TiE unveils plan to scale Indian SMEs

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SME Times News Bureau | 18 Dec, 2014
The Silicon Valley chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Wednesday announced an initiative to scale Indian start-ups globally and help them reach $1 billion in value.

"Our Billion Dollar Babies initiative aims to help select Indian product start-ups reach $1 billion in global enterprise value by leveraging our reach and resources," the US-based non-profit association said in a statement from the Bay Area in California.

Beginning January, the programme will take select start-ups to Silicon Valley to participate in the TiE CIO (chief information officers) Forum and receive help with legal, accounting, hiring, marketing and other company-building tasks.

"The novel initiative offers an opportunity for Indian start-ups to foray into a competitive global market, as they get access to our rich ecosystem of successful entrepreneurs, top executives, venture capitalists and potential customers," TiE Silicon Valley President Venktesh Shukla said in the statement.

With the country witnessing an upsurge in the number of innovative software product firms, Indian Angel Network co-founder Saurabh Srivastava said the programme would nurture the deserving start-ups to emerge as global firms.

Srivastava, a leading IT entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who co-founded TiE Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region), will be the India co-chair of the Billion Dollar Babies' initiative.

"Venture capitalists are taking notice of the growing number of companies in the US-India space. India provides a large domestic market where these companies can validate and refine their products before entering the global market," said B.V. Jagadeesh, co-chair of the programme.

Jagadeesh, who grew up in Bengaluru and moved to Silicon Valley two decades ago, is the managing partner at Kaaj Ventures and had earlier invested in the US-based Ocarina Networks, which was later acquired by Dell.

Product firms based in India with global aspirations will be eligible to apply for the programme.

"The start-ups must have raised venture/angel funding and demonstrated traction in India and overseas to qualify for the programme. One of the co-founders must be willing to relocate to Silicon Valley for the duration of the programme," the statement added.

Founded in 1992 by a group of Indian entrepreneurs, executives and professionals with roots in the Indus region, TiE has 13,000 members in 61 chapters across 18 countries the world over.

TiE strives to inspire entrepreneurs through mentoring, networking, education, incubating, and funding programmes.