GUWAHATI:
Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) on Friday launched NRL iDEATION Angel Fund with a corpus of Rs 35 crore for equity investment in start-ups.
The corpus fund was launched in line with the action plan of ‘Startup India,’ a flagship programme of the Central government.
In 2017, the NRL launched an initiative called ‘NRL iDEATION’ with a corpus of Rs 10 crore and a mission to provide a robust platform for the start-up eco-system in the northeastern region by providing incubation, mentoring & grant funding to worthy ideas.
The aim of the ‘NRL iDEATION Angel Fund’ is to emerge as a key player in the ‘Financial & Knowledge Support System for start-ups in the northeast.
The launching programme was attended by the joint secretary (refineries & exploration), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), Sunil Kumar on the occasion of the first Start-up Investors’ Summit 2022 organised by NRL and Oil India Ltd (OIL) in Guwahati on Friday.
The programme was also graced by NRL managing director Bhaskar Jyoti Phukan; director (finance) Indranil Mittra, OIL director (operations) Pankaj Kumar Goswami, NEDFi CMD PVSLN Murty and many senior executives from oil and gas PSUs, government officials, venture capitalists, Incubators, accelerators, angel investors, start-ups, entrepreneurs, industrialists and professionals.
The summit was organised to attract investors for start-ups from the Northeast supported by NRL’s start-up initiative, iDEATION and OIL’s start-up programme, SNEH.
The event also saw the top 25 start-ups from the northeast and other parts of the country (mainly supported by oil and gas PSUs) participating in a start-up elevator pitch session, leading to an engaging panel discussion by the esteemed panellists.
A few of the angel investors from Silicon Valley, notably Shymantak Gautam, Ruban Phukan and Amitav Chakravartty, who also happen to be successful entrepreneurs themselves, also participated and shared their experience of the start-up ecosystem in the Bay Area with the enthralled audience.
The highlight of the event was the Keynote Speech delivered by Sankar Bora, co-founder of Dealshare and former co-founder of Myntra, and the presence of eminent corporate stalwarts, Ranju K Mohan, Girish Naik and Rahul Saikia. Further, renowned VC Firms from Mumbai – Lead Angels, 100x.vc and Unicorn India Ventures; and Ankur Capital from Bangalore rendered the event impactful.
The meet was organised in a hybrid mode, with IOCL director (R&D) Dr SSV Ramakumar addressing the gathering in the online mode, followed by a warm networking session.