Meet 10 cool, young startups in India waiting to be funded

The media are full of stories about startups getting funded. But it’s equally important to bring to the limelight those that are yet to be discovered by the moneybags. So here we have 10 cool startups in India, curated from hundreds, which are less than three years old and haven’t received any VC funding yet.

The Bangalore chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) – a network of entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley with roots in the Indus region – picked the 10 startups with help from a jury of VCs, successful entrepreneurs, and faculty of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. They will initially be mentored at an IIM bootcamp before getting coached by mentors from the TiE network.

“Our vision is to pick the next category leader like RedBus and nurture it all the way to success,” says Sanjay Anandaram, co-chair of AnthahPrerana, the name given to the TiE initiative. (Roughly, anthah prerana is Sanskrit for “inner desire.”)

The parameters for selecting the 10 fledgling startups was that they should have the potential to either be financially viable as profitable ventures or make a social impact with non-profit ventures. Here then are the ones that made the cut:

1. BendFlex

A BendFlex tool being used to inject an embryo of a Zebrafish. Photo credit:BendFlex

Two doctorates from the premier Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore – Dr Ramnath Babu and Dr Santosh Bhargav – along with IIM grad Raghunath Babu, launched BendFlex this year, after developing its patent-pending technology in an IISc lab. It produces equipment for in-vitro fertilization, such as micro-grippers for biological cells and bioreactors for cell culture. Currently, it is running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise US$750,000 for procuring instruments and setting up the BendFlex lab. Indian health tech attracted attention this year with the US$90 million funding of Practo by Tencent.

2. SuperText

SuperText provides a chat interface for a range of on-demand services, using both WhatsApp and its own app. “Conversational commerce” has been catching on in India this year with the emergence of startups like Lookup, Niki, and JoeHukum.

See: India’s baby steps towards WeChat-style commerce

3. Gamatics

This is a super-specialized ecommerce site for swimmers. From costumes and goggles to waterproof bags and anti-fog sprays, you can find anything related to swimming at Gamatics. It also has community services that provide training. Among its founders is Sharath Gayakwad, who participated in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London and has over 30 international medals to his credit as a swimmer.

Gamatics began as a software support project for a professional swimming association in Bangalore, before the swim-store was launched late last year. Ecommerce has taken off in India over the past couple of years and niche verticals are carving out a space now.

4. CloudBash Technologies

5. HaqDarshak

6. ProWaste Concepts

7. Woofyz

8. FRS Labs

9. Yoga Bimba

10. MeraFoodChoice