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Over the last few years, India’s startup ecosystem has truly come of age. India is home to more than 40,000 startups, making it the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. However, according to a NASSCOM report, 45 to 50 percent startups fail even before securing seed funding.

Startup and scaleups are, strictly speaking, not quite the same type of organisation. While a startup is in the early stages of getting its product into the right hands and securing funding, a scaleup has already established its product in the marketplace and is on its way to accelerated, scaled growth.

So how does one close the gap between startup and scaleup and empower more startups to successfully scale up?

When it comes to startups, we at Dell Technologies don’t just want to have a ring-side view of the ecosystem. We want to be in the ring with the startups – nurturing and accelerating them to become the best versions of themselves – successful scaleups.

More recently, Dell Technologies partnered with Startup India, to launch the Startup Challenge – to empower startups to scale, and leverage the right technology to drive innovation and competitive advantage.

The partnership is focussing on helping startups establish the right foundation for GTM strategy, sales & marketing, IT and automation, people and HR, supply chain and DevOps Scaling and creating their own marketplace.

This partnership intends to engage with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)-registered startups to create a market opportunity for startups in growth stage, enabling them to not only build their business but also put them on a path to generate working capital via market access collaborations.

Building a cohesive tech stack

Growing pains are the name of the game in the transition from startup to scaleup, and the initiative is designed to help startups solve the key challenges of tech, exposure, collaboration, and business mentorship.

Successful scaleups have to keep up with the changing wants and needs of customers on a regular basis. This includes leveraging technology to scale-up and target their potential customers using an effective and time-saving approach.

Moreso, as startups transition into scaleup mode, they could lose their competitive edge if they don’t monitor their marketing funnel and keep an eye on key growth metrics – and leveraging tech to do so.

To help startups build a cohesive tech stack, the association will focus on supporting and enabling 75 startups, which will be selected from applications submitted on the platform website. The last date to submit the application is 15^th April, 2023

Dell Technologies will help the shortlisted startups with specially-tailored exclusive two-hour ‘Tech-Teardown’ sessions, and five hours of expert engineering counselling focused on technology scalability issues. The startups will also have access to go-to-market collaborations with Dell Technologies, and focused engagement with Dell Technologies’ customer ecosystem in India.

A short video that details how Dell Technologies will guide all the shortlisted startups on technology and business to address various startup challenges.

Growth-hacking masterclasses

A successful scaleup also needs to establish its product-market fit to the point of being able to confidently execute everything on a larger scale without sacrificing their current niche for the sake of growth.

Based on the potential shown during the first leg of interactions, 15 startups will be shortlisted from the 75 for the next level of the challenge. These startups will have access to an exclusive business masterclass organised by Dell leaders and powered by IIM Udaipur Incubation Centre, on multiple domains for two weeks.

Through this partnership Dell aims to impact and support startups that leverage emerging technologies to address business challenges. With the innovative technology engine, expertise in strategic guidance and consultancy, Dell is committed to help startups be future-ready and thrive in the new digital age.

Micro tinkering lab support worth $5000

In the final level of the challenge, Dell will further incentivise seven startup winners with a micro-tinkering lab support worth $5000.

The startup challenge is open to all tech startups and is sector-agnostic. If you’re a startup with a promising idea and are keen on scaling successfully, I urge you to go through the finer details of the initiative here, and apply for the challenge.