BitChemy Ventures Pvt Ltd , a Hyderabad-based tech incubator-cum-seed fund, has invested a total of $6 million in three incubatee companies so far, according to its founder Sunil Motaparti. The firm, which is looking to incubate three-four ideas from across the globe every year, is close to investing in another company.
Incorporated in 2012, BitChemy’s current batch of incubatees includes 3LOQ Labs, Cafyne Inc and Altiux Innovations.
A B2B venture based out of Hyderabad, 3LOQ enables brands and retailers to understand individual customer’s behaviour, based on past action and context, using its advanced machine-learning algorithms. Cafyne is a US-based startup which helps enterprises protect their brand by ensuring compliance to regulatory and company policies. Based out of Bangalore, Altiux helps large MNCs as well as startups in joint IP development, prototyping, new product introduction, concept development, product re-engineering and emerging market-focused solutions.
“At BitChemy, we combine entrepreneurship, incubation and seed capital with operational management and strategic oversight,” said Motaparti, who holds an MS degree in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in the US.
An entrepreneur himself, Motaparti had led product & business development efforts at his previous venture KeyPoint Technologies. Before KeyPoint, he held various roles in product research and development within the semiconductor design software industry. He is also the co-founder of all the three companies BitChemy is incubating currently.
BitChemy identifies opportunities internally by analysing the technology landscape and externally by partnering with motivated entrepreneurs. “We invite ideas from entrepreneurs, and are operationally involved in building the ventures and cover all critical functions with our teams. We invest up to $2 million in each company we incubate and we also join them as a co-founder,” said Motaparti. The firm has eight staff on board.
Motaparti claims that the firm is also getting applications from across the world for incubation as well as investment. BitChemy also invites early-stage companies (which have some validation) for investment of up to $100,000 each in return for a minority stake.
“We are similar to Rocket Internet in a way that we take innovative ideas in technology and combine them with disruptive business models to build unique companies. However, our market is wide and we focus both on B2B and B2C sectors. Also, we believe in investing in unique business model than just creating a replica of a successful business model like Rocket Internet,” Motaparti said.
India is already home to over a dozen startup incubators. Some of the leading names are Microsoft Ventures (erstwhile Microsoft Accelerator), Times Internet’s TLabs, Kyron Accelerator, IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), and Startup Village. Recently, Target Corp and PayPal announced that they would launch startup accelerators in India too. Beverages major Coca Cola is also planning to launch an incubator in India soon. Early this month, Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based startup incubator-cum-seed fund, mentioned that it is also looking to foray into India soon.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
source: http://www.techcircle.in / TechCircle.in / Home> Money / by Sainul K. Abudheen / December 12th, 2013