For the first time, Indian entrepreneurs will be able to pitch their ventures to the rich investors of the Gulf region, among others, with the Dubai AIM Startups opening its doors for Indian start-ups to participate.
While UAE has been hosting the annual investment meeting for few years now, this will be the first time that Indian start-ups will get an opportunity to participate in the international summit, to be held in Dubai in April.
Incidentally, Dubai AIM Startups is one of the biggest start-up investment event in the region organised by the UAE’s Ministry of Economy.
Road shows
The road shows for Indian start-ups would be held January 23 onwards across 15 cities, wherein start-ups can pitch their ventures.
The finals would be held in Mumbai with the winners getting a chance to participate in AIM Startup 2019.
The India leg of the summit will be organised by Grex, an Indian start-up listing platform, which has connected with various ecosystem partners like IIT campuses, incubators, accelerators and various state government projects like Kerala Start-up Mission, for the event.
Meanwhile, some domestic venture capital funds have also joined the initiative and are looking at possible investment opportunities through the competition for start-ups.
“Disruptive ideas have turned thousands of Indians to be passionate innovators,” said Dawood Al Shezawi, chairman, Organising Committee, AIM Startup 2019. “This is evident from the impressive number of start-ups formed in India in 2018. We have to match their passion with a platform that will encourage and support their ideas to become a reality. This is exactly what AIM Startup has been committed to since its inception,” he added.
AIM Startup aims to connect start-ups with investors and business partners from around the world as the list of participants include business leaders, representatives of international institutions and government entities as well.