Amazon India

Start with the right door

Amazon India has several separate programmes, each with its own team and route in. Applying to the wrong one is the easiest mistake.

• Raising capital for an early-stage technology startup: write to the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. There is no application form, so send a short, clear note about the company.
• A D2C consumer brand that already has revenue and wants to sell abroad: Propel Global Business Accelerator.
• A woman entrepreneur ready to scale: Saheli Accelerate, once the next season opens.
• Want to start selling on Amazon.in: the Saheli seller programme (for women entrepreneurs) or Amazon Launchpad. These are not funding.

Venture fund

• The fund's website invites founders to write to its contact inbox. It does not publish eligibility criteria or a selection process.
• Its stated focus areas are small business digitisation, healthcare and agritech. Amazon's announcements add D2C, fintech, gaming and consumer-goods manufacturing. Say plainly which of these your company fits.

Propel

• Apply online on the programme page during an open season. The 2025-26 edition shows as closed, so watch the page for the next one.
• Have these ready before you apply: a working product, revenue, an applied trademark in India, and a supply chain that can scale.
• Amazon says selection looks at India unit metrics, supply-chain scalability, the founding team, the product proposition, a complete application and global-market unit metrics. Fill in every field.
• Programme questions go to the Propel team inbox, ags-propel@amazon.com.

Saheli Accelerate

• Season 2 has been announced, but Amazon's pages do not yet show an application link or eligibility rules. Follow Amazon Saheli's announcements for the launch.
• The general Saheli page has an Apply Now form. That form is for the seller programme, not the accelerator.

Seller programmes

• For Saheli sellers, keep your proprietorship details, bank account, PAN and GST registration ready.
• For Launchpad, have a physical consumer product that can ship now or within 30 days.

Amazon India backs Indian startups through a corporate venture fund, two accelerator programmes and two seller-onboarding programmes. The fund is the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund (ASVF), which Amazon launched in 2021 as an India-dedicated fund for early-stage startups. Amazon Global Selling runs the Propel Global Business Accelerator, earlier called the Propel Startup Accelerator, for D2C brands that want to sell abroad, and Amazon Saheli runs Saheli Accelerate with Invest India for women entrepreneurs.

Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund

ASVF describes itself as an India-dedicated venture fund for early-stage startups and high-quality entrepreneurs. It was announced at Smbhav 2021, Amazon's flagship event for small and medium businesses, and Amazon has since said the fund has been expanded. The fund's own website lists three focus areas: small business digitisation, healthcare and agritech. Amazon's later announcements say the fund began with agriculture and healthcare and has since widened to D2C brands, fintech, gaming and, most recently, consumer-goods manufacturing, with part of the fund set aside for startups that digitise manufacturing in India. The two descriptions differ in emphasis, so check with the fund which areas it is actively backing.

The fund says it offers more than capital. Portfolio companies get a dedicated portfolio-development manager to help them work with Amazon teams, PR and marketing opportunities, opportunities to join closed betas of Amazon products, and mentorship from Amazon product leaders. Amazon names several of its portfolio companies, among them The Good Glamm Group, FreshToHome, XYXX, Hopscotch, Fitterfly, Cashify, Acko Insurance, smallcase and M1xchange.

ASVF has also signed a memorandum of understanding with DPIIT on the government's priority of making India a global manufacturing hub. This is a partnership, not a recognition held by the fund.

Propel Global Business Accelerator

Propel is run by Amazon Global Selling, not by the venture fund. It is for D2C brands in consumer goods, from groceries and beauty to bedding, kitchen, apparel and luggage, that want to grow in global markets. Participants get free one-to-one account management, workshops, mentorship from Amazon leaders and venture capital partners, peer sessions and a Demo Day where they pitch to investors. The top three winners share an equity-free grant from Amazon. Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund is named as one of the investor partners.

Applicants need to own a consumer-goods brand with a working product and revenue already in place, an applied trademark status in India, a scalable supply chain and a distinct product proposition. Amazon says it looks at India unit metrics, supply-chain scalability, the founding team, the product proposition, the completeness of the application and global-market unit metrics.

Season 5 selected 50 D2C brands from more than 500 applicants. Season 4 received more than 900 applications from over 15 cities and selected 54 finalists. Amazon says Propel has supported over 120 Indian D2C brands in four years, including Minimalist, Sirona, Shumee, PLIX, Butterfly Edu and Confect. The programme page shows registrations for the 2025-26 edition as closed, and no later season is listed.

Saheli Accelerate

Saheli Accelerate is for women entrepreneurs who are ready to scale their businesses. Amazon Saheli launched it in 2025 with Invest India. The first season received more than 400 applications from women entrepreneurs in 14 cities and selected 18. Amazon reports that 10 of the 18 businesses achieved sustained month-on-month growth on Amazon.in.

Amazon announced Saheli Accelerate 2.0 at Smbhav 2025. It is planned to support 50 women entrepreneurs in 2026, with a three-day in-person bootcamp and a focus on founders from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. In January 2026 Amazon said it was preparing to launch the second season. Amazon's own pages do not yet give an application link or eligibility rules for it.

Seller programmes: Saheli and Launchpad

Two other Amazon programmes help businesses start selling on Amazon.in. They are seller-onboarding schemes, not funding or accelerators.

The Amazon Saheli seller programme is for women entrepreneurs who want to become Amazon.in sellers. Benefits include a reduced referral fee, onboarding training, account management support at launch, imaging and cataloguing help, and visibility on the Saheli storefront. Applicants must be women entrepreneurs and need proprietorship details, contact details, a bank account, a PAN and a GST registration. NGOs and government bodies that support women entrepreneurs can apply as collaborators.

Amazon Launchpad is for startups and emerging brands with a market-ready, consumer-facing physical product that can ship now or within 30 days. It offers launch support, marketing and visibility, branded content tools, insights and brand protection. Amazon's page says it is primarily considering startups funded or supported by its collaborators, crowdfunding platforms, venture capital firms and accelerators, and also says it welcomes applications from all entrepreneurs and emerging brand owners with a unique product.

Who can apply

The right route depends on what you are building. The venture fund is for early-stage technology startups and does not publish an application form or criteria. Propel is for D2C consumer brands that already earn revenue. Saheli Accelerate is for women entrepreneurs. The seller programmes are for businesses that will sell physical products on Amazon.in.

Scale

The numbers above are Amazon's own, taken from its announcements and programme pages. They cover individual programmes, so they should not be added together, and Amazon does not publish a single count of startups supported across all of them.

Who runs it

These programmes belong to Amazon in India. The venture fund has its own website and contact inbox, Propel sits with Amazon Global Selling, and Saheli is an Amazon India initiative. In October 2024 Amazon India also announced a partnership with Startup India under DPIIT to help startups grow through e-commerce, including the Saheli programme for women-led businesses.