- The initiative has, across its eight editions till date, supported over 65 founders and hosted over 250 investors and mentors
16th July 2025, National: Renowned start-up accelerator PedalStart has recently concluded the 8th edition of its flagship fast-pace acceleration program ‘Start-up Sprint’ in Bengaluru. This entirely free-of-cost Start-up Sprint hosted by PedalStart has, till date, provided mentorship and support to 65+ start-up founders across India, and facilitated raising over $1.5 million collective investments across four promising cohort startups. Additionally, it has witnessed participation from over 250 investors and mentors so far, including numerous VCs, angels, HNIs and others.
An offline, in-person intensive cohort held at PedalStart Innovation Hub in Bengaluru, each Start-up Sprint edition is being curated by the PedalStart team as a unique, immersive experience, wherein the accelerator collaborates with selective founders, providing them best-in-the-industry mentorship, strategic guidance, insights, et al to help them thrive, and eventually enables few of them with funding cheques. The strategic program brings together founders of a few high-potential startups across diverse sectors and from various parts of the country in each Sprint for co-learning-and-building, go-to-market (GTM) execution, feedback loops, and 1:1 mentorship from accomplished operators and mentors.
Each edition of the Sprint is witnessing participation from a plethora of investors, ecosystem partners and top-tier mentors, creating a no-fluff environment for idea validation and business strategy refinement for the selected start-ups. Prominent industry bigwigs who are associated with the initiative as start-up mentors include Mayank Jain, Ex Chief Product Officer & Head of Marketing at Snapdeal; Shiva Chinnasamy, Ex Chief Technology and Product Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises; Kishore Mundra, Ex Senior Director of Engineering at Flipkart and Ex Co-Founder of Liv.ai; and Mohit Sethi, an experienced Product Management veteran.
Across the Start-up Sprint cohorts, PedalStart has been working closely and hands-on with a set of (upto 10) carefully picked high-potential start-ups – mostly early-stage ones – to expedite their acceleration and fundraising journeys. Launched in October 2024, PedalStart has already held eight successful editions of the Sprint, helping several start-ups to accelerate their early-stage launches and growth, and also with raising investments to scale their ventures. The offline sessions led by mentors and experts not just provide valuable industry knowledge and insights, but also delve into the participating startups’ business models, operations, growth bottlenecks, and assist them build a roadmap to execute on their short-term and long-term vision.
Chintan Kalla, Core Team Member at PedalStart said, “Our Start-Up Sprint is a launchpad designed for ecosystem enablement and nurturing the next-generation of India’s visionary entrepreneurs. Through this groundbreaking offline program, we are looking to boost the nation’s innovation spirit and fast-track entrepreneurial journeys of select founders. We launched this game-changing rapid acceleration program for propelling early-stage start-ups last year in October, and now, seeing many of our cohort startups raise capital and excel after attending the Sprint is incredibly rewarding for us at PedalStart. We believe this is just the beginning, and many more success stories shall continue to emerge in the near future.”
Each day of the Start-up Sprint is jam-packed with daily mentoring sessions, knowledge sessions and workshops, one-on-one mentorship and brainstorming, execution marathons, strategic feedback from peers and mentors, and much more. Founders also get empowering industry connections, guidance on pitching and fundraising from industry veterans, and by the end of the cohort, a few of the participating start-ups are even provided a chance to join PedalStart’s portfolio.
Notably, each edition of the Start-up Sprint usually concludes with a pitch day where select founders can pitch their ideas to a room full of active investors to raise funds for their start-ups and/or get feedback. Over the past few months, Shoegr, InsightAI, Nuvie and Flowwat – start-ups that have raised funding rounds recently – have emerged as some of the notable success stories coming out from PedalStart Start-up Sprint.
PedalStart is gearing up to host its next edition of its Start-up Sprint soon. Start-up founders who’re interested in joining the next cohort can apply here: https://forms.gle/LJ2TJU1FmLezKhtX9
About PedalStart
PedalStart is India’s fastest-growing, operator-led start-up accelerator, designed to empower early-stage founders with hands-on guidance, execution support, and strategic growth. Through a rigorous 3-month filtration process we carefully select only 15-18 high-potential startups each year. As an accelerator, we go beyond mentorship by actively investing in these startups, leveraging our deep industry expertise to help them scale, expand market presence, and build a strong foundation for long-term success. Backed by a strong ecosystem of experienced operators, mentors and investors, we are committed to transforming early-stage ventures into high-growth companies.
Website: http://pedalstart.com/
