EO CARES: Celebrating the Spirit of Entrepreneurship, a Revolutionary Program for Entrepreneurs by Entrepreneurs!

23^rd Feb 2018, New Delhi: EO CARES the flagship program of EO Bengaluru, organized the much-awaited start-up night recently at the Taj Westend, Bengaluru. The EO CARES Cohort 2018 culminated at the event that gathered upto 130 attendees including EO global and local community, startups and prominent influencers in the startup eco-system.

This years’ event was split into two parts to maximize learning and networking benefits for member startups. The first part of the event had two sessions; a masterclass on angel investing by Mumbai Angels, and a session on Innovation and Startup Partnership with PwC. The second part of the event had the Big Pitch from the Top 5 Finalists, an insightful keynote & debate learning session from Sequoia Capital and Blume Ventures, on building an unstoppable VC eco-system. It was followed by a presentation by Yogesh Suresh, a student entrepreneur, founder of H.O.P.E pens, and the winner of EO Bengaluru Global Student Entrepreneur Awards 2018.

The top 5 promising startups, from over 30+ applications, shared their breakthrough stories through a 3-minute presentation to the jury that included G V Ravishankar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital, Karthik Reddy, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Blume Ventures,  Chetan Anand, Director, Startup Partnerships, Tax and Regulatory Services at PwC and Chandni Jafri, CEO of Mumbai Angels, during the Big Pitch. This was followed by a short Q&A session between the panel and the audience, after which the Jury deliberated on the winner of the Grand Jury Award, while the 80+ EO members base voted in a live polling session to arrive at the Members’ Choice Award winner. The Awards culminated with interactions and curators’ showcase at the periphery.

Mr. Siddharth Reddy, Chair, EO CARES & Managing Director BI WORLDWIDE India, said, “EO CARES has become a great platform for budding entrepreneurs to learn, network and nurture their business ideas and innovations through their interactions with Bangalore’s top entrepreneurs and members of EO Bangalore chapter. We look to take Bengaluru’s thriving start-up ecosystem to great heights with this growing community.”

Here are the Top 5 Finalists who pitched their ground-breaking innovation and ideas, during the EO CARES 2017-18 Cohort Awards Night, and the big winners of the Grand Jury and Members’ Choice Awards.

The winners of the program get a 6-month mentorship from PwC under their start-up partnership program sponsored by EO Bengaluru.

About EO CARES

It is believed that the success of any startup goes far beyond raising capital. It also rests in training the leadership team, in providing sustained mentorship, and support from the business community and its extended networks. With this spirit, EO Bengaluru launched the “Discover Awards” in June 2015 which was the seed from which the EO CARES Mentorship program was born. EO CARES has been created to catalyze the development of Bengaluru’s startup eco-system through the identification and mentorship of high potential entrepreneurs over the coming years. CARES represents a balanced business scorecard to evaluate high-growth startups across Customer, Achievement, Recognition, Education, and Social values. Conceived by EO Bengaluru, EO CARES aims to give back to society by helping develop the next generation of business leaders through identifying, mentoring, nurturing, providing a platform for revenue opportunities and investing into the latest ideas and innovation. The first cohort that started in November 2015 was a huge success where 22 startups were selected out of 60+ applications that underwent a mentor-led 4-week program. These 22 startups intrigued and impressed EO members, potential investors and influencers with their pitch and gained exposure within the EO community who helped them scale with a customer funded revenue path, guidance and contact capital to investors.

About EO GSEA

The Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA), an Entrepreneurs’ Organization global initiative is the premier global competition for students who own and operate a business while attending college or university. EO GSEA aims to give the student entrepreneurs an opportunity to challenge the status quo by supporting them with much needed mentorship, recognition and connections to take their businesses to the next level of success. EO believes in empowering student entrepreneurs to make them the world’s most influential change makers.

More information about EO GSEA: www.gsea.org

About Entrepreneurs’ Organization

The Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) is a global, peer-to-peer network of more than 12,000 influential business owners with 170 chapters in 53 countries. EO has been present in Bengaluru for the past 16 years enabling leading entrepreneurs to learn and grow, leading to greater success in business and beyond. The chapter has a current membership base of 90+ accomplished entrepreneurs spread across sectors.

More information about EO: www.eonetwork.org