VentureNursery kicks off 3rd acceleration programme with start ups

VentureNursery, an angel backed start up accelerator, has kicked off its third acceleration programme with five unique start ups.

A crowd funding platform Catapooolt, a personalised leather products company iLeathergraph, Peter's Pan, a Pune-based quick service restaurant, Perspective.ly, a news recommendation system and Trelta, an online patient management platform have joined the acceleration programme.

These start ups have been drawn from a list of over 150 companies from 29 cities. VentureNursery received applications from sectors such as retail, consumer technology, media and e-business.

Most of the applicants were from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and about a third came from tier 2 cities like Gurgaon, Indore, Bhopal and Pune.

Shravan Shroff, Co founder, VentureNursery said, ``These companies are unique as all the selected entrepreneurs have previous work experience and their ventures have already made a mark in their respective sectors.''

VentureNursery’s third batch of start ups will undergo mentoring by an elite group of serial entrepreneurs, angels’ members, venture capitalists, technologists and senior corporate managers. As a part of the 13-week programme, they will be taught the intricacies of raising seed investment.

VentureNursery was established in March 2012, by Shravan Shroff, founder and former MD, Fame Cinemas and Ravi Kiran, former CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group. The company is based on the belief that the angel ecosystem must focus primarily on maximising the success potential of the start ups.

Of the start ups, Catapooolt focusses on movies, music and entertainment projects, and connects creative Asian entrepreneurs to the global diaspora. The aim is to bridge the gap between young talent from the Asian film and entertainment industry and non residents, who have high disposable incomes and a strong emotional connect to their roots.

Peter’s Pan, the Pune-based quick service restaurant, on the other hand, offers dining options. All day western style breakfast and brunch are fast becoming popular across age groups. For a growing urban population, such options are currently available at star restaurants only, and Peter’s Pan aims to bridge the gap.

The online patient management platform Trelta, aims to make healthcare easy and accessible for everyone in India, by connecting doctors, patients, laboratories and pharmacies. Its new app is designed to solve small pain points for doctors.

Earlier this month, Mumbai-based Smursh Ecommerce raised an undisclosed amount in angel round of funding from angel investors associated with VentureNursery. The funding has been raised for the company’s social discovery and curation tool for ecommerce Klip.in.

This is the second start up from the second batch to raise funds. Earlier in June, Bangalore-based Interview Master raised an undisclosed amount from the accelerator’s angels.

amritanair.ghaswalla@thehindu.co.in