Anthropic expands Claude Startups programme with $7,000 in benefits: Can Indian founders apply?

IPO-bound Anthropic has expanded its Claude Startups programme, which will now help a broader pool of early-stage companies by offering them up to $7,000 in Claude products and credits, besides access to additional startup tools and other resources for founders. "Member benefits include a year of the Claude Team plan, API credits, special offers on tools that help with running an AI-native company, office hours with Anthropic’s Applied AI team, and more," the company said in a blogpost. Anthropic, in its expanded Claude Startups programme, is offering companies a free year of Claude Team, with up to five Premium seats for companies new to Team. It is also offering a one-time API credit of $1,000 to startups to start building their products. "Members can receive discounts and credits worth up to $45,000 from companies building with Claude," the blogpost also said. Among other perks are staying close to Anthropic, where members will be able to book virtual office hours with Anthropic’s Applied AI team. An approved listing on Claude Marketplace, which will help the companies to find connectors and plugins. They will also get access to Anthropic's events like Founder House, hackathons, and meetups, and also access to their Startup Newsletter. Yes, it is not a US-only programme, and Indian startup founders can also apply for the same. The only restriction for applying is that the company must be in a country where Anthropic's services are supported and not fall under specific sanctions or export-controlled exclusions. Companies based out of Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Belarus, Myanmar, and Syria, along with Crimea and certain other sanctioned regions cannot apply. As per Anthropic's current programme page, startups that have been founded within the last five years or funded within the last two years can apply. The applicant will need a Claude Console account, a company email matching their website domain, as well as a short description of what they are building. Anthropic says that it reviews applications individually. Notably, venture-capital (VC) backing is not needed. As per the company, bootstrapped, pre-seed and venture-backed startups can apply. Indian founders can apply to the Claude Startups programme using the Claude Console. This application needs a Claude Console account and a company email. There is one important limitation: the startup credits are for the first-party Claude API through Claude Console and will not be available for use on third-party platforms like AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and others. For Indian AI startups, the programme offers something more than discounted use of Claude: it gives teams in their early stages a way to reduce their initial AI infrastructure costs while giving them access to Anthropic's developer ecosystem as they build and scale their product/s. Sayak Basu is a digital journalist with more than seven years of experience in covering general news, politics, science, cricket, and football. He brings a sharp editorial eye and a keen attention to detail in the newsroom.<br><br> Sayak focuses on breaking stories, analysis of political and sporting events, and new scientific research that is pushing the limits of civilisation.<br><br> He has earlier worked for publications like NewsBytes, Cinemaholic, Zacks Investment Research, and Deccan Herald. Sayak currently serves as an Assistant Editor at Livemint where he runs daily news operations.<br><br> Sayak has a master's degree in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.<br><br> Based out of Bengaluru, he has a keen interest in world cinema, literature, sports, and music. Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates. Oops! Looks like you have exceeded the limit to bookmark the image. Remove some to bookmark this image.