By The finalists of women-led startups in the ‘ElevateHER’ programme, conducted by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), grabbed the attention of the stakeholders with their innovative ideas and marketing strategies at the ongoing Huddle Global 2024 at Kovalam here.
The five finalists made a huge impact on the audience comprising investors, mentors, entrepreneurs and startup founders by pitching their products and services on the second day of the three-day sixth edition of the country’s flagship startup festival, organized by KSUM.
As a precursor to Huddle Global 2024, KSUM had organized ‘ElevateHER: Investment Pathway for Women Founders,” a three-week hybrid investment readiness programme for nine exceptional women-led startups from across India. Five of them entered the finals of the pilot event and got the opportunity to pitch their products and solutions/services at the ‘Open Pitch’ session held at the Women Zone segment of the Huddle Global 2024.
Those who pitched their products and services were Ms Kuhu Krishna, Founder, WrdHrd Technologies Pvt.Ltd.; Ms Juliana Biju, Founder & CEO, ReWago; Ms Krishna Karappath, Co-founder, Suee; Ms Priya Deepak, Founder & CEO, Kitch Natural Cookware Pvt. Ltd.; and Ms Chandana S, Co-founder &CEO, BreadCrumbs AI.
During the ‘Open Pitch’ session, they unveiled their ambitious and focused plans in the respective sectors by competing with leading brands.
Suee offers high-quality and sustainable handloom products while BreadCrumbs AI is a startup that provides personalized smart meat planning for leading a healthy lifestyle. It also offers effortless cooking with image analysis and audio transcripts.
Noicely.ai, developed by WrdHrd Technologies, enables its users to record a message in any language and get accurate live transcription with the support of 10-plus Indian languages including Hindi, English, Hinglish, Kannada and Bengali.
Kitch Natural Cookware specializes in selling authentic natural cookware, thereby ensuring livelihood to crafts people and artisans across India and ReWago is an ecommerce platform.
Ms Kuhu Krishna said they are currently focusing on Asia Pacific market and hope that they can capture 0.25 crore of the market share in the coming three to five years.
Ms Juliana Biju revealed that ReWago aims to be India’s first re-ecommerce platform, a seller aggregator platform as a one-stop destination for sustainable lifestyle shopping.
Noting that at Suee, they are mainly focusing on the fabric as well as the craft style, Ms Krishna Karappath said they are mainly using Kannur handloom fabric which has Geographical Indication (GI) for the dyeing.
“We have designed uniforms of Kerala Fire & Rescue Special Task Force, colleges and schools. Currently, we are working with the Education Department of Kerala for designing the syllabus of the fashion segment for high school students. In the retail expansion, we are planning to open stores in tier-1 cities and globally ecommerce platform,” she added.
‘ElevateHER’ focuses on upskilling participants in areas such as investor pitch deck development, refining their storytelling abilities, and mastering the art of the elevator pitch through hands-on mock pitch sessions.
The Women Zone At Huddle Global features sessions like Women in Leadership Talks, the Women Entrepreneurs Expo, and the Women Innovators Hub, showcasing female-led startups and offering mentorship. With exclusive bootcamps and masterclasses, it provides valuable insights and skills for women-led startups, celebrating achievements and fostering growth across industries.
The three-day Huddle Global 2024 features a wide range of speakers, including industry leaders, domain experts, innovators, mentors, funding agencies and individuals, drawn from across the world.
KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.
