US retailer Target to launch India accelerator

"We are in discussions with a variety of partners and start-ups for a Target India Accelerator program," Beth Jacob, Target's global CIO, told TechCrunch. The company will seek ideas which have the potential to help transform the retail industry, to better compete against other retail heavyweights such as Walmart and Amazon.

The accelerator has already invited several Indian start-ups for a pitching session later this month, including Blume Ventures-backed start-ups Dataweave, which focuses on big data analytics, and Tookitaki, which combines online behaviour and social media data to offer targeted ads.

Every year Target will pick 1-2 product start-ups. The company has not yet made up its mind whether it should ask for equity stakes in return for capital invested in these start-ups. The accelerator will also help Target identify potential M&A targets.

It will be managed by Lalit Ahuja, who runs an accelerator called Kyron, which will run the program for Target.

Target set up a captive technology center in Bangalore in 2005 to support several of its retail processes in the US and also develop custom applications.

Other corporates planning to tap India's technology scene include Coca Cola which is hiring two-person teams in Bangalore, San Francisco and Berlin to find small tech firms whose ideas can be harnessed by the global drink giant.

Japanese electronics companies too are said to be scouting for start-ups to partner with in India, especially in the area of display technologies and multimedia.

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• Topics
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