KOCHI:
Nascent firms will interact with potential investors for two days starting from this Friday, as Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is holding a milestone virtual event that aims at better awareness about angel investment and encourage funding by high net-worth individuals (HNIs).
The sixth edition of ‘Seeding Kerala’ being held on February 12-13 will focus on start-up ecosystems beyond the country’s metropolises and tier-1 cities. Conceived in tune with Startup Bharat, it will strive to generate investments in second-rung cities and towns.
With 150 participants from across the state, the virtual event (https://seedingkerala.com/) also accommodates 100 HNIs, 20 top investment funds, 14 angel networks, 30 startup entrepreneurs and as many corporate houses.
The event seeks to bring new HNIs as angel investors to Kerala, channel leading investors from other ecosystems to the state and to seed investments to the startups in the state. Besides boosting investor-entrepreneur interactions, there will be presentation of ideas to float startups and analyses of business models.
The event will give 30 select firms a chance to interact with experts at KSUM’s Investor Café — the monthly virtual one-on-one startup-investor meet.
The inaugural ceremony is in the evening of February 12. The keynote address will be delivered by Infosys Co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, who is also Chairman of Axilor Ventures. Mohammed Y Safirulla, Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of Kerala; and Sasi Pilacheri Meethal, CEO, KSUM, will also speak at the ceremony.
Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director, Quatrro Global Services Pvt. Ltd, will speak at the valedictory function.
Seeding Kerala 2021 will start on Friday morning with a round-table on ‘The IPO or Next Round of Funding?’ The main speaker will be Anand Chari, Deputy General Manager, BSE. This will be followed by another round-table on ‘ESOP – Retaining Talents, an Investor Perspective’. The speakers include Shruti Dvivedi Sodhi, Partner, Khaitan Legal Associates.
The afternoon proceedings will start with a masterclass on ‘Kerala Angel Investment Ecosystem.’ The participants are Ajith Moopan, Angel Investor, Kerala Angel Network; Shilen Sagunan, Chairman, Malabar Angels; Vinay James Kynadi, Angel Investor, Chairman, Smart Sparks-The Angel Network; Sivarajah Ramanathan, Founder and CEO, Native Lead-Angel Network; and PK Gopalakrishnan, Angel Investor, Indian Angel Network, Ex-CEO, WEP Solutions.
There will be another two-hour session on ‘First Principles of Investing’, led by Indian Angel Network Co-founder Padmaja Ruparel, who is Founding Partner of IAN Fund.
Day-1 will conclude with a panel discussion on ‘Small Town Boom – How Startup Bharat is Poised to Lead the Next Era of Growth’.
The final day’s proceedings will begin with former NASSCOM Chairman Kiran Karnik, who is with RBI’s Central Board of Directors.
A panel discussion on ‘Decoding Kerala Startups’ will follow. Curated by angel investor Robin Alex Panicker, it will be addressed by angel investor Raveendranath Kamath, Jiffy.ai Cofounder-CEO Babu Sivadasan and Anil Joshi, Managing Partner of Unicorn India Ventures.
A panel discussion on ‘How Kerala business houses and Startups Work Together’ will follow. The speakers will be angel investor Navas Meeran, Jackfruit 365 founder James Joseph and Anas Rahman Junaid, Founder and MD of Hurun India.
An afternoon chat session on Israel – Startup Nation’s perspective on Tech in Health will feature Triventures Co-Founder and MD Michal Geva and Speciale Invest Fund MD Vishesh Rajaram.
There will be a panel discussion on The Fintech Revolution – Building for banks. Speakers: Amit Goel (Co-Founder Medici), Vishal Sharma (Co-Founder, Advarisk), Anish Achuthan (Co-Founder & CEO, Open Financial Technologies) and Bowie Lau (Founder & Managing Director, MaGEHold).
A discussion on ‘Sector Panel – Consumer Tech’ subsequently will have Jagadeesh Kumar (Co-Founder, The Indus Valley) and Chandu Nair (Angel Investor, The Chennai Angels) as the speakers.
The next panel discussion on Virtual Care and Remote Medicine will be addressed by Venkat Bundla (Founder & Managing Director, Garphi Biosciences), Dr R Kishore Kumar (Founder & Chairman, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals), Vivek Sama (Managing Director, Sama Healthcare) and Anupam Pandey (Director, Asian Institute of Medical Sciences). The curator will be Shivangi Bubna (VP – Strategic Initiatives & Managed Exits, Mumbai Angels Network).
The final panel discussion of Seeding Kerala 2021 will be on ‘Startups and Corporate Business Houses’. Speakers: G Vijayaraghavan (Technopark Founder-CEO and Ex-Member of Kerala State Planning Board) and Fresh to Home Co-founders Shan Kadavil and Mathew Joseph.
This will be followed by a pitching session for the startups. The Deeptech Challenge session is sponsored by Speciale Invest Fund and Fintech Startup Awards are sponsored by SEA Fund and Open Financial Technologies.
KSUM, the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state, undertakes planning, establishment and management of technology business incubators and accelerators so as to promote technology-based ventures by creating the infrastructure and environment.
