KOZHIKODE:
The Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIM Kozhikode) is set to organize the 5th edition of its annual national entrepreneurship summit ‘Start-O-Sphere’ from 1-2 February, 2020, at the institute’s campus here. The event is one of the most biggest meet-ups of start-ups and investors in South India aimed at supporting start-up founders by providing networking, mentorship, and fundraising opportunity.
Start-O-Sphere is a National Entrepreneurship Summit of IIM Kozhikode powered by Students’ E-Cell and supported by IIMK LIVE, a business incubator of the institute. The summit will see a host of activities ranging from a Startup & Investors connect where investors share what they see while investing to mega-events like Start-Up Fair in which only selected 40 startups from across India are invited to IIMK Campus to setup Stalls and present their idea to the investors and IIMK community. Followed by Pitchers in which the top startups shortlisted by Investors during startup fair get a chance to pitch, negotiate, and get funded. Furthermore, events like Bouncer extend an opportunity to the budding entrepreneurs to bounce their idea/business model to ‘industry gurus’ and seasoned IIMK professors and thus refine their approach.
Announcing the annual start-up summit, Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director IIM Kozhikode, said, “The global startup economy is now believed to be worth nearly $3 trillion, which is a rise of 20% in two years, a size larger than the GDP of the UK, France, India, Italy or Brazil. It is very evident that technology-driven startups are not just contributing to economic growth, in many ways, they are engines of economic growth. India in particular looks to benefit from this revolution with its positive demographic dividend”. He also added that a full-day hands-on workshop on entrepreneurship covering almost all aspects of starting up a business makes Start-O-Sphere a complete package for any entrepreneurial enthusiast.
The previous edition of Start-O-Sphere held in 2019, was a grand success with more than 250 start-ups competing and about 25 venture capitalists and angel investors coming together. The coming edition is poised to become bigger and better with an estimated potential investment fund base of about three crore rupees (approx.) combined. The Website for the event https://www.ecell.iimklive.org/ is now live and open for registrations. Interested entrepreneurs can also drop an e-mail to ecell@iimk.ac.in for more details.
