Kolkata is climbing the entrepreneurial footprints and is definitely a scalable geography for travel startups. TTF’s Kolkata version provided a plethora of opportunities to various players in the travel sector. The venue, Netaji Indoor Stadium was packed with various exhibitors who were gathered to explore the best opportunity the trade fair has to offer.

Our third edition of StartupKnockdown series with a ‘+’ in association with TTF Kolkata, grabbed eyeballs. The sessions were power packed and created a lot of buzz amongst the participants of the event. They primarily included growth hacks on how to scale your travel tech startups, what angel investment is and how you could catch an investor’s attention and one-on-one interaction with the industry veterans.

Saumyajit Guha, COO, Calcutta Angels Network

Investors session presided by Saumyajit Guha, COO of Calcutta Angels Network, harped on the intricate details on Angel Investment scenario in India making the entire gathering a gripping affair. He majorly gave insights on what startups should know about the angel investment, what they should focus on when approaching an angel investor, and what are the expectations of an angel from them. Saumyajit has 15 years of experience with a proficiency in Business Incubation & Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Development, Market Research & Analysis. Few of the tips that summarised the meeting were to invest in your business yourself, know how the funds will be used, plan our pitch smartly and above all don’t build your business with the only motive to get funds.

Ravi Ranjan, Head, Startup Warehouse Kolkata, 10000 Startups-NASSCOM

Ravi Ranjan, Head, Startup Warehouse Kolkata, 10000 Startups-NASSCOM emphasised on technology’s part in scaling a start-up’s growth. He primarily talked about how technology is creating a buzz in the travel sector and how start-ups can leverage it to serve the customers better. The entire idea is to connect to the customers, serve them, and surprise them with the awe of technology. Manual implementation is imperative but technological support provides the leverage.

Startup Knockdown Kolkata mentoring session in action

Amongst other sessions, start-ups were provided with an opportunity to interact with the mentors on a one-on-one basis for 15 mins. They got to discuss their product in detail, get guidance from the industry veterans and tips to scale their business model. Overall it was a networking break that gave these startups a boost for their business model.

StartupKnockdown began as just a pitching competition for the development of the startup ecosystem  to help them grow but eventually scaled into a knowledge platform where they would not just compete but gain valuable insights and tips from the leading industry professionals.

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Another iteration of Startup Knockdown was successfully concluded over the weekend and just like the past events, the Kolkata event received amazing response from all those who were a part of it. This time Startup Knockdown was hosted as a part of TTF Kolkata. The event brought together experts from the industry and some really interesting travel startups from the region. After listening through all the pitches and filtering through the finer details, the judges picked Airlines Technology and Izifiso to be the winners of the event.

Varun and Paras from Airlines Technology team collecting the award from Shivam Shah, Partner at Augment Ventures

Airlines Technology, a tech startup eyeing the global airline industry and holding huge growth potential, got the interest of judges. IATA introduced NDC to simplify how airline tickets are bought and to increase the value for airline equity investors. It can allow for a more transparent shopping experience where the customers will be able to customise their bookings quickly and airlines will be able to push suitable offers directly to the customer. Airlines Technology is focussed on NDC implementation and aggregation. Amadeus has offered them the opportunity to be a part of Amadeus Next.

Gopal, founder of Izifiso, collecting the award from Sanjiv Agarwal, Chairman, Fairfest Media Ltd

Izifiso, with its fresh idea and the promise of bringing education out of the books, was voted for by many of the judges. Izifizo is a platform that allows students and educational institutions to connect with domain experts for educational tours. During the pitch, Izifiso founder Gopal shared that there are many individuals with strong knowledge in certain domains and they often organise small scale tours to share the knowledge. People come to know about these tours either by word of mouth or by social media platforms like Facebook. However this limits the reach as often, these methods won’t allow reaching beyond the extended network of the organiser. Izifizo tries to address this by working with the organisers and offering them a platform that would give them wider reach with the right audience.

Highlights of Startup Knockdown Kolkata

That wasn’t all. Saumyajit Guha not only shared insights on the investment scenario in India but also invited two startups, Izifiso and Tramily for an elevated pitch session with Calcutta Angels Network. Ravi Ranjan from NASSCOM expressed interest in Izifiso.

The response we received from the startups as well as the audience was highly encouraging. The participants discussed the finer details of their businesses during one-on-one conversations with the judges and everyone had something to take back from the event. We would also like to thank our partners again for supporting the event. The team is now gearing up for the Hyderabad event which is scheduled for the coming Saturday (July 16, 2016). Entries close soon. For details on all the upcoming events, visit startupknockdown.travhq.com.

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