Algorand Startup Lab – Apply Now!

The Startup Lab program is tailor-made for prototype-ready startups in India.

This first-of-its-kind collaboration between South Asia’s leading innovation ecosystem and the best-in-class blockchain protocol will provide customized technical and business support to teams building innovative Web3 solutions, while also delivering opportunities to test their solutions with customers and engage with seasoned investors.

Focus Areas

• Healthcare
  • Blockchain’s inherent security, transparency and ability to empower data sharing can help address key challenges to health care access and delivery. Startups can build solutions to improve electronic health records management, enable secure and convenient data sharing between providers, payers and patients, automate insurance claim processing, fight counterfeit drugs and streamline clinical trials.
• Tracking and Traceability / Supply Chain Management
  • Blockchain powered tracking solutions can deliver transparency across complex global supply chains, right from the origin to the end consumer. With smart contracts, all parties from manufacturers to retailers can efficiently and effectively track the asset at each handoff, helping meet compliance standards, authenticate products, detect failures and ensure visibility.
• AgriTech
  • Blockchain can be used to create digital identities for farms and enable traceability from farm to fork. With IoT sensors, environmental conditions can be captured on-chain, helping improve sustainability, yield and supply chain efficiency in the agricultural sector. Quality certifications, credit assessments and payments can also be streamlined.
• Sustainability
  • Blockchain solutions allow issuance, trading and retirement of carbon credits in an open and transparent manner. Smart contracts can automate crediting and payments based on pre-defined emission reduction criteria verified through oracles. Startups can help incentivize sustainable actions through carbon token economies and enable organizations to offset emissions more efficiently.
• Financial Inclusion
  • Leveraging the decentralized nature of blockchain, open source digital identity systems, peer-to-peer lending/insurance platforms and new governance models can help overcome the historic trust and documentation hurdles in order to deliver basic financial services to historically unbanked and underserved communities.
• Web3 Infrastructure
  • Foundational layer technologies that enable the decentralized web are key for widespread blockchain adoption. Startups may build platforms and services around data storage, communication protocols, naming services, developer tooling etc. to help other applications easily integrate on-chain capabilities without worrying about underlying plumbing.

Program Offerings

Dedicated support for startups that includes product refinement to ensure market fit, and technical, business and funding support as required to navigate the startup journey.

• Workshops & Trainings
  • Providing startups with knowledge and skills across technical and business functions to build robust blockchain-enabled solutions. Enhancing ability to communicate solutions effectively during the Demo Day.
• Technical Web3 Support
  • Personalised assistance for startups to incorporate Algorand’s blockchain functionalities into their (MVPs), enhancing the technological sophistication of their solutions and expediting the process of prototyping and testing.
• Mentorship Sessions
  • Well timed mentorship sessions with industry veterans and confidential feedback to help startups course-correct or validate assumptions to achieve product-market fit.
• Expert Interventions
  • On-call expert sessions to help resolve specific technical, legal, financial or business challenges. Invaluable resources to help startups progress unhindered toward critical milestones.
• Investor Engagement
  • Exposure to scout funds and individual investors to boost fundraising opportunities for the most promising startups.
• Peer to Peer Engagement
  • Co-working and networking opportunities facilitate peer learning and collaboration. Synergies sometimes emerge for partnerships or talent hiring.
• Business Model Evaluation
  • Expert evaluation and feedback on business models to help refine value proposition, pricing, distribution strategies and scale more effectively.
• Infrastructure Support
  • Startups are provided infrastructure resources such as identity management, on ramp and off ramp payment solutions, credits for mainnet launches on Algorand’s blockchain infrastructure. This will reduce time and costs for product development and testing cycles, allowing startups to validate assumptions faster.
• Corporate/Customer Engagement
  • Introductions to potential corporate partners/customers for pilot deployments or trials to help validate and improve offerings based on early user feedback.
• Pitch Clinic
  • Mock Q&A sessions and feedback from investors to aid preparation for actual pitches. This practice helps groom startups to communicate their solution confidently and secure funding.

Why Algorand?

Algorand is a layer one public blockchain protocol with several differentiating features:

• Scalability: Can execute up to 10,000 transactions per second
• Speed: Blocks finalized in < 3 seconds and transactions are instantly final
• Reliability: Zero downtime since launch in 2019
• Security: Inherent protection against protocol and network attacks
• Affordability: Transaction costs at a fraction of a cent
• Sustainability: Energy efficient and carbon neutral
• Smarter Programmability: Atomic transfers, Algorand Standard Assets, Rekeying, and other primitives reduce the attack surface of smart contracts
• Cryptographic Innovation: Fast Byzantine Agreement, Verifiable Random Functions, Post-Quantum Security

Key Takeaway

• By the end of the program, startups will have significantly advanced toward product readiness, market readiness and funding readiness.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible for the Algorand Startup Lab, a startup must be (1) based in India and (2) building a Web3 solution. Applicants should have a minimum viable product (MVP) or working prototype, and at least one dedicated founding member on the team. Teams must be willing and able to participate fully in the program remotely and in-person at T-Hub. The startup team should also be willing to natively build their application on the Algorand blockchain if their product is currently on another chain.
• While diversity of skills on a team is preferred, exceptional individuals with proven ability to execute may also apply. Priority will be given to those who have demonstrated progress through development work or relevant partnerships.

For more information, visit T-Hub.