India’s student startup founders get opportunity to pitch to Silicon Valley players

Thirty-one founders of student startups from India are now in Silicon Valley showcasing their prototypes while gaining valuable insight from industry figures working in the Southern California region synonymous for leading high-tech research and enterprises.

According to Business Standard, the students are there on a week-long visit under the digital learning #StartInCollege programme, instituted by the Startup Village Collective SV.CO in partnership with Facebook.

Kerala’s SV.CO is the first-of-its-kind digital student incubator, set up with the aim of helping college-goers get a head start in entrepreneurship.

Its website states: “We have a unique opportunity to teach everyone how to build great startups, right in school and college.”

Sanjay Vijayakumar, SV.CO’s chairman said: “The Silicon Valley visit is to give the students a world-class global exposure very early in life so that they can be more confident, motivated and get the ability to dream bigger than ever before as they immerse in the startup culture in Silicon Valley.”

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Part of the agenda includes a visit to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park where they can pitch their ideas and receive feedback from experts at the world’s foremost social media platform.

“At Facebook, we believe the student community has a central role to play in helping build a world-class startup ecosystem in India. We are pleased to support the Start-in-college program that cultivates a sense of purpose amongst students and enables them to build meaningful projects from their college campus,” Satyajeet Singh of Platform Partnerships, Facebook India said.

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The students will also be heading over to the offices of other high-tech corporations that have made Silicon Valley their home, including Google, Intel, Silicon Valley Bank, Freshworks, Zendesk and Bootup Ventures, as well as attending startup workshops at the North Eastern University and Google Launchpad.

The start-up program is backed by the Department of Science and Technology, the Indian government of India and the US Embassy in India, while industry leaders like Paytm and Freshwork provide scholarships and mentoring to students.

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