India suddenly seems to be on the top of the agenda for most funding & accelerator programs.
IBM has announced a competition for startups based in India, positioning it as “India`s first competition for B2B startup by a corporate.” The IBM SmartCamp judges the best startups in different cities around India, rewarding the winners with mentoring services, access to industry experts & deeper partnership opportunities with IBM.
The company told Whats New On The Net that it will be shortlisting the top 30 startups in the B2B space & would then host a pitching session before a panel of leading IBM execs & VCs on October 9 in Bangalore . Out of the 30 shortlisted, the top 10 winners will be announced on October 9 itself.
There is a bouquet of prizes for the winners:
All 30 shortlisted startups would be getting an award certificate from IBM
All 30 startups would be an be showcasing their product/ platform to IBM Sales at an exhibition on October 10
Opportunities to interact with Jason Mosakowski, Country Leader, IBM India & South Asia Software Group & Mauricio Sucasas, Director, Ecosystem Development, Asia Pacific
Top 5 startups from the 30 winners to get IBM Infrastructure for 2 months. In these 2 months, mentorship on technology & business would be provided along with close interactions with IBM business & sales leaders
Top 3 startups to get office hours with BOLD where they have access to their team for Design, Data & Solution Strategy mentorship
Top 10 winners to be profiled by IBM & shared with VCs
Top 10 winners profile to be shared with India IBM sellers through IBM Intranet
Top 10 Winners would be eligible to apply for the regional Asia Pacific round of IBM Smartcamp.
To be eligible for the competition, IBM said applicants must be part of the IBM Global Entrepreneur Program. This is for startups to spark innovation & help startups bring technologies that tackle some of the world’s most pressing issues – such as healthcare, water management & efficient energy resources – with a faster, ‘Go to Market.’ Besides free IBM software credits, the startups under the IBM Global Entrepreneur Program can “leverage the best of IBM Technologies such as Bluemix, Big Data, Analytics, Mobility, IOT with the technology mentorship of IBM experts.”
The startups can also look forward to the Go to Market support from IBM to speed up their Sales Cycles. Startups can also make their Applications/ Platforms Enterprise ready by using the IBM labs facilities for stress testing.
To apply to the IBM Global Entrepreneur Program, startups need be less than 5 years old, should have a product or platform for enterprises & should be privately held.
All entries close on September 25, 2014.
You may also want to read: GenNext Ventures, Microsoft partner in India to launch accelerator program
Image Credit: IBMGEPIndia
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