The Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) will be organising the third edition of the two-day Huddle Global conference at Kovalam from December 15.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the conclave at Hotel Raviz Kovalam. The event will offer opportunities for the startups to pitch their ideas and products before industry leaders and investors who look for homegrown technologies and are willing to provide financial and institutional back-up for the nascent firms to take off and scale up.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, Anoop Ambika, CEO, KSUM, said that the event, being held after a gap of two years, would be the culmination of the year-long activities of the mission, and would bring together startups and investors into the same platform. Another aim of the conclave would be the democratisation of innovation by changing the impression that the startup ecosystem was not accessible to common people. Rural innovators would get a platform to showcase their ideas and attract investment, he said.
Huddle Global is expected to have more than 3,000 startups, seeking business, investment and partnership opportunities. The conclave will primarily look into the scope of entrepreneurial opportunities across the world and explore the availability of financial and technical backing for startups to accelerate their growth and reach. The event features keynote sessions, leadership talks, tech talks, startup demo, speed dating with investors, industry challenges, startup pitching, and other business and investment-oriented activities. It will have the presence of around 200 mentors, 70-plus investors, and more than 50 exhibitors.
A Grand Kerala startup challenge will also be organised as part of the event, in which the best startup from those registered with the KSUM will be chosen and an amount of ₹50 lakh will be awarded as funds for scaling up. One of the highlights of the event will be ‘Pitch it Right’ to train startups in refining their investment pitch. The startups will be given an in-depth understanding on what the investors are looking at various elements like team, problem statement, product, market, financials, revenue models and target audience pricing.
Among the attendees at the event will be Tamil Nadu IT Minister T. Mano Thangaraj, Shashi Tharoor, MP, Rathan U. Kelkar, secretary, Electronics and IT department, Jonas Brunschwig, CEO of Swissnex in India and Consul General of Switzerland, and founders of major companies. For more details and registration for public participation, visit http://huddleglobal.co.in.
