Friday, November 21, 2008

Kerala an attractive Destination for Venture Capital Community

Kerala is fastly emerging as the ideal attractive destination for the Venture Capital Community. This was reverberated during the Venture Capital Summit 2008:Financing the Knowledge Economy in Kerala organised by the Group of Technopark Companies (GTECH) in association with the Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala, Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) and Technopark. In his Inaugural address, Mr. Vinay Deshpande, CEO, Founder and Chairman of Encore Software said Venture Capital not only bring in the Financial Commitments but also networks, partnerships and market access. In his special address, Dr. Ajay Kumar said that the Kerala has an enabling Environment for creating and nurturing home grown companies.

The summit deliberated on the need for the Technology Companies in Technopark to build stronger partnerships with the Venture Capital Community. The summit had sessions on the Opportunities for Kerala in the Global Venture Capital Industry and case studies of Venture Capital funding in the IT/ITES Industry. In the various presentations at the summit Venture Capital experts identified the emerging areas of Venture Capital funding in Kerala like cloud Computing in the IT Industry and also non IT areas like Clean Energy, bio fuels, solar and wind energy. Many of the speakers felt that Venture Capital brings in increased Market awareness, enhanced Corporate Governance and access to additional funds at competitive rate. Apart from these , Venture Capitalists brings in expertise in the area of sales and operations and wide network for sales and partnerships. The Summit felt the need for a policy and mindset change to convince sceptical investors.

The speakers at the summit felt the need for creating an enabling ecosystem for Entrepreneurship. The summit also deliberated the need for the IT Industry in Kerala to build partnerships with Research and Development Centres and Venture Capital Community. This sort of trilateral relationship can transform the business landscape of the State.


Prominent speakers included Mr. Pradeep Udhas, Managing Director, Greater Pacific Capital, Mr. Kumar Shirlagi, Managing Director, NEA – Indo US Ventures, Mr. Rajeev S, Professor Corporate Strategy and Policy Area, IIM Bangalore, Mr. Ravi Narayanan, Managing Director, Mentor Partners, Mr. Natarajan Rangarajan, CFO, Helion Venture Partners, Mr. Prashanth Prakash, Partner, Accel India Venture Fund, Mr. G Vijayaraghavan, Founder CEO, Technopark, Mr. Rakesh Kumar Gupta, COO, Allianz Cornhill Information Services, Mr. Nandakumar, President and CEO, Suntec Business Solutions, Mr. Klass Oskam, Associate Director, Ernst & Young India, Mr. Joseph C Mathew, IT Advisor to the Chief Minister of Kerala, Mr. Siddhartha Bhattacharya, CEO, Infopark, Mr. N Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO, Technopark and Mr. Balaji Pasumarthy, Chief Catalyst, Buisnessgyan.

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