Startup World Cup
Nepal Regional 2020

Biggest Startup competition in Nepal

Minister, Ministry of Finance

Mr. Bishnu Poudel

Minister, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies

Lekhraj Bhatta

Vice-Chariman, National Planning Comission

Governor, NRB

Secretary (Commerce and Supplies), Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies

CEO, Investment Board Nepal

Sushil Bhatta

IT Expert to The Prime Minister

Asgar Ali

Secretary (Industry), Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies

Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures.

Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, Mentor

Bill Reichert serves as the Partner at Pegasus Tech Ventures managing investments in the US. He has helped manage Pegasus investments in AI, robotics, quantum computing, neuromorphics, space, and other sectors. He is also the Chief Evangelist for Startup World Cup, a platform that connects and supports startup ecosystems all over the world. Bill started his investment career as the co-founder and Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, and has served on the boards of many startups. He also has over 20 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and operating executive. Prior to Garage, Bill was a co-founder or senior executive in several venture-backed technology companies, including Trademark Software, The Learning Company, and Academic Systems. Earlier in his career, Bill worked at McKinsey & Company, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., and the World Bank. He has authored and co-authored several articles and speeches on entrepreneurship, venture capital, international trade, and monetary policy. Bill holds a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Stanford University. He has been on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught Venture Finance. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and is a former Chairman of the Churchill Club in Silicon Valley. He is a Beachheads Advisor for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and is also an Advisor to the Women’s Startup Lab, Nordic Innovation House, and the Korea Innovation Center.

Retail Industry Leader

Middle East (Gulf & Levant) at IBM

Adnan Siddiqui has been in corporate and professional leadership positions for about two decades. He is not only a business professional but also equally involved in community uplifting and social development efforts. As a growth-driven professional with 20 years of expertise in C-level business development, revenue growth and consultative selling, he has developed multiple territories & business units. After spending almost 8 years of his early career as a software engineer, Adnan moved into territory sales managing some of Pakistan’s largest Financial Services and Distribution sector organizations. In the later part of his career in Pakistan he moved to Islamabad and worked with Government, Armed Forces and Telecommunication sectors. Adnan became Country Sales Manage for IBM Pakistan & Afghanistan in 2009 and later Country General Manager. Adnan moved to UAE in 2013 to establish Smarter Commerce business unit and since then he had been involved with the Retail Industry in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey region. Currently Adnan is leading the Retail Industry business of IBM in Middle East. One of Adnan’s passions is helping youngsters become successful. He achieved corporate CSR award for his work with Academia in Pakistan. Adnan has been working with several startups in advisory capacity one being hysabkytab.com. Currently he is a mentor and advisor at Center for Global Innovators (CGI) as well as judge for Startup World Cup, 2020 Pakistan and Nepal regionals. Adnan Siddiqui has a Bachelor of Computer Science from NUCES-FAST. He also has an MBA from IBA, Karachi and another recent one from Anglia Ruskin University, UK, majoring in Marketing Design Innovation. Adnan is also a graduate of a two-year IBM Executive program in Strategic Management from London Business School. Adnan is also a certified board director by Pakistan Institute of Corporate Governance.

Dennis Kibirev

Founder and CEO of FrontierFunder

Dennis is the founder and CEO of FrontierFunder, a platform that connects emerging market startups with global capital. He has over 15 years’ international experience gained at funded startups, scale-ups and multinationals (Unilever, Suntory and Freelancer.com). This includes launching and scaling digital and physical products, as well as services - both as an employee and co-founder. He was previously an Entrepreneur Residence for the Swiss government’s startup program in Vietnam, and currently acts as an advisor for accelerators and venture funds in North America, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Africa & Latin America. Dennis is on the global jury panel for Startup World Cup and regularly speaks at international startup-related events.

