Co-founder Manas Pal announces plans for PedalStart to provide mentorship to 2,000 founders in the fiscal year 2024.

PedalStart, based in Gurugram, caters to aspiring entrepreneurs seeking effective mentorship to shape their startup journey. The platform operates as a community-driven space, facilitating learning from industry experts, refining ideas and skills, and more. Complementing the community aspect is an accelerator, adding an extra layer of support.

Since its establishment in 2021, PedalStart's community has flourished to include 10,000 startups, 300+ mentors, and 800 founders. Co-founder Manas Pal discussed the startup accelerator and community platform, shedding light on expansion plans, the working model, revenue generation, and other aspects.

Pal highlighted PedalStart's goal of curating a community of no more than 1,000 carefully selected startup founders annually. The platform conducts an accelerator on top of the community, selecting startups through a meticulous process. PedalStart, being sector-agnostic, invests across various domains, including agritech, insuretech, cleantech, healthcare, and network. Additionally, it plans to explore sectors like robotics, medical science, and deep-tech.

The community onboards around 80-90 startups out of 1,000, offering them three months of access for learning. From this group, 3-4% are selected for acceleration, and PedalStart charges advisory equity ranging from 2 to 4%. The primary revenue model revolves around equity, with an additional onboarding fee of Rs 6,000 per company.

Pal emphasized that the platform's focus is on generating revenue through equities, not cash. PedalStart also invests in its accelerator startups and other companies. Founded by Pal and Aditya Darolia, PedalStart has received applications from over 20,000 startups for community access, with 1,500 gaining entry. The platform claims to have accelerated over 80 startups and funded more than 15 companies, boasting an average valuation of $1.2 million to $1.3 million for its portfolio startups.

Looking ahead, PedalStart aims to onboard 2,000 founders to its community in the current fiscal year, with plans to invest in 20 to 30 startups and accelerate around 40 startups. Despite having raised $350,000 in total funding, Pal mentioned no immediate plans for a new funding round.