TechSparks 2010 encourages product technology startups

By Shonali Advani

Pellucid Networks, ArrayShield, VMukti Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Sporting Minds Technology Pvt. Ltd. and Icreate emerged as the five winners (in random order) at the grand finale of Microsoft Canaan TechSparks 2010 held at Royal Orchid Hotel on August 13, 2010, Bengaluru.

Seventeen technology startups showcased their products at the competition, shortlisted from a pool of 200 applicants. The winners will be awarded with customized solutions to meet their growth challenges, funding, marketing support and nationwide visibility.

The competition was judged by a jury that included Harish Gandhi (Executive Director, Canaan Partners), Sharad Sharma (Entrepreneur in Residence, Canaan Partners), Charles Assisi (Executive Editor, Forbes India), and Girish Joshi (Technology Advisor, MS BizSpark India), and Prashant Choksy (Co-founder, Mumbai Angels).

“Product technology startups have not taken off in India because of several factorsm, including lack of a large enough domestic market, challenges of Intellectual Property protection, longer gestation period, and unavailability of enough risk capital,” said Gandhi. “Despite a large talent pool of English speaking people, 3 million software developers in India and 400,000 engineers added every year, our success in the IT services space has not transferred to the product space and we hope this event will encourage people to take part in the same,” he added.

The half-day event started with a panel discussion on ‘Product Technology: Investment, Opportunities and Challenges’, with eminent personalities from the entrepreneurial ecosystem as panel members. These included Shereen Bhan (Executive Editor, CNBC TV 18), Alok Mittal (MD, Canaan Partners), Girish Joshi (Technology Advisor, MS BizSpark India), Shailendra Singh (Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India), Ravindran Govindan (Executive Chairman, Mercatus Capital, Singapore), Ravi Bharadwaj (GM Marketing, Dell), and Prakash C.V. (Founder and CEO, Gradatim IT Ventures) were the panel members. The panel was chaired by Charles Assisi.

The discussion narrowed down to a few key takeaways for entrepreneurs. India, the panelists, felt has been witnessing a changing trend viz-a-viz a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem, availability of scaleable infrastructure to deploy at smaller costs, rise of incubation centers across the country, and a larger network of VCs, angels and mentors. “Don’t give up on the Indian ecosystem, it is only improving,” said Choksy.

Tags:
2010, Canaan, Microsoft, Product Technology, startups, TechSparks