Media Release

Bengaluru, Nov 29: With the aim of encouraging Entrepreneurship among Christian youth, National Youth Council of CBCI (Catholic Bishops Conference of India) in association with Kanara Entrepreneurs conducted a national level Business Plan contest. More than 70 youth representing 30 dioceses participated in this contest.

Kanara Entrepreneurs (KE), a mutual benefit non-profit organization nurturing entrepreneurs, helped all participants with a one page business plan template where one could fill their idea, business model, customer segment etc. Mentors and subject matter experts from KE reviewed all the business plans and shortlisted 20 teams whom they mentored for 2nd round presentations.

Here are the 20 teams who made it to the 2nd round:

Seasoned entrepreneurs from KE Bangalore logged into the zoom calls where 20 teams presented their detailed business plan and financials on Saturday November 13 from 11 am to 4 pm. All the teams did a good job of presenting their plans within stipulated 7 mins and answered questions from the judges within the next 3 minutes. From this list, the judges selected Top-5 teams for the final presentations.

Below are the 5 teams selected for the finals:

KE Board has invited all the finalists to Bangalore to attend their entrepreneurs meet and give their final presentations to the members of KE on December 10. It’s a great opportunity for all the participants to present their plan to entrepreneurs who have gone through the journey and have successfully built enterprises. Participants will also get the opportunity to network with members of KE and learn from their experience. President of KE Bangalore Clarence Pereira feels this is a great platform for budding entrepreneurs from our community to come up with innovative ideas and win prizes. “All participants who have reached the finals will get one-year membership at KE free of cost and they can attend all the meetings, build good rapport with all the members and eventually can approach them for collaboration, connections, referrals and funding as well," he adds.

Fr Chetan Machado, executive secretary of CCBI Youth Commission was instrumental in driving this initiative and reached out to all the Dioceses through their youth wing. He is happy with the enthusiasm shown by catholic youth.

Pramod D'Souza, Director – Membership at KE, Bangalore gave details about the prize money. All the finalists are guaranteed to win Rs 10,000 while the winners take home Rs 50,000 and runner up team will get Rs 25,000.