Indian-American portal to host startup conference in Mumbai

An Indian-American community and business portal today said it will host a conference for startup entrepreneurs in Mumbai with the objective of helping them find investors from the US to fund their ventures.
"American investors continue to be intrigued by the energy, the resourcefulness and the robustness of the Indian startup echo system," said Asif Ismail, publisher of The American Bazaar, a Washington DC-based community and business portal.
The day-long conference in Mumbai on February 22, would also feature a startup competition.
Top Indian-American institutional investors and venture fund experts are slated to address the conference, organisers said.
"The bilateral commercial relations today are a two-way traffic. By hosting the startup competition and the Forums, The American Bazaar wants to be the bridge between the US investor community and the Indian startup community," said Ismail.

Among speakers to the conference include Indian-American entrepreneur and founder of FI Investment Group Frank Islam; entrepreneur and founder of AutoNebula and USINPAC Sanjay Puri; former Obama administration official and CEO of the Boston-based Citizence Nish Acharya; Senior General Partner at Edgewood Ventures, LLC Vishal Verma and the founder and Managing Director of the New York-based Powerhouse Ventures Sri Peddu.

"India's startup landscape is the most expansive in the world, and it hasn't even scratched the surface of its potential," said Acharya, author of The India-US Partnership: USD 1 Trillion by 2030.
According to various surveys, India has one of the world's largest cohort of privately funded startup companies - along with the United States, United Kingdom, Israel and China.

"But India's startups are the most expansive - addressing global trends like Big Data, cloud computing and 3D printing, but also focused on serving the base of the pyramid with breakthrough technologies and business models to help small scale farmers, public health clinics and education. No other country can claim that breadth," Acharya said.