India Accelerator, a startup fostering platform, has launched its Cohort’25 for IT startups and intends to invest $8–10 million in the flagship initiative. Beginning in the first quarter of 2025, this program will develop 30-35 companies in disruptive industries, such as e-commerce platforms, sustainable mobility, GenAI solutions, and defence and civil applications.
The focus of Startup Cohort’25 is on startups making a real difference, whether it be through generative AI increasing productivity across industries or autonomous drones protecting borders and improving eCommerce efficiency. According to Mona Singh, cofounder of India Accelerator, the cohort will provide not only resources but also a strong platform for achieving market readiness. In addition to funding, the initiative says it provides mentor board support. According to Singh, Startup Cohort ’25 will offer complete ecosystem support in addition to investment, including specialised mentor board access to industry experts and customised go-to-market strategies.
India Accelerator Supported 225 Startups Till Now
Two-thirds of the 225 firms that India Accelerator has reportedly helped so far have been successful in obtaining follow-on funding. According to a statement from IA, it launched a new vertical earlier this year to provide assistance to businesses that support waste minimisation, energy efficiency, climate change mitigation, and sustainability business models. In order to support the robotics and unmanned start-up ecosystem, it introduced RUMS (Robotics, Unmanned & Space) in May. Startups including Mopp Foods, Brainwired, Lawyered, STAGE, Janitri, Ethereal, and Matter are currently part of its portfolio.
Numerous mentors and angel investors, including Amit Kumar (CEO, OLX Group), Dewang Neralla (founder, Atom Technologies), and Dharmendra Lodha (CEO, JioMart Grocery), have provided support to India Accelerator. In essence, India Accelerator is a cross-functional facilitator that fosters ideas, offers mentorship, and secures funds and resources through its full-service divisions and strategic mentor-investor connections. It was founded in 2017 by Ashish Bhatia. To help tech startups in India and the UAE grow more quickly and expand internationally, IA provides seed-stage funding.
About India Accelerator
With its own SEBI & GIFT City funds, India Accelerator invests in early-stage startups through its SEBI Cat1 & 2 funds and in comparatively later-stage businesses through Finvolve. IA’s multiverse is a vibrant ecosystem created to help companies at every stage of their development. Its forward-thinking thesis, “Destination Accelerator,” fosters a culture of creativity and teamwork while advancing companies towards development and impact by utilising the strengths of local industry and academia, legal/compliance, and resource support. IA’s main point of differentiation is its accelerator program, which employs a methodical and rigorous approach that has repeatedly resulted in positive outcomes for investors and start-ups alike.
01 Booster, a renowned accelerator, venture capital firm, and venture builder with its headquarters located in Tokyo, Japan, has announced a strategic agreement with India Accelerator, the country’s top startup accelerator, multi-stage venture capital, and co-working space.
With the goal of enabling startup founders in both countries, the alliance is concentrated on creating a Japan-India Startup Corridor. The relationship between 01Booster and the India Accelerator is concentrated on a number of key projects aimed at empowering and assisting startup founders in Japan and India.
How Partnership is Going To Help Founders?
Business expansion and market access are two important areas where the collaboration seeks to assist founders in growing their companies by gaining access to new markets in both nations. Startups will have more opportunities to grow their clientele and establish a solid international presence as a result.
Another top focus is cross-border funding and co-investment. The alliance connects companies with a wider network of investors in both regions and helps them achieve necessary capital by facilitating co-investment options. The cooperation will also plan startup events and trade missions to promote cross-cultural interaction and collaboration. Startups will be able to present their innovations, network with business executives, and identify possible partners at these events.
Additionally, the cooperation places a strong emphasis on innovation and technology exchange, promoting the transfer of cutting-edge technologies and fresh concepts between India and Japan. New cooperative projects and improvements in both ecosystems will result from this interchange. Initiatives for talent exchange and skill development will include skill workshops, startup internships, and talent programs, giving professionals and entrepreneurs the chance to hone their abilities, travel abroad, and further their careers.
Both Countries Benefiting From the Newly Formed Alliance
Given India’s fast-growing startup ecosystem and Japan’s increasing emphasis on technology, this partnership has enormous potential for both nations’ startup communities. Through cross-border assistance and group expansion, the establishment of this startup corridor will allow entrepreneurs to prosper.
