CII launches initiative to support start-ups

The Confederation of Indian Industry has launched an initiative, 'CII Startupreneurs', to promote and nurture entrepreneurs and start-ups in Chennai. The lobby group will conduct the event on November 24 this year, to create a meeting place for select start-ups to meet industry leaders and high net worth individuals (HNIs).

Startupreneurs will feature an exposition, scheduled for November 24 in Chennai, with the aim of showcasing innovative ideas, emerging technologies and new business models of start-ups and budding entrepreneurs. It will also create an opportunity for start-ups to meet leading industry figures and potential venture capitalists to raise capital for their business, CII Chennai said.

The organisation has launched a website and will invite applications from around 1,000 start-ups in Chennai. Of this, it will select the 100 best start-ups, including from schools, colleges and other educational institutions, some of which are already operational, said Anand P Surana, who leads the IT, ITeS and electronics panel of CII Chennai.

The advisory committee for the initiative consists of Gopal Srinivasan, chairman and managing director of TVS Capital Funds; R Ramraj, senior advisor with Sequoia Capital India; Lakshmi Narayanan, vice-chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Arun Jain, chairman and managing director of Polaris Financial Technology Ltd and N K Ranganath, managing director of Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd.

Other industry-related organisations such as TiE, Nasscom and Chennai Angels have also joined hands with this initiative as partners.

The start-ups will be selected from seven sectors -- automobile and auto components, manufacturing and engineering, FMCG/consumer durables, pharmacy and healthcare, IT & ITeS, education and infrastructures. The top performers in the event will travel separately on short trips to Switzerland, Silicon Valley and Harvard University for a start-up programme, the advisory committee members said.

The CII members would help the start-ups by supporting them, mentoring them and even buying from these start-ups, to enable them to grow, Ramraj said. The mentors and start-ups should meet periodically, Jain said.