Four Indian startups make it to Y Combinator’s Startup School 2019 grant recipient list

Four Indian startups have received $15,000 equity-free grant from seed accelerator Y Combinator’s Startup School programme. The local startups were part of a list of 41 companies that received the grant.

The Mountain View, California-headquartered firm issues the grant to budding startups that have completed the 10-week Startup School programme, said a statement.

Startup School is a free online course for founders actively pursuing their own startup. It is aimed at inspiring people to consider starting a company as a way to positively impact the world. It helps teach people how to form a startup, equips founders with the necessary resources and tools, and builds a network of entrepreneurs.

Founders complete the course after attending six out of eight weekly updates and attend two out of four group sessions. Startups that complete the course will receive a public Startup School page to certify the completion of the course. Founders who enroll in the programme receive training from Y Combinator’s partners and industry leaders.

Y Combinator’s Startup School Winter 2020, an eight-week course, will launch on January 20. Partners of Y Combinator were scheduled to hold interviews of founders of Indian startups for the winter programme in November.

Following are Indian startups that have completed the Startup School programme:

Circles

This is a social payments platform that lets users discover and share credit cards, settle debts  and track payments within trusted circles of friends and family. Founded by IIM-A graduates Abhiram Nukalapati and Anchal Taatya, the startup anonymously connects shoppers seeking the discounts of a particular card with the cardholder willing to complete the transaction for the shopper. It claims to have 3,000 signups, 60 transactions and a gross merchandise value of $15,000 since its launch three months ago.

Vizitor

This is a smart visitor management application that secures the check-in and check-out process of guests at offices. Founded by Ria Sawhney and Gaurav Saini, the platform aims to eliminate the use of pen, paper and computer ink for check-ins in offices by automating the process.

Wealth42

This is a robo-advisor app, founded by Ashutosh Dwivedi and Nitish Verma, which provides goal-based financial planning services. The app gamifies personalised investment objectives that helps build a habit of saving.

Sandoras

Founded by Saro Chidambaram and Sandya Mannarswamy, the startup provides natural language processing model assessment and data augmentation platform.

Y Combinator invests funds in a large number of startups twice a year. Since inception, it claims to have invested in over 2,000 companies, which are together valued at $100 billion. In India, Y Combinator has invested in fintechs such as Groww, OKCredit, Razorpay and social commerce firm Meesho, among others.