Meet the five startups shortlisted for VentureNursery's third batch

VentureNursery, an angel-backed startup accelerator programme launched in March 2012, has announced its third batch of startups which will graduate by the end of 2013. The five startups, shortlisted by the accelerator are Catapooolt, iLeathergraph, Peter's Pan, Perspective.ly and Trelta.

The incubator claims to have received over 150 applications from startups in 29 cities in sectors such as media, retail, consumer technology and e-business. While the majority of applications came from metros and tier I cities about one-third of participation came from tier II cities like Indore, Bhopal and Pune. The selected startups will undergo a 13-week mentoring programme after which they will pitch to a group of angel investors for seed round.

There were four startups in the last batch of the accelerator that graduated in April this year—Interview Master, Klip, Smart Sample and The Venturator. Of these, Interview Master and Klip raised subsequent round of funding from VentureNursery.

Shravan Shroff, co-founder, VentureNursery, said the crop of startups shortlisted is different from those which were listed last two times since as this time the entrepreneurs came with previous work experience. "The third acceleration batch at VentureNursery is unique. All the selected ventures have already made a mark in their respective sectors," he added.

Here is a look at the latest batch of startups at VentureNursery

Catapooolt

Catapooolt was launched in March 2013 and is a crowd funding platform focused on movies, music and entertainment projects. It is run by Mumbai-based Starting Blocks Media Ventures Pvt. Ltd and works by offering a three-tier reward system and connects creative Asian entrepreneurs to the global diaspora. Creative entrepreneurs can use it to get funding and mentoring support, whereas communities can use it because of the rewards associated with their contribution. The idea is to connect talent from the Asian film and entertainment industry with the non-residents, who have high disposable incomes and a strong emotional connect to their roots. It was founded by Satish Kataria and Yogesh Karikurve both of whom have experience in film marketing. While Kataria previously worked at Religare, Karikurve led Magus Entertainment as CEO prior to starting Catapooolt.

iLeathergraph

iLeathergraph, is a personalised small leather products brand. It specialises in customised leather products for end users in categories such as wallets, bags and accessories for digital gadgets or business stationary and more.

It was founded in 2012 by Rattan Joneja. Joneja is a former venture capitalist and prior to starting iLeathergraph, worked at Marigold Capital Management as CEO.

Perspective.ly

Perspective.ly is a recommendation system for news targeted at online publishers, blogs and media houses. By using machine learning and natural language processing techniques, the recommendation engine will direct readers to other related articles. The company hopes to increase user engagement and the trust of publishers by providing contextual recommendations and not just personalised content.

It was founded by Ankit Goel who holds a master's in Computer Science from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Peter's Pan

Peter's Pan is a Pune-based quick service restaurant that offers all day dining options. It offers all meals—breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as snacks. The company plans to take the concept across India through a mix of company owned outlets and franchisees. The first Peter's Pan outlet opened in Wanowrie in Pune and the second outlet was opened on Fergusson College Road, Pune. The third outlet is planned at Viman Nagar in Pune.

The founder Amit Sharma, a serial entrepreneur, launched Peter's Pan after exiting Eggsunday!, a food outlet in Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

Trelta

Trelta is an online patient management platform and also aims to be the connecting dot between doctors, patients, laboratories and pharmacies.

Its main target audience is doctors; it recently launched a practice building tool for doctors, which is a web based desktop with apps. These apps enable private medical practitioners to organise their patient data and hence ensure better service delivery.

It was founded in 2012 by Varun Achar and Vaishali Singh. The founder duo was part of the R&D team at Zycus Infotech Pvt. Ltd. and the core team of imlee.com.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)