InnovationQore to fund tenstart-ups every 6 months

Turbostart, a national programme that will identify and nurture the top 10 innovative start-ups every six months, was launched by Bengaluru-based InnovationQore in the city on Thursday.

Turbostart will facilitate the discovery of innovative early-stage start-ups, invest up to ₹2 crore in each of them for 10-14 per cent equity, help them with product and market validation, industry connects and all customary business support. The sector-agnostic programme is open to all Indian start-ups and is run in a competition format. Turbostart has entrepreneurs and business leaders on board as investors, along with a seasoned management team working full-time to assist the start-ups.

In order to be eligible, a start-up should have been incorporated for less than 10 years, with a minimum viable product or proof of concept. The start-up should be working towards innovation and development or improvement of products and processes with a scalable business model. Applications for the first cohort — beginning January 2020 — will open on October 15.

Vision and goals

“Our vision is to build a strong start-up ecosystem by creating a clear path to success for the entrepreneurs and eliminating the tedious task of dealing with market hurdles and non-core activities. Our plan is to fund 20 start-ups per year in two seasons — January and June. The intent is to accelerate the growth of at least 100 start-ups over a period of five years. We have raised around ₹50 crore already with additional commitments from investors on a need basis” said Ganesh Raju, founder and CEO, InnovationQore.

The company will tie-up with other incubators and accelerators, complementing their efforts. “Our teams will be visiting all the incubators and accelerators to create awareness about Turbostart and the benefits of its cohorts being part of Turbostart. We hope to attract quality start-ups from Tier-II and Tier-III cities as well. As a first step, we have tied up with Atria University wherein they will provide working space for the start-ups” he added.

Turbostart is the brainchild of Ganesh Raju. In his previous role, he headed the Entrepreneurial and Private Business practice at PwC India, where he conceptualised and ran a national level programme (LevelNXT) for start-ups looking to scale up.