PANEL 1: EARLY AND GROWTH STAGE FUNDING

1. Anshuman Khanna | Principal Investments | IvyCap Ventures

• Funding mostly Series A, B

• He thinks the most important characteristics of an entrepreneur are vision and they only fund once the company gains traction

• Evaluating Parameters for the Ideas Pitched to them: People Acceptance and Linkage Build

• They are a close ended fund

2. Aditi Gupta| Associate Principal | Contrarian Capital Indian Partners

• $100 K is the minimum ticket size they look for$

• Looks how good are the startups insights into the market

• They look for startups which are Indian in context

• They always look whether the company is having a De-risking Model

• It usually takes them 6 months, from pitching to funding

3. Harshijit Sethi | Vice President | Sequoia Capital

• Ticket Size: $500 K - $500 Million

• They fund Big Ideas, Big markets are their targeted startups

• India, South, East Asia are the target markets

4. Sameer Mansukhani | Principal | Alteria Capital

• They are a Venture Debt Fund

• They try to lend money so that they can get better valuations

5. Prerna Bhutani | Partner | Indian Quotient

• $ 0.5 Million ticket size

• Focused on Indian market

• Technology startups where the companies they want to invest in

• They look for Proof of concept in the startups

6. Rohan Dedhia | Investment Professional |Oris Venture Partners

• $ 0.5 Million - $1.5 Million ticket size

• They are open minded, ready to invest in any field

• They are looking at sustainable startups

7. Rema Subramanian | Founding Partner | Anukur Capital

• They are looking for technology startups

• Agriculture, Health and Fintech are the industries they are looking at

• Innovative Products are what they are interested in

• They are looking for companies which are only in Post revenue Phase

8. Atin Sharma | Partner | Round Glass Partners

• Media, Education are their target areas

• Ticket size: 0.5 Million – 3 Million

• Email Should be structured

What they can help startups with?

• Branding, Marketing, HR, Operations System Execution, Business Development

• For early stage they look for Growth and Value, Growth > Value

Ways to get a slot for Pitching:

• Recommendation from one of Portfolio Companies

• Team evaluation from mails

• Even LinkedIn works: But it needs to be crisp and different

• And always try through second level contact

• Incubators, IIM, IIT’s, Accelerators, THub, Zonestartups add extra credibility

• Rachet clause, Drag Along clause, Tag Along and Anti-dilution clauses are something that should startups should be aware of