Education start-up Sapientury, which fosters experiential learning in engineering education by hosting project-based courses online coupled with home-delivered Do it Yourself (DIY) kits, has won the first edition of TiE Women Pitchfest 2021 for women entrepreneurs organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) in Mysuru recently.
Earlier this month, a total of 28 teams from three States had sent their entries. They pitched for interesting services, offerings and products addressing the market pains in their respective markets. One of the conditions for participation was the presence of at least one woman among the co-founders of the start-up ventures.
Five teams made it to the final round held on September 3, where their ideas were pitched to a panel of successful women entrepreneurs and angel investors.
Apart from Sapeintury, the final round participants included Practice Management, founded by Sangeetha Sharaff, which provides clinic management solutions for struggling healthcare practitioners; Les Aider Wellness, a Fintech start-up founded by Vinita More, which has developed a reminder app FinPrompt for all renewals and maturity dates for non-tech savy people; Anargya Ecotech, co-founded by Neha Dhanaram, which has developed a technology that would capture the CO2 from industrial emissions and convert it into dry ice; and Pro Rurals India, founded by Ramya Bopanna, which is a farm-to-pack venture, specialising in Indian spices and native crops from the place of origin.
Eventually, the presentation by Sapientury was approved by the panel of judges and become eligible to receive ₹50,000 cash prize. Earlier this year, Sapientury had also won the TiE University Pitchfest 2021 for university students.
The panel of judges for the TiE Women’s Pitchfest 2021 comprised Revathy Ashok, angel investor and co-founder of Strategy Garage, Bengaluru; Geetha Ramamurthy, co-founder and CEO of GiGa Innovation Center and Board member of TiE Bengaluru chapter; and Priya Nagaraj, Director, Strategic Partnerships, Deshpande Start-ups, Hubbali, who evaluated the pitches on parameters including innovation, scalability, market opportunity, commercialisation and business model, said a press statement from TiE.
While the winner receives cash award, all the five teams will receive one-year TiE Mysuru Associate Membership and continue to receive mentoring support to scale their business.
In a statement, President of TiE Mysuru Ajith Pai said TiE Mysuru strives to provide the necessary enabling ecosystem to women entrepreneurs and start-ups to grow and scale their ideas through such initiatives in the Mysuru region. Shrilakshmi Desiraju chaired the TiE Mysuru Women Pitchfest 2021, said a press statement.
