PRESS RELEASE

Sylvant Advisors in collaboration with LetsVenture launches The Edcubator

Sylvant Advisors, in collaboration with LetsVenture, today announced the launch of The Edcubator, India’s first Education-sector-focused virtual incubator.The Edcubatoris now inviting edupreneurs who are ready to scale transformative education-sector focused solutions through innovative business models.

This virtual incubator is designed to take the applicants through a selection process, led by successful education entrepreneurs and professionals.Selected entrepreneurs will be provided with mentoring support for investment preparation & facilitation.

The Edcubator is an intensive 90-day program that would guide these start-ups to develop critical customer insights, integrate these insights to offerings, develop sound go-to-market strategies, build robust financial models, incorporate appropriate governancestructures and prepare to pitch to investors

Selected participants will have access to

  • Ongoing market research and customer insights
  • Organizational learning process
  • Monthly progress dashboards & readiness assessments
  • Intensive Mentorship

 

During these months, participants would be expected to complete specific action items as prescribed by the mentors.

Upon graduation from the Edcubator, select startups shall be fast tracked for syndication on the LetsVenture platform. The LetsVenture team shall also provide personalized support to adequately position the startups for successful fundraising.

Speaking about the program, Anand Sudarshan, Founder & Director at Sylvant said “Having worked & invested in a range of education start-ups, we believe that applying a structured process in thinking through markets, customers and investment models helps our entrepreneurs achieve impact, scale and profitability. The Edcubator will aggregate all of these insights to the entrepreneurs. We are also excited to partner with LetsVenture, which will support startups to raise capital through their proven fundraising process. "

Other than the ventures selected for the incubator, all the program applicants will also be invited to register &participate in the Sylvant Insight Engine (SIE) for a period of six months. SIE is an analytics-driven insights engine that is designed to address key questions faced by edupreneurs on value propositions, markets, sales and financials, as they evolve. This Insights Engine will be launched in the coming months.

Shanti Mohan, Founder, LetsVenture said, “At LetsVenture we are excited about partnering with Sylvant, as it gives us the opportunity to build deep vertical expertise in sectors. The insights engine which provides startups the ability to plan their fundraise with a data based approach will truly help LetsVenture move to angel investing 2.0.”

Interested startups can apply to the competition through the LetsVenture platform ( https://letsventure.com/lvp/sylvant )

About LetsVenture:

LetsVenture is India's largest startup funding platform. Founded in late 2013, LetsVenture is the most trusted marketplace for startups to create their investment ready profile, and connect with global, accredited investors for fundraising. Today 5200+ startups, 1200+ angel investors, and 200+ institutional investors from 21 countries are interacting on the platform. 37 startups have raised over $10 M on LetsVenture till date. Led by a strong team, with marquee investors as advisors to the company, LetsVenture is an Accel funded startup, based in Bangalore. www.letsventure.com

About Sylvant

Sylvant provides a robust scaffolding for the future of education to be crafted globally, by leveraging the power of experts, depth of insights and network of entrepreneurs. Sylvant works with education entrepreneurs to accelerate their growth - beginning with drafting business strategies, early-stage seed investments, aiding in larger fund-raising effort, providing operational support and being a part of an entire growth journey Sylvant is co-founded by Anand Sudarshan (former CEO of Manipal Global Education), Madan Padaki (former CEO MeritTrac, co-founder Head Held High Services) and PV Boccasam (serial entrepreneur, General Partner at NovakBiddle Venture Partners, US). Sylvant currently has a portfolio of 14 education startups including GuruG, Lodestar, LabInApp, Entlogics. www.gosylvant.com

 

Unitus Seed Fund and Sylvant Launch "StartEdu" Startup Competition

10 lakhs cash, expert mentoring, and up to 3 crore in investments to be distributed to winners of two startup competitions in 2015, starting on March 27th 2015

December 15, 2014 – Bangalore.

