Delhi-based energy biz Viridian, UK-based accelerator Entrepreneurial Spark to accelerate home

BENGALURU: Viridian Group, a New Delhi-based firm that offers advisory, building and other services, has tied up with a UK-based accelerator called Entrepreneurial Spark to incubate and mentor Indian startups for an 18 month period.

Called ESpark - Viridian, the program will look at startups across all sector, and will invest about $ 300 million in startups in a phased manner.

"Despite a high rating on innovation and entrepreneurship, India still attracts barely 4% of the VC funding in the world, because of some strategic gaps- in skills, scaling and business development models that entrepreneurs follow. The ESpark-Viridian JV model focuses more on developing entrepreneurs and enabling their success," said Murali Hariharan, global head (venture strategy) at Viridian Group.

ESpark-Viridian plans to set up acceleration centers in key entrepreneurial hubs such as Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Cochin, Chennai, Chandigarh and Kolkata.

"We have chosen India as our first overseas expansion because of the huge potential there for entrepreneurship to make a difference. Time to write a new chapter. I wonder how our Indian entrepreneurs will stack up against our UK entrepreneurs," said Jim Duffy, CEO, Entrepreneurial Spark. The firm is supported by top philanthropists and the Royal Bank of Scotland in the United Kingdom.The program has already picked 23 startups through a national level contest during the Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2015, and applications are open for the others, Viridian said in a statement.