Shekhar Golchha

President, FNCCI

Mr. Shekhar Golchha is the Managing Director - Hansraj Hulaschand and Co. Pvt. Ltd (Country's largest private sector trading company), HIM Electronics Pvt. Ltd. (Country's leading consumer electronics manufacturing and marketing company) and Hulas Investments Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Golchha is the Director of Hester Nepal Pvt. Ltd, Neoteric Nepal and Eastern Sugar Mills Ltd. Mr. Golchha is the Vice President of Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), Chairperson of the Banking Committee, Immediate Past President of the Nepal Automobile Dealers' Association. He is also the Executive Member of Nepal -India Chamber of commerce and Industry. He has completed his Bachelor in Business Administration from Webster University, UK , Bachelor of Commerce, Delhi University, India. Mr. Golchha has completed his high school and his elementary education from St. Xavier's School, Nepal.

Satish K. More

President, CNI

Mr. Satish More is the President of Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI). He is also the Chairman of Lucky Group and Director of Hongshi-Shivam Cement Company. One of the founding members of the Lucky Group, Mr. More has been instrumental in the group’s diversification towards manufacturing. A charismatic individual with the energy of the youth, he works fearlessly. Mr. More has previously served as the President of Nepal Foreign Trade Association.

Rupesh K. Shrestha

Assistant Professor, Kathmandu University

Rupesh has broad experience as an Assistant Professor and visiting faculty of more than nine years of progressive professional experience in design, implementation and supervision of education, training, and research projects in the field of entrepreneurship and marketing at the graduate level. He is the chief architect for the Idea Studio Lab Based Incubation Curriculum. His specific areas of expertise include New Venture Creation, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Consumer Behavior, Product and Brand Management, and teach these courses to MBA students at Kathmandu University School of Management. His research interests are in entrepreneurial development models, entrepreneurial ecosystems, consumer behavior, and branding. He is currently involved in entrepreneurship education programmes with Oulu University, Finland; and MIT, USA. He finished his MPhil in Management and eMBA from Kathmandu University School of Management and his BSc from University of Nebraska at Kearney. He is also a founder member of Nepal AgriBusiness Innovation Center and director in different social organizations and startup companies. He also coaches and mentors startup companies on a regular basis. He is also involved with different companies and institutions as investor, advisor, mentor, and a board member.

Joseph Silvanus

Managing Director, Dolma Consulting, Nepal

Joseph heads Dolma Consulting, the advisory arm of Dolma Group, and Dolma Himalayan Energy, the renewables energy platform. He uses his deep insights and experience in Nepal to support the growth of Banking & Financial Institutions, Small and Medium enterprises, and Corporates in their tryst to become efficient and access capital markets. His wide canvas of engagements spans from driving investment into start-ups, creating blended finance structures, PPP opportunities, financing river conservation programs and deepening capital markets. His newly opened NBFC in India will provide a prosperity platform for various credit and payment eco-systems. Joseph is a career banker having worked 27 years with ANZ Grindlays and thereafter with Standard Chartered Bank across various geographies. For the last eight years he was CEO Standard Chartered Bank in Nepal with additional governance responsibility of Afghanistan and Bhutan. He has deep working knowledge of financial markets in emerging markets, driving sovereign engagement around ratings advisory, public policy guidance and development of capital markets. He played a pivotal role working with Multilateral/ Bilateral agencies, Development Finance and socially responsible Investors, for directing specific program based support towards entities in ASEAN and South Asia. Joseph is recognized for his passion in creating funding vehicles for the microfinance sector and raising all-round stakeholder engagement & awareness for BOTP economics. His earlier stint as Country Head for Afghanistan, perhaps best portrays his values and commitment towards supporting development aid & reconstruction efforts. He practices transformational leadership, involving changing of mindset's, amply demonstrated in resurgence of the bank's franchise in Nepal. A TEDx speaker, he regularly shares best practise with regulators & Nepali entrepreneurship on risk management principles and corporate governance techniques. A proponent of free trade & investment as an engine of growth, he propagates best practice in International Trade & Investment flows through policy advocacy.

