NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, February 6, 2015

Villgro announces Unconvention|L, an event that seeks to unearth and nurture social entrepreneurs, in four cities in the next two months.

We are looking for innovative entrepreneurs with businesses or ideas that have social impact to present at our business plan pitch competition to a panel of experts and investors, in return for valuable feedback and guidance. Winners will also get cash awards worth Rs 1 lakh, and have theopportunity to be supported by Villgro, which includes mentoring, networks and funding of up toRs 65 lakh.

This February and March, Unconvention|L is being held in Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Pune and Patna. Each day-long event offers extensive opportunities to network with an eco-system of people and resources that includes incubators like Villgro investors, professionals, service providers and entrepreneurs.

Attendees will get to hear about the startup journeys of other entrepreneurs like Sameer Segal Gupta, Founder of Artoo, Ratul Narain, Founder of Bempu, Sabarinath C, Co-founder of Skillveri, Abhishek Sen, Co-founder of Biosense and more.

“The social enterprise landscape in India is developing well with impact investors and incubators like us, all looking for innovative businesses to support. India has a tremendous startup culture already and with Unconvention|L we are hoping to translate that into a thriving social enterprise startup culture,” says PR Ganapathy, President (India), Villgro.

“In many of the cities we go to, the concept of social enterprise is not well known and Unconvention|L is the first event of its kind. It is great to see the appetite of the entrepreneurs who pitch their ideas and forge connections locally and with the wider eco-system,” says Michelle Abraham, Co-founder of Villgro’s Unconvention platform.