India is, today, among the top three global start-up ecosystems in the world with a significant rise in the number of first generation entrepreneurs. The growing number of investments in the start-up space has been the key driver behind this rise. Besides, there are various other macro and demographic trends like rise in consumption, rapid adoption of technology and increase in mobile penetration, which fuel the start-up wave.
While Eastern India does not come across as the obvious startup hub in the country, given the right push, it can be created into one. The region has the demographic backing in the form of access to human resources, untapped consuming population across the twelve eastern states along with developing infrastructure and continuously improving connectivity. With the support of government initiatives like Startup Bengal and an increasing concentration of ivy league institutions like IIM-C, IIT-KGP and XLRI, there is immense scope in the region to be explored. Not many of us are aware that thousands of start-ups germinate in the eastern region every year. They show appetite for domain-specific expert advice on crucial aspects of business related to finance, operations, distribution, marketing and compliance. The need of the hour is an all-encompassing platform where all stakeholders – be it budding entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts can synergize and collaborate to accelerate a startup into a successful and sustainable business.
The Times of India Group, India’s largest media conglomerate along with partners – Sumedha Fiscal, Mayabious and Infinity have launched a new endeavor in Eastern India – “
Brandshoots Ventures connects its portfolio companies with industry experts, mentors, investors to alleviate teething issues at an early stage. It helps companies fine-tune the go-to-market strategy with guidance from domain experts. It assists in chalking out a sustainable business model to ensure organic growth. It enables scaling up and provides marketing currency to start-ups. In addition to this, it provides tech support for building the website, app, digital marketing inputs and non-tech support such as legal, compliance and taxation.
Brandshoots Ventures has a rigorous screening process. In each batch of Brandshoots, there are 8-10 start-ups in high-growth, high-impact verticals like Ed-Tech, Healthcare, e-Commerce, Green-Tech, Big Data, Mobility and Retail. Their selection criteria include companies with asset light and scalable business models with a strong focus on the founding team.
Each cohort of Brandshoots Ventures culminates in a demo day where its start-ups interact with financial and strategic investors to secure funding for the next stage of growth. It’s current portfolio includes – Alfatek Systems, Bubble Blue, Dabadigo, Delybazar, Fincart, H-Spree, KnwAll and Scan It. Three of these companies have already raised their investments through Brandshoots Venture’s network of investors. Another three are in the final stages of raising their seed funds.
At a recently concluded Demo Day of its first cohort, the investors felt that the region previously lacked cohesiveness and hence was overlooked by national and international investors. P C Balasubramanian, President and Executive Director, Matrix Business Services Pvt. Ltd. said “Entrepreneurial values must supersede personal values. Focusing on team-building, collaborating with experts from various backgrounds teamed with costumer-centricity goes a long way in ensuring long term success.” Biswadeep Das, Head of Operations, Brandshoot Ventures commented “The vision of Brandshoot ventures is to impact both theoretical and practical knowledge to building entrepreneurs and creating an atmosphere conducive to robust commercial growth.” Girish Shivani, Executive Director, YourNest Angel Fund highlighted “Kolkata accounts for less than 5% of our deal flow. Things will now hopefully change with Brandshoots Ventures”. Digvijay Singh, COO, Indian Angel Network stressed “The East needs more angel investors. Brandshoots will attract a lot of attention from investors across the country”. All investors unanimously felt that platforms like Brandshoots Ventures should continue investing time, money and energy in innovative and sustainable start-ups which will go on to becoming national brands in the future.
Source from: – https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/advertising/brandshoots-ventures-creates-a-start-up-wave-in-eastern-india/articleshow/63531585.cms