Hello, Start-ups. IIT-Bombay's Take on Silicon Valley

Mumbai:

It was sixty lakhs in sixty minutes. At IIT Bombay, eight start-ups pitched ideas in 10 minutes each to a group of investors.  Six of the teams landed 10 lakhs as seed capital.

Among the winners at Sunday's competition was a team of students from the institute. Another team of grad students from IIT Delhi also made the cut.

There was an age bar - nobody older than 30 could pitch for funds.

This was the first time that IIT Bombay decided to organize what it has termed the '10 minute million' as part of its annual Entrepreneurship Summit.

"Our idea was that, you take 10 months, we believe it can be done in 10 minutes. I would have been happy even if I had got a fraction of the response. Right from the entrepreneurs, to the investors to the audience, this is an absolutely outstanding response", said Ajit Khurana, CEO, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIT Bombay.

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Out of a total of 250 applications, eight were allowed to present their ideas to  investors. The investors then had two minutes to huddle, and decide if they wanted to invest in the project.

"This is much more about getting into a company early as a mentor, much more so than the money. I'm very realistic that the 10 lakhs is a great starter amount for them to prototype more, do some market research but what we're here for, is to help them get to the next level", said Ravi Gururaj, one of the Investors at the summit.

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The most popular pitch at the summit, was Faaya, an online custom clothing platform where you can design your own clothes, manufacture them to your measurements and get them delivered to your doorstep. It managed to raise over half a crore, however, the rules of the '10 minute million' cap limits the maximum investment at 10 lakh, which is what they finally got.

"It's not just about the money that's been raised but also about the brains who are investing their mentorship in the startup. It's going to be exciting to see how all of us can work together", said Mridang, founder of Faaya.

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Another project that stood out was Leaf.

"Our product is a women security customizable module so you can wear it as a watch, necklace, helmet anything and whenever you're in danger, you activate it by a button push and it sends alerts to your friends, family, police and the nearby community", said Chirag, Leaf's Co-founder.