News Corp VCCircle Southern Startup Series 2016 to explore ways for Startups to ‘Conserve and Grow’
In the backdrop of funding slowdown, the two day event will facilitate high level discussions and also feature interactions with Venture Capitalists through Walkabouts; a Startup fair and a Startup Showcase for aspiring entrepreneurs to make an elevator pitch
New Delhi, 23rd April, 2016: The VCCircle Network, India’s leading publisher of startup and private equity news, data and information, and an integral part of global diversified media, news, education and information services group, News Corp, has today announced that the Bengaluru edition of News Corp VCCircle Southern Startup Series 2016, described as the largest startup event in India, will be held on 27th -28th April.
This event comes on the back of the release of News CorpVCCEdge Quarterly Deals Report for CY2016, which observed a drastic 80% fall in value terms for venture capital funding deals in Q1 CY2016 when compared to corresponding quarter in the previous year, while private equity inflows were lower by 48.8% registering a fall from $4.5 billion in Q1 of 2015 to $2.3 billion in the first three months of 2016. News Corp VCCEdge is India’s largest and most sought after financial data and research platform.
With the theme of ‘Conserve and Grow, or Perish’, this edition aims to enable startups come to terms with the transition from an easy-money phase to a phase of constrained supply of capital. The event would also explore ways for startups to capitalize on the expertise and resources of their investors besides enhancing operational efficiency by winning and retaining customers without burning too much capital.
The event kicks off on 27th April with Startup Walkabouts– a guided tour of Bengaluru’s top venture capital funds such as Kalaari Capital Advisors, Prime Venture Partners and Microsoft Ventures and a leading startup – InMobi - a mobile advertisement and discovery platform. Registered participants get to visit the respective offices and interact with the top management and get insights into how they function.
On 28th April, Park Plaza Bengaluru Hotel would be the venue for the Startup Fair where startups, technology and business service providers get a chance to market and grow their business. Six high-level panels on subjects such as identifying growth models for startups; mapping the role of investors; social entrepreneurship; the prospect of women entrepreneurs leading India’s next unicorns; customer acquisition and retention, and nurturing and retaining talent in a constrained funding environment would see participation of some of the biggest names from India’s startup ecosystem including:
* Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder, Infosys; Chairman Axilor Ventures; Chairman, CII Council on Startups
* Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, IDG Ventures
* Rajesh Raju, Managing Director, Kaalari Capital
* Meena Ganesh, Co-Founder, MD & CEO, Portea Medical & Partner - GrowthStory
* Alok Goel, Managing Director, SAIF Partners
* Roopa Ambekar, Founder, Managing Director, Uber Medspa & Style Lounge
* Karthik Reddy, Co-founder & Managing Director, Blume Ventures
* Ajay Nair, CAO, Housing.com
* Anu Sridharan, Co-founder & CEO, NextDrop
The key highlight of the event is a fireside chat with Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, Paytm interviewed by Raju Narisetti, Senior Vice President, Strategy, News Corp.
The event will culminate with Showcase, a curated platform for innovative early stage and pre-revenue startups to make an elevator pitch to a select jury of angel investors and venture capitalists comprising Bharati Jacob, Founder Partner, Seedfund, Suresh Shanmugham, Managing Partner, Saama Capital and Siddhartha Das, General Partner, Ventureast.
Speaking about the significance of the event, Nita Kapoor, Head – India, New Ventures, News Corp and CEO, The VCCircle Network said, “The Bengaluru edition of the startup event will provide a comprehensive insight into the startup ecosystem bringing together cutting-edge and disruptive early-stage startups, incubators, accelerators and mentors, along with many of India’s most active VC/PE funds. Our VCCEdge data reveals that there has been a marked 50% drop in new funding with voices hinting at potential consolidation in the Indian consumer internet space growing shriller by the day. This, perforce, is making startups cut costs by shrinking footprint and staff. Therefore, the idea of organising this event is to enable startups to deal with this changing paradigm effectively.”
