Infosys founders-led Axilor Ventures doubles intake for accelerator programme

Infosys co-founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal-led Axilor Ventures on Thursday announced that it would double the intake for its 100-day accelerator programme, for which it is currently accepting applications.

The programme, which is open to early-stage startups focussed on artificial intelligence, enterprise, fin-tech, consumer internet and health-tech, will now be admitting 20 startups, said a press statement.

"70% of the startups from the last batch have successfully moved to their next stage—half of them have already secured funding, one has been acquired and the others are in advanced stages of pilots. The programme enables them to...sign up customers and get funded, quickly," said Ganapathy Venugopal, co-founder and CEO, Axilor Ventures.

The programme runs twice a year, in March and September.

At the accelerator stage, Axilor does not take any equity, funding each startup with up to Rs 50,000. It puts in Rs 25 lakh as seed funding, in exchange for a small minority stake, in startups that complete certain milestones as a part of its scale-up programme.

"We are getting ready for the second wave of startups. A fast-growing base of online consumers, an enabling public digital infrastructure, growing pool of founders with prior startup experience and increase in early-stage seed capital are creating the conditions for this second wave," said, Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman, Axilor Ventures.

In the past two years, Axilor claims to have accelerated 30 startups and invested in over 20.

In December 2016, Bengaluru-based Njuta Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs events marketplace Events High, had raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Axilor Ventures.

Last month, cloud-based solutions provider SecurAX Tech Solutions (I) Pvt Ltd had secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Axilor, Parampara Early Stage Opportunities Fund and a clutch of angel investors.