Shambhu Pokharel

Chairman, World Trade Group Nepal

Shambhu Pokharel is Nepalese media entrepreneur, chairman of world trade group Nepal and founder of Business TV Nepal. He has appeared as speaker in international programs. He has given speech about "Asia as Modern Power Center" in Russia, & about "Future of Shopaholic" in Thailand. He has been awarded "Kalam Ke Sipahi (Soldier of Pen)"by All India Newspaper Association for his contributions to media sector. He has received Most Ambitious CEO Award presented by CEO Club Network at UAE & Global Strategic Leader Award at Malaysia. He is also a renown international motivational speaker and manages several enterprises including the Business Television.

Lokraj Sharma

Chairman. Social Entrepreneurship Councial, NRN(Denmark)

Mr. Lok Raj Sharma is an intelligent, hard-worker and innovative person. He is originally from Jumla, Nepal and working as an entrepreneur in several organizations since few years. He has excellent performance in his educational and social sector. He got the number one excellent student record in International Business Academy from 2008-2012 in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has Masters Degree in International Business Management from University of UK, Diploma in leadership from Denmark and Diploma in Civil Engineering from IOE, Nepal. Currently he is working as a board of director in Reewire International ApS which is a fintech company running in 16 country beside that he is operating the International Trading IVS, Itoffer.dk and Woolliving.com in Denmark. In Nepal he is working as a Managing director of Nepal Payment Solution Pvt. Ltd. Which is in a mission of becoming service and payment hub in Nepal. Board of director in Builder 360 Nepal, a construction and real estate company, board of director in Nepal investment fund Ltd, Founder and board of director of Nrn lagubitta bittiye santha ltd.(D grade Bank). Chairperson in Lower Mid Rawa Khola Hydro Pvt. Ltd. He is leading and representing Nepalese entrepreneur in Scandinavia and Asian region. He is working as a convenor for social entrepreneurship development sub Committee in the global organization NRNA. He is a Founder president of Ropni Youth Club, Nepal.

Karma Bhutia

Startup Ecosystem expert

Karma Bhutia - is an Entrepreneur, Speaker, Mentor, StartUp Enthusiast with interest in Data Science, (ML, AI) & Robotics. He is Mentor at Sikkim Manipal University Technology Business Incubator and Faster Capital a venture capital fund based in Dubai. Karma is also a Founder of iShippo, Demi, NiKo.ai and co-founder of Gotem.io a crypto assetstartup based in Taiwan. He co-founded SourceN – a successful software consulting firm; which was acquired by HolidayIQ & Qwikcilver. Karma has patents to his name & was featured by Forbes in 2016. He is a recipient of “NICT” award for innovation & outstanding contribution in Information Technology. He is an eNorthEast awardee for eGovernance & citizen service delivery, mBillionth-2015 awardee for Mobile Governance and Manthan-2015 awardee.

Vikram Gupta

Founder & Managing Partner, IvyCap Ventures

Mr.Vikram Gupta is the Founder & Managing Partner at IvyCap Ventures Advisors Private Limited. He has about 20 years of experience in Venture Capital, Business Consulting, M and A, Strategy and Operations in Healthcare and Life Sciences, Education, Consumer Goods and other industries. He has also held leadership positions across various well-known companies in India and Abroad.

Dr. Sunil Singh Sijapati

Startup Ecosystem expert

Doctor in Business Administration from USA, worked as an insurance professional in Nepal before going overseas for MBA. Worked as financial advisor business advisor and management consultant in USA and Canada. He is very enthusiastic for financial technology and e-commerce integration. Ten year of experience in management consulting and corporate advising.
Doctor of Business Administration- California, USA (E-commerce)
Master of Economic - Florida, USA- (General)
Master of Business Administration- Florida, USA- (Consumer Behaviour and E-commerce)
Managing Partner- Revive Management Nepal
Co-Founder- Sajilo Meds
Co-Founder- Sajilo Meals
Experience
Management consulting- focused on retail reengineering and e-commerce integration
Experienced in business research & strategic adaptation and digital transformation

Founder/Director, Exseed Space