Executive Director Takeuru Kawashima of 01 Booster stated that the company is a firm believer in the potential of international innovation and that India offers a stimulating environment for joint expansion. Through this collaboration with India Accelerator, 01 Booster is able to collaborate closely with a thriving startup community, utilising both countries’ advantages to help entrepreneurs succeed internationally.
This agreement with 01 Booster marks a new age of cooperation between India and Japan, said Deepak Sharma, co-founder and managing partner at India Accelerator. Together, the two companies will open doors for startups to enter new markets, secure strategic capital, and stimulate international innovation.
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Algorithmic trading is quite a buzz word among the stock traders community. People are excited about how a computer program can replace a manual trader in a disciplined, scalable, and automated manner to place trades in the stock markets. Being a technology-heavy method of trading, terms like, arbitrage, NSE server racks, etc., often meet the eye of retail traders. SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) allowed algorithmic trading in India in 2009 and since then it has captured over 50% of the trading volumes in India. A major contribution to this is the HNIs and big brokerage and investment management firms who have access to the technology required to perform algorithmic trading.
Retail traders are not able to exploit the advantages of algorithmic trading due to the costs of technology involved, that can amount from anywhere between INR 1 to 5 lacs per year. But thankfully, there are startups, that are allowing retail traders also to reap the benefit of algorithmic trading.
Kuants, a Fintech based in Gurugram, is making algorithmic trading easy for those who cannot code themselves and those who are not comfortable in using the readymade algorithms available in the platform.
StartupTalky interviewed Kuants co-founder Ayush Gangwar to get an insight into the startup.
Kuants is a startup that is enabling retail traders to do algorithmic trading in the Indian stock markets in a cost-effective manner through its AlgoLab. Founded in Dec 2017, by Ayush Gangwar and Mohit Bansal, the vision of the startup is to ensure that technology never acts as a constraint ever to a stock trader in exploring the domain of algorithmic trading.
People can write their own algorithms through the web-based AlgoLab, test it on years of historical data and live trade automatically through a single click from the lab itself. For those who are not tech-savvy, Kuants takes care of the trading on behalf of the users so that the users can gain the most out of their investments.
The product is a web application that people can simply log in via Google at algolab.kuants.in. Just after login, they are presented with their dashboard from which they can navigate to different sections like the Backtest page, the help center, a SMART marketplace and their previous strategies.
Kuants lets users do algorithmic trading in two ways–
Algorithmic lab: Here users can create their own trading algorithms, and Backtest on Equity, Futures, Commodities and Forex without any code. Algorithm lab comes with an In-Built Live Execution system with top brokers across the globe. Besides it also offers the users a chance to earn by sharing the algorithm.
Smart Algorithms lets the users Live trade on verified Algorithms developed by peers. Users are given the flexibility to change the algorithm anytime without any locking period.
Some attractive features offered by Kuants are–
Simple Process of starting Algorithmic trading: Users can backtest anytime and from anywhere simply by logging in to the account
Easy Result Analysis: Thorough Quantitative coverage is done for every algorithm tested
Professional Tools are provided which facilitates optimization, stress testing, paper trading and large scale backtesting within minutes.
Ready to Trade: each time a backtest is complete, the algorithms are automatically converted to trade ready format.
Differing from the conventional backtesting system, Kuants has integrated all the individual components like data feed, backtesting code, result metrics in a prebuilt format.
Kuants – How it works
The Key USP is that people can write trading algorithms without having to learn any programming language like C, Python Java, etc.
Emphasizing on uniqueness of the Platform Ayush says, “We have developed an expression based format that automatically converts simple English language based format into a code. This enables traders and quant researchers don’t need to focus on getting the programming right and they can just focus on the code algorithm development and testing”.
Kuants is co-founded by two IIT Kharagpur graduates Ayush Gangwar and Mohit Bansal.
Ayush Gangwar (CEO) and Mohit Bansal (CTO)
Ayush Gangwar is the CEO of Kuants. He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from IIT Kharagpur. Prior to founding Kuants, he used to work as a part-time Research Consultant at WorldQuant LLC, successfully developing trading algorithms for the US stock markets for a period of 3 years.