Today Unitus Seed Fund and Sylvant announced theStartEduCompetition, a nationwide program looking to identify, mentor, incubate, and ultimately invest in the most promising early-stage education startups that are serving India’s masses – the 20 crore families living on under 20,000 rupees per month. The StartEdu Competition will sponsor two nationwide education-sector startup competitions in 2015, provide cash prizes and mentoring to the winners of each, and give the first and second place winners of each competition the opportunity to pitch for an up to one crore seed investment from Unitus Seed Fund. Participants for the competition will be selected by incubators participating in Unitus previously announced Incubator Accelerator Program, which is made possible in part through a global development agreement with USAID. Education-focused accelerator Sylvant is a co-convener of the competition, a preferred provider of expert mentoring and incubation services for participants in the competition, and is a founding member of Unitus’ Incubator Accelerator Program.

We’re incredibly excited about the growth and profitability we’re seeing in for-profit education startups that are serving the masses in India today," said Will Poole, managing partner at Unitus Seed Fund. “However, despite the phenomenal consumer demand, not enough new entrepreneurs are capitalizing on thisRs.6 lakh crore (USD $100 billion) market opportunity. To trigger momentum, we are partnering with some of India's best incubators to identify, support and develop new companies in this rapidly growing market.”

"India is at a unique point in human history with an extraordinary size & proportion of youth,"added Anand Sudarshan, Founder & Director at Sylvant Advisors. "We are seeking the best of entrepreneurial energy & commitment to participate in this opportunity. Given the complexities &challenges of the education sector in India, we believe these entrepreneurs would benefitsignificantly from our experience & mentoring. We are delighted to partner with Unitus Seed Fund in this effort."

Unitus Seed Fund has already invested in 4 education companies: Hippocampus Learning Centres, iSTAR, Curiositi and Cue Learn. Hippocampus and iSTAR are more advanced, serving over 10,000 students between them this academic year. Curiosity and Cue Learn are earlier-stage, with significant growth expected in 2015.Sylvant has incubated and advised education companies including LodeStar, Guru-G, Littlemore Innovation Labs, and others.

To attract the best emerging education entrepreneurs in India, Unitus and Sylvant have committed funds and mentoring support for two nationwide competitions in 2015. The first will be held in March 2015.

  • Applications will only be accepted from established startup companies working with partners in Unitus’ Incubator Acceleration Program. Partners in addition to Sylvant will be announced in early January 2015.
  • Each incubator partner will nominate two startups; Unitus will select the top 5 to compete.
  • Startups will compete via business plan submissions, online pitches, and live Q&A sessions on 27th ofMarch, 2015.
  • The winner will receive a “technical ” matching grant of Rs. 5 lakh, cash, to help them further develop their business.
  • The winner will also be provided with three mentoring sessions with Unitus Seed Fund partners Srikanth Iyer (formerly CEO of Pearson India, founder HomeLane), or Will Poole (chairman of NComputing, co-founder VidyaNext), or with Sylvant partners Madan Padaki (co-founder MeritTrac, Co-founder& CEO of Head Held High), or Anand Sudarshan (founder Sylvant Advisors, director at NIIT Limited, and former Vice-Chairman & MD of Manipal Global Education Services),all with deep expertise in different aspects of the Indian for-profit education ecosystem.
  • Each competition winner and runner-up will have the opportunity to pitch their business opportunity to Unitus Seed Fund partners in Bangalore for a potential Rs. 1 crore seed equity investment. Unitus has reserved up to Rs. 3 crore to invest in competition winners in 2015.

The second competition date for later in 2015 is to still be announced.


Get more information on the StartEduProgramcompetition

About Unitus Seed Fund

Unitus Seed Fund is the leading venture seed fund supporting startups innovating for the masses in India. Unitus invests in healthcare, education, mobile commerce & value-added services, marketplaces & e-commerce, retail & distribution, agriculture, and water & energy sectors. Founded in 2012, Unitus Seed Fund is part of the Unitus Group, a premier financial services group operating in India and other emerging markets since 2000. Unitus Seed Fund is based in Bangalore and Seattle. More about Unitus Seed Fund

About Sylvant

Sylvant Advisors works with entrepreneurs and early stage companies to accelerate their growth. Beginning with critical investment or fund raising effort, drafting business strategies, providing operational support and being a part of an entire growth lifecycle are the key levers to accelerate the growth of these entrepreneurial ventures.Sylvant is based in Bangalore. More about Sylvant