Amazon Mentor Connect launched to support Indian start-ups

As part of the Amazon Mentor Connect program, industry experts, Amazon leaders, Venture Capitalists (VCs) will provide guidance to start-ups and emerging brands enrolled in the Amazon Launchpad program in various ways.

Amazon on Monday introduced a new program called "Amazon Mentor Connect" to accelerate the growth of start-ups and emerging brands in India, giving entrepreneurs a platform to engage, learn and showcase their startups to the industry's leading subject matter experts to help address challenges.

As part of the program, industry experts, Amazon leaders, Venture Capitalists (VCs) will provide guidance to start-ups and emerging brands enrolled in the Amazon Launchpad program in various ways including:

• expert knowledge sharing sessions
• one to one mentorship with chosen mentors over a 3 month period
• networking opportunities with a wider pool of industry experts

In a press release on Monday, Amazon revealed that mentors from educational institutions and VC firms like Fireside Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Elevation Capital and Tomorrow Capital have already signed up for the Mentor Connect program.

"With the Amazon Mentor Connect program, we aim to create a support system to help start-ups unlock their potential by providing them with the right kind of mentoring that can help them scale their business, avoid blind spots, learn from the experience of existing leaders, open new doors and help them unlock infinite possibilities for a Digital India," said Pranav Bhasin, Director, MSME & Selling Partner Experience, Amazon India.

Meanwhile, the e-commerce giant is gearing up for Amazon Smbhav, a four-day virtual summit that will be hosted around the theme of Unlocking Infinite Possibilities for India' across sectors like manufacturing, retail, logistics, IT/ITeS, content creators, start-ups, brands and entrepreneurs across India. It will kick off on April 15 and run until April 18th, 2021.

In addition to those enrolled in the Amazon Launchpad, the Mentor Connect program will also be extended to the winners of the Amazon Smbhav Entrepreneurship challenge in the upcoming summit. The challenge aims at fostering entrepreneurship to encourage startups to bring their ideas, present them to the world and take them further to drive impact at scale.