8th February 2021: For every innovative business idea, there is capital required to monetise it. But every entrepreneur knows that reaching out to and connecting with venture capitalists is no mean feat. And while there are many start-up forums spread across India, only a few are able to provide opportunities to individuals hailing from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns to connect with India’s highly proactive investors.
Kuberan’s House has set out to bridge the gap between aspiring entrepreneurs and investors. A nucleus organisation which invites, develops, streamlines and connects business ideas and inventions with prospective investors and venture capitalists. Kuberan’s House is a first-of-its-kind platform used to collate and showcase unique start-up ideas from all across the nation and help founders get investments for their ventures from the best panel of investors and venture capitalists.
A reality television show that’s catalysing or driving investment opportunities for various start-ups, it simplifies the entire process of getting an idea sponsored by turning it into a refreshing primetime content. In the words of MD and co-founder, Ram Gowda, Kuberan’s House is a start-up for other start-ups. In spite of so many start-up forums being present in India, none showcases and motivates other start-ups the way Kuberan’s does. It becomes closed-door investment negotiations to every household and strives to reach every corner of the country.
What Kuberan’s primarily does is source, screen, streamline and display the best of start-up ideas from around India to the prestigious panel of Kuberas. The main pivot of the foundation is the detailed website and a comprehensive application process for founders and ideators which will be submitted with a pitch deck.
The Foundation is constituted by a strong, passionate, and a well experienced multi-faceted core team each with expertise in various domains. With strategic partnerships aided by the best professionals in media, P.R, digital marketing, advertising, and advisors from the best technical institutes and start-up forums across India, the Foundation is the fulcrum of all operations enabling and amplifying maximum reach in inviting applications from innovative entrepreneurs & ideators.
In addition, there are other programs held to make it possible for start-ups to gain traction and easily get funding for themselves.
Global Open Innovation Programs
Entrepreneurs can participate in Kuberan’s innovation sourcing events like hackathons, pitch days, demo days, speed dating, etc that is run in the Americas, Europe and rest of Asia including India. These are held across different verticals, including Healthcare & Wellbeing, Pharma, Agritech, Food and other areas related to Life Sciences.
Genesis of 100 Open Start-ups Program
Founded in UC Berkeley back in 2007, the 100 Open Start-ups Program began with 40 most innovative corporations like Intel, IBM, 3M, HP, Furukawa, Panasonic, Roche, Siemens, Shell, Whirlpool and others. Today, the program has transformed into a massive movement with 5000 plus corporations & SMEs, several thousand start-ups, hundreds of universities as well as hundreds of investors actively engaged on the same.
In 2010, Kuberan’s team collaborated with Darden Business School, University of Virginia to bring in the Principles of Effectuation. Later, best practices in entrepreneurship from Stanford, MIT Sloan, Babsons, FGV, and others were also integrated. The program methodology and process became the case study for leading Business schools worldwide like Harvard, Darden, Carnegie, FGV, Katz to name a few. Currently, Kuberan’s are running few Executive Management programs as well as MBA programs in collaboration with some of these Universities with a major focus on “how to source innovations in an efficient manner”.
So far, about 20,000 contracts have been signed between 2000 start-ups and 1500 corporations and SMES in the past 4 years alone on the global platform. The value of these contracts exceeds US$ 900mn. These start-ups went on to receive a further US$ 650mn from Kuberan’s own Angel Platform as well as external investors making it the largest program of its kind.
What’s in It for Start-ups?
If yours is a start-up that has been through an accelerator anywhere in the world, you may indicate the same in your application for the team at Kuberan’s to fast track your start-up to Level 4 or the Open Innovation Week- Oiweek – which is the world’s largest event on Open Innovation.
Likewise, any start-up graduating from any incubator will be fast tracked to Level 3 of the Global program. Kuberan’s partners with all key stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem worldwide where they collaborate to co-create programs and events for the benefit of start-ups so that they can grow through business and investments eventually leading to “Exits” through M&A.
Summing Up
100 Open Start-ups is the world’s largest structured and the most efficient end-to-end engagement program that massively connects the business and innovation challenges of global corporations with solutions from start-ups, researchers and scientists. This platform is sponsored by global leading organizations that together evaluate and rank start-ups on an annual basis worldwide known as the “100 Open Start-ups”. Upcoming start-ups can engage and partner with Kuberan’s to be the next generation of collaborators and make a difference to the ecosystem marking the next stage in the evolution of Open Innovation.
