Startup Funding Demystified at CANNABLE 4.0

Tricity's biggest startup event, CANNABLE 4.0, was organised by Chandigarh Angels Network (CAN) at Mohali.

City Air News Nov 26, 2022 07:53 0

Startup Funding Demystified at CANNABLE 4.0

Many of the tricity women pitched their ideas to investors at CANNABLE 4.0.

Mohali, November 27, 2022: Tricity's biggest startup event, CANNABLE 4.0, was organised by Chandigarh Angels Network (CAN) at Mohali.

The event brought together over 500 entrepreneurs, seasoned investors, startup enablers, and ecosystem partners from all over the country to sensitise startups about growing their businesses with or without funding.

The theme of the event was “Demystifying Startup Funding”, which recognized the need to sensitize entrepreneurs about growing their businesses with or without funding.

Prashant Pitti, co-founder of the celebrated startup EaseMyTrip in his keynote address advised the budding entrepreneurs that good ideas can grow even without funding, just as his enterprise EaseMyTrip was bootstrapped to a valuation of $1 Billion.

He stressed the importance of validating product-market fit and having a sustainable business model from day one that can help entrepreneurs navigate more challenging times.

Ajay Tewari, Director and Chairman of CAN said that there are over 65 angel investors in CAN WHO HAVE made key investments of over Rs.16 crores in 37 startups including Biryani by Kilo, KiwiHealth, Dhurina, Heliware, Language Curry, GoStops and Expertrons, and they have successfully exited out of many such startups.

Bharat Sethi, founder of Rage Coffee, Arush Chopra, Co-founder and CEO of Just Herbs,Saurabh Munjal, Co-founder of Lahori Zeera, and Atul Mehta, Senior VP of Sales at Razorpay affirmed that funding does not necessarily guarantee success for a startup.

Moderated by Vijay Singh Rathore of Soonicorn Ventures the panelists shared their experiences and shattered many myths surrounding startup growth and investments.

Kunal Nandwani, angel investor and Co-founder of uTrade Solutions, spoke on “Leveraging Intuition to Fuel Passion in Your Startup”and gave practical and logical advice on building startups consciously and passionately.

In another unique discussion format three founders, Ruchi Gupta of Barneys Hard Seltzer, Ritesh Srivastava of Freed, and Mayur Bhimjiyani of Hypernova Interactive, and their investor Bobby Garg, Founder of Passion Gaming, provided perspectives of both entrepreneurs and investors on demystifying the startup funding.

In another session moderated by Somveer Anand, CEO and Mission, Director of Innovation Mission Punjab, local success stories of Tricity were shared by successful founders, including Inderveer Singh, founder of EVage, Sahil Bansal, co-founder and CEO of Fitelo and Pritika Mehta, founder of SockSoho

Tej Kapoor, Managing Partner at IvyCap Ventures in a fireside chat shared insights to budding entrepreneurs into what venture capitalists and investors look for in a startup and how they evaluate deals.

A pitching session for women entrepreneurs was also orgqanised parallel by the Punjab State Council of Science and Technology where women entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to a panel of investors.

Dr Gowri Jayamurugan was declared the winner and given a cash prize of ₹25,000 by the Punjab State Technical Council. The runners up were Saina, a student entrepreneur working in the sphere of artificial intelligence, Anubhi, founder of Terafac working on Industrial 4.0 and automation and Munna Bhattacharya working in the health and wellness sphere. All of them will be closely mentored by Punjab State Technical Council.

The last panel discussion of the day was on “Celebrating Social Entrepreneurship”, which featured Inderpreet Singh, Founder of Gray Shades, Niraj Jha, founder of Hanuman and Bharat Bansal, co-founder, and CEO at Nirmalaya, reiterated the need for building socially responsible startups that solve society's bigger challenges.

CANNABLE 4.0 commenced with the Mentorship Clinic, where ten startups got the opportunity to have one-on-one sessions with reputed investors and were advised on various aspects of their business.

Later many startups pitched their business ideas before a panel of investors that evinced keen responses.

Alok Ramsisaria, Director of CAN said that the community of angel investors shall continue to have more initiatives to strengthen the startup ecosystem in the region and help startups grow and survive.

Nitika Khurana, Head of Operations at CAN said events like CANNABLE is meant to bridge the gap between successful and experienced founders and emerging startups to handhold and mentor them through their entrepreneurial journey.