After 12,000 cups of coffee, start-ups await investors' call

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick had raised $37-million in Series-B funding while talking to investors at a pub in Dublin after meeting them during the day at Web Summit in 2011.

Five years later, when the Irish organisers brought the event - Surge 2016 - to Bengaluru this week, there was hardly any pub-hopping by start-ups and investors. "Bengaluru is no Dublin," a participant told Business Standard. However, hours after the two-day event, entrepreneurs were hoping for that much-awaited call from investors.

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There's little interest in seed funding now as investors are finding it a risky proposition, said A Tayeb Tarmal, founder & CEO of Nasik-based Grouplee, a one-week old retail social network. The NRI from Kuwait said three years ago, "They would have invested anywhere, but not anymore." A lot of investors simply told budding entrepreneurs "Drop me a mail", a far cry from Travis raising money after a few drinks at a pub in Dublin.

Sharad Singh, who showcased his financial technology start-up Invezta.com, said he didn't expect investment assurance in the first meeting. "There has been genuine interest from 8-10 investors… We are moving towards the next steps," he said.

Anant Sanjeev Doogar, founder of a start-up in B2B aluminium ecosystem, said "We are in talks with some interested investors."

Deckport's Ankit Abhishek and Abhinav Prakash, who have come out with a prototype to make flying cheaper, especially in the case of international flights, said getting investment was meant to be difficult.

"There's no pub-hopping for sure, but we are confident of the first round of funding soon," said Ankit. How much? "Around five per cent of $500,000."

Phynart, a home automation solution based on artificial intelligence, is also awaiting investor interest. Ashish Sharma of Phynart said, "Our solution can be fitted into both old and new homes at a cost of around Rs 50,000 a unit." Currently, in beta phase with funding from friends and family, the start-up is aiming for a June launch.

There were several others - including Indoriv Clinical (a start-up for clinical trial digitisation), ClapGlobal (connecting international travellers to local classrooms), Hombot (home automation), Lawmatters (dispute resolution platform), Wedlock (a variant of matrimonial sites) - looking for investor interest.

Data from the organisers of the event, however, looks promising. There were 288 pre-arranged meetings and 190 conversations on the event app between more than 5,000 participants from 72 countries.

Among 72 high-level attendees were Blippar's Ambarish Mitra, Zoomcar's Greg Moran and Ather Energy's Tarun Mehta.

More than 200 investors, including some marquee names, came as 433 start-ups put up their stalls. And while there was no pub-hopping, networking between investors and start-ups happened over 12,000 cups of coffee.