Three city-based start-ups were selected as winners in the Guwahati round of Assocham (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India) Launchpad — Startup Elevator Pitch Series, an initiative and platform for budding entrepreneurs, conducted at Technology Incubation Centre, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati here on Tuesday.
Medilane Healthtech and Consultancy Services, OLatus Systems and Pratyaksha Agrotech emerged as the most promising innovators in the region which will now battle at the national level at the soon- to-be-held grand finale in New Delhi and get a chance to become India’s start-up heroes.
Of the 80 applications received by Assocham from across the region, 23 start-ups were shortlisted which got a chance to meet world-class mentors, investors and companies with decades of industry experience.
All the applications received from the early stage and established start-ups in different sectors were evaluated on the basis of certain parameters like innovation, problem solving, social impact, team qualification, experience, business scalability, profitability and others.
The three winners stood out among their competition for demonstrating exemplary innovation and other achievements.
They were reviewed and evaluated by an expert panel of judges comprising Anil Khaitan, chairman, Assocham National Council on Start-ups, G.S. Singhvi, MD, Hindustan Fibre Ltd; Avisek Purkayashtha, professor, GIMT Guwahati, Rajeev Saikia, MD, RD Grow Green India Pvt. Ltd, Sharique Hussain, branch manager, CIET HR Services and Hemanta Kumar Borah, head of Ecosystem Development, Startup Kolkata.
“The Assocham Startup Launchpad is giving budding startups in non-metro cities of India an access to industry experts who can give them the guidance they need on business, product, marketing and also connect them with right people that can help with funding process and proper guidance on how to set up a business case for funding,” said Khaitan.
The top three winners from the city, invited for the grand finale, will also get an opportunity to scale up and raise finance and/or technology or even marketing partnership with venture capitalists, mentors or independent professionals of global repute.
Thirty-six finalists (three each selected from 12 cities) will present their ideas at the grand finale, of which the top three will be selected, with total prizes worth Rs 1.5 crore.
While top five start-ups will get $5,000 each from AWS (Amazon Web Service), the next 15 start-ups will get $2,000 and the next 80 will get credit worth $1,000.