Despite all odds, India is counting on its entrepreneurial zeal for its growth recovery. Riding high on this growth, Entrepreneur First (EF), a global tech talent investor has announced strategic plans to support 200 entrepreneurs in India in the next financial year.

The firm has already supported over 200 founders in India since its inception in 2019. It has helped them create and invested in 27 Indian tech startups in the last two years.

Bullish on India’s entrepreneurial progress reinforced by the exponential rise in the number of applications to their cohorts over the last two years, EF is firmly focused on tech and market-led innovations. It will continue to identify talented and ambitious aspiring tech entrepreneurs in India through diverse efforts, including collaboration with premier technology institutes and industry leaders in the ecosystem.

EF’s investment strategy is unique in its way as it bridges the traditional venture capital funding and startup development by investing in talented entrepreneurs early even before they have a company. Commenting on the company’s India strategy, Esha Tiwary, General Manager, Entrepreneur First, India, said, “At Entrepreneur First, we’re building a new way to enable tech entrepreneurs. Talented aspiring founders often don’t succeed in their entrepreneurial journey due to reasons such as not having a co-founder, not being sure of an idea, not having an advisory ecosystem or early funding. EF addresses all these barriers to unlock founder potential in both technical and business talent. We pride ourselves in bringing together a cohort of 50 exceptional people in India every six months - all of whom want to start up. As we work to enable strong outcomes for these founders, collaboration is the key. We will be working closely with our alumni founder community, dynamic corporate partners and functional specialists as mentors to power the Indian start-up growth story.”

“In fact, despite the pandemic, in 2020 the investor interest in our start-ups was unprecedented with over 77 early-stage VCs and investors attending our last Investor Day in September. The funding scenario was promising, with five of our start-ups raising follow-on rounds. Unbox Robotics, LightspeedAI Labs and Qzense have already made their funding announcements. While the year was challenging in more ways than one, these entrepreneurs have shown incredible resilience, adapting to changes in consumer behaviour and the uncertain market conditions. In 2021, we are excited to explore the new opportunities created by unparalleled levels of digitization,” she further noted.