By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 7 Feb: The Uttarakhand round of ASSOCHAM Launchpad – Startup Elevator Pitch Series, an initiative and platform for budding entrepreneurs, concluded today as many startups and entrepreneurs from the hill state showcased their technology and business ideas to the most important investors, corporates and industry leaders.
Of over 91 applications received by ASSOCHAM from across Uttarakhand, 24 were shortlisted and they got a chance to meet world class mentors, investors and companies having decades of industry experience to help give a better shape to their business idea and pitch for funding & technology partners to generate business opportunities.
All the applications received were evaluated on the basis of innovation, problem solving, social impact, team qualification, experience, business scalability, profitability and others.
The participants were mostly from the category of early stage startups i.e. between 0-2 years of operations and established startups between 3–5 years of operations. The top three winners from the state will now be invited for the grand finale at the Statue of Unity.
Besides, they will also get an opportunity to scale up and raise finance and/or technology or even marketing partnership with venture capitalists, mentors or independent professionals of global repute.
As part of the Elevator Pitch, all shortlisted entrepreneurs and founders were given 300 seconds to explain the concept and idea of a service or product to set of jury members, which included eminent names such as Nitesh Kaushik, Entrepreneurship Development & Placement Specialist, UNDP India; Dr Ajit Nigam, Incubation Head – Startup Uttarakhand; Dr Yadvendradev Jhala, PHD Scientist, Ministry of Environment; Dr Arijit Roy, ISRO; Anil Khaitan, Chairman, Startup Council of ASSOCHAM; Tripti Somani, co-chair; Ashish Agarwal, co-chair and GS Singhvi, MD, Hindustan Fibres Limited.
“The ASSOCHAM Elevator Pitch event continues to showcase best startups from across different cities in India, proving ASSOCHAM’s dedication towards highlighting most forward-thinking innovators/budding entrepreneurs,” said Khaitan. We offer recognition to each of the winners from Uttarakhand as they continue their journey towards making change within our society and country as a whole to further propel our economy on a high growth trajectory.”
The ASSOCHAM Startup Launchpad is giving the budding startups in tier II and III cities of India an access to industry experts who can give them the guidance they need on business, product, marketing and also connect them with right people that can help with funding process and proper guidance on how to setup business case for funding.
36 finalists (3 each to be selected from 12 cities) are expected to present their ideas at the grand finale, of which the top three will be selected. There are prizes worth Rs 1.5 Cr to be won. While top five startups will get $5000 each from AWS (Amazon Web Service), next 15 startups will get $2000 and the next 80 will get $1000 worth credits.
PayTM being a partner will provide payment gateway boosters Rs 1 lakh of free payment gateway transactions for 12 months to the top 3 startups in each city; $2500 credit for Superb Cloud to all startups; Cloud telephony solutions worth Rs 28,500 to all associated startups of growth centres at zero-cost for 6 months.
