• The second edition of T-Block Accelerator, The India Blockchain Accelerator opens up opportunities for blockchain entrepreneurs to secure government accreditation, incubation space, go-to-market support, grant support and expert mentorship
• Winning startups stand to win over $700K from investment partners Lightspeed and WoodstockFund, contingent to their due diligence process and investment thesis fit

After successfully launching and supporting eight innovative startups in the first edition of the T-Block Accelerator, the Telangana Blockchain District, anchored by the Government of Telangana and Crypto unicorn CoinSwitch Kuber today announced the launch of the India Blockchain Accelerator. This second edition of the accelerator program is aimed at empowering the thriving blockchain startup ecosystem in India and sustaining its commitment to foster the creation of ‘Blockchain Ecosystem of the future’ in India. 

Launched in partnership with Lumos Labs, a technology innovation management firm with expertise in running blockchain-based open innovation programs in India, this accelerator will aim at supporting and equipping innovative deep-tech blockchain startups with expert guidance and government accreditation. This accelerator is further supported by global industry players Nervos Network, Stellar, Streamr, Filecoin, and Neo Protocol as  platinum sponsors, investment partners Lightspeed and Woodstock Fund, Incubation partner Buidlers Tribe and program partners, Guwahati Biotech Park, an Assam government led platform dedicated to accelerating entrepreneurship and technological development in Northeast India and Microsoft for Startups. 

The launch event was organized at T-Hub Foundation, IIIT-H Campus in Hyderabad with representation from the government bodies, global blockchain industry leaders, startups and members from the developer community. The event was graced by several dignitaries from the government including Hon’ble Shri Jayesh Ranjan (Principal Secretary, ITE&C and Industries, Govt of Telangana), Hon’ble Smt Rama Devi (Director Emerging Technology and Officer on Special Duty (OSD), ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana), Ashish Singhal, Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber, Kaavya Prasad, COO and Co-Founder, Lumos Labs, Raghu Mohan, Co-Founder Buidlers Tribe among other leading senior corporate executives from the industry. Global partners including Ben Morris ,Director Business Development & Growth Nervos Network, John Devadoss Founder & President NGD Enterprises, Rahul Singh Deal Flow Manager Microsoft for Startups, Justin Rice, VP of Ecosystem, Stellar, Mathew Fontana, Head of Ecosystem, Streamr, Pranav Sharma, Founding Partner, Woodstock Funds joined the session virtually.

With this accelerator, the Government of Telangana aims to further their commitment to make Telangana the ‘Blockchain Capital of the World’ and enable futuristic startups to take their technologies to the next step. Through this initiative, CoinSwitch Kuber, aims to augment the creation of a formative ecosystem which will empower startups to solve tough business problems for diverse industry verticals. The Telangana Government will help provide the required regulatory framework to enable and promote Blockchain growth. 

The blockchain industry has seen enormous growth in recent years and is steadily penetrating mainstream markets as well. India has been at the forefront of this technology from the beginning and is now a leading market for innovations in blockchain, crypto, defi, etc. According to the NASSCOM Cryptotech Industry in India report, the cryptotech industry has expanded over 39% in the last five years.  Apart from having a robust blockchain space, the technology and entrepreneurship sectors in India too have witnessed significant growth with more than 230 cryptotech startups and 34 Indian companies gaining unicorn status in 2021 itself according to the Venture Intelligence Unicorn Tracker.  Given the active and innovative wave that has engulfed India currently, the India Blockchain Accelerator is focused on further encouraging and supporting these visionaries and providing them with a suitable platform to implement their relevant blockchain solutions. 

This four-month-long accelerator will be open to early-stage Web2 and Web3 startups and blockchain developers with interesting blockchain solutions solving real-world problems across multiple identified tracks. The solutions could vary across the various identified tracks which include Fintech, Entertainment, Sustainability Infrastructure and tooling, Agritech, Logistics, and Healthcare. Furthermore, the program will be interspersed with numerous workshops, meetups, mentorship and training programs to ensure a holistic growth of the startups with the right guidance and tools. The participants will be eligible for government accreditation, incubation space, ecosystem support, and go-to-market support for their potent solutions. The startups also stand a chance to raise a pre-seed/seed investment of over $700,000+ from investment partners Lightspeed and Woodstock Fund. These investments are contingent on the due diligence process and investment thesis fit with refusal rights afforded to both the funds and the founders.

