Y Combinator To Mentor Two Indian Startups - TapToLearn and Plivo


Bangalore: Startups and their activities are closely monitored by various companies, capitalists, investors and also incubators. These business organizations keep a close watch to pick up these businesses and sign them on as it brings them more revenue in form stakes and goodwill. Incubators are no different, but they pro actively nurse startups as they understand the significance and market opportunity and its need in the modern world.

World’s foremost mentor for technology startups, Y Combinator has recently added two more fledging Indian startups to its incubation programme. To be chosen by this programme, is an almost certain path to success. In 2005, it had actively backed over 460 startup companies including Dropbox, Scribd and Airbnb. Three year old June Software, which uses the brand name TapToLearn and one year old Plivo are the companies which were handpicked by this programme as reported by indiatimes.com.

This induction program provides various benefits; the chosen ones get an average $ 20,000, intense and effective mentoring from world’s leading technology investors. Through this programme the startups also get access to the network of investors, mentors, advisors and peers in the valley and beyond.

TapToLearn is a startup which develops educational applications for touch screen devices. The co-founder of this company, Roby John says “The number of users has grown enormously post our incubation, from 150,000 users earlier to over 1.5 million currently.” It got picked up by Y Combinator when John showcased his company's product at a US-based technology event. It has also got funding from various sources like Hollywood talent agent Ari Emanuel, Jim Pallotta, Shasta Ventures, ENIAC Ventures, Khosla Ventures and BackFlip Studios.

Venkatesh B, co-founder of Plivo has also received assistance from Y Combinator to reach to a large mass. He says "We applied for Y Combinator to get their feedback on the product we had built and never thought we would get accepted.” It has 12 clients in business and has built applications ranging from cloud based video conferencing to remote call centers on the fast growing startup platform.