IIMB’s second-year MBA students finish 2nd in National Finals of Venture Capital Investment Competition
Bengaluru: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore finished 2nd in the national finals of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC) held on December 22 (Saturday), 2018, at IIM Bangalore. The team comprised second-year MBA students Vignesh Meyyappan, Ashita Gugalia, Priya Sahani, Jatin Nagpal and Abhishek Kshirsagar. The top spot was grabbed by the Indian School of Business.
Organized by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, USA, VCIC is a unique event in which MBA students emulate the life of venture capitalists. VCIC was conceptualized in 1998 and today, it is the largest venture capital competition among top business schools globally.
Unlike business plan competitions in which students pitch their own ideas to investors, at VCIC students are the investors with real entrepreneurs pitching to them. The event provides a unique learning experience for both parties. Actual VCs assume the role of judges and assess student teams’ performance while students learn about the fundamentals of venture capital investing, and the winning team gets a chance to represent India at the global finals in the USA. The event also provides entrepreneurs with an opportunity to connect with investors and VCs get an early peek at some viable deals.
This year’s edition saw participation from the campus winning teams of IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, IIM Lucknow, Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) Delhi, and Indian School of Business (ISB). Mayuresh Raut, Managing Partner, SEA Fund, Abishek Surendran, Partner, Pi Ventures, Kshitij Saxena, Co-founder and CEO, Autoninja, and Ganesh Nayak, Director, Letsventure, judged the national finals. The event was jointly conducted by the Venture Capital Society and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell (EnI) of IIM Bangalore.
VCIC includes more than 50 events on four continents, serving over 1500 students, 150 venture capitalists and 100 entrepreneurs. The global finals is hosted by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School every April in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the top team takes home $5,000 in prize money.