On 31st May 2024, the Webel-BCC&I Tech Incubation Centre organized an interactive session between Mr. Gautam Ray, President, BCC&I and President-Corporate, RPSG Group and the Mentors and Incubatees. This has turned to be a fruitful and productive session wherein both Mentors and Incubatees shared their thoughts on possible areas of improvement of the project and reaching out to the correct partners for scaling up of the Centre.

Attendees of the meeting: -

Mr. Gautam Ray, President, BCC&I and President-Corporate, RPSG Group

Mentors:

• Mr. Kalyan Kar, Co-Founder, Prediqt Business Solutions Pvt Ltd
• Dr. Arpan Pal, Chief Scientist & Head, Embedded Systems & Robotics, Research Area, TCS Research & Innovation
• Mr. Sarbajit Das, Founder & CEO, Sun Dew Solutions Pvt Ltd
• N.K. Ghosal, Director, NKG & Associates

Incubatees:

• Mr. Muralidhar Seelam, Founder, Kheti Samajh
• Mr. Arijit Das, Founder, Schoppen Solutions Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Souvik Haldar, Founder, Hornet Decentratech Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Subhrojyoti Mondal, Co-Founder, Hornet Decentratech Pvt Ltd
• Ms. Sukanya Chakravarty, COO, Invict IQ
• Mr. Manohar Bethapudi, Founder & CEO, Uneverse Mobility Pvt Ltd
• Ms. Kamalika Guha, Co-Founder, Uneverse Mobility Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Arjun Dutta, Founder, Greenlife IQ Ponics
• Mr. Suvankar Mandal, Solution Architect and Hardware Engineer, AIVERSE
• Mr. Subhankar Biswas, CEO, Healing Gamut Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Prince Kumar, IT Head, Healing Gamut
• Mr. Vineet Chirania, CFO, Healing Gamut
• Mr. Sandip Boral, Founder, Calnestor Intellitech Solutions Pvt Ltd
• Dr. Nilanjan Sengupta, Advisor & Consultant, Calnestor Intellitech Solutions Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Chanchal Koner, IT & Infrastructure, Calnestor Intellitech Solutions Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Rahul Singh, Operational Head, Gigaai Technologies

The Bengal Chamber Secretariat:

• Ms. Angana Guha Roychowdhury, Assistant Director General, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry
• Mr. Sambit Dasgupta, Deputy Director, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry
• Ms. Sankalpita Aich, Manager, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry
• Mr. Sagnik Dasgupta, Office-in-Charge, Webel-BCC&I Tech Incubation Centre
• Mr. Rajat Dutta, Junior Executive, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Notes of the Meeting:

• The meeting commenced with apprising President about the Webel-BCC&I Tech Incubation Centre, its current status and portfolio of Startups associated and achievements since 2019.
• The Mentors present in the meeting shared their satisfaction in associating with the centre and appreciated how the young minds of Bengal and aspiring Entrepreneurs are hustling each day in order to thrive with their developed innovation in this much challenging landscape.
• Few issues regarding lack of funding in the Bengal Startup ecosystem were put forward. The Secretariat is advised to scout and understand potential VCs or PEs who might have interest to connect with the Incubation Centre.
• On crucial problem addressed by the President was delay and lack of scope for developing POCs/use cases in real life scenarios for the Startups. To which President suggested the Secretariat place a request forward in the Next Managing Committee Meeting of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry and seek audience from Members to assist and guide the Incubatees to develop their respective POCs/Use Cases on a case to case basis.
• Some of the Mentors advised to organize Investor Mentoring Sessions for the Mentors who are willing to micro-invest in the Incubated Companies in few occasions.
• There was a consensus among the President and Mentors during suggestion to the Secretariat for signing partnership agreements with premier Academic Institutions which has an operating Tech Incubation Hub (TIH) for Startup Exchange Programmes such as, IITs, IIMs, ISI, etc. in order to reach out to innovators with enhanced intellectual prowess therefore elevating the intellectual resource of the Tech Incubation Centre.
• The Incubatees shared a consensus feedback of on-boarding an in-house CA/CS Service provider for them to avail the CFO services as per requirement and under the aegis of Webel-BCC&I Tech Incubation Centre.
• It was decided to organize grooming and pitching sessions for the Incubatees more consistently.
• The President also advised the Secretariat to conduct interactive sessions with other successful startups and Subject Matter experts twice a month.
• The President and the Mentors unanimously concurred and emphasized that even though the Incubation Centre has done so well in terms of the work in this field for the last 5 years, there is scope for enhancement in popularizing and propagating the achievements and related milestones in the industry so the Incubation Centre is recognized as a force for comprehensive nurturing of the Bengal Startup Ecosystem.