‘Huddle Global’ to Showcase Prowess of Kerala’s Startup Ecosystem

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Showcasing Kerala’s vibrant startup ecosystem before a wide gathering of global stakeholders and opening up plenty of opportunities for startups in the state, the third edition of the two-day ‘Huddle Global’ conference of Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) will commence at beach tourism hub Kovalam here on December 15.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the conclave at Raviz Kovalam hotel at Kovalam on December 15, KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika told a press conference here on Monday.

The winner of the ‘Grand Kerala Startup Challenge’, which is the highlight of the event, will get Rs 50 lakh as prize. The challenge is open to startups registered with KSUM.

Billed as one of Asia’s largest startup congregations and India’s biggest networking platform for entrepreneurs, ‘Huddle Global’ will have more than 3,000 participants, seeking business, investment and partnership opportunities.

The event will offer immense 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.

What KSUM is aiming at through programmes like this is to build an ecosystem that would enable entrepreneurs from rural areas also to convert their ideas into technology-based ventures, Anoop said.

The conclave will feature sessions like ‘Pitch It Right,’‘Tigers Claw’, ‘Marketing Madness’, ‘Close the Deal’, ‘Meet the Game Changer’ and ‘Super Coders’ for startups at the conclave.

The meet will bring immense opportunities for startups to get mentored from industry leaders with an in-depth understanding of various aspects of products, services, design, marketing strategies, capital structuring, fundraising and business development.

The ‘Huddle Global’ will bring together globally-known startup founders, mentors, investors, industry leaders and heads of various government departments to deliberate on a whole range of issues relating to startup ecosystem with a global perspective.

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, fireside chat, speed dating with investors, industry challenges, startup pitching and other business and investment-oriented activities. It will have the presence of more than 3,000 startups, around 200 mentors, 70-plus investors and more than 50 exhibitors. The focus sectors at the conclave are augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), fintech, edu tech, life sciences, space tech, health tech, blockchain, IoT (Internet of Things), e-governance, artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine learning (ML). On the first day of the meet, 100 startups will pitch their ideas.

Tamil Nadu IT Minister Shri T Mano Thangaraj will also attend the event.

KSUM Business Development Head Ashok Kurian Panjikaran and KSUM Assistant Manager, Public Relations, Ashitha VA, were also present at the press meet.

The speakers at the event include Dr Shashi Tharoor, MP; Dr Rathan U Kelkar, Secretary, Electronics and IT, Government of Kerala; Jonas Brunschwig, CEO of Swissnex in India and Consul General of Switzerland; Hans-Joerg Hoertnagl, Commercial Counsellor and Trade Commissioner, Austrian Embassy; Dr Aniruddha Malpani, Founder, Malpani Ventures; Anish Achuthan, Co-founder, Open Financial Technologies; Abhay Tandon, Head-Digital and AI Innovation, TVS; Prateek Maheshwari, Co-Founder, PhysicsWallah; Niraj Singh, Founder and CEO, Spinny; Anil Joshi, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures; Murugavel Janaki Raman, Founder, Matrimony.com; Naiyya Saggi, Co-founder, The Good Glamm Group; Rajesh Sawhney, Founder and CEO, GSF Accelerator and Founding President, Reliance Entertainment; Anoop N, Principal, Investments, Chiratae Ventures; AvetaThampatty, Digital Marketing Manager, NeoLacta Life Sciences; Sruthi Kannan, Head, Cisco Launchpad; Mathew Joseph, COO, Fresh To Home; CJ George, Founder and Managing Director, Geojit Financial Services; Arjun Vaidya, Co-founder, V3 Ventures; Chetna Vasishth, Head of Content Marketing, Byju’s; and Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy, Global Head, Zoho for Startups, Zoho Corporation et.al.

KSUM, the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state, has been organising ‘Huddle Kerala’ since 2018. More than 5,000 startups from across the country had attended the previous editions of the event, including investors, government officials, members of academia and business community.