Amazon India the Indian arm of the global ecommerce company Amazon, announced a new collaboration called Startup C-Cube, with crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and seed accelerator HAX. Amazon India, through this collaboration, is gearing towards creating a conducive environment for early stage product startups in the country.
On the occasion of Amazon Launchpad’s first anniversary in India, Amazon.in launched a special contest to identify and support product startups in India. One successful startup will receive funding and mentorship to scale its offerings in India. The winning startup would also be supported by the three companies throughout the entire “concept to customer” journey to launch their product across European and US markets as well as in India.
Speaking about the partnership, the Vice President of Category Management, Amazon India, Manish Tiwary said, “Business growth of some of the startups on Amazon Launchpad has elicited interest in these startups, from VCs as well as other funding agencies in the last one year. We are very happy to bring Kickstarter and HAX to India to give Indian startups an opportunity to get their ideas noticed at the global stage and arm them with resources to convert these into real business opportunities.”
The collaboration aims to connect Indian startup communities with like minded people, showcase their ideas and grow them into real business opportunities while additionally supporting the Government’s ‘Startup India’ initiative. This partnership will also provide HAX and Kickstarter an introduction to the Indian startup ecosystem.
Amazon claims over 17,000 products across various categories by startups have made their way to through the Launchpad program which was launched in December last year. Launchpad provides a platform to help Indian startups increase their customer base in India and abroad. To reach the maximum number of startups across India, Amazon also partnered with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s Startup India Initiative, Nasscom 10,000 startups and Indian Angel Network.