Anthill Ventures floats market access programme for startups

Early-stage investment firm Anthill Ventures is launching a speed-scaling programme to help growth-stage startups focussed on health-tech, media-tech and urban-tech enter large markets such as India and Southeast Asia. 

The company said in a statement that the programme, called A-Scale, will be based out of Singapore. The intensive, six-month speed-scaling initiative aims to benefit 18 startups every year. Global growth-stage startups with disruptive technologies that challenge traditional business models and that are interested in entering Asian markets will be eligible for the programme, the statement added.

A-Scale will source deep-technology and deep-science startups from across the globe and these ventures will receive targeted mentoring on business model refinement, pricing, go-to-market and sales distribution strategies. They will also receive capital funding from Anthill’s sector-focused funds.

Anthill, which has offices in Hyderabad, said that selected startups will get funding of up to $1 million based on milestones. Startups will also get an opportunity to raise capital of up to $20 million from Anthill’s co-investment syndication platform.

“We are focused on solving the speed-scaling challenge that startups have during the growth phase to commercialise and customise their products to large markets like India,” said Prasad Vanga, founder and chief executive at Anthill Ventures.

A-Scale is supported by Enterprise Singapore, a government agency responsible for developing enterprises and fostering the country’s startup ecosystem.

Under the Enterprise Singapore Startup SG Accelerator programme, Anthill will receive funding support and access to potential startups and ecosystem players in Singapore.

Anthill said that it had started building its speed-scaling ecosystem comprising corporates, partners, investors, and mentors in Southeast Asia.

It further said that its portfolio of startups will now benefit from synergies and market connections in Southeast Asia in addition to the Indian market access channels. 

In turn, global startups interested in Indian market access which apply to A-Scale will benefit from Anthill’s existing programmes in India: Anthill Studio (for media technology ventures) and Lumos (for healthcare technology ventures), it said.

Anthill Ventures had in February last year launched an accelerator programme for media and entertainment startups.

In July, it had shortlisted six companies for its maiden programme.