Indian government along with Canadian counterparts will today be signing a bilateral agreement to kickstart entrepreneurship program, today, in Mumbai. Zone Startups India will be running the program in India. The company is a part of Ryerson Futures Network and operates over 6 accelerators in India. Zone startups run multiple accelerators which includes multiple own-branded and corporate accelerators across India and Canada. Under the aegis of Canada-India S&T agreement, the program will be funded by the respective ministries from Canada and India.
“We believe that the potential of startups, in today’s day and age, tends to be global markets. However, not many have the opportunities and support required to launch their product and services outside their home market. Through this program, we are hoping to open newer markets for startups on both sides of the border in terms of new clients, talent and capital access. With our strong footprint and network in Canada and India, we are well positioned to help companies from both countries to grow in a new market,” said Matt Saunders, President, Zone Startups.
To empower the initiative, the governments have together invested in the program to identify 20 startups every year for 2 years and support the market access program.
The company has also started a joint venture with BSE institute and Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) and is funded by the Department of Science and Technology, India.
The announcement is expected to be made by Canada’s Minister of Innovation Navdeep Bains and Dr. Anita Gupta, Associate Head, DST. Dr Anita Gupta on the same, quoted, “DST, Govt of India are pleased to partner with Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Canada to accelerate innovation value chain and technology commercialization through initiatives having special focus on women entrepreneurs of both the countries. Such a bilateral engagement facilitated by key stakeholders, govt, accelerators, incubators and companies aim to lead ways for better economic and social development of both the countries.”
Zone startups has previously launched initiatives like empoWer — to empower startups operated by women entrepreneurs and the Next BIG India, a platform for Indian startups to gain access to the North American market.
Zone Startups has been supporting women entrepreneurs through its program empoWer. Initiated in 2016, empoWer is one of the first accelerator for women. The company claims to have accelerated 35 women lead startups and has a network of around 550 women entrepreneurs in India. Recently they completed five years of the latter program, Next Big India. The company claims to have benefited over 27 companies, with the likes of CitrusPay, Vidooly, AdSparx in the list