Startup Sherpas
Gurugram, Haryana, India
Overview
Startup Sherpas is an accelerator fund and angel network based in Gurugram, India, dedicated to empowering early-stage consumer brands and direct-to-consumer (D2C) startups. Its core mission is to help these startups become major consumer brands by providing a combination of capital and deep, personalized mentorship through industry experts known as Sherpas. These mentors support founders in critical areas such as marketing, sales, supply chain, legal, and growth strategies to accelerate startup growth.
- Total investments
- 1
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 1
- Active investors
- 1
Sector focus
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- FinTech
- Impact Investing
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- DUSQ
Participated · Seed · Feb 2026
Originally launched as InnerGize in 2023, DUSQ pivoted from general stress management to sleep regulation and rebranded to reflect this focus. Its core product is an adhesive wearable placed behind the ear that stimulates the vagus nerve, paired with smart sensors that track and optimize users’ sleep and recovery. The company has collected millions of psychological data points to build a proprietary model linking autonomic signals to fragmented sleep, positioning its platform to move beyond passive tracking toward restoring biological function. With the new capital, DUSQ plans to scale its neuroscience and hardware teams, deepen R&D in its in-house sleep laboratory, and debut its product in the U.S. market around March before expanding to other regions. Management sees the expanding global wearables sector as ripe for solutions that deliver interventions rather than just data. To date, DUSQ has raised about ₹30.5 Crore across pre-seed and seed rounds, remaining pre-revenue as it readies its commercial launch.
Team
Himanshu M.
Founder & Solo GP
LinkedIn