Start-up ecosystem gets a boost with a strong IIM Calcutta Connection, via Clarion Call, a start-up contest

Hyderabad: Clarion Call 4.0, the 4th edition of the start-up business contest organised by the IIM Calcutta Alumni Association, Mumbai Chapter (IIMCAA-M) took place recently. This year, the contest was program managed, hosted and conducted by IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP). The event brought together the largest group start-ups, investors, incubators onto a single platform and unearthed many promising and deserving start-ups and connected them to investors and accelerators.
Salient highlights –
• More than 1000 start-ups applied to participate in Clarion Call 4.0, which was announced on March 4th, 2021. Applications closed on April 8th and almost 550 start-ups from the applications received, met the eligibility criteria

• IIMCAA roped in PwC as a process and knowledge partner to evaluate and score these entries and bring them down to the Top 50 finalists. These Top 50 were evaluated via multiple rounds of pitching sessions by a 25-member Jury Panel that consisted of entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders, and the Top 20 finalists were identified
• These Top 20 finalists have been connected to investors. IIMCAA onboarded the largest group of investors (venture funds, angel networks) for single event (15 partners) – IIM-CAN (IIMC Angel Network), FInD (initiative of Mumbai FinTech Hub of Govt. of Maharashtra, supported by PwC), Lead Angels, Indian Angel Network, Inflection Point Ventures, India Accelerator Angels, Java Capital, WEH Ventures, Point One, Eagle 10 Ventures, Speciale Invest, Arali Ventures, TiE Mumbai Angels, TiE India Angels, Dexter Angels. There are about half-a-dozen active investment conversations from this.

• Separately, IIMCIP has committed investments worth INR 1.5 Crores towards 3 identified start-ups from among Top 20 – Recordent, Solus.ai and PrimedeQ

• 8 of these Top20 start-ups competed in a grand virtual live event on May 1st, and a special Jury of 5: Srikant Sastri – Chairman of the Board IIMCIP, Dr. Subhrangshu Sanyal– CEO IIMCIP, Prabir Chatterjee – Angel Investor & IIMCAA Office Bearer, Subrat Pani – Cofounder OneAssist & IIMCAA member, Sushanto Mitra – CEO Lead Angels, picked the Top 3 start-ups. The winner is – Homepecked eMarketplace Services, the 1st runner-up is StoryMirror Infotech and 2nd runner-up is Solus AI. These winners have won cash prizes worth INR Ten lakhs.
IIM Calcutta is at the fore front of enabling the development of technology-based start-ups and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem across the country, in myriad ways. IIM Calcutta (IIMC) runs various programs to develop entrepreneurship and innovation, IIMC alumni are playing stellar roles as start-up founders, investors, mentors, and IIMC is associated with or supports many institutions that work directly with the start-up ecosystem. “One of the key institutions associated with IIM Calcutta in doing this is the IIM Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP) which nurtures and supports entrepreneurship & innovation through its Business Incubation Services, Innovation Lab and the ecosystem development activity across the country. Among the slew of value-adding activities, IIMCIP has built a program management platform / Contest Portal, which it has effectively used to facilitate the management of over 50 start-up business contests and challenges so far” added Dr. Subhrangshu Sanyal, CEO – IIM Calcutta Innovation Park.
“Our inspiration at IIMCAA Mumbai is to contribute meaningfully to the start-up ecosystem, through our larger alumni network. The 4th edition of Clarion Call, came of age as a powerful platform for early stage startups for tapping on to this ecosystem – Incubators, Mentors, Investors & Corporates. We are delighted to have these promising start-ups as part of the event. We hope to see many more success out of our carefully chosen finalists” said Subrat Pani,Co-founder OneAssist.in & lead organiser of Clarion Call 4.0
Co-Founder & CEO of Recordent – Mr Winny Patro, also an alumnus of IIM Calcutta said, “We are incredibly pleased to be part of this program to get support from one of the top institutions in the country. At Recordent, we are solving one of the age-old crucial problems for businesses, i.e. late payments. Strongly believe that this support will help us to accelerate our efforts in solving the problem of late payments for businesses and in creating a social impact through larger collaborations.”
Ms. Shanthi Mathur, Founder, PrimedeQ, said, “It has been a great honour to get selected by the IIM Funding program supported by IIMCAA and IIMCIP. PrimedeQ is an e-marketplace for medical equipment for hospitals across the country. One of the best aspects to be incubated is that the team understands our growth values of reaching out to small and medium hospitals located in smaller locations. We are positive that the incubation will benefit us from both social and business aspects.”
Mr. Sandeep Mittal, Founder, Solus.ai, said, “Absolutely thrilled to be chosen by the IIMCIP funding program. It was a fantastic experience to rub shoulders with so many incredible startups and present to and get inputs from the jury and mentors at Clario Call by IIMCAA. I am sure the experience will help us as we set our sights on global scale.”
The contest was sponsored by Pepperfry, HDFC SmartUp, IIFL Wealth, Ozonetel, BSE, Castiko & RBL Bank who supported the program and the start-ups. Enabling organizations like AWS, Freshworks, Arrka, HubSpot, Razorpay and Ozonetel provided credits and freebies worth over USD 650,000 to the Top50 start-ups. Top 20 start-ups also have the access to the Clarion Call 4.0 accelerator/incubator partners – IIMCIP, IIT Bombay SINE, India Accelerator, Huddle, Sparklehood, Zone Startups of BSE, Airtel Startup Accelerator, HTIC IIT Madras.