Entrepreneurship Cell of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and Matrix Partners India, in collaboration with the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Siemens and The Red Brick Summit, IIM-A, will be conducting the grand finale of Masterplan 2017, the annual business plan competition of IIM Ahmedabad during The Red Brick Summit on September 29.
The Red Brick Summit is IIM-A's flagship annual management symposium, with 20 business competitions, 14 workshops, and 20 speaker sessions. Masterplan is the perfect feed for budding entrepreneurial minds, as it gives them the right platform, mentoring and guidance to set up their business dreams.
According to Amit Karna, Chairperson, CIIE and Associate Professor at the Business Policy area of IIM-A, “The competition is aimed at identifying, encouraging and celebrating early-stage entrepreneurial ideas from institutes across the country. We, at CIIE, are committed to helping potential entrepreneurs convert their ambitions and dreams into reality, and we see Masterplan as a very effective platform for it”.
Masterplan
The 2017 edition of Masterplan will witness top fifteen teams from all over India battling it out for the “One Crore Challenge”, a pitching event where the selected teams will get to pitch their product/service or idea to a panel of venture capitalists. Apart from representatives from CIIE and Matrix Partners, a Senior Manager from Siemens responsible for Start-ups Ecosystem Development at Siemens and the Founder & Managing Director of Startups Club, a global community for aspiring, budding and established entrepreneurs, will form the panel of judges.
With 415 registrations from entrepreneurs, students and start-ups, the revamped format of Masterplan has caught the imagination of the start-up community in India. CIIE and Matrix Partners have mentored the finalists, helping them improve their business models and fine-tune their pitching strategies.
The fifteen finalist teams have been selected from various industry verticals, ranging from agri-business, healthcare, ed-tech to nanotechnology. These finalists come from several business and tech schools where some are first-time entrepreneurs, some serial entrepreneurs and some have received national recognition for an innovative product.
Apart from a chance to win funding for their respective start-ups, the winners will also receive a cash prize of ₹1.5 lakh. After the pitching round, a networking session is planned for the entrepreneurs, and to get feedback from the judges.