The new program by TiE Silicon Valley aims to help scale Indian startups globally to reach $1 billion in value.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock, Adorable newborn wearing a hat, bow-tie and glasses and holding a one hundred dollar bill

TiE Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley chapter of  The Indus Entrepreneurs, announced its Billion Dollar Babies initiative, a new program to help Indian product startups reach US$1 billion in global enterprise value by leveraging the reach and resources of TiE Silicon Valley.

TiE Silicon Valley and its Indian partner Indian Angel Network (IAN) will create a new ecosystem to bridge the worlds of India and the US to help Indian entrepreneurs go global, connect with mentors, potential customers and venture capitalists. Billion Dollar Babies, which launches with its first class in January 2015, will bring selected startups to Silicon Valley for this programme.

Billion dollar baby steps

“The Billion Dollar Babies program represents a unique opportunity for young Indian companies aspiring to break through into a competitive global market,” said Venktesh Shukla, President of TiE Silicon Valley.

Applicants to the programme must be product companies based in India with global aspirations. The companies must have already raised venture/angel funding and have demonstrated traction both in India and overseas. One of the company’s co-founders also must be willing to relocate to Silicon Valley for the duration of the programme.

The programme will announce the first three companies shortlisted next week in Mumbai and will look to add about two more companies in 2015.

“India is witnessing an upsurge in the number of innovative software product companies focussed on Indian and global markets. The ‘Billion Dollar Babies’ initiative has been specifically carved out to nurture these deserving Indian startups and turn them into global technology companies with India being the anchor market and product technology hub,” said Saurabh Srivastava, the India Co-chair of Billion Dollar Babies. Srivastava is a Co-Founder and Past Chairman of TiE Delhi-NCR and NASSCOM and also co-founded the Indian Angel Network.

“Venture capitalists are taking notice of the growing number of companies in the US-India space,” said BV Jagadeesh, Managing Partner at KAAJ Ventures and Co-chair of Billion Dollar Babies. “India provides a large domestic market where these companies can validate and refine their products before entering the global playing field,” he added.

The companies will be able to participate in the TiE CIO Forum and other educational events, and receive help with legal, accounting, HR/benefits, hiring, marketing, and other company-building tasks.

“We are seeing companies with enormous global potential starting in India, and we believe with the proper resources they can become billion dollar companies,” said Raju Reddy, Adviser to Hitachi, Global Entrepreneur and Co-chair of Billion Dollar Babies. “Billion Dollar Babies facilitates guidance between entrepreneurs and business leaders who have successfully entered the global market to set participating companies on the same path to success,” he added.

Other members of the Billion Dollar Babies program include Nishith Desai, Founder of Nishith Desai Associates, Ravi Gururaj, Co-Founder of Frictionless Ventures and Chair of the NASSCOM Product Council,Ashish Gupta, Managing Director at Helion Advisors, Dinesh Katiyar, Partner at Accel Partners, Ash Lilani, Managing Partner at Saama Capital and Manu Rekhi, Director at Inventus Capital Partners.

This post was originally published in e27