Startups Movement on Upswing in Region

By 121 News

Chandigarh 13th October:- The city's largest entrepreneurship summit CANNABLE 2.0 by Chandigarh Angels Network (CAN) focussed on the need for start-ups to address issues of sustainability for social impact here today at the campus of NITTTR, Sector 26.

With over 350 startups and young aspiring entrepreneurs attended the meet which was addressed by a number of investors like Simarpreet Singh of HARTEK,  Kunal Nandwani of earthr.org, Ashok Mehta of Emmbros Automotives, Ashish Grover of uTrade amongst others.

Prof. Shyam Sundar Pattnaik, Director, NITTTR, STPI Director Ajay Srivastava, also attended the meet.

The startup project 'Har Hath Kalam' by Harsh Kothari in Patiala received applause for his social impact project of taking begging children to school that has reduced begging by children upto 60 percent in Patiala.

The topics like fund raising, celebrating failure and sustainability were discussed at length in panel discussions to guide the entrepreneurs wishing to startup on their own.

Three start-ups were also selected out of 200 applications who pitched to the investors for funding of their projects to scale up their businesses.

Gaurav Sharma of Driv Trakr from Delhi with a vehicle pick up and drop services for large companies, showcased their success of last 10 months having reached a turnover of nearly Rs.1 crore who were looking for another 1 crore funding to scale up. 

The Chandigarh startup 'Roll Xpress' pitched to take his current Rs.75 lakh sales revenue from its existing 19 outlets, to 100 outlets by December 2019 seeking Rs.1 crore angel investment.

Another Jalandhar based electric rickshaw and pickup manufacturer, Republic Motors, having successfully sold 500 vehicles sought Rs.2 crore investment for further R&D and marketing.

The pitches, Kunal Nandwani said, were heard with deep interest by investors and some of them did show interest which may fructify in future.

He added that CAN has already funded 15 startups in the past.

Many of the first and second generation youngsters participated in the mentoring clinic as they networked and received valuable inputs from experienced entrepreneurs.