Seeding Kerala 2020: KSUM’s Investor Education, Startup Showcase And Fundraising Platform

Kerala Startup Mission, the nodal agency for startups in Kerala, has announced the fifth edition of its flagship invite-only Seeding Kerala initiative. To be held on February 7 and 8, the summit will bring HNIs from Kerala and leading investors from across the country together to get access to funding opportunities and more.

It’s also an opportunity for startups to simply showcase their ideas to a crowd of ecosystem enablers and stakeholders with plenty of influential HNIs also present.

Seeding Kerala 2020 in Kochi will bring together the HNI and investor network of Kerala to not only introduce them to investment opportunities but also provide them insights into the work of different startups from various sectors.

Last year, the summit started with a workshop, Elevate, which also served as an investor education programme. It showcased startups from various sectors such as healthcare, deeptech, rural and social enterprises, hardware and electronics as well as HNIs and investors from the state. Through the workshop, KSUM then finalised the investors and startups for its summit. Thanks to the summit, ConceptOwl, an edtech startup who emerged as a winner of the pitching session, raised funding of INR 3 Cr from Indian Angel Network.

This year, Seeding Kerala 2020 will also host a special edition of Investor Cafe, a monthly one-on-one meeting of investors with startups looking for funds. During this meetup, 50 leading funds and angel investors will meet the selected startups of Seeding Kerala summit. Investor Cafe is organised on the last Wednesdays of every month at the Integrated Startup Complex in Kochi.

Through a screening process that involves calls and portfolio startups for HNIs and the investor community and meetings and discussions with investors for startups, KSUM will choose 200 participants for the summit. It would comprise of over 30 startups founders, more than 100 HNIs, over 10 top funds, over 14 angel networks and over 30 corporate houses and family offices.

Apart from bringing in the investors and the HNIs, Seeding Kerala 2020 will also bring in senior government officials from the state and central government.

Highlights Of The Summit

Angel Masterclass

• Angel Investments Masterclass: This masterclass is for early-stage prospective angel investors. “It includes HNIs who are not well aware of the basics and want to understand them and start investing. We are expecting 30-35 HNIs to be a part of this workshop and will give them exposure to all they need to know to get started with angel investments,” Razique M Sherief, assistant manager, funding, KSUM told Inc42.
• Lead Angel Masterclass: This masterclass is for active angel investors and has a select few invitees as a part of the workshop. “It will be on the later stages of discussion such as how do you make a happy exit or choosing a good startup deal and more,” added Sherief.

Startup Pitches

Through registration on their website, there are a few startups finalised by KSUM with the help of the investor community. These startups are chosen on the basis of the problem they are catering to, the solution they are offering and the pitch decks they send across. The top ten selected startups get an opportunity to pitch their ideas and business models in front of the HNIs, investors and government officials to attract funding, partnerships and collaborations at Seeding Kerala 2020.

IPO Panel

Hosted by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), the panel will discuss the nuances of startups going public through IPO and the roadmap to handhold the scaled-up startups in Kerala to IPOs.

Panel Discussion Of Unicorn First Cheques

KSUM brings together a few unicorns and their investors for this panel discussion. While the startups share the journey their first round of investments, the investors talk about how they chose the startups, the idea behind it and more. It benefits both the entrepreneurs and the aspiring and early-stage investors.

Remarkable Case Studies From Kerala

Seeding Kerala also includes panel discussions on sector-specific startups and will present case studies on the startups that have made it big from these sectors.

“Early-stage funding is necessary for any startup to keep it rolling and accelerate to become the next big unicorn. Therefore, easy access to early-stage capital investments is vital for a vibrant startup ecosystem to evolve. This can be achieved by creating an active angel investor pool in the state and that is what we are trying to do with the Seeding Kerala initiative.” – Razique M Sherief, KSUM

The Seeding Kerala summit is currently accepting applications, register your startup or request an invite to be part of the summit. The last date for the startups to apply to the summit is December 28. Click here to know more.

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