This fourth edition of Demo Day will be hosted in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Vizag. Each city will have local startups presenting their ideas and one winner from each city will receive prize money of Rs.1 lakh.
These top 10 winners will then participate in the Chennai finale in December 2016, where they will present their ideas to a prestigious panel of Investors, Mentors & Entrepreneurs. The national winner will be awarded with a ‘Grand Finale Prize’ of Rs.5 lakh plus various tools as support system.
Indian startups are attracting more funding in early stages than ever before. In the first nine months of 2015, around $1.4 billion in early stage investments—the highest ever for the country—has been pumped into startups, according to data from Venture Intelligence, a research firm. Last year, 304 deals saw a total funding of $1.2 billion.
“Demo Day is a platform for a cherry-picked set of startups to pitch to a set of investors to possibly raise funds. Demo Day 2016 promises to be bigger and better, covering 10 cities across India, with over 1500 attendees across locations and participation from around 100 startups. We are confident that early-stage startups will leverage the platform to take their ideas to a larger audience and create a compelling value proposition,” said Salma Moosa, Core Organizer, Startups Club.
On the sidelines of this, Vivek Srinivasan, Founder, Startups Club told, “Many have been able to find business for their organisations through the connects that they generate through our meetings. We have been able to put many startups in touch with investors who have taken interest in investing in their ventures.”
A pan-India hunt for startups, Demo Day simplifies the process of meeting with investors one on one to pitch ideas directly, get validated and get funded.
For participants it is a platform for sharing ideas, networking with industry veterans and reaching potential Seed and Angel investors.