LocalHost, a prominent launchpad designed for startups, has acquired $2.5 million in an angel funding round from notable investors including InVideo, RedBull India, Anthropic, and Eros International. This funding aims to enhance its global founder labs and provide support to early-stage startups. The company stated in a press release that the funds will be allocated towards expanding infrastructure, boosting hardware capabilities, scaling operational teams across various regions, and supporting a wider range of early-stage founder cohorts around the world.

Co-founded in 2023 by Kei Hayashi, Suhas Sumukh, and Hardeep Gambhir, LocalHost offers in-person labs crafted to serve as a launchpad for aspiring technical and creative founders engaged in fields touching on media, software, and hardware.

In India, LocalHost operates a rigorous 50-day founder lab located in Bengaluru, selecting 15 founders for each cohort. These participants tackle diverse projects that encompass AI agents, robotics, India-native language models, and interdisciplinary media products.

Outside India, LocalHost has established labs in Tokyo and Cluj-Napoca, with plans for further expansion in San Francisco, alongside upcoming hardware-focused labs intended for Japan and France. These labs offer shared workspaces, access to hardware resources, operational assistance, and a community fund aimed at eliminating minor execution challenges.

Since the inception of its India lab, LocalHost has hosted cohorts with participation from over 30 venture partners and key players within the ecosystem. Startups emerging from this program comprise Maya Research, Prava Payments, Dawn Labs, Whisperwave, Markov, and Flashmates.