“The State of Telangana is committed to its vision to lead the blockchain innovation in India and is constantly striving towards it through its various initiatives. The India Blockchain Accelerator testifies our focus on providing the right support and guidance to talented individuals for the development of their visions. The Government of Telangana has been at the forefront of utilizing the revolutionary blockchain technology across various sectors and has a goal of building a flourishing blockchain ecosystem in India. Through the program, we hope to provide opportunities to the participating startups to pilot their solution in Telangana so that they can enhance their solution and further contribute to the accelerating Indian technology sector.” Jayesh Ranjan,Principal Secretary, ITE&C and Industries, Govt of Telangana commented.

“India has a reservoir of talent already building in the crypto technology space. The best global startups of tomorrow would run on web3 blockchain infrastructure, and some of these startups will come from India. The India Blockchain Accelerator aims to provide an essential support system to innovative blockchain entrepreneurs to help them build and scale their startups and contribute to the country’s prosperous blockchain ecosystem” said Ashish Singhal , Founder and CEO, CoinSwitch Kuber.

“India’s technology space has seen the blockchain and crypto industries evolve significantly. From its inception, Lumos Labs has been committed to enabling Indian blockchain startups and builders through opening up global opportunities and providing a robust support infrastructure. Our focus is to reach the grassroots of innovators through our custom made innovation programs and the India Blockchain Accelerator will be our biggest initiative yet. Through this accelerator, we hope to see hundreds of startups showcase their best to governments and global networks alike, furthering the India story in the global Web3 movement.” mentioned Kaavya Prasaad, Co-founder, Lumos Labs 

The registrations for the accelerator are open. If you wish to be a part of the thriving blockchain ecosystem of India, Register here: https://www.indiablockchainaccelerator.com/ 

About Telangana Blockchain District:

Blockchain district, anchored by the Government of Telangana, brings together different facets of the Blockchain technology realm including Tech companies, research organizations, academic institutions, startups, investors, enablers, and user groups & communities under one umbrella. The collaboration has been encouraged by the Government of Telangana to promote the use of Blockchain technology in the state and to foster the growth of the industry as a whole with IIIT – Hyderabad, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) and Tech Mahindra as the Founding Members too.

For more details, visit – https://blockchaindistrict.telangana.gov.in/

 

About CoinSwitch Kuber:

Founded in 2017 by Ashish Singhal, Govind Soni, and Vimal Sagar as a global aggregator of crypto exchanges, CoinSwitch Kuber is India’s largest and most valued crypto unicorn with more than 13 million users. Today, users can choose from over 80 coins, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin. The company started its India operations in June 2020 to make Crypto investing as easy as ordering food online. Backed by reputed investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, Paradigm, and Coinbase Venture, CoinSwitch Kuber is creating an investment ecosystem that simplifies investing in Crypto for retail users. 

For more information, visit: www.coinswitch.co

 

About Lumos Labs:
Lumos Labs is a Singapore based innovation management firm that specialises in running technology open innovation programs. Founded in 2018, the company has run several accelerators and open innovation programs for multiple Indian and international technology firms, corporates, governments and investment firms. Their services include Growth Services, Open Innovation, Start-up Enablement, and organizing large scale developer & technology conferences & hackathons. Their clients include Aeternity Starfleet Blockchain startup accelerator, T-block blockchain startup accelerator, Genesis hack –

A Blockchain Hackathon, Binance Build for Bharat Accelerator

For more details, visit – https://www.lumoslabs.co/

 

About Guwahati Biotech Park:

Guwahati Biotech Park (GBPP) is a visionary project launched by an autonomous society under the Government of Assam. The founders of the GBP hope to change the economic condition of the region and the state, thereby increasing the opportunities for the citizens of North Eastern and Eastern India. GBP aims to be a place where educators, researchers and business class come together as collaborative partners for the upliftment of science and technology entrepreneurship in Northeast India.

