Lumis Partners' SCL starts 6-mth programme for supply chain startups

The Supply Chain Labs Accelerator 2020 programme is designed to make early-to-growth stage startups scale-ready and will provide them with initial funding of Rs 25 lakhs per startup and up to Rs 3.5 crore to a select few startups, a statement said. It will also offer deep-engaged mentoring and access to corporate customers to help startups collaborate to solve complex large scale problems of the industry, it added.

Investment firm Lumis Partners on Thursday said it will run a six-month programme under its Supply Chain Labs (SCL) to handhold and fund startups working in various areas like warehousing and logistics. The Supply Chain Labs Accelerator 2020 programme is designed to make early-to-growth stage startups scale-ready and will provide them with initial funding of Rs 25 lakhs per startup and up to Rs 3.5 crore to a select few startups, a statement said.

It will also offer deep-engaged mentoring and access to corporate customers to help startups collaborate to solve complex large scale problems of the industry, it added. "Our aim is to support a generation of new-age entrepreneurs, make them more self-reliant (Atmanirbhar), and boost our 'Make in India' initiative for achieving indigenous economic growth," SCL Managing Partner Ashutosh Mayank said.

SCL believes that innovation in the supply chain would be a key path not only to economic recovery in most industries but shall also be the lifeline for return to normalcy amid COVID, he added. "Through the programme 'Supply Chain Labs Accelerator 2020', SCL will nurture and invest in high-potential startups engaged in disrupting the supply chain, warehousing and logistics," he said adding the intent is to identify and adopt innovations to optimise the supply chain, warehousing and logistics.

In the last edition that concluded in February, SCL had selected nine supply chain startups. The cohort of nine that graduated showed 2X-10X growth, and five of them raised follow-on capital or were merged/acquired by the investors..