India Fund Fest was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chandigarh on 7th February 2020. This follows the resounding success of the first three editions in 2017, 2018 & 2019 to give budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to get on to a path of accelerated funding.
It is the first time it shifted out of Bengaluru and was hosted by Chitkara University with the active support of the Chandigarh Angels Network. The event was organized by Natio Cultus Consultancy Pvt Ltd- Hyderabad.
This is a business funding program that has become hugely popular because of its distraction-free format, as there is no carnival-like atmosphere, no speeches of sponsors, no panel discussions, no stalls to sell products and services and no crowds of unrelated people and needless networking – only entrepreneurs and the matched investors. In the previous three editions of the event, entrepreneurs from across India and 47 other countries registered and participated.
This year, 28 entrepreneurs pitched their businesses for funding to fourteen master investors who offered deals to entrepreneurs. The companies were selected through a rigorous filtering process out of 20,000 interested applicants. The selection of these startups was made by an eminent jury and through a proprietary ‘Investor Readiness Report’ process, ensuring the companies are thoroughly vetted. The entrepreneurs were from varied industries and came from twenty different cities.
The event was telecast as a web TV series on the India Fund Fest YouTube channel.
There were over 5 companies from Chandigarh and Punjab region representing at the event with two from Chitkara Innovation Incubator.
“This is a great opportunity for the region to have access to start-up capital with so many investors coming over on a single day for assessing the start-up’s pitches from all over India,” said Dr. Madhu Chitkara- Vice Chancellor Chitkara University.
“We are delighted with the response to the Fund Fest and the platform as a whole. The support of Chitkara University and Chandigarh Angel Network has been remarkable. We believe that an accelerated path to timely funding is critical for a vibrant startup ecosystem and that is what we endeavour to provide,” said Nalin Singh, Founder of Natio Cultus Consultancy Pvt Ltd., author of the best seller and national honour winning book “Get Funded Now” was the Deal Master for India Fund Fest 2020 along with the Managing Partner of Lexygen, Mr. Vijay Sambamurthi.
Other than the 12 Master Investors, there was an audience of 150+ invited investors and business experts from Indonesia, Singapore, USA and other countries, attended this prestigious event hosted by Chitkara University, Chandigarh. Incubators and accelerators from India were also a part to witness the live pitching session.
Few of the early ones who were able to prevail upon investors included
The start-up Swastik Ride Now Global Solutions LLP, Bathinda founded by Vipul Sharma, Ankit Mathuria, incubated at CEED, Chitkara University walked away with a fund of 50 Lakhs to start their new venture dealing in providing rental service to hostel students for commuting on hourly as well as daily or monthly basis.
Machstatz Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. founded by Sameer Patnaik, A.Srikant Gupta, Pruthviraj Subudhi & Incubated by Derbi Foundation, providing end to end solution in the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) field using artificial intelligence algorithms and machine learning diagnostics to provide advance analytical solutions got lucky with a startup capital of 1 Crore
Anukai Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Patiala founded by Gaurav Goyal & Incubated by CEED, Chitkara University, working towards solving the problem of traffic congestion via smart computer vision and AI-based algorithms. The startup has developed a solution named “InteLights” an Intelligent Traffic Management System that uses existing infrastructure cutting-edge communication and processing technologies, and appropriate Machine Learning & Computer Vision algorithms to control and prioritize the traffic signals based on the current intensity of traffic at each lane of an intersection. Anukai Solutions Pvt. Ltd bagged a fund of 40 Lakhs
