agencies and multilateral organizations. Invest India also actively works with several Indian states to build capacity as well as bring in global best practices in investment targeting, promotion and facilitation.
