Ten Indian start-ups graduate from 'Nexus Incubator' after a 10-week training programme

The first batch of 10 **Indian start-ups** was on Friday graduated from the “Nexus Incubator”, a collaboration between the University of Texas and the **US State Department** , during an event here. The startups were chosen from over 113 applications from across the country and underwent an intense 10-week training programme that featured workshops led by expert speakers and industry leaders from India and the US. “Nexus is really about demonstrating best practices in incubating start-ups and guiding entrepreneurs towards ultimate success in the business world” said Nexus director Erik Azulay, who moved to Delhi from Austin, Texas to set up and run the centre, in a statement. “We have brought the strongest players in the Indian ecosystem together to support start-ups on their road to commercialisation - companies that we hope will contribute to economic prosperity in India and the US,” he added. Several start-ups in the first group have already been funded, including Big Deals, which is the first company to provide escrow services in the real estate market and Dhakka Brakes, which invented a new regenerative brake system for rickshaw drivers. “Nexus really helped us focus on our target customers and rethink our value proposition,” said Big Deals CEO Ashwin Chawla. “We revamped our pitch deck and got a great response from investors,” he added. In March 2017, the **US Embassy** in New Delhi launched ‘Nexus: Incubator’. The goal of the programme was to share US best practices with innovative Indian start-ups, to provide a model business incubator and to help evolve an integrated, dynamic startup eco-system – first in Delhi and later across the country and South Asia.