Venture Garage conducted the third leg of the FY2019-20 edition of the Find Your Investor (FYI) programme in Mumbai, in association with Kotak Mahindra Bank (Kotak) at The Rise, Lower Parel.  After two super successful sessions in Hyderabad and Bengaluru where close to 40 investors and 300 start-ups participated, over 20 investors interacted with approximately 160 entrepreneurs at the FYI Mumbai event, which is a fund-raising platform for start-ups. Investors at FYI Mumbai included a mix of VCs, micro VCs, seed and angel investors such as Artha Venture Fund, Peak Ventures, 100X.VC, First Cheque, Green Shoots Capital, Ankur Capital, Tomorrow Capital, IAN Fund, ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Unilever Ventures, Lightbox, White Unicorn, and Parampara Capital and Management Consultants.

L to R: Madhuri Sawant- Moderator (IvyCap Ventures),  Aakash Shah (Peak Ventures), Anirudh Damani (Artha Venture Fund), Kushal Bhagia (First Cheque),  Laxman Kumar (Green Shoots Capital), Shahshank Randev (100X.VC)

From over 100 pitching entries, a set of shortlisted 16 start-ups also got to pitch one-on-one to investors in a speed dating format. There were multiple start-ups  building next-generation technology-enabled businesses that offer ideas for the future in areas that will create commercial success in sectors such as sustainable farming, clean transportation and mainstreaming the youth in small towns of India. Key disruptive start-ups at FYI are working in areas such as:

1. Making cultivation more profitable and sustainable by increasing farm productivity, reducing the cost of cultivation and achieving higher grain price realisation for farmers.
2. Vernacular online mock tests with an emphasis on state level exams, predictive analysis engines to understand demand-supply gap and generate content within 48 hours.
3. A device (patent filed) and app combination enabling viewers to easily super-size or jump shows and movies onto their television sets from their smartphones.
4. Technology that enables people to “E Visit” a place and explore it in detail from their laptops/mobiles. Places like hotels, banquets, builder projects, properties and office spaces. This technology enables web conferencing within a 3D virtual tour.
5. A team from IIT Kharagpur is building light commercial EVs with cost effectiveness, better efficiency and user experience. They are working on a patentable technology in batteries and powertrains.
6. An ad tech platform Gamifies Ads that users engage with to get cash rewards. This is a pioneering concept with a proven POC and 10X ROI, 100% measured ROI, high app retention, and large promoter ad network.

Further, Kotak conducted a session on banking for start-ups, which covered aspects such as a start-up focused current account, credit facilities, and making the road just a little bit easier with a customised suite of banking solutions for start-ups. Enthusiastic participation from the audience included queries around start-up current accounts and non-collateral loans.

Puneet Kapoor, Senior Executive Vice President, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, “Venture Garage’s Find Your Investor programme is proving to be one of the key fund-raising platforms for start-ups with strong participation from both investors and start-ups. We are delighted to play our part in supporting the dreams of entrepreneurs. The Kotak Start-up Current Account is customised to meet the unique requirements of start-ups and help entrepreneurs scale their businesses and manage their day-to-day business needs efficiently.”

The Kotak Start-up Current Account comes with a host of features such as no balance commitment for the first 12 months, customised payment and collection solutions to suit each start-up’s business model, corporate salary accounts for employees, special forex pricing, cost-effective payment solutions and trade forex solutions.

A one-hour panel discussion was moderated by Madhuri Sawant from IvyCap Ventures, and included Anirudh Damani from Artha VF, Shashank Randev from 100X.VC, Aakash Shah from Peak Ventures, Kushal Bhagia from First Cheque, and Laxman Kumar from Green Shoots Capital.

Shashank Randev, Founder VC at 100X.VC fund said, “The path to achieving moonshots rests with exceptional founders. India, with its growing domestic consumption, would require solutions to be built for these needs. Entrepreneurs today have a great opportunity to build and scale businesses in the country. If someone has an idea with the potential to make not just marginal or incremental difference but to bring about transformative change, then our team will figure out how 100X.VC can serve as a force multiplier for them.” (India’s first venture fund to invest in early-stage startups using India SAFE Notes, 100X.VC aims to fund 100 start-ups every year with a ticket size of Rs. 25 lakh to 1 crore per start-up.)

Aakash Shah, Partner at Peak Ventures said, “Opportunities in India are becoming cross-sectoral. At Peak Ventures, we are leveraging the opportunities that fall within one or more of India’s core themes, like sustainability, shared infrastructure and industries of the future, which cut across sectors and are constantly being updated based on the changing environment.” (Peak Ventures is a Series A-focused, thematic venture capital fund.)

Kaushik Mukherjee, Co-founder & COO of Sugar Cosmetics, a cruelty-free makeup brand that is high on style and higher on performance, participated in a half-hour fireside chat moderated by Vivek Kumar, CEO, Venture Garage. Manufactured in state-of-the-art facilities across Germany, Italy, India, the USA and South Korea, the brand ships its bestselling products across lips, eyes, face and nail categories across the world. Kaushik spoke about his earlier start-up failures, his first angel-round raise and his latest $10 million funding from A91 Partners.

FYI has become the go-to platform for new-age entrepreneurs to interact one-on-one with investors, enabling them to meet the right investor(s) and equipping themselves with tools to build large, scalable businesses.

FYI FY2019-20 is being organised in five cities – Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, and Chandigarh. For more details on FYI FY2019-20 and to register, please visit www.venturegarage.in/fyi.

About Venture Garage

Venture Garage handholds startups to help them raise capital from its network of 700+ Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Strategic Investors and Family Funds. Venture Garage specializes in early-stage investments across Seed to Series B stages starting from $100K to $5mil. Established in 2015 and with offices present in Mumbai, Bengaluru and NCR, Venture Garage also manages a network of 30,000+ entrepreneurs.

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.venturegarage.in.

About Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Established in 1985, Kotak Mahindra Group is one of India’s leading financial services conglomerates. In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. (KMFL), the Group’s flagship company, received banking license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), becoming the first non-banking finance company in India to convert into a bank – Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

The Bank has four Strategic Business Units – Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Commercial Banking and Treasury, which cater to retail and corporate customers across urban and rural India. The premise of Kotak Mahindra Group’s business model is concentrated India, diversified financial services. The bold vision that underscores the Group’s growth is an inclusive one, with a host of products and services designed to address the needs of the unbanked and insufficiently banked. As on 30th September, 2019, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd has a national footprint of 1,512 branches and 2,429 ATMs, and branches in GIFT City and DIFC (Dubai).

For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.kotak.com.