Got a bright business idea? Sell it and win Rs 15 lakh. Indore’s IIM and IIT are collaborating to nurture budding entrepreneurs in the county…
Prabhu Mallikarjunan
Got a bright business idea? Sell it and win Rs 15 lakh. Indore’s IIM and IIT are collaborating to nurture budding entrepreneurs in the county, particularly in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, by offering them a platform to impress investors with the “Next Big Idea” and walk away with the cool sum. The amount can even go up to Rs 50 lakh, if the idea has greater market potential.
The two institutions are holding an event called ‘i5Summit’ in Indore this August, wherein, startups, which are less than two-year-old and that have not raised more than Rs 50 lakh, can make a business pitch to the stakeholders and raise funds in such a short span of time. The internal committees of the two institutes also will play a role in evaluating the idea and select 15 prominent ones. The current batch of the IIM and IIT at Indore can also take part.
“Since we have access to the resources, we thought we should join hands and promote startups. This is going to be an annual event,” Soumyadeep Chakraborty— Coordinator, i5 Summit, IIM Indore told FE. “We will definitely have startups from Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi, but the larger idea is also to promote the entrepreneurship in the tech segment in this region (Madhya Pradesh),” Chakraborty added.
The summit has received 750 applications so far which will be screened by experienced entrepreneurs, VCs and IIM/IIT professors. The organisers are also in talks with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), wherein, the winners are requested to be inducted into the INNOTREK batch of 2016, in which select groups of Indian technology entrepreneurs & founders are taken to Silicon Valley for a week long intensive programme.
The event will have speakers from across the industry, like Ganesh Natarajan, chief executive officer, Zensar, and serial entrepreneur, Raghunandan G, founder, TaxiForSure, Kunal Shah, founder, Freecharge, Srikanth Sundararajan, venture partner, Helion Venture Partners, and Pankhuri Shrivastava, co-founder, Grabhouse.com.
“The start-ups ecosystem is evolving. After my exit from TaxiForSure, I am looking to associate with B2C companies and that is something I am looking for in this event. Taking a wrong step at an early stage will sometime kill the business. So, we want to ensure that doesn’t happen for promising startups. Hence this summit,” said Raghunandan G, founder, TaxiForSure.
Meanwhile, Nasscom and the organisers are also in talks with the state government to set up an start-up incubation centre, on the lines of one in Bengaluru.