For more details, visit – https://www.guwahatibiotechpark.com/

 

Microsoft for Startups:

Microsoft launched the ‘Microsoft for Startups’ program, with the aim to help startups, create, grow and expand. They accompany them in a real partnership approach, both technical and commercial.

The program offers technical support and visibility with “Build With” and “Go-To-Market” services. It also gives you the opportunity to form a business partnership with Microsoft to take advantage of the shared ecosystem of Microsoft partner startups and their customers looking for innovation and new business solutions.

For more details, visit – https://startups.microsoft.com/

 

Nervos Network:

Nervos Network is a public blockchain and collection of protocols that aim to solve the scaling limitations facing traditional networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Nervos’ blockchain is a layer-1 protocol that uses Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus and supports smart contract development. It also consists of a series of layer-2 scaling solutions(Godwoken) to facilitate high-volume use cases. Nervos’ native token (CKByte or CKB) allows users and developers to claim storage space on the Nervos blockchain in proportion to their holdings.

For more details, visit – https://www.nervos.org/

 

Stellar:

Stellar is an open-source network for currencies and payments. It makes it possible to create, send and trade digital representations of all forms of money—dollars, pesos, bitcoin, pretty much anything. It’s designed so all the world’s financial systems can work together on a single network.The software runs across a decentralized, open network and handles millions of transactions each day.

For more details, visit – https://www.stellar.org/

 

Streamr:

Streamr provides decentralized infrastructure for real-time data. Our goal is to enable data to be transported, shared, and monetised securely and scalably without intermediaries. By facilitating new types of data pipelines and ecosystems, we support and accelerate the birth of the Web 3.0, in which decentralized applications can securely exchange data and value.

The Streamr Network is a middleware solution to be leveraged by any decentralized application, such as Web 3.0 applications or blockchain networks, as an infrastructure lego. Popular use cases like DeFi or NFTs get augmented by adding real-time data functionality. When building on Streamr, dApp developers no longer have to rely on centralized services like AWS for message transport. The Network serves as a seamless plug and play solution, which enables permissionless systems to connect to the data economy. 

For more details, visit – https://streamr.network/

 

Filecoin:

Filecoin is an open-source cloud storage marketplace, protocol, and cryptocurrency that provides an efficiently priced and geographically decentralized storage and retrieval platform. This allows people to be their own custodians of their data and makes storage more accessible to the users. Filecoin enables its users to rent any unused storage space the users might have on their hard drives in exchange for filecoins, Filecoin’s native cryptocurrency. 

For more details, visit – https://filecoin.io/

 

Neo:

Neo was founded in 2014 and has grown into a first-class smart contract platform. It is backed by a global developer community who continue to drive the blockchain forward. As an open-source community driven blockchain platform, Neo is the most feature-complete blockchain platform for building decentralized applications. Neo enables developers to digitize and automate the management of assets through smart contracts. It also provides powerful native infrastructures such as decentralized storage, oracles, and domain name service, creating a solid foundation for the Next-Gen Internet.

For more details, visit – https://neo.org/

 

About Lightspeed :
Lightspeed is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. Since 2000, Lightspeed has backed entrepreneurs and helped build companies of tomorrow, including Snap, Affirm, AppDynamics, OYO, Nutanix, Byju’s, and Udaan. Lightspeed and its affiliates currently manage more than $10 Billion across the global Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in India, Silicon Valley, Israel, China, Southeast Asia and Europe.

For more details, visit –https://lsvp.com/

 

About Woodstock Fund:

Woodstock is a multi-asset emerging technology fund house currently focused on investments in Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) with emphasis on four areas – Infrastructure layer, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Web 3.0 protocols and Tokenization (both fungible and non-fungible). Woodstock works diligently with portfolio companies to help them scale and grow their ecosystem globally. Woodstock has made early stage investments in pioneering DLT companies – Biconomy, Elrond, Covalent, Terra Virtua, Propine and Band Protocol among others.

To learn more about Woodstock Fund, please visit- https://woodstockfund.com/