Last month was especially enriching as I attended an exhilarating event organized by The Indus Entrepreneur’s (TIE) of New Jersey - the “TIE NJ Women Pitch competition finals”. The event was held at the Bioscience center of NJ Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) and aimed at showcasing six (6) expertly curated technology intensive companies founded by women entrepreneurs to choose one winner out of them who would be flown to Singapore to make the final pitch for an investment award at the influential TIE global 2023 summit to be held in November.
What struck me was the notable qualifications and accomplishments of all the entrepreneurs and, the business roadmap they have pivoted with high quality of product thinking, domain specialty, deep-tech stack, material science and engineering prowess. The essence qualities embedded in their offerings exemplified the multi-dimensional attributes and deep-seated solutions that New Jersey women entrepreneurs bring to overcome specific challenges staring at the world.
With the judge’s ratings closely tied, the winner Madhu Stemmermann (CEO of Sunray Scientific) scored on all areas of excellence with her pitch. The company co-founded by Madhu to bring innovative electronically conducive solutions focused on electronics miniaturization for advanced electronics packaging and flexible electronics, has caught the attraction of large enterprises and government agencies. Sunray’s high specialty solutions offers a promising trajectory and can help transform the experience of material usability of many wearables and OEM products globally.
The emergence of electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) as a regional capability is gaining purchase in Indian city level specialty clusters like Hubli and Belagavi (Karnataka state), with very attractive state offered incentives for electronics manufacturing and research. Both cities have their own airports, investment traction and growing talent where companies like Sunray could take advantage of not only collaborative opportunities with the Indian government, manufacturers and partners for tech transfer, but also look at India as launchpad for truly going global from the region with its own domestic adopters and by extension into the ASEAN region as well.
What was momentous is also that one of the three judges Lata Setty for this pitch event, is the first founding LP of the “How Women Invest Fund”. The fund attracts and encourages first time executive female investors to invest in VC and grow their net-worth by funding female-led startups.
Women’s entrepreneurial orientation and its connectedness to profound personal experiences has the potential to cultivate circular economics that aligns well with sustainable values. It is stimulating therefore to see the Indian government’s recent emphasis on the women’s bill in parliament, enhancement of regional tech education, and impetus provided by industry for women workforce enrollments across emerging (Tier 2 and Tier 3) Indian cities. All of this enables increase in specialized workforce mobilization and capacity building that can be harnessed for maximizing success with new solutions.
From the pathbreaking innovations and resilient business roadmap coming forth from highly experienced and inspired women entrepreneurs, investors will witness emboldened options for serious funding opportunities in their ventures. The potential investment appetite out of India would also enable the added passage to growth and success in exciting ways.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Madhu Stremmermann, and to the other brilliant TIE pitch entrepreneurs - Sloane Tilley of DIA, Nikita Gupta of Symba, Elizabeth Jaworski of XN-health, Donna Conroy of Scimarone and Kirthika Parameshwaran of Vital Start Health.
It was a pleasure to see TIE NJ orchestrate this event and we are glad that Mikro Grafeio is a TIE sponsor. Supporting regional business forums and technology associations greatly helps nurture active meeting touch points for ongoing dialogue and exploration of home innovations and collaborations internationally.
Mikro Grafeio offers the India playbook and strategic roadmap consulting as part of 14 services to catalyze the connected fabric needed to accelerate the distributed growth and outcome consolidation for that global scale and establishment.
Enter India now at your own BRISK.
Written by Santhosh (Sandy) Kumar - Chief Development Officer, Americas for Mikro Grafeio
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