Meet Pune's top & emerging entrepreneurs at VCCircle's Pune Investment Forum on August 23

Pune is currently India's eighth largest metropolitan city with its economy growing in a multi-dimensional fashion and its emerging enterprises catering to the India growth story. It is one of the most attractive destinations for companies from manufacturing, engineering and IT services sectors who have firmly parked themselves in the city. The rise in the number of knowledge workers, led by the IT industry growth, has a multiplier effect in consumption-led play and lifestyle industries like retail, mid-to-high-end apartments, pubs & restaurants, entertainment and so on.

Pune, with a significant presence of growth sectors today, is naturally attracting fresh investments and entrepreneurial play. Moreover, the region is not new to private capital. Nearly $1.8 billion of private equity/venture capital/angel money has been invested in Pune across 163 deals over the past decade, according to VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle.

Yet, it is only the tip of the iceberg as Pune is like a microcosm of big business hubs – a pint-sized city that packs up all the elements of economic action. There are thriving businesses in technology, engineering, real estate, healthcare, education, food processing and consumer-oriented business space.

To capture the latest trends and identify the top and emerging entrepreneurs, VCCircle is heading to Pune with its Pune Investment Forum – bringing over 200 participants from the entrepreneurial, private equity, venture capital and angel investor communities.

Our agenda will cover entrepreneurs' stories on starting up, raising capital and scaling up. Additionally, the forum will feature a fireside chat, focusing on how entrepreneurs should go about for fundraising and what investors look for. There will be sector-focused panels as well, covering emerging IT businesses, engineering, real estate, education and consumer businesses.

Some of the speakers who would share their insights regarding the early-stage investment market include:

Pradeep Tagare – Investment Director, Intel Capital Sanjay Nath – Managing Partner, Blume Ventures Supam Maheshwari – CEO & Co-founder, BrainBees Solution (Firstcry.com) Mohit Gundecha – Co-founder & CEO, YourNextLeap.com

The forum would also see entrepreneurs and corporate chiefs sharing their experiences on private fundraising and scaling up. Here are the key people:

Narendra Barhate – MD & CEO, SEED Infotech Ltd Hanmant Ramdas Gaikwad – CMD, BVG India Ltd Supreet Deshpande – Co-Founder & CEO, NovaLead Pharma Pvt Ltd Tushar Mehendale – MD, ElectroMech Material Handling Systems India Pvt Ltd Mahesh Deshmukh – MD, Chetas Control Systems Pvt Ltd Kishore Patil – MD & CEO, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd MS Unnikrishnan – MD, Thermax Ltd

The event will also bring together growth capital investment firms who come in at a later stage of the investment cycle. Here's a list of those who are joining us:

Akhil Awasthi – Managing Partner, Growth Fund, Tata Capital Growth Fund Vikram Pant – MD, IDFC Project Equity Raghav Ramdev – Director, ChrysCapital Apurva Muthalia – Senior Managing Partner, IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd Vishal Tulsyan – CEO & Director, Motilal Oswal Private Equity Rajeev Agarwal – CEO, Ambit Pragma Advisors LLP Sandeep Aneja – MD, Kaizen Private Equity

More entrepreneurs and investors will be joining as well.

The event will also provide an opportunity for one-to-one interaction with India's top PE and VC investors in a special structured session called VCCircle Lounge. This session is limited to select 10 companies and 10 investors.

For more details and to register, please click here.