mangaluru beginning september 7 assocham will be launching in 10 major cities startup elevator pitch series an initiative and a platform for budding entrepreneurs to pitch for funding and technology partners for their dream projects through this unique initiative startups or potential startups will be able to network with high net worth individuals and top of the line professionals and generate business or funding opportunities for themselves said anil khaitan chairman assocham national council on startups ashish agarwal cochair and tripti s shinghal cochair in new delhi khaitan said opportunity will be available for early stage startups between 02 years of operations those aspiring to scale up would also get opportunity for raising finance andor technology or even marketing partnership with venture capitalists mentors or independent professionals of global reputethe elevator programme is also open for the established startups between 25 years of operations the assocham startup elevator pitch series will be rolled out in 12 cities between september 7 and by the end of january 2020 the cities are jaipur pune lucknow chandigarh raipur indore guwahati kochi visakhapatnam new delhi jammu and srinagaras is clear from the list of cities excepting delhi all others are tierii or iii cities for the roll out programmes we believe the smaller cities are equally aspirational with abundant talent moreover with the technology being the major enabler the new age industries should reach throughout indiathe format of elevator pitch will be such that the entrepreneurs and founders will be given 300 seconds to explain the concept and idea of a service or product to set of jury membersthe programme in line with prime minister narendra modis pet initiative for the startups incorporates mentorship and guidance from the industrys best leaders coworking space for all the selected startups for a period 3 months with no cost each of startups making it would get 3 meetings with investors and a chance to pitch directly to them there would be google cloud vouchers available besides a direct entry into the accelerator programme with incubateind indias fastest growing technology community network assocham will create a dedicated websitemicrosite where all the information related to the elevator pitch schedule and plan will be uploaded the applications will be sought online and the details of venues jury members will be updated on regular basis post the elevator pitches we will also embed the videos on the website so that the website is the single and the preferred destination for the startups he said ashish agarwal cochair said the indian startup ecosystem has evolved being driven by factors such as growth in number of fundsangels evolving technology higher smart phone and social media penetration growth in incubators and accelerators younger demographics the year 2015 witnessed the maximum traction in this space with over 600 companies getting funding more than 2 billion being deployed by pe and vc funds investment momentum in startups have increased rapidly over the last five years with investment values increasing at a cagr of more than