Mohit Bansal is the CTO of Kuants. Prior to joining Kuants, Mohit worked as a data scientist.
Kuants – Name, Tagline and Logo
The name “Kuants” is a derivative of quantitative researches and IIT Kharagpur. Ayush credits a lot of his work to his alma mater and the idea of attaching the initials with what the company software does looked convincing enough and also acted as a small gesture to IIT Kharagpur from the founder.
The tagline, being ‘Where Trading meets Technology’, represents the vision and approach of the company. The logo has been designed with the concept of two different vertices being combined together at the single platform that is Kuants.
How was Kuants Started
Kuants was instituted with a view to solving the hassles that the founders themselves faced while doing algorithmic trading.
“Algorithmic trading needed a lot of programming, and utmost accuracy needed to be maintained in the entire process from start to end and. The maintenance of the code also was a task in itself which took away the focus from trading to developing the technology behind trading. From this experience, it was decided to create a common platform that trades and quantitative researchers can use focusing only on the trading part rather than technology infrastructure” says Ayush.
Kuants launched the first version of Algolab, then simply known as backtesting system through a press release in June 2018.
“Algolab’s launch garnered a lot of attention and was instrumental in getting the awareness of our product to the correct target audience. After months of hard work put in by the tech team of developing the backend architecture, it was good to see the amount of traffic we were able to handle that day” Ayush recounts.
Again, for the first 3 months, the company offered all services on a free-trial basis, which helped it acquire customers and customer feedback.
Kuants – Revenue Model
Kuants has taken a freemium approach to its Algolab, with basic features free and premium features of a monthly charge of INR 1999. In the premium version, people can do extensive backtesting as well as live trading on their algorithms in the stock markets, by opening a DEMAT account.
Kuants has tie-ups with Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd (MOSL) as a sub-broker, so the users need to open the DEMAT account with MOSL for trading through Kuants. Besides earning revenue from the users, Kuants also earns revenue through Brokerage sharing model with MOSL and by trading its own captive money.
Kuants raised two round of seed funding till date.
Funding Date
Funding Stage
Funding Amount
Investor
November 2017
Seed
Undisclosed
India Accelerator
Jaunary 2018
Seed
50 Lacs
Mr. Pankaj Chpra & Mr. Ankush Gupta
Kuants – User Acquisition
For Kuants, organic marketing techniques have worked really wonders to attract customers while interesting email campaigns are created to retain these customers.
As Ayush says – “The money we have spent till date is only for the email campaigns and that’s because our user base grew exponentially that our email services provider refused to handle that many volumes of email ids and content for free. We would say it’s a problem we loved to have”
A major challenge was to keep the pricing of the Algolab well within the reach of a retail trader. Transforming a technology that costs around INR 1,00,000 to something that will cost around INR 16000 per year, that is an 84% drop, needs innovative technology methods and implementations that provide a better experience. After numerous sessions of brainstorming, the Kuants team was able to develop the product which is affordable for retail traders.
Kuants – Competitors
Streak, Quantopian, Quantconnect, Amibroker are a few competitors of Kuants.
Having a competitor is always a blessing as it always enables a startup to do something bigger and better, that repeats as a positive and growth-oriented vicious circle for the industry. – Ayush
Kuants was selected by Morgan Stanley, the global financial technology giant for its CTO Summit, held in Oct 2018. The company was selected from among over 120 startups across Asia working in the fintech domain. The team presented its products and offering to the reveiw committee and was well lauded for its efforts and technological innovation.
Kuants – Growth and Revenue
Kuants launched the first version of the backtesting system in July 2018 and has seen an impressive month on month organic growth of 17% in users. Over 20,000 algorithms have been back tested till date(2019) on over 45000 years of data and have generated a trading turnover of INR 30 crore till date through its platform.
Kuants aims to achieve monthly recurring revenue of Rs 67 lakhs and Rs 3.7 crore in the financial year 2019 and 2020 respectively.
Accelerator and incubator have a lot of differences. Most of the time the entrepreneurs would get confused in choosing the right programme. Understanding the key differences between the two will help you choose the ideal programme for your startup.
