500Startups, one of the word’s largest accelerators , has announced its new international batch, which has 28 start-ups from about 15 countries in the world, with the highest number from India. About 71% of the new batch consists of startups from countries such as Jordan, Brazil, China, Israel, Mexico and Japan.

While one startup made it from each of the countries, five companies from India are participating in the batch. The start-ups will get a committed funding of $50,000 each and a chance to meet investors across the silicon valley and New York. “There is plenty of raw talent and opportunity in India. It’s just less experience, which can be supplemented by good mentorship,” says Pankaj Jain, Venture Partner at 500Startups.

The startups will be based in Mountain View for a period of four months and will get to interact with people from Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, which are just a mile away from the startups camp. The four-month programme is structured into three parts – data, design and distribution , with demo days in San Francisco and New York in July.

“Often, Silicon Valley and Wall Street investors are not comfortable and will not necessarily come to know of start-ups situated 8,000 miles away. We are trying to bridge this gap, by taking them on a roadshow before top investors,” adds Jain. One such start-up is Mumbai-based Tushky founded by IITian Talvinder Singh , and serial entrepreneur Kranti Aggarwal. The company was founded when the two friends found themselves struggling on a weekend in 2011 to do rafting around Mumbai, and could not find a genuine experience seller.

The start-up, which offers experiential trips and products on its website, claims to have generated $100,000 in revenue in last nine months. It offers trips such as learn how to make chocolates, or ride a hot air balloon, learn fencing, for a price of course. Another startup Credii offers a cloud-based platform for business software selection.

Whether it’s a collaborative word processor, an ERP software, or a file backup software, Credii aims to provide businesses select software that best matches their budget. “Besides the money and mentorship, we will get to interact with a lot of startups in the same domain, and learn from their failures and challenges,” says Aggarwal of Tushky.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/strategy/Five-Indian-start-ups-chosen-by-global-accelerator-500Startups/articleshow/20102997.cms

For global companies, supply chain disruptions can be devastating.

Witness the Japanese automakers, for example, which endured major production shortages in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that dramatically reduced their vehicle output.

As companies seek to boost profits and avoid supply chain problems, they’re increasingly investing in software from Ann Arbor-based LLamasoft, which has added about 100 employees over the last two years.

Yes, there are two capital L’s in LLamasoft — and yes, the company is named after an animal.

But the company’s peculiar name has not stopped it from winning the respect of global customers, including such companies as Nike, which invested in LLamasoft last month after years of experiencing the benefits of its supply chain management software. As part of the deal, Nike will also participate in the development of LLamasoft’s new software.

LLamasoft secured $6.1 million to fund its growth, with investments from MK Capital, which has an office in Ann Arbor, Nike, Detroit-based First Step Fund and Ann Arbor-based Augment Ventures.

LLamasoft expects to add 40 to 50 new jobs in 2013 with projected revenue growth of about 50%.

LLamasoft CEO Don Hicks said Nike’s backing was a seminal moment for his firm, which is headquartered in the historic First National Building on Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor.

“Having one of the most recognizable brands on the planet make a sizable investment in a small Midwestern-based software company is an incredible validation of how important this is,” Hicks said. “It meant we had to commit to it being, instead of a great small tech company, we’re going to be a professional global enterprise.”

Founded in 1998, LLamasoft produces and sells a software system called Supply Chain Guru, which helps global customers design and manage supply chains for manufacturing, distribution and sales.

Now, LLamasoft is using the investment funds to introduce a new software product called Transportation Guru, which will help shippers design efficient routes. LLamasoft is also prioritizing mobile versions of its products.

“We thought that investing in LLamasoft would give it that last push to acquire market share and launch new products both in the tablet space and the mobile space,” said Sonali Vijayavargiya, managing director of Augment Ventures.

The need for LLamasoft’s software, which uses prediction models to mitigate the impact of possible natural disasters, is particularly obvious in the aftermath of extreme weather like Hurricane Sandy.

U.S. companies spent $1.28 trillion on logistics in 2011, up 6.6% from the previous year and representing 8.5% of U.S. economic output, according to a study by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals. Cutting supply chain costs is a key way for global companies to boost profits and avoid disruptions.

“Designing a supply chain is something now that must be a core, internal competence for companies because volatility and change is happening at a much greater pace than it ever has before,” Executive Vice President Toby Brzoznowski said.

Brzoznowski said the company has about 150 employees today, up from about 50 two years ago. About 90 are working from the company’s Ann Arbor offices.

The company recently leased a third floor of its downtown headquarters building, although Brzoznowski said it may eventually have to move to a local office park because of its growth and the lack of large contiguous sections of office space in downtown Ann Arbor.

Brzoznowski said some of the 40 to 50 new workers in 2013 will work at LLamasoft’s other global offices, which include operations in the U.K., South Africa, Shanghai, Toronto and Brazil. The new jobs include product developers, software consultants, support systems staff and sales employees.

Source:http://www.freep.com/article/20121111/BUSINESS06/311110118/Ann-Arbor-based-software-firm-Llamasoft-grows-with-global-customers?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs