Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
2018 Programs
Common sense is not common. All of your built up Use your network. Think about how you can
expertise as a practitioner, investor, entrepreneur, or facilitate relevant and useful connections. Can you
industry expert will be incredibly valuable to an make an introduction and get them on the phone
entrepreneur (who is otherwise keeping his or her head with someone? Are you friends with someone who
to the ground). Solutions that may seem obvious to you could? Some of the most valuable connections
could be extremely important for these entrepreneurs. come from mentors being generous with their
networks.
Mentors are encouraged to come into the room and
jump right in. Teams are used to having people pull up a Collaborate with other mentors in the room. Ask
chair next to them, so don’t be shy! This is a very questions and connect with the other mentors in
collaborative environment. the room. Do not hesitate to seek a second opinion,
or refer a team to another mentor. Share insights
You do not need to have an answer to everything. Know and guidance, in dialogue with other mentors. This
your limitations - just share what you do know. You will should be a great learning experience for you, as
be surprised at how seemingly simple things can much as it is a time to give.
drastically improve a startup’s potential and perspective.
Keep your comments and advice concise.
Your role here is not to lead. Your role is to advise. We have a limited amount of time, so manage your
Ultimately it is the entrepreneur’s decision to make, no interaction so that it remains high-impact and
matter how strongly you feel one way or the other. efficient. Do not be afraid to cut people off if they
are giving unnecessary verbiage.
Be straightforward and honest. While some
value can be gained from encouragement - motivating Lastly, remember that start-ups get the most value
entrepreneurs to change the world - the most valuable from a mentor who can add the skills they need,
mentoring comes from being honest. Sometimes, your industry specific expertise, managing people,
feedback may be negative or difficult, but it should managing conflict, attracting customers,
always be honest and critical. organizational structure, raising capital etc - so
seek out teams in the room that you have not
Let the team come to its own conclusions. been matched with that you feel you could assist,
Be wary of putting things forth as the answer. Do not and connect afterwards.
hesitate to point out risks, competitors or precedents
you have seen before, but make the team come to a
conclusion themselves after reviewing their learnings.
AskArvi
Headquarters in Mumbai Founded Jan 2017
PROBLEM
While insurance policies typically focus on rare, big loss scenarios,
they typically neglect small, frequent loss scenarios such as cancelled
flights or property damage. These small losses add up over time and
can present a significant financial burden even for those that are
insured - not to mention those unfamiliar with existing insurance
options.
SOLUTION
AskArvi aims to leverage technology & data to design and distribute
innovative covers to protect young Indians from small & frequent
loss scenarios.
EasyPlan
Headquarters in Mumbai Founded October 2017
SOLUTION
We help users implement some simple behavioral nudges to
save. Users set a savings goal or target. Then we send them
regular reminders to save. The only thing users need to do is
enter their 6 digit UPI PIN. The savings are transferred from
their salary accounts to a high-interest digital bank account that
we open for them in-app.
Finwego
Headquarters in Chennai Founded March 2018
SOLUTION
Finwego onboards schools and caters to the short term credit
needs of the employees of each institution.
Jai Kisan
Headquarters in Mumbai Founded September 2017
SOLUTION
Lima Payments is a platform that simplifies
Lima solves the supply chain problem by bringing suppliers and
the movement of goods and cash across the
buyers together on an online marketplace, ultimately providing
food staples and FMCG supply chain.
buyers with transparent prices. Lima also deliver the goods,
saving these retailers considerable time and helping them focus
on their core business. Lima plans on using the data we get on
Rohit Krishnam
our platform to build out a lending model and to offer retailers
Co-Founder and CEO
credit from banks and NBFCs
10 years of experience in financial services.
Family experience in wholesale and retail
sectors CUSTOMER
● Kirana stores with annual revenue ranging from 5 lakhs
to 1 crore
Nikhil Neelakantan
Co-Founder and COO TRACTION
5 years experience in financial services ● 600 retailers on our platform with about 20% of them
including credit risk management actively buying on the platform on a regular basis
MAJOR MILESTONES
● Daily tonnage from 2 tonnes to 30 tonnes to achieve
Vaidegi Gunadekar economies of scale by end of 2018
Tech Lead ● Build out a lending platform tying up with a leading
Full stack developer expanding the NBFC by March 2019
platform’s capabilities into Machine ● Establish relationships with FMCG distributors and rice
Learning manufacturers to gain margin by March 2019
● Gain 25% market share in Bangalore and venture to
other urban markets and the hotel/restaurant/cafe
segment by end of 2019
PROBLEM
The food staples supply chain is highly fragmented, and retailers MAJOR STRATEGIC/TACTICAL CHALLENGES
(i.e. kirana stores) spend considerable time searching for the ● Identifying and pitching of value proposition
most high quality and inexpensive products from suppliers at the ● Entry into international markets
APMC yard. These retailers are also excluded from formal ● Fundraising
sources of credit and need to pay exorbitantly high rates of ● Tech hiring
interest to finance their businesses. ● Collaborations with financial institutions
Megdap
Headquarters in Pune Founded July 2013
TRACTION
Meghashyam Karanam ● 15 institutional clients onboarded
Co-Founder and CEO ● Large-scale partnerships with Barclays and Amazon
Conceptualizing, planning and executing
strategic initiatives & marketing programs in MAJOR MILESTONES
large emerging markets. 22+ years industry ● Available on the Microsoft Azure marketplace
experience; 11+ years at Microsoft ● Focusing on product development and B2B customer
acquisition moving forward, across BFSI and e-commerce
● Hiring technology and sales resources
Prateep Parappil
Co-Founder and CTO MAJOR STRATEGIC/TACTICAL CHALLENGES
Led engineering teams spread across India, ● Onboarding international clients
Middle East, Africa, and Oceania, building ● Fund raising
market-relevant localized products and ● Hiring
services. 20+ years industry experience; 12+ ● Executing a digital strategy
years at Microsoft
PROBLEM
In India, there is often a digital divide that prevents native language
consumers from accessing various products and services that can
empower them for a higher standard of living. This is especially true
in financial services, where financial institutions struggle to exchange
information with potential customers in their local languages.
SOLUTION
Megdap offers a platform that enables enterprises, including financial
institutions, to communicate with their customers and partners in the
language of their choice.
MintOak
Headquarters in Mumbai Founded September 2017
SOLUTION
MintOak is a platform for small businesses Mintoak Merchant Pay - Unified payments platform accepting Cards,
that enables digital payments and facilitates BharatQR, BHIM UPI, SMS Pay & Wallets. One view across all
access to appropriate capital. payment modes. One report. Credit to the merchant's preferred bank
account
Raman Khanduja
Co-Founder Mintoak 360: Business owner's app to keep tab on multiple stores
20+ years of experience. Head of business with real-time dashboard, reports, dispute protection
development for Visa. Worked with ● Generates revenue for the merchant with Mintoak Rewards,
Centurion Bank, American Express and PwC Mintoak Feedback.
across credit cards, merchant acquisition, ● Facilitates access to capital based on full perspective of
and analytics business depth, quality of customer franchise
TRACTION
● ~3000 entry-level employees placed
● 50 clients onboarded since Jan 2018
Priyanka Kishore
● Pipeline of 45 clients
COO
Former VP & Head HR of HSBC India.
MAJOR MILESTONES
MBA from IMT Ghaziabad
● Signing 14 new clients
● Fundraising USD 2 MN over the next 6-9 months
TRACTION
Abhishek Raju ● 17 enterprise clients onboarded
Founder and CEO ● 67 companies in pipeline
14 years experience in international business
development. Previously founded Dhruva Space MAJOR MILESTONES
and Jivana Vitality ● Launching analytical credit risk assessment product in
December 2018
Prateep Basu
Founder and Global Head - Strategy MAJOR STRATEGIC/TACTICAL CHALLENGES
8 years of experience, Master of Science in Space ● Scaling technology products on cloud infrastructure in
Systems Engineering, ex-ISRO scientist and cost-effective manner
space industry consultant. ● Hiring key management personnel
● Strategies for growing the business geographically
● Optimizing collection processes
Rashmit Singh Sukhmani
Co-Founder and Global Head - Products
8 years of experience. Master of Science in Space
Systems Engineering, ex-ISRO scientist, space
industry consultant
PROBLEM
Outdated credit rating models prevent access to credit for
farmers.
SOLUTION
SatSure analyses satellite imagery, weather data, and
socio-economic datasets to identify trends in crop behaviour,
cropping pattern, and price fluctuation, which provides risk
management solutions and business intelligence to banks,
insurers, commodities traders, and governments.
Swipez
Headquarters in Mumbai Founded October 2014
TRACTION
● 450 + merchants onboarded
Shuhaid Lambe ● Managing data of nearly 70K customers through these
Co-Founder and CTO merchants
15 yrs in software development, System
Architect & VP @ Barclays Capital MAJOR MILESTONES
● Acquiring 10 paying merchants a day
● A complete online sale with CAC under 1st year fee
● International product launch
SOLUTION
Swipez is an ERP for small businesses that offers all these
services under one roof, helping them to go digital without any
custom development, manpower, or high technology costs.
WonderLend Hubs
Headquarters in Mumbai Founded May 2016
PROBLEM
Financial institutions spend a large amount of manual effort,
cost, and time in acquiring, processing, and underwriting of
underserved customers, both individuals and small businesses.