Meet the 10 startups selected for second batch of Techstars Accelerator

Boulder, Colorado-based accelerator platform Techstars has shortlisted 10 startups for the second batch of the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator.

Out of the selected startups, eight are from India, the company said in a blog post. One startup each has been picked from Nigeria and Canada. 

The companies operate in cloud computing, media, sports tech, and logistics and other sectors.

"This class builds upon the success of our inaugural class in 2019 that included companies solving emerging markets problems in the areas of environment, medical care, financial inclusion, developer tools, transportation and enterprise communication, which captured the attention of the Indian and global investor communities," Ray Newal, managing director of the Techstars Bangalore Accelerator said in a statement.

Techstars said that the founders of the selected startups are from a diverse and skilled group of entrepreneurs who possess a deep connection to the problems they are solving and the customers they are serving.

“We have founders in this class who have previously amassed audiences reaching millions of consumers, founders who have successfully exited companies, and founders who’ve already bootstrapped their way to businesses that generate close to $1 million in recurring revenue,” Newal added.

Techstars Accelerator was founded in 2006 by David Brown, David Cohen, Brad Feld and Jared Polis. In 2019, it concluded the first cohort of its Bangalore accelerator programme. It had announced the launch of its India operations in August 2017. 

Apart from its accelerator programme, Techstars has been backing startups in India. In November 2019, it participated in a seed round with Barclays Ventures to help cybersecurity startup SafeHouse raise money.

In July 2019, Techstars backed environmental intelligence startup Ambee along with film actor Aishwarya Rai.

Here are the 10 shortlisted startups:

1. Broadsheet: Bengaluru-based Broadsheet was founded in 2018 by Lakshmi Chaudhry and Shuba Visweswaran. The company curates content from over 200 global news sources and sends them in a newsletter to subscribers. Their stories are on culture and lifestyle, advice on critical life-work issues among others.
2. ChintaMoney: Bengaluru-based ChintaMoney was founded in 2017 by Uday Wagh and Narahari Rao. It is a personal budget management tool with integrated payments and investment options. The company offers UPI-based payments options where a user can connect all their bank accounts.
3. Fliqpay: Founded in 2019 by Oluwasegun Adeleye and Ayowole Ayodele, Laos-based Fliqpay is a cryptocurrency payment gateway that helps businesses in Africa receive crypto-payments and settles in their local bank accounts instantly.
4. Game Theory: Bengaluru-based Game Theory was founded in 2018 by Gaurav Chhabra and Sudeep Kulkarni. It is a sports tech company with a vision to bring video game-like experience to live sports. It also runs and manages sports facilities and coaching programmes. 
5. GSTInput: Mumbai-based GSTInput was founded by Rohit Anand in 2017. The platform helps corporate avail GST (goods and services tax) credit on travel and hotel expenses. Companies like Coca Cola, IKEA, United Colors of Benetton, Godrej, and WHO are some of the notable clients of the startup.
6. Lightwing: Bengaluru-based Lightwing was launched last year by Ravitej Yadalam and Navaneeth KN. The company helps its users to optimise their monthly expenditure on cloud hosting on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and DigitalOcean.
7. Odwen: Noida-based Odwen was launched in 2018 by Vijay Anand Bhagavatula. It is an on-demand & pay-per-use discovery and booking platform for curated warehouse spaces. They have partnered with hotel chains like Airbnb and OYO for warehouse spaces. The company eliminates middlemen and security deposits to help users get easy access to warehouses.
8. Picxy: Founded in 2018, Hyderabad-based Picxy is an online platform that provides stock images related to India. Founded by Jitendra Emmani, Vamsi Krishna and Satish Madala, the company offers stock photos at a starting price of Rs 75 per image.
9. Q Blocks: Ontario, Canada-based Q Blocks was founded in 2019 by Gaurav Vij and Saurabh Vij. The company is building a distributed supercomputer to help companies get affordable high-performance computing results. The company is planning to connect all the idle computing sources around the world to build powerful supercomputers that can be accessed from anywhere.
10. Rose Bazaar: Bengaluru-based Rose Bazaar was founded in 2019 by Yeshoda Karuturi. It is a flower subscription service catering to the vast demand for traditional flowers in India for daily prayer.