Japan's Samurai Incubate to foray into India, to incubate & invest in domestic startups

Samurai Incubate Inc, a Tokyo-based startup incubator-cum-early-stage investor (with presence in over a dozen overseas markets), is looking to foray into India, in partnerships with domestic incubators.

According to a report published by The Economic Times, Samurai Incubate is in talks with online funding platform Let'sVenture.com and Bangalore-based Kyron Accelerator to take it forward. However, additional details are not disclosed.

Ando Shohei, incubate associate at Samurai Incubate, said India is a huge market with a lot of talent; hence, a huge opportunity for the firm. He said there are a lot of similarities between Bangalore, Tel Aviv and the Silicon Valley.

Launched in 2008, Samurai Incubate supports early stage startups operating in the areas of management, marketing, sales, human resources and finance. The company invests up to $50,000 in return for 15 per cent equity, and has supported more than 70 companies to date. Currently, it has a presence in Germany, France, Turkey, Israel, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Seattle, New York and the Silicon Valley.

Recently, a number of foreign companies forayed into India with startup incubators. Last week, retail giant Target Corp announced that it would launch an incubator in Bangalore in January next year in association with Kyron Accelerator. Early last month, PayPal India, the online payment company owned by eBay Inc, launched a startup incubator at its development centre in Chennai.

In May last year, software major Microsoft launched a startup accelerator from which more than 30 companies have graduated so far. Times Internet Ltd is also running a startup incubation programme called TLabs out of New Delhi. Besides, Coca Cola is looking to launch an incubator in Bangalore and is hiring a two-member team for the same.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)