Startup Funding Comes of Age In India

Fed up with carnival like Startup funding events, a group of veteran business leaders launched India’s first serious Startup Fund Fest

It all began at a startup event. In search of funding and the right investors, Sanjay Rathi, a young restless entrepreneur realized he was wasting his time in large chaotic gatherings, exchanging pleasantries, visiting cards and collecting useless brochures. Hailing from a business family, he had always wanted to break free from tradition and launch an innovative product. And that same startup-bug bit him hard this time around. He also wondered how he was ever going to meet investors who mattered, once they were on stage and he was standing in the crowd.

And that’s when India Fund Fest formed with the help of veteran business leaders-Dinesh Singh and Nalin Singh- to solve specific problem related with entrepreneurship. Having spent several years into strategic and life coaching, one of their programmes was to hold workshops for entrepreneurs to guide them on their best approach for funding. Interaction with hundreds of entrepreneurs soon made them realise that they were frustrated at the inability of startup events to introduce the entrepreneurs to the right investor. Most events are either too big for meaningful conversations or sponsorship carnivals wherein entrepreneurs are sold services, or with out-of-context scale or lectures, passed off as mentoring or just held by a corporate to further a particular investment philosophy.

“See, you cannot blame the investors either for giving these carnivals a miss or just coming for their speaking parts only. The investors are deluged with proposals of all kinds from the entrepreneurs, with all kinds of business models. We then decided to provide an equal platform for entrepreneurs to pitch their businesses to interested investors and hence ‘India Fund Fest’ 2017 came into being,” says Nalin Singh.

India Fund Fest is an event for serious entrepreneurs and serious investors, devoid of all distraction such as carnival atmosphere, sellers, public, speeches or casual part-time business ideas, according to Singh. All applicants are screened and made to undergo a detailed funding check on 100+ points under ten different overall criteria. This funding readiness report with a suggested strategy for fund raising are made available to the entrepreneur. This is a proprietary algorithm based report developed by the founders.

The process includes selection of top 50 most fundable startups and invitation of interested investors to the pitch, in the form of a closed room by invitation only event on May 12, 2017. “Investors have access to the funding readiness report and hence they come interested and with a certain degree of base confidence. The fact that the top 50 would have undergone a physical deep due diligence to the pitch finale will be an added bonus for investors,” says Nalin Singh.

With an aim to become a marquee premium event in the country’s startup calendar, the funders aim to convert this into a credible place to seek and find curated and verifies opportunities. “We are hoping that we would identify the top 50 most fundable business ideas and showcase them to the right investor community. For the investors and entrepreneurs, it would save months if not years of time that they would have expended trying to find the right fit,” adds Dinesh Singh.

Also, the founders expect to give the entrepreneur’s maximum exposure and the best shot at getting funded on the spot or within a few weeks. “Even for the companies that do not make it to the top 50, they will benefit hugely from the funding readiness report in terms of practical guidance on areas to work upon and their optimum strategy to seek funding.