Amazon Startup Accelerator Program for Indian D2C Startups

E-commerce site Amazon has started the third season of the Amazon Startup Accelerator program (Propel S3) aims to help startups and rising Indian firms so they may reach clients worldwide. The Propel S3 will help up to 50 D2C (direct-to-consumer) entrepreneurs establish global brands from India and enter foreign markets.

According to Bhupen Wakankar, Director of Global Trade at Amazon India, “in the first two seasons we saw incredible enthusiasm, ideas, and entrepreneurial spirit with more than 1500 firms applying for the program”. Season 3 is larger and better, offering a wider range of incentives and support to assist 50 Indian companies in entering international markets this year. Our goal of enabling $20 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025 will be significantly aided by this programme.

Participants in the programme have the possibility to win prizes totaling over $1.5 million, including AWS Activation credits, marketing credits, and a year of logistics and account management support. The top 3 winners will each get a grant totaling $100,000 that is equity-free. Also, Amazon will facilitate connections between participating startups and revenue-based finance companies like Klub and Velocity, which will offer selected offers to assist the startups scale their operations.

The program’s application period began today and will end on April 30, 2023. The event will culminate with a demo-day where participants will have the opportunity to present their business ideas to top venture capital firms in an effort to secure money to grow their businesses.

A mentorship board made up of top industry executives, VC partners, and Amazon leaders from India and other countries has been established by Amazon as part of the Propel S3. They will interact with budding firms and offer them specialized materials, one-on-one mentoring, workshops on the patterns of global demand, and tips for establishing prosperous export businesses through e-commerce. Also, Amazon will offer peer learning sessions, engaging seasoned business owners and Propel Alumni to assist participating firms in networking and learning from their current ecosystem.

One of the winners of Propel Accelerator Season 2 and Co-Founder of EcoRight, Udit Sood, said, “The program enabled us to interact with Amazon leaders and other specialists which were crucial in planning our international development”. 

“After winning season 2, we built up operations with Amazon in more than ten countries and are managing it effortlessly from India”, the team said.

The Amazon Global Selling program now has more than 1 lakh exporters from all throughout India. They are displaying millions of Made in India products to clients in more than 200 nations and territories. The program has helped Indian MSMEs export goods worth more than $5 billion in total sales so far. By 2025, Amazon has promised to support a total of $20 billion in exports from India.

India has exported goods for the past nine years, averaging $260-330 billion with $330 billion in 2018–19 being the biggest amount ever. The government has set a goal of $500 billion in exports over the next two years and $1 trillion in merchandise exports in 2027–2028.