Ranchi, Jharkhand |January | 05, 2019 :: E-cell, the entrepreneurship club of IIM Ranchi, in association with Ekcle Advisory, organised Ekcle Smart Bharat Innovation Challenge 2018-19 which is a National-level platform to identify the most promising revenue-generating, early-stage, innovative, tech-enabled start-ups and emerging businesses from Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities in India. The same helps accelerate their growth by partnering with relevant investors, prospective clients, incubators, mentors, industry investors etc.
The Innovation Challenge was held at Suchana Bhawan on 5th Jan, 2019 from 10 am to 6pm. Prominent budding start-ups JharFarm, Shilpkari, Riaon Services Pvt Ltd, S Garbage, Happy Fork Food Works LLP, Rekla.in, KeytoDoc, Mennova Digital Solutions Pvt ltd, Pureshdaily, Breakfeast Food and Living Pvt Ltd, Feedko Agro Cart Pvt Ltd, etc. attended the event to pitch for their start-up ideas to the investors.
The event was held in partnership with renowned firms and ventures like 366 pi, Awsactivate, Brandshoots, Ekcle Ventures, 10000 start-ups, Unitus Ventures, etc.
IIM Ranchi had eminent personalities in the judging panel Mr. Vikram Duggal – Managing Partner – Ekcle Ventures & Ekcle Advisory Services, the founder of OneX solutions Mr. Dipak Agarwal, Founder and Partner of 366Pi technologies Mr. Amitesh Anand, Founder at Venketesh Biosciences Mr. Raghav Garodia and Mr. Kanishka Poddar- Director at Mulberry Lifestyle.
Some of the questions raised in the panel discussion were: What are the prime focus areas one needs to stress upon to establish a startup, How to conduct marketing activities for the startup, should the partners be from a similar background or not, how to make the team as passionate about solution as the founders, Strategies to grow and seek funding, etc.
“Having been functioning since 2011, E-Cell wanted the students at IIM Ranchi to have a flair of the start up ecosystem, not just in Tier 1 cities but also at Tier 2 & 3 cities. It will help build risk appetite amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs in our Institute. They were able to see for themselves the kind of queries and expectations that investors have, when proposals are pitched”, says Md. Anish, senior coordinator of E-Cell and a student of MBA 2020 batch.
Ankit Singh, also senior coordinator of E-Cell, shares, “It has been a great experience interacting with some of the great minds from the entrepreneurial ecosystem in and outside Ranchi. Many enthusiastic participants learnt from their experience on managing revenues, getting funded, marketing their product and making a good pitch deck.”
