Start ups looking for investment, mentoring, or any support now have a platform to pitch the ideas.

Sivarajah Ramanathan, founder and CEO of Nativelead Foundation, said Aadukalam will be a monthly meeting at PSG College of Technology with a group of investors and start up entrepreneurs.

This will be a pitching platform where start ups can present ideas, get feedback from experts, and develop the concepts.

Mr. Ramanathan explained that start ups can register online on the Aadukalam site and those identified for a particular month’s meeting will present the concept before the experts.

Nativelead launched NAN (Native Angels Network) here two years ago to promote local start ups.

The idea was to identify and nurture start ups. The network is engaged with about 100 companies in different kinds of activities, including mentoring and marketing lead. However, it is a challenge to take these to the level of investment.

The top level start ups move to cities such as Bengaluru and those in the next rung in the ladder need to be prepared to move forward.

Investors, who are part of the network here, have now invested in start ups in other cities in the State too.

The local investors also need a learning platform where different kinds of start up pitch ideas.

Hence, it was decided to come with Aadukalam. The concept will be introduced in other tier-two and tier-three towns also. In other places, the start ups come with agriculture-related ideas.

In Coimbatore, many are technology-oriented, he said.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindud / Home> News> Cities> Coimbatore / by Special Correspondent / Coimbatore – December 17th, 2017