KSUM’s online summit from Friday

KOCHI: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is organising a two-day online summit this week to train nascent firms and investors on ways to thrive through a crisis owing to Covid-19 situation. The ‘RAISE’ webinar from Friday will feature marquee venture capitalists, angel investors and other leading ecosystem players throwing light on the various dimensions of the stalemate and providing the stakeholders tips on tactics to overcome it. 

Invest India is the event’s national partner and TiE Kerala the ecosystem partner. One can join RAISE through https://bit.ly/RAISESummit at the scheduled time. Queries can be made at https://seedingkerala.com/raise.html. There will be more such webinars in May and the subsequent months. While the inaugural day of RAISE is scheduled to hold masterclasses, panel discussions and a fireside chat, day-2 will host an online startup pitching.

At 10am on Friday, IAN Fund founding partner Padmaja Ruparel will give a 90-minute masterclass on ‘Angel Investment’, followed by a question-answer session till noon. From 12pm, Nishit Desai Associates co-head Simone Reis will lead an hour-long panel discussion on ‘Due Diligence in Distancing’. Post lunch, at 2.30pm, there will be a panel discussion on ‘Equity Free Funding for Startups’ led by representatives from Invest India, KSIDC, KFC, KSUM and banks. This will be followed by a Q&A session.

The final session of the day will be a panel discussion at 4pm on ‘Adapting to a Post-COVID World’. The participants will be Manoj Kumar Agarwal (SEA Fund), Anil Joshi (Unicorn India Ventures), Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest Fund) and Ms Ruparel. KSUM, as a nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state, has planned a series of online mentorship sessions for startups, in association with industry bodies, on a range of topics to equip them to meet the challenges arising from Covid-19 pandemic. The 2006-founded KSUM undertakes planning, establishment and management of technology business incubators and accelerators to promote technology-based ventures by creating the infrastructure and environment.