Provides a platform to over 14 high-potential seed-funded start-ups to attract VC investment
Mumbai, August 11 2016: Furthering its aim to give the country’s seed funded start-up landscape a big boost, Venture Catalysts, India’s first seed investment and innovation platform, recently conducted a special event called ‘VC Interact’ on August 9 at its Andheri East facility. Aimed at establishing a deeper & more collaborative ecosystem in the country, the event provided seed-funded tech start-ups a chance to interact and engage with VCs in order to attract their Pre Series A & Series A round of funding.
Acting as the perfect platform to bring together investors looking for promising investment opportunities and high-calibre start-ups looking to unlock the next phase of their growth, VCats’ ‘VC Interact’ saw 14 select seed-funded start-ups interacting with leading VCs in the country. Sourced from or recommended by top incubators, accelerators and angel investors in India, more than 14 tech start-ups – including Loudcell, Zophop Tech, CollegeSearch, Senseforth and Adsparx – were selected by VCats for final VC interactions post a meticulous screening process. Over 15 start-ups operating out of VCats’ co-working space were also available for the interactions.
Speaking about the event, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder, Venture Catalysts, said, “The ‘VC Interact’ event is a result of our constant efforts to facilitate highly interactive and productive discussions between promising start-ups and members of the VC fraternity. By curating and presenting the most promising seed-funded tech start-ups on one platform, we provided both participating investors and start-ups with a mutually beneficial chance to explore viable business opportunities. We aim to conduct more such events in the future in order to revolutionise the investment process in India and give the country’s start-up landscape a massive lift.”
In order to facilitate highly interactive and productive discussions, VCats organised 100+ pre-arranged one-on-one sessions between the founders of start-ups selected for ‘VC Interact’ and the participating members of the VC fraternity. Several high profile VCs, including prominent investors such as Sequoia, Blume Ventures, Kae Capital, IvyCap Ventures, Matrix Partners, India Quotient, JSW Ventures, FAO Ventures, Uniqorn Ventures, Rainmaker Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners, were in attendance.
Rohit Aggarwal, Investment Analyst, Sequoia Capital, said, “’VC Interact’ was a great experience. We had the chance to meet entrepreneurs from some of the most promising angel-funded start-ups in a structured format. The selected start-ups showed great expertise in their respective business areas, demonstrating a fair understanding of the investment process by effectively pitching their venture ideas to VCs within the given time-frame.”
Investment Analyst Ashray Iyengar of Nexus Venture Partners commented, “The list of start-ups at ‘VC Interact’ was extremely well-curated. From the personal interaction we shared with 8 of the 14 selected start-ups, it became clear that ventures with strong and dedicated management teams stood a higher chance of securing an investment. Furthermore, start-ups engaged in the B2C space showed great business innovation.”
Anchal Saraf, Analyst at Uniqorn Ventures, added, “The event proved to be a great platform for emerging start-ups to gain the attention of some of the leading investors in the country. Several start-ups selected for the interaction demonstrated better business innovations, especially those in the logistics and B2B space. This helped in differentiating them from the other ‘me-too’ players in the market and underlined the strong investment proposition they present for potential investors.”
VCats’ ‘VC Interact’ also provided start-ups and budding entrepreneurs with ample informal interactive and networking opportunities over lunch and refreshments. This helped in facilitating several highly engaging conversations, thereby ensuring fruitful discussions and contributing to the event’s grand success.
About Venture Catalysts (@vcatsIndia)
Venture Catalysts invests $100K – $250K in very early stage startups that has potential to create enduring value for over a long period of time. In less than 5 months’ time, Venture Catalysts successfully added 7 companies to its kitty and is looking to add more innovative ventures to its portfolio in the coming months.
Even though we are open to all sectors, we prefer companies in IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Ad Tech, Virtual Reality, Education, E Commerce and Retail. The start-ups that we fund get most benefited from our mentoring, investor and industry network.
Venture Catalyst is a platform for founders. We provide the funding, space, community, and services you need to create a great company.