Venture Catalysts partners with Plug and Play!

Venture Catalysts, India’s first Seed Investment & Innovation platform, recently announced its partnership with Plug and Play. Through the partnership, VCats will enable access to Plug and Play’s globally renowned start-up accelerator framework to budding Indian ventures and empower them with state-of-the-art support infrastructure that will promote scale, sustainability and success.

Based out of the famed Silicon Valley in the US, Plug and Play is a leading global start-up accelerator. The organisation is a global innovation platform for start-ups, corporate and investors and has been referred to as the ‘United Nations of start-ups’. Plug and Play reviews over 4000 start-ups every year and invests in more than 100 new ventures annually. With over 250 successful companies in its portfolio, Plug and Play has previously been involved as a start-up accelerator with Dropbox, PayPal, LendingClub and Zoosk amongst others.

Speaking on the association, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder, Venture Catalysts, commented, “India, despite registering rapid start-up growth, is at present severely lacking in early-stage support for upcoming ventures. This results in nearly 85-90 percent of Indian start-ups shutting down within the first few years of their operations. This is where this partnership with Plug and Play comes into picture. By leveraging Plug and Play’s proven expertise in accelerating start-up growth, we will be exposing Indian start-ups to strategic opportunities from across the globe. We are confident that this association will empower Indian ventures with a global perspective and will help them evolve differently, thus propelling them to be game-changers in their chosen market segment.”

The association between VCats and Plug and Play will see Indian companies being exposed to strategic opportunities to connect with potential partners, investors and mentors from around the world. Indian ventures will be instructed about the various facets of the start-up business by leading global domain experts. Dedicated mentoring and coaching support on the diverse aspects of business development and business management would also be provided under the association.

Yael Oppenheimer, International Operations Manager, Plug and Play said, “Our association with Venture Catalysts is perfectly timed as the Startup culture in India is touching new heights. With budding entrepreneurs looking for all-round solutions, VCats is a welcome move towards bringing synergy in the startup ecosystem identifying fresh talent as well as nurturing them. We are delighted to partner with VCats bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and India"

VCats will additionally identify most relevant start-up ideas for the programme, and will help them go to Silicon Valley for an invaluable learning experience. Interactions with founders and CEOs of several US-based and international start-ups at various growth stages will be also scheduled to share start-up experiences, challenges and problem solution.

The move marks another giant stride made by VCats towards its ultimate goal of making India the start-up hub of the world. The organisation has previous announced its ambition of revitalising the early stage investment segment through its disruptive business model and integrated one-stop start-up solutions. Venture Catalysts is already making major inroads in the Indian start-up ecosystem with its angel network, venture funding, co-working facility and effective post-investment support.