Meet the four startups graduating VentureNursery's fourth batch

VentureNursery, an angel-backed startup accelerator programme launched in March 2012, has revealed the names of the four startups graduating its fourth batch. The programme, which had started at the end of January this year, will complete on April 10, 2014. The four startups are InvenZone, SeekSherpa, Supply Chain Exchange and TheLifeCard.

The incubator claims to have received over 250 applications from startups in 25 cities.  While majority of the applications were from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, nearly 20 per cent of them were from tier-II cities like Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. Interestingly, over 80 per cent of the startups that had applied for the programme were in the idea stage.

Post the completion of the programme, the startups will present to VentureNursery's angels to raise seed investment. Over the last six weeks, each startup has gone through nearly 150 hours of intense mentoring by VentureNursery's Angels-in-Residence, Advisors-in-Residence, charter angels and other domain experts.

There were five startups in the last batch of the accelerator—Catapooolt, iLeathergraph, Perspective.ly, Peter's Pan and Trelta. While the accelerator is designed to be sector agnostic in the long run, at present, it focuses on six sectors – media & entertainment, retail, e-commerce, consumer technology, education and clean tech.

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

InvenZone

It aims to make discovery of intellectual knowledge an easy task for scholars and researchers via advanced data mining technologies. Founded by Vinay Kumar and Deekshith Marla, the company had launched its beta product in IIT, Bombay. With claims of huge conversion ratios, it is now planning to launch the product in other top tier universities in the country soon.

SeekSherpa

A mobile marketplace for hyper local travel information and experiences, it aims at connecting travelers with locals and allow for the transfer of micro information points between like-minded 'sherpas'. It will also curate and generate customised local experiences for travelers while empowering locals to meet travelers and earn pocket money through this medium. Founded by Dhruv Raj Gupta and Sukhmani Singh, the company aims to 'make travelers feel as comfortable as locals'.

Supply Chain Exchange

A web-based interface that allows transporters to dispose their services and shippers to procure them in real time. Founded Mustafa Hatim Ali Dawood and Abi Talib Tidiwala, the company seamlessly interlinks the freight requirements of the shippers with the service offerings of the transporters in the industry, to optimise and fast track the operations of both the parties.

TheLifeCard

An online only loyalty programme solely meant for Indian small and medium retailers. The company aims to incorporate several additional facets for the merchants, such as modules to increase social media presence, referral systems and analytics. It aims to differentiate itself in the analytics space by the use of automated Big Data systems to deliver solutions to small retailers. The team is currently in stealth mode and is developing the product with its parent merchants, with an expected launch by the end of April 2014.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)