Entrepreneurs find it daunting to raise capital. Finding and securing start-up and growth stage capital takes careful research, good negotiating skills, and an unflagging commitment to launch and grow your business. The Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED) at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad has constantly been inspired by businesses big and small to involve ourselves in activities that that encourage entrepreneurship, promote growth of small and medium enterprises, and thereby generate employment, wealth and other opportunities for the people of India. On the backdrop of the above issues, WCED, ISB in association with the Centre for Investments (COI) at ISB jointly presented “Propero”, a unique platform connecting entrepreneurs to

• Bankers to raise Debt Financing through the Credit Guarantee Scheme of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small enterprises (CGTMSE)
• Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists to raise seed capital for start-ups and growth capital for mature businesses

The inaugural Propero event, held in 2010, was a resounding success. This year, an attempt was made to scale up the level of activity and consequently, 350 Business Proposals were received. Ventures registered for this year’s event were:
• Promoted by top business school alumni and entrepreneurs from all over India
• Financially promising, sustainable and scalable
• Technically and managerially competent.
• Have been in existence for at least 6 months
• Have been gaining traction (customers, markets, prototype, etc.)

 

After several rounds of screening, finally 20 participants were chosen for Debt Financing and 35 for Equity Financing. Out of the total shortlisted 55 ventures, 10 were started by ISB alums.

To provide the entrepreneurs with a hands-on experience on how to present their funding proposals, 2 Mentoring sessions were conducted jointly by Intellecap, Hyderabad Angels and Mumbai Angels (the Knowledge Partners for the event) in Mumbai and Hyderabad respectively on 18th and 19th of February 2012. The sessions were well attended with representations from around 100+ entrepreneurs

The final event was held on 24th and 25th of February 2012 at ISB, Hyderabad. IDBI Bank and CGTMSE were the sponsors for the event. On 24th February, which was earmarked for Debt Financing, the event started with Guest of Honor Address by Shri U R Tata, CEO of CGTMSE and Key Note Address by Shri SKV Srinivasan, Executive Director of IDBI Bank. We had participation from State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Indian Bank, UCO Bank, ICICI Bank and HSBC Bank. The shortlisted 20 ventures presented to the bankers and subsequently held one on one discussion with them to further validate the businesses. The bankers were highly pleased with the quality and depth of the presentations and were positive that 15 of the ventures would eventually end up getting funding.

Day 2, i.e. 25th of February meant for Equity Financing saw partners from 13 Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists (namely Main Stream Capital Fund, Epiphany Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Kae Capital, India Innovation Fund, Inventis Capital Partners, Canaan Partners, Intellecap Impact Investment Network, Ojas Venture Partners, Hyderabad Angels, India Angels Network, Bessemer Venture Partners and Song) holding one on one discussions with the 35 shortlisted ventures. The investors were happy with the quality of the ventures and about 50 % of the ventures have moved in to the next round of discussions.

All in all, Propero 2012 was a good platform for all the stakeholders