SUMMARY
The two-day summit will be held on February 7 and 8 in Marriott, Kochi
As a part of the summit, KSUM is hosting Investor Cafe and Startup Pitches to help startups in their funding and growth needs
For the HNIs and investors, the summit has dedicated masterclasses hosted by Mumbai Angels
In December 2019, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the state’s nodal agency for startups, announced the fifth leg of the Seeding Kerala summit in 2020. To be held on February 7-8, the two-day summit aims to bring together high net worth individuals from Kerala and investors from across the country and encourage them to invest in startups.
“Keralites do not really consider startups as an investment asset class. The summit seeds these HNIs by creating awareness about angel investment as an asset class,” – Razique M Sherief, KSUM
Seeding Kerala For The Investors
In order to educate HNIs and promote investments for the startups from the state, last year, the summit started with an investor education programme—Elevate. It was through this workshop, that also enabled the startups to showcase their products to the investors, that KSUM finalised the investors and startups who will be a part of the summit.
In addition to that, there are various other workshops and panels to educate and build the investor community in the state, such as:
Angel Masterclass
- Angel Investments Masterclass: For early-stage prospective angel investors
- Lead Angel Masterclass: For a select few invite-only active angel investors
Panel Discussion Of Unicorn First Cheques
Seed-stage investors of unicorn startups are a part of this panel discussion. These investors will share how they identified the startups and supported them in the journey that lay ahead.
Remarkable Case Studies From Kerala
Panel discussions on sector-specific startups with case studies on the startups that have made it big.
Seeding Kerala For The Startups
The summit presents a lot of opportunities for startups to help in their growth and scale-up. Last year, the summit came with the announcement that KSUM had formed partnerships with four VC funds for its fund of funds scheme. Not only did the scheme make INR 1K Cr corpus fund accessible to the startups in the state but also, the VC firms are mandated to invest in the startups registered in the state to ensure value creation.
Taking a step further in its efforts to help startups looking for funds, KSUM initiated a monthly one-on-one meeting for them with the investors—Investor Cafe. Subsequent to the summit, this meetup is hosted on the last Wednesday of every month at the Integrated Startup Complex in Kochi.
For the fifth leg of Seeding Kerala, KSUM is hosting a special edition of Investor Cafe, to bring together 50 leading funds and angel investors to meet a select few startups.
To ease the startups’ journey and help them in their fund requirements, Seeding Kerala 2020 presents them with the following opportunities:
Startup Pitches
An opportunity for startups to pitch their ideas and business models in front of the HNIs and investors, it aims to help startups attract funding, partnerships and collaborations.
IPO Panel
This panel is hosted by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) to discuss the nuances of startups going public through IPO. In addition to that, it aims to build a roadmap for the scaled-up startups in Kerala to handhold them to IPOs.
Portfolio Session
This is an exclusive session with some funded startups and their portfolio investors, who will talk about their journey, learnings and more.
The last edition of the summit gave an opportunity to over 20 startups to interact with the investors present, thanks to ‘speed-dating’ organised during the summit. Additionally, through the Startup Pitches, the winner—ConceptOwl, an edtech startup—received funding of INR 3.5 Cr from a group of investors in Indian Angel Network.
Who All Will Be There?
To achieve its aim of helping the startups from the state, KSUM has roped in many stalwarts from the Indian startup ecosystem.
Angel Investing Organisations In The Summit:
- Indian Angel Network
- Mumbai Angel Network
- Chennai Angels
- Malabar Angels
- Smart Sparks Angels
- Lead Angels
Speakers In The Summit:
- Sanjay Mehta, founder and partner, 100x.vc
- Vivek Khare, angel investor
- Aniruddha Malpani, angel investor, Malpani Ventures
- Sachin Karnik, president, Mumbai Angel Network
- Shanthi Mohan, founder, Lets Venture
- Digvijay Singh, COO, Indian Angel Network
- Padmaja Ruparel, cofounder, Indian Angel Network
- Anil Joshi, managing partner, Unicorn India Ventures
- Manoj Kumar Agrawal, SEA Fund
- Babu Sivadasan, Envestnet
- G.Vijayaraghavan, ex-CEO Technopark
- Vinod Keni, Artha VC
“Seeding Kerala focusses on the HNIs in Kerala and intends to educate and encourage them to become angel investors. Moreover, the summit is an introduction to a gradual process of seeding the HNIs into the angel investment ecosystem in the state,” added Sherief.
While the last date for registrations for the startups is now closed, HNIs and investors can still apply and be a part of the summit. Click here to know more.
