Pune Startup Marathon Aims To Foster And Upscale New Ventures

November 21, 2017

The Startup Marathon is coming to Pune on November 25. Planned by FundTonic, an angel network, the event will see over 250 startups attending, who expect to benefit from the presence of speakers, mentors and angel investors from across the globe.

Mentors will include startups that have made it through to an IPO within a short span of time, expanded businesses globally and seen it all.

It is all in the interest of helping accelerate and upscale startups. Upcoming businesses can not only seek investment, but also interventions for product development, business strategy and business development. The event is dedicated to Pune’s StartUp eco-system and will see the launch of a sector agnostic seed- funded global accelerator.

There is also the launch of a seed funded healthcare-focused accelerator as well as an exchange program to help upscale Pune startups to the ASEAN countries and Europe.

Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Founder at 5F World, Ex-Chairman – Nasscom stated that as investors and participants in the Digital Start-up eco-system, he believes the future of Digital and Industry 4.0 Transformation will lie in an eco-system where large customers investors and aggregators participate with high velocity young companies.

“This marathon by FundTonic will facilitate such synergies,” he opined, adding that he would be a key note speaker at the event along with Lt Colonel Rakesh Krishnan (Retd), Founder – Catfitex Special Forces (Indian Army) and National Security Guard.

Pune entrepreneurs can network with dignitaries like Sanjib Jha, Lead Advisor at SIDBI /World Bank, Dr Amarendra Sahoo, Chairman at Atom Technology Ltd and Ajay Desai, Senior President of Yes Bank along with Bhavin Parikh, CEO of Globe Textiles India Ltd and Dr. Sujata Malik, CEO & MD at Sunburst Healthcare. Also attending are M. Radhakrishnan, Co-Founder of Autoline Industries, Santanu Samanta, Head- Business at BillDesk and Miten Mehta, Co-Founder of Spinta Global Accelerator, etc.

Akshit Gupta, Founder of FundTonic added, “We expect a significant rise in the number of startup applicants as well as investors for the Pune market. This year we plan to invest in at least 5 startups from Pune within the next 6 months.”

FundTonic closely works with ScaleMinds Accelerator, founded by Nainesh Kapadia and a pre-accelerator programme that helps startups ascertain how feasible their ideas are. ScaleMinds plans to invest in 20 startups annually and work closely to mentor them as part of a customized accelerator programme.