Today, Amazon India launched a programme to accelerate upcoming consumer products startups and help them reach around the world. The initiative is titled Amazon Global Selling Propel (AGSP) which is designed to provide dedicated support to emerging Indian brands and startups.
Amazon has tied up with the Invest India Initiative which is a government-led programme. The first batch of the six-month-long accelerator programme will have close to 10 startups, who will be offered mentorship sessions from the Indian startup community, Amazon said.
Amazon will also host open virtual mentorship sessions focused on peer learning by inviting veteran entrepreneurs and members from its mentorship board for startups, to network and learn from their existing ecosystem.
Amazon India has also declared to provide an equity-free grant of $50,000 to each of these startups and has tied up with venture capital firms Sequoia Capital India and Fireside Ventures, who will make follow on investment in selected businesses.
Abhijit Kamra, director, global trade at Amazon India, said, “Over the last couple of years, across the length and breadth of categories we have seen successful sellers emerge for India…From Amazon’s perspective, we thought of creating a programme to accelerate the phenomena in the country.”
He further added that Amazon India is targeting startups that are between seed and pre-series A stage, with an export-oriented mindset.
“The adoption of technology and digital transformation has paved the way for India to be at the forefront of innovation, giving rise to some of the best startups in the world. There are many promising, emerging brands that have the capability to become big and go globals,” said Deepak Bagla, managing director and chief executive of Invest India.
Amit Agarwal, global senior vice president and country head, Amazon India, said that “…partnership with Startup India to launch this accelerator program will provide emerging brands with an opportunity to bring their business propositions to life and help create globally popular brands from India. With Amazon Global Selling, we will continue to make exports simple and accessible to businesses of all sizes and fulfil our commitment of enabling $10 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025.”
Last year when CEO Jeff Bezos visited India he promised that the company will help export goods worth $10 billion from the country by 2025.
