To provide fillip to the ongoing start-up movement in India, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with Rashtrapati Bhavan organized Pitch@Rashtrapati Bhavan, a programme to connect VCs/Investor’s with Start-ups and secure funding and mentoring support for potential entrepreneurs. The event was a celebration of a real-time match making between start-ups and investors, and provided a platform for all the stakeholders to leverage this unique opportunity. As an outcome of this grand initiative 12 VCs and Investors exchanged funding agreement/MoU’s to the tune of INR 85 crore with 12 start-ups in the areas of Automobile, Healthcare, Medical Devices, Fintech, E Commerce, Human Resource Management, Unorganized Retail, and Life Sciences in the presence of the President of India.
The event was organised to speed up India’s transformation into a ‘Start-up Nation’ driven by a large young and aspirational population within the age group of 25 to 35. The goal is to carry this positive momentum forward by nurturing India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and creating opportunities for its vast young population, to generate wealth and find gainful employment.
The 12 VC organizations, 31 Start-ups, and 9 Grass-root innovators, who attended the programme also got an opportunity to speak in front of key Government officials, Industry captains, and top notch investors.
The event was graced by eminent minister like Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, key bureaucrat Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, and well known Industry captains like Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII and Chairman of CII Start-up Council.
The event positioned Rashtrapati Bhavan as one of the key promoters of Start-up ecosystem in India, and helped to establish a dialogue between Investors and Start-ups to assist in finding effective mentorship and adequate funding. The event, conceptualised and organized by CII under the aegis of Rashtrapati Bhavan, was first of its kind at this level and will act as an invaluable knowledge sharing platform for all the key stakeholders in the ecosystem. Going forward this platform can be further leveraged to encourage and create a wide network of entrepreneurs and start-ups in India.
BW Reporters
Vaishali Dar is a Senior Associate Editor with BW Businessworld and Editorial Head with BW Disrupt. She writes on corporates, start-ups, hospitality and travel
