IvyCap Ventures Advisors

Decide whether you want investment or a corporate pilot

IvyCap plays two different roles, and the right door depends on what you are after.

• If you want IvyCap to invest in your startup, your route is the Pitch To Us form on its website. THRIVE, its hands-on support platform, is for companies it has already backed, so it is not something you apply to from outside.
• If you want to run a pilot with a large corporate, look at the IvyCamp programmes instead. Each one is tied to a specific company and a specific set of focus areas.

How the IvyCamp programmes work

Each corporate programme follows a similar shape: you submit an application, IvyCamp and the corporate screen and shortlist, and shortlisted startups meet the teams face to face. Clearing the process can lead to a paid pilot or proof of concept and, after that, a commercial partnership. The final decision sits with the corporate partner, not with IvyCap.

Check whether an intake is open

These programmes run in phases, and some of the ones on the site are past intakes that have closed. Before you prepare an application, confirm the programme is currently taking submissions, and note that one of the mentoring programmes charges a fee.

What reviewers look for

• A fit with the stated focus areas. Each programme lists the problem areas its corporate partner cares about; solutions outside those are unlikely to progress.
• Something to pilot. The programmes are built around testing a solution in the corporate's environment, so a working product and, in some cases, existing paying customers help.
• Full-time founders. At least one programme asked explicitly for founders working on the venture full time.

IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited is a venture capital firm founded in 2011 and headquartered in Powai, Mumbai, with a further office in Bengaluru and, by its own account, offices in Delhi, the US and Singapore. It describes itself as a homegrown fund anchored by IIT and IIM alumni, and it invests across sectors including healthtech, consumertech, deeptech, fintech, edtech, agritech and electric vehicles.

IvyCap is primarily an investor rather than an incubator or accelerator. A founder's main route to IvyCap itself is to pitch for investment, through the Pitch To Us form on its website. Most of the programmes that carry the IvyCap name are run through IvyCamp, which it describes as an initiative of IvyCap Ventures Advisors, in partnership with large corporates; in those programmes the final selection decision rests with the corporate partner.

How programmes work

Two kinds of activity sit under the IvyCap umbrella. The first is value creation for the companies it has already backed: through THRIVE, a portfolio value-creation platform, it brings a network of mentors, CXOs and operators to help its portfolio founders with go-to-market, finance, org design, hiring and governance. THRIVE is extended to portfolio companies and is not an open programme an outside founder applies to.

The second is corporate open innovation, run through IvyCamp. Here a large company sets a set of focus areas and IvyCamp runs the engagement, screening and shortlisting startups and arranging face-to-face meetings with the corporate's teams. A startup that clears the process and completes a pilot or proof of concept can go on to a commercial partnership with that corporate. These programmes come and go with each corporate's intake, and several past intakes are now closed.

Who can apply

The IvyCamp programmes are open to startups building in the focus areas each corporate names, and some accept applicants from India and abroad. They tend to suit startups that already have a product to pilot; the SUD Life programme, for example, looked for startups with paying customers and full-time founders. Founders seeking investment from IvyCap's funds, rather than a corporate pilot, use the Pitch To Us route instead.

Scale

IvyCap reports a portfolio of backed companies and a network of more than 100 mentors, CXOs and operators behind THRIVE. Its own pages give different counts of its portfolio in different places, so the exact number is best read from the firm's current site. Through its endowment it has also directed a share of its fund profits to the alma maters of its investors, including IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee, to support research, prototypes and early-stage campus ventures.

Locations

The firm's registered office is in Hiranandani Gardens, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, with a Bengaluru office on Residency Road. General enquiries go to its corporate inbox; IvyCamp's corporate-innovation programmes and its endowment work each have their own role inboxes.