Investors scout for startup ideas to fund at SPPU meet
Twelve startups made a pitch presentation to the jury in areas of agriculture, electric mobility, automobile, information technology and e-commerce
Investors’ meet, Sambandh, concluded on Saturday at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Linkages at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) wherein at least 100 startups and aspirants attended the programme. Fourteen investors addressed the gathering from Pune, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad on the expectations of investors from startup companies.
Twelve startups made a pitch presentation to the jury in areas of agriculture, electric mobility, automobile, information technology and e-commerce.
The results of the ‘i-2-e competition’, conducted across 113 colleges, was also announced and the top two winners were felicitated by SPPU vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar, who presided over the two-day programme, which started on January 31.
“The university has identified key focus areas for research and incubation namely IOT, electric mobility, agriculture, water and environment. Systematic work is being carried out in this area and we are promoting startups that have the potential to scale up. We shall provide all support to the startups,” said Karmalkar.
Rohit Goyal, a Pune-based venture fund director from Windrose spoke on how his fund is scouting for ideas. Speakers were of the opinion that funds are chasing startups with good ideas while capital infusion at an early stage in startups to grow fast, is the need of hour. Speed is one factor that is very significant in the success and creation of Unicorns, they said.
Rahul Narvekar’s rags to riches story inspired the audience and his scale venture funds underlined the mandate to work with startups that have strong determination and risk taking capability.
Other speakers of the session, included Deaken Daney, vice-president, RBL Bank; Anil Kumar Mishra, Healthtech investor and Vishal Vijaywargiya, investor. The investor committee led by Vivek Sadhale, director, Legal Logic; Vineet Patni, director, Posiview and others, supported the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Linkages for organising the programme. Apoorva Palkar, director, Innovation, Incubation and Linkages at the university conducted and moderated the programme.
“The meet has given a platform to startups and innovators to get a better understanding of the investor’s mind that will support their decision to take a leap forward. Point of views of successful startups and angels, family offices, venture capitalists helped startups be prepared for future endeavours,” said Palkar.