Twenty-one start-ups in search of funds to take their big ideas to the next level on Wednesday pitched their plans in front of a jury of entrepreneurs, investors and mentors.

The daylong session at an office on Camac Street saw a range of businesses and the brains behind them competing for financial backing with passion and panache.

One of them was Agastya Buoyant Pvt Ltd, a company that makes giant balloons to store biogas for domestic as well as commercial use. It was founded in 2015 by Prantik Sinha and Sandip Nair, two engineers from IIEST, Shibpur.

Also in contention was Vawsum, an app that enhances the engagement between teachers and parents of schoolchildren.

Pitching the app were Aditya Maheswari, who founded the company that owns the software, and Sayantan Bhattacharjee, its CEO. The two have been friends from the time they studied at Calcutta Boys’ School.

The 21 start-ups participating in the event had been selected from a pool of more than 500 applicants who had registered for The Hot Pitch, a competition among start-ups with a kitty of Rs 6 crore for the top three businesses.

The competition is the main attraction of TiECON 2018, an entrepreneurial summit to be held in Calcutta on Friday and Saturday. The summit will have 1,000-odd entrepreneurs from Calcutta and other parts of eastern India participating, besides 40 speakers from across the country to talk on a range of subjects.

TiECON 2018 is being organised by the Calcutta chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs and is partnered by The Telegraph.

The start-up founders on the shortlist had attended a boot camp at IIM Calcutta before heading into Wednesday’s pitch. The top 10 will get a chance to pitch their ideas in front of a panel of investors from the Indian Angel Network, a group of angel investors who fund nascent start-ups, on November 3.

The top three will receive a non-binding term sheet and angel investments of up to Rs 6 crore from the IAN, depending on their business requirements.

Vawsum, the parent-teacher interface application, got a thumbs-up from the jury. “From monitoring children’s attendance, tracking their classwork and homework, providing free online tutorials and instant updates on school notifications, the app has multiple services to offer,” said Aditya, who studied economics at the erstwhile Presidency College before doing his MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

Aditya had spent six years at Hindustan Unilever before taking the entrepreneurial plunge because he found it “more fulfilling”.

Vawsum already covers more than 700 schools, most of them in north Bengal. The start-up is looking to mop up Rs 2.5 crore in funding to increase business penetration by 50 per cent and start a brand engagement campaign across physical and digital formats.

Kalyan Koley, a 36-year-old from Singur, runs Aegipan Animal Biocare Pvt Ltd, a start-up that focuses on conservation of the Black Bengal Goat through artificial insemination. “Cross-breeding and castration of male goats have led to a rapid decline in the population of this breed,” he said.

Whenever it found flaws in the presentations or the business models, the jury was unsparing in its criticism.

Aditya of Vawsum was called out for spending a large amount of money to acquire a client.

Another faced criticism for his presentation. “The problem-solution statement should be as crisp as possible,” Vasant Subramanyan, entrepreneur and former president of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, told the participant.

“We are preparing them for the perfect pitch on the final day. Doing good business on the ground is one thing and getting investors to fund it is another,” said Deepak Daftari, an organiser who was in Wednesday’s jury.

Sagar Daryani, the founder of Wow! Momo and chairman of TiECON 2018, said the event was the largest of its kind to be organised in Calcutta. “Live pitches are routine in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. Calcutta has local-level pitches, but in terms of scale The Hot Pitch is something that the city probably hasn’t seen before.”

Sayantan Bhattacharjee and (right) Aditya Maheswari of Vawsum at the event. Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

The Telegraph