By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 6 Feb: Apex industry body ASSOCHAM is providing an opportunity to budding entrepreneurs in Uttarakhand to meet and exchange ideas between startups, investors, customers, partners, leaders and change-makers at its ‘Startup Elevator Pitch’ event on 7 February at The University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, here.
ASSOCHAM Launchpad – Startup Elevator Pitch Series, an initiative and platform for budding entrepreneurs, is being organised in 12 cities across India. Under this initiative, ASSOCHAM is giving upcoming startups in tier II and III cities of India 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 the funding process and proper guidance on how to setup business case for funding.
“The ASSOCHAM is providing a valuable opportunity to ‘startupreneurs’ across Uttarakhand to pitch to multiple investors, gain some valuable exposure, and get some equally valuable feedback. Besides, they will get to network, potentially build partnerships and, most importantly, get a chance to secure funding and accelerate their business,” said Anil Khaitan, Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council on Startups.
Anupam Diwedi, Deputy Director, Directorate of Industries, Uttarakhand, would be the Chief Guest for the ASSOCHAM startup event in Dehradun, while Rakesh Kumar Khurana, Senior Manager, National Stock Exchange Limited, would deliver the industry address.
The jury for the Dehradun round of the Launchpad includes 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.
“We at ASSOCHAM are offering innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities for startups across India. This platform consists of a series of startup conferences and competitions that bring together phenomenal budding startups in the country,” said Somani, who’s also CEO, KGS Advisors, knowledge partner for ASSOCHAM Launchpad.
The format of ASSOCHAM Elevator Pitch is such that the entrepreneurs and founders are given 300 seconds to explain the concept and idea of a service or product to a panel of judges and a big, live audience.
Early stage startups i.e. those between 0-2 years of operations and established startups between 3–5 years of operations are invited for participation. The top three winners from Dehradun will be invited for the grand finale in February 2020 at the Statue of Unity and will have the opportunity to win prizes worth up to Rs 1.5 crore.
The launchpad works a little like a commercial incubator whereby people share their business ideas with the ASSOCHAM Startup Council, initially. Then, when a business plan is formed, they meet with programme mentors and local businesses in their industry.
The ASSOCHAM programme, both, complements and supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship initiative of ‘Startup India,’ thereby supporting the entrepreneurship ecosystem of the country. It incorporates mentorship and guidance from industry’s best leaders together with co-working space for all selected startups for a period of three months at no cost. Each of the startups making it would get three meetings with investors and a chance to pitch directly to them.
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.
The selected startups will also get expert coaching and exposure with Pan-India incubation partner – New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM).
There would be Google Cloud vouchers available, besides a direct entry into the accelerator programme with IncubateIND, India’s fastest growing technology community network.
As many as 36 finalists (3 each to be selected from 12 cities) are expected to present their ideas at the grand finale in February 2020, of which the top three will be selected. There are prizes worth Rs 1.5 Cr to be won. While the top five startups will get $5000 each from AWS (Amazon Web Service), the next 15 startups will get $2000 and the next 80 will get $1000 worth of credits.
Further details on the ASSOCHAM Launchpad may be accessed on the dedicated Website -https://www.assocham.org/startups/index.html, where all the information related to the Elevator Pitch schedule and plan are uploaded. The applications are being sought online and the details of venues, jury members are updated on regular basis.