India's largest single day startup funding event held

Chandigarh: Chitkara University announced on Friday that it had a privilege of hosting India's largest single-day start-up funding event - India Fund Fest at Hyatt Regency hotel in Chandigarh. The platform curated start-up opportunities from across the country and presented them to investors after intensive coaching. The philosophy was to give budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to get on to a path of accelerated funding.

The resounding success of the first three editions in 2017, 2018 & 2019 gave budding entrepreneurs an opportunity to get on to a path of accelerated funding. It is the first time that the event was held outside Bengaluru. Chitkara University with support of the Chandigarh Angels Network hosted the event. The event has been organized by Natio Caltus Consultancy Private Limited, Hyderabad.

This business funding programme had become hugely popular because of its distraction-free format, as there is no carnival-like atmosphere, no speeches of sponsors, no panel discussions, no stalls to sell products and services and no crowds of unrelated people and needless networking - only entrepreneurs and the matched investors. In the previous three editions of the event, entrepreneurs from across India and 47 other countries registered and participated.

Twenty-eight companies from twenty cities made it to the finale and pitched to a panel of 12 master investors from eight cities of India. The Top 28 start-ups selected from over 20,000 interested applicants, pitched in a TV show format, for spot deals of an estimated minimum total value of INR 25 Crores in the day. The event has been recorded and will be telecasted as a web TV series on the India Fund Fest YouTube channel.

Nalin Singh, Founder of Natio Cultus Consultancy Pvt Ltd., author of the best seller and national honour winning book 'Get Funded Now' was the Deal Master for India Fund Fest 2020 along with the Managing Partner of Lexygen, Vijay Sambamurthi. They interacted with the founders of selected companies to coach them about their pitch and funding strategy from a week in advance. In addition to the 12 Master Investors, 150+ invited investors and business experts from Indonesia, Singapore, USA and other countries, attended this event. Incubators and accelerators from India witnessed the live pitching session.

Over five companies from Chandigarh and Punjab region presented at the event. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Madhu Chitkara, Vice-Chancellor at Chitkara University, said, "This is a great opportunity for the region to have access to start-up capital with so many investors coming over on a single day for assessing the start-up's pitches from all over India. We are also happy that two companies from Chitkara Innovation Hub also presented at the event," said Dr. Madhu Chitkara- Vice Chancellor Chitkara University.

"It was a great opportunity for our region start-ups and we are very excited to have participated in the event," said Kunal Nandwani, Co-founder Chandigarh Angels network.

Students from around the country are attracted to Chitkara University because of their commitment to teaching excellence, their research that makes a difference, their industry partnerships and their tailored courses. This difference has been acknowledged by students, parents, alumni, government, and industry since the inception of the university.

Within a decade, most of Chitkara University academic programmes are ranked among the top 50 programmes in the country which speaks volumes about their string of academic heritage, highly committed faculty, extensive industry collaborations, great international connections and state-of-the-art campus facilities.