Joint Australian / Indian Pitch Project Uncovers World-Class Entrepreneurs

The Virangana Project proves that Australian & Indian businesses thrive under a symbiotic model.

Sydney: An international project that set out to showcase the diversity and innovation of Indian women entrepreneurs, proved its theory that Indian technology can benefit from collaboration with Australian marketing know-how, when it staged Sydney’s first ever ‘Bollywood-style’ Pitch Event, as part of the NSW Spark Fest last month.

The Virangana Project is a Not-For-Profit initiative created by Sydney-based corporate advisory firm CEO Strategic, with the objective of highlighting some of India’s most innovative women entrepreneurs and providing them with an opportunity to connect with international investors in Australia.

Chairman of the Project, and M.D. of CEO Strategic, Mr. Daniel Fah said that: “We knew there was a lot of talent within the Indian women’s Start-Up community, but we’ve been absolutely blown away at the quality of applications we received. Amongst some of our finalists are some world-class businesses that many investors can only dream of uncovering.”

Amongst some of the finalists were a MedTech start-up who has received an award from India’s PM Modi for its work with predicting epileptic fits, an Airbnb-style business that currently manages over 150 resorts and whose female founder holds the records for the 3rd largest capital raise for a women in India, and a start-up doing pioneering work with stem cells to arrest Alzheimer’s and

Parkinson’s diseases, whose PhD-holding founder has been nominated for a Nobel Prize in Science for her amazing work.

Mr. Fah said, “Our experience has shown that Indian founders are highly skilled at conceiving technology-driven businesses and executing their development plans, but haven’t yet had a strong presence in the western world.”

Meanwhile, the Creative Director and Chair of The Virangana Project Advisory Board – Ms. Sukham Saini said, “This is where the symbiotic relationship between Australia and India comes to the forefront, as our team of professionals are now providing marketing and financial modelling skills that complement the technology of these entrepreneurs and help to better position their businesses to Australian investors.”

Ms. Saini added that: “We weren’t even aware of the fact that so many of them had won internationally recognised awards, held PHD’s and had even been nominated for a Nobel Prize. We had to practically drag it out of them when we were working to develop their marketing strategies.”

Based on the success of this years’ event, which featured Bollywood dancers and a presentation on the Indian Start-Up economy from Ms. Priyanka Gupta, the Program Manager for the Indian Angel Network (one of the world’s largest group of Angels), there are now plans afoot to stage a new intake in Q1 of 2019 to be called Virangana Project Earth, which will focus on the renewable energy sector and target applications throughout India.

According to Mr. Fah, “Australian investors can expect to see a continual flow of good deals as we ramp up our activities in India. We will also be shortly announcing a program where Australian Start-Ups will be given the opportunity to launch their businesses in India with the support of local Indian investors.”