New Delhi, Nov. 11 -- Nearly two-thirds of the startups participating in The Pitch, VCCircle's multi-city startup pitching programme, drew investor interest during the fourth chapter of its third edition, held in Goa last week.

Designed to facilitate startup discovery, The Pitch connects handpicked early-stage ventures with some of India's most active venture capital firms. Now in its third year, the programme featured 27 curated startups delivering elevator pitches to a panel of 12 VC firms. The latest edition commenced at IIT Bombay on June 6.

The Goa chapter took place on November 7 at BITS Goa, following the previous chapter held in August at IIMA Ventures, the startup incubator at IIM Ahmedabad's new campus.

BITS Goa's entrepreneurship cells, the BITS Goa Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES) and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL), partnered with VCCircle for the event, with the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) as the supporting partner.

In the second edition of The Pitch, events were held at IIT Hyderabad, IIM Calcutta in December 2024, IIT Madras in January, and IIM Lucknow's Noida campus in March.

The fourth chapter of the ongoing edition saw 498 startup registrations, of which around 5% were shortlisted to make elevator pitches in Goa last Friday. A dozen investors representing 12 investment firms attended the session. These included Sangam Ventures, Rebright Partners, Maxsimos Techsoft, Caret Capital, Aroa Ventures, IAN Group, Aavishkaar Capital, Theia Ventures, MIXI Global Investments, Blume Ventures, Antler, and Anicut Capital.

Of the 27 startups that pitched, 67% attracted investor interest for follow-up discussions. These ventures spanned diverse sectors, with 90% yet to raise external funding and the rest having previously secured angel, seed, Series A, or other rounds.

Some of the presenting startups included Medny, Fydaa, Deeptraq AI, Exora, Homexperia Technologies, Litconnect Technologies, and Topiqr.

In terms of business model distribution, 37% of startups were in the business-to-consumer category, 11% in business-to-business, and 52% catered to both segments.

Geographically, fewer than a quarter of the participating startups were from Bengaluru, 11% from Delhi-NCR, and another 11% from Goa. Mumbai and Ahmedabad each accounted for 7%, while the remaining 41% hailed from other parts of the country.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.