Last week I had the pleasure of spending the week in Bangalore and hosted our first IBM Global Entrepreneur Smartcamp of 2011. The event was a tremendous success with over 200+ startups applying to attend the event to benefit from the intense mentoring and business plan competition. Prior to the actual day of the event – five companies were selected to attend and be mentored by our a great team of 26 experts from our venture capital, academic, ISV and other key ecosystem partners. The five companies chosen to attend were:
- Adiro Systems Private Ltd — builds sensor-based enterprise mobility solutions including automatic identification and data collection for manufacturing industry.
- ConnectM – creates machine to machine technology for domain specific analytics and business intelligence for Telecom, Utilities, and Transportation industries
- Indrion Technologies India Pvt Ltd – an intelligent automation provider based on embedded sensor and actuator network technology.
- Infobotique Services (P) Limited – creates solutions for compliance and risk management for Oil and Natural Gas industry.
- Quantama Mobile Solutions Pvt. Ltd – allows you to find places of interest, promotions and events nearby.
The five finalists presented their plans and after much discussion and dialogue with the mentors and judges, ConnectM was chosen as the winner for its Smarter Energy Concept.
ConnectM will now compete in the SmartCamp World Finals with winners of SmartCamps from other countries, for the honor of IBM Global Entrepreneur of the Year 2011!
I’d like to especially thank our distinguished group of judges and mentors who spent the full day with our five finalists. We appreciate your willingness to be a part of the event and help mentor these five companies as they strive to create solutions to build a Smarter Planet!
· Darren Bibby, Vice President, IDC · Venkat Raju, Country Head & MD, ACI WorldWide · Ravindranath.P, Executive Director, TiE · Shalini Pillay, Partner, Performance & Technology, KPMG · Dr. Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, India Software Labs, IBM · Madhusudan Atre, President, Applied Materials India P Ltd · Samir Kumar, Managing Director, Inventus Advisory Services · Laura Parkin, CEO & Co-founder, NEN · Prof. Sekhar Babu, Chairperson, Amirta Institute of Management · Jeby Cherian, Director, Strategy, IBM India South Asia · Prof. Sadagopan, Director, IIIT Bangalore · Uma Reddy, CEO, HiTech Magnetics · Rahul Chowdhri , VP, Helion Advisors P Ltd · Ashish Sinha, Founder Pluggedin · Capt. V.Sivakumar, Associate Director - IT, Metlife India · Vish Narayan, IBM Distinguished Engineer & CTO, IBM Industry Solutions · Ajay Hattangdi, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank India Finance · Ramasubramaian, CMD, BioPure · Priya Chetty Rajagopal, VP & Client Partner, Stanton Chase International · RamPrasad Moudgalya, Telecom/Wireless Intrapreneur · Ankur Gulati, Analyst, DFJ · Mauricio Sucasas, Director, IBM ISV & DR, Growth Market Units · Mohan Kumar, Executive Director, Norwest Venture Partners · Girish Venkatachaliah, Director, Information Management and BA, IBM · V. Ravichandar, Chairman, Feedback Consulting · Vidhya Shrivatsava, Head- South, India Angel Network Sudhir Sethi, Founder, Chairman & Managing Director, IDG Ventures, along with Ajay Hattangdi, Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank India Finance and I were on the panel of judges for the IBM SmartCamp Contest held in Bangalore on 27th of April 2011.
That's me on the left with Murali Ramalingam, MD, ConnectM, Praveen Chandrashekhar, VP IBM Indi, Sriram Chidambaram, Head – Sales, ConnectM and Mauricio Sucasas, Director, IBM ISV & DR, Growth Market Units
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