{"id":230531,"date":"2026-03-24T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/24\/accel-prosus-pick-six-off-the-map-startups-for-inaugural-india-cohort-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:30:00","slug":"accel-prosus-pick-six-off-the-map-startups-for-inaugural-india-cohort-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/24\/accel-prosus-pick-six-off-the-map-startups-for-inaugural-india-cohort-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Accel, Prosus pick six &#8216;off-the-map&#8217; startups for inaugural India cohort | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Accel and Prosus have selected six startups for their first joint cohort in India, backing what they describe as \u201coff-the-map\u201d ideas \u2014 companies working on problems where markets are undefined and progress is difficult to measure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The inaugural cohort spans healthcare, climate, space, and longevity, reflecting a focus on science-led themes with long development timelines and uncertain commercial pathways. The six startups were selected from more than 2,000 applications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are the selected startups:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/praan.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Praan<\/a> is developing air infrastructure systems to improve indoor air quality using purification, sensing, and automated controls. The Mumbai-based startup has previously <a href=\"https:\/\/praan.io\/news\/praan-raises-venture-capital-in-an-oversubscribed-round\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">raised<\/a> funding from investors including Social Impact Capital, Aera VC, and Avaana Capital, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/praan.io\/news\/praan-raises-additional-capital-from-strategic-investors-kirloskar-thyssenkrupp-elon-musks-team-and-others\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">strategic investors and family offices<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/qosmic.space\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">QOSMIC<\/a> is developing optical communication systems for data transfer between satellites and Earth. The Bengaluru-based startup is working on increasing bandwidth and reducing latency in space-based networks.<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.etherealx.space\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ethereal Exploration Guild<\/a>, also known as EtherealX, is developing reusable orbital launch vehicles to lower the cost of accessing space. The Bengaluru-based startup <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/01\/15\/etherealx-jumps-5-5x-in-valuation-on-spacex-style-reuse-bet-from-india\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">last raised a $20.5 million Series A round<\/a> led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital at an $80.5 million valuation.<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dognosis.tech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Dognosis<\/a> is working on detecting multiple cancers from breath, using dogs\u2019 sense of smell along with robotics and AI. Its product, BreatheEasy, involves patients breathing into a mask, with the sample later analyzed in a lab to detect cancer-linked markers.<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ferra.club\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Ferra<\/a> is building a home-based strength-training system to help people maintain mobility as they age. The system adjusts resistance automatically to match a user\u2019s performance.<\/li>\n<li class=\"wp-block-list-item\">A sixth startup, operating in stealth, is developing brain-computer interfaces to enable direct communication between the human brain and external systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/10\/26\/accel-and-prosus-team-up-to-back-early-stage-indian-startups-building-for-1-4b-people\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Announced<\/a> in October, the program aims to back startups outside the industry\u2019s usual playbook, rather than those that are easiest to fund, the firms said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As part of the program, Accel and Prosus are co-investing in each startup, with Prosus matching Accel\u2019s investment, and checks ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. The firms are using a structure that reduces early dilution for founders, with a portion of the capital deferred so equity is given up at a later stage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The firms say the model is designed for startups with long development cycles. \u201cMore than capital, they require time to make those breakthroughs,\u201d said Pratik Agarwal (pictured above, left), partner at Accel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These companies often follow a non-linear path, according to Ashutosh Sharma (pictured above, right), head of India ecosystem at Prosus. Progress depends on achieving key technical breakthroughs rather than steady growth, he said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-techcrunch-inline-cta\">\n<div class=\"inline-cta__wrapper\">\n<p>Techcrunch event<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-cta__content\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__location\">San Francisco, CA<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__separator\">|<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__date\">October 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/03\/24\/accel-prosus-pick-six-off-the-map-startups-for-inaugural-india-cohort-atoms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accel and Prosus have selected six startups for their first joint cohort in India, backing what they describe as \u201coff-the-map\u201d ideas \u2014 companies working on problems where markets are undefined and progress is difficult to measure. The inaugural cohort spans healthcare, climate, space, and longevity, reflecting a focus on science-led themes with long development timelines [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-230531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}