India Need Initial Funding & Mentoring Groups

The initial stage of any new venture is quite tough to manage. Forming a company from idea stage takes lot of time and energy, if not planned,funded & mentored properly. In order to help out upcoming companies there are now specialized venture firms/groups which are providing small funding and mentoring to companies in-order to validate their ideas. I would cover few major ones ( based out in US & Europe) :

Focus Areas : Software and Web services
Selection & Mentoring Process :
Online Submission of Application Form --> Visit to Mountain View --> Selection Done and Offer Made --> 3 Month stay in US --> Pitch for further funding & Networking
Frequency : Twice a Year
Funding Amount & Equity : They usually invest $5000 + $5000n, where n is the number of participating founders (i.e. 2 founders get $15,000, 3 get $20,000), in return for between 2% and 10% of the company. The median is 6%.
Key Benefits :
1. After acceptance of offer, they write you a cheque immediately for as much as you need to cover your initial expenses. Also they give 600 USD to cover travel expenses.
2. They set up all your paperwork for you, including getting you incorporated.
3. For 3 months they will have dinners every Tuesday for all the founders. At each dinner they invite an expert in some aspect of startups to speak.
4. On Thursday afternoons they have an open house at YC for founders who want to demo their latest work or talk about strategy. One can arrange to meet with them any time during the week, but the open houses ensure no one has to wait too long.
5. Companies are encouraged to ask the founders of other YC-funded companies for help. There are now about 200 of them, and they're usually very willing to give advice or make introductions.
6. About 10 weeks in, they organize a pair of investor days at which one can present to later stage investors, one in Cambridge and another a week later at their office in Silicon Valley. Company can of course seek additional funding from any investor whenever you want.
7. YC doesn't really end after three months; only the dinners do. They continue to give advice and make introductions as long as founders need—and so does the informal network of YC-funded companies.
8. They spend much more time teaching founders how to pitch their startups, and how to close a deal once they've generated interest. In the second phase they supply not just advice but protection; people are more likely to treat companies well if they come from YC, because how they treat you determines whether in the future we'll steer deals toward or away from them.

Profile Companies : Reddit, Loopt, ClickFacts, TextPayMe, Snipshot, Inkling, Flagr, Wufoo, YouOS, LikeBetter, Thinkature, JamGlue, Shoutfit, Scribd, Weebly, Virtualmin, Buxfer, Octopart, Heysan, Justin.TV, I'm In Like With You, SocialMoth, Xobni, Versionate, Adpinion, Anywhere.FM, Fuzzwich, Bountii, Songkick, Auctomatic, Disqus, Draftmix, Webmynd, RescueTime, Reble, Heroku, Tipjoy, AddMired, 8AWeek, Kirkland North, Wundrbar, Mixwit, and Snaptalent.

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Focus Areas : Product/Service must make use of the Internet
Selection & Mentoring Process :
Online Submission of Application Form --> Selected Team's visit to London for SeedCamp Week --> Selection Done and Offer Made to 5 companies --> 3 Month stay in London --> Pitch for further funding & Networking
Frequency : Once a Year
Funding Amount & Equity : €50K for equity stake of 10%
Key Benefits :
1. There is a diverse mentor network of serial entrepreneurs, corporates, product designers, venture capitalists, recruiters, marketing specialists, lawyers and accountants that help the selected teams put together the foundations of a viable business.
2. The goal of 3-month period is to help grow and nurture the teams by providing the same level of intensity and in-depth focus on developing the product and business.
3. During the course of the three months, the groups will have an opportunity to take advantage of the same ecosystem of experts which participated in the Seedcamp event through weekly dinners and continued mentorship on various issues from scaling the business to raising further funding to M&A. Additionally, during the three months, SC will also do all the paperwork of getting company set up properly.
4. Six weeks into the project, SC will have a demo day where teams can show their products to the other groups from Seedcamp and a select group of investors. And ten weeks into the project SC will host an investor day where startups can present to potential investors.

Profile Companies : MyBuiler, Hypernumbers.com,Kublax,Tablefinder,Rent Mine Online,Zemanta

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Focus Areas : Technology based Product/Service
Selection & Mentoring Process :
Online Submission of Application Form --> Selection Done and Offer Made to 10 companies --> 3 Month stay in US for development --> Pitch for further funding & Networking
Frequency : Once a Year
Funding Amount & Equity : Upto 15,000 USD for 5 % equity stakes
Key Benefits:
Same as listed for YC & SC.

Profile Companies : Brightkite, EventVue, Filtrbox,Intense Debate, J-Squared Media,madKast, Search-To-Phone, socialthing, Villij

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Although IIMA and few other institutes started such initiatives in India, but we need such formalized organizations to provide funding & mentoring for initial development work,business understanding and company formation. The investment amount should be in the range of 12-15 Lacs spread over 3-4 months for equity stakes of 4-6%.
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR)is running Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP)which provides support upto 15 Lacs for prototype development, but dotcom companies are not eligible for this grant.

Let me know if there are any other group providing such funding and mentorship?