‘Get In The Ring’ and stand a chance to win an international startup challenge. Register for the Impact Chapter: Startup Challenge

This announcement has been sponsored by DHI Labs

Hyderabad is undoubtedly one of India’s leading startup destinations, with several city-based startups having made it big in the market. To capitalise on local talent and expand the outreach of these startups, DHI Labs – a Start-up Incubator Venture, is collaborating with Get in the Ring (GITR) – a global non-profit that connects startups to opportunities related to capital, talent, and expertise, to organise the Impact Chapter: Startup Challenge. This is a globally focused event being organised on April 13 -15, 2016, in Hyderabad for startups from India and abroad.

What’s Impact Chapter: Startup Challenge all about?

DHI Labs believes that startups are like rock stars. And just like rock stars who perform their best on a big stage surrounded by fans, startups can achieve so much more when the spotlight shines on them. That’s what DHI Labs is doing by organising the Impact Chapter in association with Get In The Ring Foundation in Hyderabad – giving them a great platform to meet startup fans like investors, meet global mentors, learn from curated workshops and network with other startups.

Impact Chapter is a great destination for entrepreneurial endeavours to translate into successful businesses. Startups in the domains of technology, social impact, and smart-cities, looking to raise investment for their business and get strategic advice from highly experienced and knowledgeable mentors must definitely attend the Impact Chapter: Startup Challenge.

Interested? Register now.

Why register for the event?

Startups will have to apply online via startup evaluation form at no cost. The applications will be evaluated by team of experts from Climate KIC Alumni, Get In The Ring and HPI School of Design Thinking and the selected startups will be given the access to exhibit and participate in Get In The Ring startup competition. The participating startups automatically gain membership and thereby access to a network of 100+ brilliant founders, 500+ mentors, and personalised workshops. The DHI Labs staff will also guide you with your startup strategy and ensure that you are able to build a profitable business from the ground up.

There are several other reasons too:

A chance to compete at an international startup competition and get noticed by the Investor networks!

Yes, that’s right. The Get In The Ring Pitch is a unique contest where startups will present their pitch in a boxing ring. Based on their pitch, startups will be scored on their team achievements, business model & market and their financials. Through local, national and regional rounds startups will proceed to the international final where global winners will be announced. So startups stand a chance to qualify for the global finals and attract a huge fan base including investors, mentors and other experts. Between 2012 and 2014, the concept of Get In The Ring spread rapidly around the world. After three editions, Get in the Ring was organized in 64 countries and saw participation from more than 3,000 startups. So you definitely wouldn’t want to miss participating in a global platform such as this one.

International delegates

You will get a chance to connect with some of the most influential entrepreneurs from Europe, who help startups succeed. You can leverage their valuable network of contacts, expertise and resources. At Impact Chapter: Startup Challenge, you can expect mentorship and a chance to forge strategic partnerships that you have always wanted!

Expert talks and panel discussions

You can learn all about the Indian and global impact startup ecosystems – from the right experts. From entrepreneurship to social start-ups, decoding smart city initiatives to clean-tech innovation - get a glimpse of the latest developments in each sector and the future it holds. 20+ expert speakers will engage the audience on a variety of topics of interest to the startup community. This includes topics such as: Global perspective on social entrepreneurship, role of impact startups, embrace the F word, business model innovation and what works and what not in India.

Startups can also participate in interestingly designed workshops on themes such as design thinking, corporate funding, business development, pitch training, among others.

Networking evening

The networking evening is a unique opportunity where selected startups from GITR competitions, startup grill, will get a chance to network with the speakers, mentors, DHI global team, sponsors and the partners. The informal evening will serve as a great platform for cultural exchange. discuss future prospects with other participating startups and grow your network.

Inspiration corner

You all will agree on this one – the success stories of startups themselves are a great motivator for the entire startup fraternity. Getting to hear success stories and the social impact they have been able to make, is inspiring to say the least. With DHI Labs’ principle of ‘Fail early and often’, many startups will also share their stories on what went wrong, the pitfalls, and what they learnt from it.

You will also be introduced to some well-known names in the Indian startup ecosystem, so that you can brainstorm your ideas that will prove invaluable for your business.

DHI and partnership with GITR

DHI Labs started their entrepreneurial journey in Berlin, Germany, through Climate KIC Entrepreneurship summer school. After being exposed to the entrepreneurial networks in Europe and having worked with many entrepreneurial ventures related to social, impact themes, DHI Labs wanted to connect these players to the international markets. With the support of different partners such as Climate KIC Alumni Association, Get In The Ring, HPI School of Design Thinking, they began their journey to create an global event for Impact startups to find the right investments and mentorship to leverage their startup ventures.

Abhilash Veera, CEO, DHI Labs, says, “Our aim is to facilitate startup-to-startup collaboration, open up international markets for local startups, facilitate investor-to-investor collaboration as well as investor-startup link, and promote international startup and entrepreneurship migration programmes.

Talking about the partnership with GITR for the Impact Chapter event in Hyderabad, he says, “The objective of this partnership is to bring the global network of investors, mentors and startup experts from 80+ countries to the Indian ecosystem and give every emerging startup a fair chance to explore this network.”

Answering why they chose Hyderabad as the venue for the challenge, Abhilash says, “The ‘city of pearls’ has been an IT city housing campuses of giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Google. It is a city with many world-renowned educational institutions. There is also availability of talent pool that can be described as young, dynamic, passionate and enthusiastic. Additionally it is a city that is home to a number of emerging startups, the initiatives by the Government of Telangana and the launch of T-Hub bears testimony to this.” He adds, “But, in spite of this, we observed there were many key elements that were missing for the startup ecosystem to grow. This included – lack of mentors and a platform to learn aspects related to business plan development, user-centred design, etc.” These factors played an instrumental role in pinning down on Hyderabad as its focus area for the challenge.

DHI Labs has some big plans for the startup community in the country. This includes facilitating Get In The Ring pitch competitions in other cities in India and also at the global level.

Meanwhile, it’s time for startups to Get In The Ring at the Impact Chapter: Startup Challenge.

Register today.