Below are the key differences between Accelerators and Incubators
Accelerator fund companies that have a proper idea to execute
Accelerators are funded by an existing company. Big companies fund the new startups helping them to grow the business on a large scale. It is normally the top companies funding the smaller startups. Accelerators fund the existing companies that have a business model and a proper idea to execute.
The main aim of the accelerator would be to scale the company and increase its productivity. They will be focused on accelerating the company. Mostly they would help the startups in increasing their presence in different areas and making their services and products more affordable and available easily to the end consumers.
Accelerators have a fixed period of time
There is a fixed period time for accelerators. Usually, an accelerator would give the companies few months to scaleup which would be around three to four months. At the end of the four months, they will provide the company a platform to pitch their business idea to different investors. They work on a time frame which is set by the accelerators.
Accelerator monitor the companies by purchasing a small stake in the company
Accelerators monitor the companies. In the majority of the cases, the accelerators would buy a small stake in the company and monitor them. They provide mentorship and feedback to the startups. The startups also get access to a lot of resources which will help them in scaling up.
The programme of an accelerator is structured. Their focus will be to create an alignment and understanding with the startups. Since accelerators invest a specific amount in the startups and acquire equity stakes, they will take up more responsibility and the success of the startup would be their need.
Accelerators use a more traditional approach for applying to their programme. The application process for accelerators is much more formal. Hence, there is a high threshold for being accepted into the accelerator programme.
Limited Slots
You will have to apply for slots in the programme and the slots would be limited. The accelerators will later identify the top startups among the applicants. They will select the startups which can be invested in and the scalable ones.
The startups will have to show that they have the ability to grow in a fast-paced environment within months.
Indian Tech Startups Funded by International Investors
Incubator
Incubators are Independent
Incubators are mostly independent. They will have connections with universities or venture capitalist firms for funds. They support the startups who are in their beginning stages. They help the startups in building their company.
Incubators help the ideas to turn into reality
Incubators normally fund ideas. They will help the people who have a new idea that will shake the market. Most incubators fund startups who have an idea with no proper business model. They will help in transferring the ideas into a specific set of actions.
Incubators primarily focus on developing innovations. In a few cases, incubators work as a means to develop the company so that the accelerators can take them up.
Incubators doesn’t buy a stake in the company
Incubators provide mentorships and feedbacks to the developing companies. Incubators also monitor the companies but unlike Accelerators, they don’t buy a stake in the company. Incubators mostly provide capital to the companies. They are mostly funded by universities or certain economic developmental organizations.
Incubators are not bounded by time
Incubators normally operate in an open-ended time frame. They do not have a specific time period. Commonly they mentor the startups for more than a year. They would want the startups to run for a longer period of time, focusing on longevity.
Incubators are less concerned about how quickly the startups would grow. They invest their time in developing local startups. The startups will get access to various resources. Incubators focus on creating more jobs. They also help startups in licensing intellectual properties.
Even a slow-growing and startups that are less scalable can approach incubators since they are not concentrated in fast-growing and scaling up the business. Incubators are concentrated on the sustainability of the business.
Incubators are concentrated on creating a creative environment for the startups than having a structured programme.
Which one is right for your startup – Accelerator or Incubator?
Incubators would be your choice if you just have an idea that should be developed or a solution that is not much scalable.
Once you have placed your idea into action and want to scale your startup you can apply for the accelerator programme or if you have a startup that you would want to scale then you can do the same.
If you want to enter into an accelerator programme, you will have to show that your startup has the potential in scaling it up. In simple terms, you have to prove that your startup will be an asset to them.
FAQ
What does a Startup Accelerator do?
A startup accelerator is an organization that helps early-stage companies develop their product and connect them with investors.
What does an Incubator do?
Incubators are an organization, or team of experienced professionals that helps startups bootstrap during its early stages and often provides mentoring, guidance, co-working space and also at times some funding.
Do incubators take equity?
Many incubators take little to no equity, as they are funded by grants through universities, allowing them to provide their services without taking a cut of your company.
Conclusion
Although no one really knows what is good for them until they try it, choosing right incubator and accelerator is crucial. Many soonicorns and unicorns have their base in incubators and accelerators.
If you are not sure, you can always consider with someone who has experience or take help of professional business coach.
Nitin Konde
