Economic Times Survey 2016 reports more than 22,000 startups in India with 4,000+ new companies getting registered each year since 2013. With Indian startups witnessing $3.5 billion investment over 815 deals between Q1-Q3 2016, huge unharnessed opportunities are available for both start-ups and equity investors. Senior Investment players are of the opinion that the investment environment in India is becoming stable with clearer business models and long term growth view emerging in the start-up ecosystem.
ah! Ventures, India’s leading start-ups specialist and SriSattva Group, growth strategy focussed firm come together to partner on the Smart India Initiatives to create an ecosystem for start-ups to improve their business models and achieve higher success rate of funding.
Smart India Initiatives of SriSattva Group is focussed on bridging the gaps witnessed by the start-ups and SMEs. One of such initiative is the Closed Room Equity Investor Meet, which focusses on are start-ups with operations for less than 3 years, have received seed funds in the past and are now looking at next level fund raise. The Group invites VC investors and Angel Investors from across the globe who may be interested in evaluating the participants from an investment point of view and make available around 16 Companies over a period of 8 hours in a board room, where the promoters of the participating Companies can directly present their investment pitch to the panel investors under complete confidentiality. Participating Investors reserve their rights on the investment commitment related decisions after a detailed due diligence. The idea is to present multiple investment opportunities to a panel of experienced investors and seek their opinion on the “fundability and scalability of the business” and primarily feedback on the business for the promoters to plan their next step towards formal presentation of the investment opportunity to the early stage investors.
The promoters benefit from not only making a single presentation to multiple prospective investors but also from getting a collective feedback from the investor community. They get to comprehend the different views from the investor community and be a part of their brainstorming discussion on the promoter’s product (which would give clarity and direction to the promoters on their next step).
As a catalyst bringing the best of the start-up players together, ah! Ventures has strived to create opportunities for all the entities associated since its inception. ah! Ventures’ unique method of operations with clear view of long term benefits to start up community can be gauged from their fruitful collaborations and successful start-up focussed meets ranging from domestic events to international summits.
Expressing the gratitude towards ah! Venture for the fruitful partnership, Managing Director of SriSattva Group, Ms Aparna expressed, “ah! Ventures approach towards entrepreneurs is like that of a friend, guide and philosopher to the start-ups Companies. SriSattva Group is delighted to join hands with ah! Ventures towards a common goal of start-up community benefit. With ah! Ventures proven successful incubation to investment capabilities and SriSattva Group’s growth strategy focus can together build a stable ecosystem for the benefit of youngest but fastest growing start-ups community across the globe – The Indian Start-Ups! Our first meet together is on Dec 19th, 2016 at Bangalore.”
Commenting on the association between ah! Ventures and SriSattva Group, Harshad Lahoti – Founder & CEO of ah! Ventures opined, “SriSattva Group’s innovative Smart India Initiative is very good platform to get multiple start-ups to directly present their investment pitch to early stage investors in a closed room. The take-away by startups from the experienced investors would not only be in form of monetary benefit but also their invaluable feedback, guidance and suggestions towards improvement and growth. We believe that these ideas need to be supported by entities who deeply understand the executional side. Owing to the 18000+ entrepreneurs associated with us, ah! Ventures truly understand the entrepreneurial mind-set and intend to help the innovators with the right entrepreneurial path to follow.”
Since its inception in 2012, ah! Ventures, spearheaded by Founder and CEO Harshad Lahoti and Co-Founder Abhijeet Kumar, has crossed numerous milestones. With an intensive network of 900+ investors, 18000+ entrepreneurs and a whopping 100+ crores of investment raised till date, ah! Ventures has strived to be the best guiding hand for all the players in this ecosystem. With associations like these, ah! Ventures aims to create a holistic environment for collaborative partnerships and fruitful associations with all the pivotal players of the start-up ecosystem.