MUMBAI: Venture capital (VC) firm Accel will invest up to $1 million in fledgling startups working in the artificial intelligence (AI) space and building for Bharat through its pre-seed scaling programme Accel Atoms. The VC firm defines Bharat as middle income households spread across tier two, three cities and rural India.
For the AI cohort, Accel is looking for startups by Indian-origin founders based anywhere in the world building companies that are using AI innovatively for business applications or building development tools for the AI ecosystem.For the Bharat cohort, the company will back founders building for Bharat across sectors ranging from financial services to healthcare. “The Bharat opportunity is immense and we see multiple multi-billion-dollar startups emerging from this opportunity. The top 20 per cent of the rural population has a higher MPCE (Monthly Per Capita Expenditure) than 50 per cent of the urban population. This highlights substantial purchasing power that is often overlooked. Innovative founders will leverage the infrastructural advancements in these regions to create scalable, economically feasible solutions tailored to Bharat’s evolving needs,” said Anand Daniel, partner at Accel.
Startups that will make it through the Atoms programme which is in its fourth edition
will receive up to $1 million in funding through equity or convertible note, and access perks worth more than $5 million from Accel’s network partners.
Since its inception in 2021, Accel Atoms has supported 32 startups, which have collectively raised over $200 million so far.
For the AI cohort, Accel is looking for startups by Indian-origin founders based anywhere in the world building companies that are using AI innovatively for business applications or building development tools for the AI ecosystem.For the Bharat cohort, the company will back founders building for Bharat across sectors ranging from financial services to healthcare. “The Bharat opportunity is immense and we see multiple multi-billion-dollar startups emerging from this opportunity. The top 20 per cent of the rural population has a higher MPCE (Monthly Per Capita Expenditure) than 50 per cent of the urban population. This highlights substantial purchasing power that is often overlooked. Innovative founders will leverage the infrastructural advancements in these regions to create scalable, economically feasible solutions tailored to Bharat’s evolving needs,” said Anand Daniel, partner at Accel.
Startups that will make it through the Atoms programme which is in its fourth edition
will receive up to $1 million in funding through equity or convertible note, and access perks worth more than $5 million from Accel’s network partners.
Since its inception in 2021, Accel Atoms has supported 32 startups, which have collectively raised over $200 million so far.
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