Germany's Mainstage Incubator kicks off maiden programme with 5 Indian startups

Mainstage Incubator, a Frankfurt-based startup incubator, has chosen five Indian startups to be part of its first launchpad programme, making its foray into the country. 

The incubator, founded by Swen Wegner and Debasis Chakraborty in November last year, aims to help global early-stage startups set up base in Germany and reach European markets, with its launchpad programme. It looks to help entrepreneurs from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns of India build startups in Europe, it said in a statement.

“This will help expand the opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs who have the drive and want to scale up their startups beyond the borders of India. India is known for its startups from the IT, IT services space, but there is also a huge neglected non-tech ecosystem,” Chakraborty said.

The programme follows a subscription-based model where the incubatees pay a fixed monthly subscription retainer, with Mainstage holding zero or limited equity in the startups. 

“Mainstage will validate the proof of concept of these startups and after studying their business model and their products, we will check for their feasibility by ensuring better standards. Once that is met, we will help them tie up with local companies and government bodies in Germany initially, before setting up a business in other parts of Europe,” Wegner said in a statement.

The five India-based startups, which were chosen from a pool of 50 applicants, are:

• Agrima Infotech is an artificial intelligence (AI) company focusing on computer vision. The Psyight platform helps enterprises build computer vision solutions to identify and analyse images for multiple use cases. The solutions are offered via application programming interfaces (APIs), mobile software development kits and on-premise deployments. 
• SimplyFI Softech is a trade finance platform based on blockchain and AI. This platform acts as a marketplace connecting  importers and exporters, and financial institutions to help address the capital requirements of trade parties instantly and reduce the risk for financial institutions.
• ETAIOTA is an AI-enabled chatbot that helps companies with customer relationship management.
• Untap'd is an end-to-end solution for the connected cars ecosystem.
• Beagle Security serves as a security engineer for web applications and APIs help fulfill the cybersecurity requirements of small and medium enterprises and startups.