Nasscom 10K Organised the Phase 5 Konnect Session in Bengaluru

- To impact 100+ shortlisted startups from the state of Karnataka

- An action packed day with a host of sessions to empower startups; pitching, go-to-market and growth hacking followed by investor speed dating

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), organized the NASSCOM 10,000 Startups ‘Konnect’ session in Bengaluru providing a conducive platform to the various startups shortlisted for its fifth phase.  The event took place in the presence of Ravi Gururaj, Chairperson, NASSCOM Product Council who gave interesting insights to the participating startups on ‘How to Pitch’. NASSCOM’s phase five Konnect is focused on identifying, supporting, incubating, and accelerating innovative technology start-ups in India.

Startups who had applied to be a part of 10k program in the last few months were considered for Phase 5 shortlisting and for the 10K Nurture program. This nurture program aims to provide a single platform for funding, mentoring, and enterprise connect, for all the 10K program shortlists. Over 100 shortlisted startups pitched to 40+ investors and 25+ corporates at the two day long Konnect session held at NASSCOM 10k startup warehouse in the city. The session allowed Startups to meet investors, incubators/accelerators and industry partners in a speed-dating format. The program aims to organize similar Konnect sessions at five other cities which include Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Kochi.

On the occasion, Mr. Rajat Tandon, Vice President, NASSCOM 10k Startups, said, “Bengaluru is known to be a hub for great talent and innovation. We had received great response from the city for our Fifth phase. At NASSCOM, we have been nurturing and empowering startups through a variety of programs and activities involving entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders. Konnect is yet another effort of ours which offers a strong platform to the aspiring entrepreneurs to not only meet investors and industry leaders but also to understand the dynamics of this thriving ecosystem. NASSCOM is committed to build a vibrant tech start-up ecosystem in the country and are proud of all the applicants that have showcased an incomparable spirit of entrepreneurship. We hope to continue on this sustained growth path to evangelize the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

The Bangalore Konnect session started off with the keynote address by Lalit Mangal, Co-founder-Commonfloor highlighting the current stature of the startup ecosphere. NASSCOM 10k Super stars (Hiree & Bookpad) from the previous batch of Konnect shared insights on what worked for them and how one can make use of the 10K ecosystem. The event was an action packed day with a host of sessions conducted to empower startups; pitching, go-to-market and growth hacking followed by investor speed dating.

NASSCOM 10,000 Startups, is a startup incubation program whose objective is to create 10,000 domain specific startups in the country by 2020.For the fifth phase, NASSCOM has shortlisted 200+ domain centric applications from startups, which will provide a detailed overview of their business idea and the market opportunity. To sustain the overall economic growth it is imperative to have more entrepreneurs in the country that will transform the landscape and propagate development. The program enables a number of entrepreneurs to setup and grow their businesses and in the process propel India’s economy.

About NASSCOM 10,000 Start-ups

Started in April 2013, 10,000 Start-ups is an ambitious attempt by NASSCOM to scale up the start-up ecosystem in India by 10x. 10,000 Start-ups aims to enable incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology start-ups in India over the next ten years. The program’s vision is to foster entrepreneurship, build entrepreneurial capabilities at scale and strengthen early stage support for tech start-ups. The initiative brings together key stakeholders of the ecosystem including startup incubators, accelerators, angel investors, venture capitalists, start-up support groups, mentors, and technology corporations. Since its launch, we’ve done about 600+ high impact events in 25 cities of the country which were attended by a whopping 25,000 attendees and have impacted 1100 startups out of 11,000 Applicants. The program is supported by our founding partner Google for Entrepreneurs, and Industry Partners Microsoft Ventures, Kotak, IBM and Amazon Web Services.