The country’s first live crowdfunding event was witnessed at Kolkata on a cruise on river Ganga last evening.
The unique concept of live crowd funding was conceptualised by Nasscom’s 10K Startups partnering with crowdfunding platform——Catapoolt and payment gateway major Payumoney.
“This live crowd-funding pitch at Kolkata was India’s first. Catapooolt, PayUmoney and Nasscom 10K Startups have collaborated with a mission to build India’s largest growth ecosystem for Startups and SMEs. And the same happening on a cruise makes it even more interesting,” PayUmoney, head channel partnerships Paritosh Sharma said last evening.
Crowdfunding is a form of alternative finance, which has emerged outside of the traditional financial system and garner funds from contributions from a large number of people without diluting any stake.
“We are pleased to organise India’s first ever live crowdfunding pitch event at Kolkata. While, Kolkata have been slightly late in catching up with start up movement, we hope that with such concepts, the people here can leapfrog to new way of funding ideas and together put the city high on Innovation map,” Catapoolt managing director Satish Kataria said.
Ten startups were shortlisted to pitch their stories to attract the attention of the investors.
“We are always trying to bring east on the startup map and we will continue to carryout activities to promote startups from this region,” Nasscom 10K startup initiative head Ravi Ranjan said.