Platform to connect budding entrepreneurs with industry experts

Mysuru: Silicon Road, Mysuru’s foremost Accelerator for startups conducted ‘The Startup Window’ in collaboration with the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) for enthusiasts of the food-tech industry, to propound a dialogue on the Food-tech ecosystem across India, and the globe.

With an intent to bring about fresh perspectives to the Food Tech in India, the event proved to be a platform for SMEs, investors, mentors and budding entrepreneurs to offer insights on the future of food tech and avenues for exploring support for startups.

The spectators comprised  entrepreneurs in the city, students, startup gurus, industry experts and aficionados of the food -technology industry to prompt informed discussions pertaining to models, technologies & trends in the industry the with food-tech as the core of discussion.

Selected startups were allowed to pitch their startup ideas to the eminent panel and the audience to trigger a corporate-interactive session. The panel consisted of experts and industry leaders like Sid Mookerji, CEO-Silicon Road, Dr. KSMS Raghavarao, Director CSIR-CFTRI, Ramalingam, CEO-Nutriplanet Foods Pvt. Ltd and Bhaskar Kalale, President-India Operations, Theorem. The event was moderated by Sanjay Srinivasmurthy, Director & India Head, Silicon Road.

The event predominantly aimed to offer clarity on the kind of opportunities evolving in the Food-tech industry: automation, farm-to-fork mechanisms, supply chain management, food-processing etc. to name a few, and to boost the entrepreneurial spirit amongst the youth of the city.

The startups that were selected to pitch at the session included Q-online, Atharva Plantations, Magnimous, Athelebit Healthcare, Potential Health Development (Ph.D) and Vegan Probiotics (Research) amongst the others, where the founders received rigorous feedback on their modus operandi. They were offered insights on not only the techniques of growth for Indian startups pertaining to food tech, but also an apparent view of the state-of-the-art techniques used elsewhere in the world that can be selectively induced during the growing stages of the respective startup.

Sid Mookerjee  enlightened the audience about how Silicon Road seeks to fund companies that have good ideas, good teams, prior track records & experience, and product traction amongst the other variables.