VCCircle Kolkata Investment Forum in pictures

Here are the pictures of the second edition of the VCCircle Kolkata Investment Forum, the largest investment conclave in the region, held on July 19 at Taj Bengal. The forum saw participation from 200 participants which included entrepreneurs, investors and advisors. Click here for all the pictures from the event.

The full day summit, comprising of insightful panels and presentations, engaged the top and leading entrepreneurs in Kolkata with great insights and experiences.

The first panel moderated by Rakesh Sony, Motilal Oswal Private Equity, talked about what characteristics define Kolkata entrepreneurs. With Dr. Alok Roy, Medica Synergie and PP Gupta, Techno Electric as entrepreneurs in the panel, along with Amit Dhingra, Anand Rathi Financial Services, and Sanjay Diwakar, Ernst & Young, the panelists interacted with the audience on what it takes to take a business to the next level.

The second panel focused on raising private equity moderated by Kannan Sitaram, India Equity Partners, gave clear guidance on how do companies go about raising private equity funding. With Shomik Mukherjee, Actis; Hetal Gandhi, Tano Capital; Ramya Hariharan, Udwadia Udeshi Argus Partners, on the panel, the participants understood how private equity funds add value to portfolio companies today. It also covered the various terms and clauses involved in PE transactions, including clauses that can and cannot be ignored.

The third panel on the increasing prominence of venture capital and angel investing turned out to be the most interactive session, where entrepreneurs asked heart to heart questions to Abhishek Rungta, Seeders Venture Capital, Sanjeev Agarwal, Helion Venture Partners, Sasha Mirchandani, Kae Capital, and Madhurima Mukherjee, Luthra & Luthra. The session talked about how to scale, and what to focus on as entrepreneurs are building out. It also detailed out how to go about fundraising and identifying various routes to venture capital fundraising.

A special entrepreneur story on Bandhan Financial Services' inception and scaling up by CS Ghosh, the firm's CMD, incited a lengthy Q&A session which didn't seem to end.

Our last panel on attractive sectors in Kolkata identified various traditional businesses that have emerged as successful industries in the region. Experiences and insights by Prakash More, Mayur Plywood; Amit Lakhmani, Max Mobility; Suryanil Ghosh, TotalinX and Deep Mishra, Everstone Capital, identified various challenges and opportunities in the city based sectors and what would Kolkata's future look like.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)