The start-up sector in India is booming. Besides the government and investors themselves, educational institutes such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) are also taking various initiatives for the benefit of start-ups and the entrepreneurial eco-system.
As one such measure, the entrepreneurship cell of IIT Bombay in 2015 had started The Ten Minute Million event, an on the spot funding initiative. Through this, selected start-up teams get 10 minutes to pitch their ideas to a panel of investors.
This year, the group consisted of 12 investors and 8 start-up teams left no stone unturned to impress them. In the end, four teams walked away with a total investment of 15 lakhs. The panel of investors comprising –
- Ajeet Khurana, CEO of SINE IIT Bombay
- Kunal Shah, founder and CEO of Freecharge
- Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People group
- Sanjay Mehta, director of Core Media group
- Taha Nabee, Vice President, Sales and Distribution of Aromatan Cosmetics
- Vikram Chachra, founding partner of Eight Innovate
- V C Karthic, founder of Buzzworks Business Services
- Suketu Shah, JMD Mukand Ltd
- Samir Shah – founder director of Sattva Asia opportunities funding
- Bharat Banka of Sterlite Technologies Ltd
- Devesh Chawla founder and CEO of Chatur ideas
- Srinivasan Swamy, CFO of Bridge
- Anand Ladsariya, founder of Everest Flavour
- Suneel Bandhu, COO of Tata Teleservices
- Manish Gandhi of Asian Business Exhibitions and Conferences Ltd.
- Miten Mehta of social impact ventures
To reach the panel of investors is not easy. This year, over 100 start-up teams applied of which only eight were chosen. Bangalore-based Strike, which is a mobile-first email productivity platform for Gmail; Gurgaon-based Gamooz that deals with augmented reality; Chennai-based Max market that creates content for businesses and Mumbai-based Soundsurround that deals with music were the winners of ‘The Ten Minute Million’ this year.
