CM to Open Seventh Edition of KSUM’s Angel Investors’ Meet ‘Seeding Kerala’

KOCHI:
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate on Wednesday the seventh edition of Seeding Kerala, setting the ball rolling for the flagship initiative of Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) to attract angel investment in nascent firms.

The February 2-3 virtual event will see the participation of no less than 30 experts, including leading investors and thought leaders from the country’s startup ecosystem besides ministers and senior officials.

The sessions will be addressed, besides the Chief Minister, by Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal, Industries Minister P. Rajeev, Electronics and IT Principal Secretary Bishwanath Sinha, KSUM CEO John M. Thomas, Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Fresh To Home founder Mathew Joseph, Chennai Angels Vice-President Sathish Ganesan, Terumo Penpol Chairman and Independent Director C. Balagopal, Eastern Condiments Chairman Navas Meeran, TiE President Ajit A. Moopan, Technopark founder CEO G. Vijayaraghavan and V Star Group MD Sheela Kochouseph and angel investors Ravindranath Kamath, Rajesh Dembla and Rajesh Nair.

The other speakers are Hurun India founder MD Anas Rahman Junaid, Let’s Venture Head (Fund Strategy & Investor Relations) Nakul Saxena, Indian Angel Network Co-founder Padmaja Ruparel, 100X VC founder VC Shashank Randev, ESAF Bank MD-CEO K. Paul Thomas, Artha Venture Fund Managing Partner Anirudh A. Damani, Anterprise Network Co-founder Robert Lobo, Open CEO Anish Achuthan, TCS Kerala Head Dinesh Thampi, Mane Kancor Director Geemon Korah, Kawa Space founder Kris Nair, Astrogate Labs Co-founder Nitish K. Singh, Agnikul Cosmos Co-founder Srinath Ravichandran, GalaxEye Co-founder Suyash Singh, Speciale Invest Co-founder Vishesh Rarajam, Varma and Varma Partner Vivek Krishna Govind.

Seeding Kerala will facilitate select startups to interact with investors, thereby muster funds. Those interested that display their startups on visiting https://seedingkerala.com/ and participate in the event. Entries, though, have been curtailed to invited firms.

The two-day proceedings feature an Investor Café for startups to gather funds, by involving 25 investors and six angel investment groups.

The event facilitates select firms, which have been selected to a National Startup Challenge, to gain deeper knowledge about funding prospects by interacting with potential investors. It gives startups an opportunity to know more from experts about mobilizing capital and newest technologies. The angel segment of investment will fund those top-rate ideas and models from startups waiting to launch products in the market. Seeding Kerala will host interactions between investors and startups, presentations of business ideas and analysis of various commercial models.

The fund partners for the event are Unicorn India Ventures, Indian Angel Network, SEA Fund and Speciale Invest. Malabar Angels, Kerala Angel Network and Smart Parks are the angel partners.

Started in 2016 by KSUM, Seeding Kerala summits have helped entrepreneurs turn great ideas into sound businesses through networking and leveraging investment opportunities. The summit is part of the government’s plan to accelerate the innovation ecosystem, and the past editions have brought in investments of over Rs 70 crore.

Seeding Kerala is one of the several KSUM initiatives to create a vibrant startup ecosystem in the state to foster the growth of innovation-led technology entrepreneurship.