Seed investor and start-up accelerator Venture Catalysts (V-cats) plans to conduct a road-show for start-ups looking to raise pre-Series or Series A funding. ,This will be similar to those held by companies that plan to go for an IPO (Initial Public Offering).
At the May 18-19 VC Roadshow, which V-cats is conducting in partnership with investment bank Chryseum Advisors, start-ups will be able to not only raise funding from VCs, but also get guidance on how to utilise the funds. This is critical, since funded start-ups are seen to burn cash to acquire customers rather than build the business.
“Having secured their seed funding, most start-ups find it tough to secure pre-Series A. Our road-show is aimed at providing participants with a chance to interact one-on-one with top notch VCs. This personalised interaction will allow them to not just pitch their ideas to secure funds, but also to gain insights and inputs to refine their product and approach as a part of their long-term strategy,” V-cats Co-Founder Apoorv Ranjan Sharma told.
He added that out of the 100 applications that V-cats and Chryseum received, only 20 start-ups are qualified to raise Series A during the two-day event, from about 20 marquee investors.
Without disclosing the names of the selected start-ups, he said each will get anything between $1 million and $10 million after the road-show.
Explaining the challenges for start-ups, Chryseum Advisors’ Managing Director Abhishek Bhagat said: “Even though the funding environment has matured in India with several VCs chasing to invest in the upcoming Unicorn, there are still some good ideas and companies that fail due to lack of funding and expert guidance. Many of them have no idea how to get prepared for the next round of investment and how to present themselves.”
The VC Roadshow will also help VCs save the time and cost they expend in chasing start-ups, said Bhagat. He added that the funding will be across sectors — from fin-tech to agri-tech — rather than just focusing on e-commerce marketplace models or anything to do with online selling.
He further said plans are afoot to hold road-shows every quarter to address issues pertaining to the start-up ecosystem. Coming soon are a road-show to help start-ups with their acquisition strategy — so as to curb distress selling — and another on exits.
“The end-game is not just to connect start-ups with investors, but also to boost start-up growth. We, at Venture Catalysts, believe that funding alone cannot guarantee success, and are therefore building a comprehensive support infrastructure to nurture winning start-ups.
“The VC Roadshow is another step in the direction of creating a holistic, well-rounded support ecosystem that facilitates start-up success,” said Sharma. He added that the company is looking to have about 800-1,000 active angels on its platform soon.
Source: Business Line
