Are you a startup in mobile space? Are you in need of seed funding? Then here is your chance to get a quarter million dollars in financing by filling a simple one page form.

Qualcomm is organizing a business plan competition to provide over $500,000 in early stage capital for enterprising technology companies. The competition is also open to entrepreneurs in India. Qualcomm Ventures has allocated $550,000 to help fund early stage businesses and entrepreneurs located throughout the world. There will be four regional semi-finalist competitions taking place in China, Europe, India and North America.

The winner in each of these regional competitions will receive $100,000 (USD) of funding in the form of a convertible promissory note. The four semi-finalist winners will be invited to San Diego to compete for an additional $150,000 (USD) of funding, giving the winner a total investment of $250,000. (A convertible promissory note is a common debt instrument issued by companies to venture capitalists in early stage funding transactions.) Qualcomm Ventures will purchase such notes from the winners of the competition and convert them to capital stock, concurrent with the company’s next institutional round of funding (proceeds from the next round must exceed $500K USD).

Qualcomm Ventures will screen all submitted business plans to ensure compliance and overall strategic investment fit. Ideally, these would be opportunities that:

• Stimulate demand for next-generation high-speed networks through new products, applications and services
• Create new and complementary technologies and businesses
• Enable new horizontal and vertical markets
• Enhance demand for wireless data applications and services

Entrants must complete all the required fields in the online form and attach a completed copy of their business plan prior to August 21st,2009. The Final event will be held in San Diego, CA in November, 2009. The judging panel will consist of a mix of Qualcomm employees, event sponsors and partners.

While there are no entry fees to participate in this competition, the participants will be responsible for all costs associated with travel and accommodations.

Go for it!

Dreamy-eyed Indian entrepreneurs hoping to talk their way into getting venture capital for their start-ups might as well look elsewhere for funding. It doesn’t happen in India, not often anyway, investors and experts in the industry maintain.

Venture capitalists in India only prefer growth-stage companies — firms already up and running that need money for expansion. Most start-up entrepreneurs, as a result, dive into their own pockets or banks, or draw funds from family and friends.

Seed capital for a new business has not come of age in India, they added.

‘The concept of seed capital does not exist in India, there are a few funds which have come up of late, but it is minuscule compared to the need and potential,’ said Kalpana Jain, co-chairperson of Venture Capital Association of India.

‘In the US or other developed markets, higher returns always come coupled with higher risks. And higher returns are prevalent mostly in a new venture which takes off,’ Jain, also senior director with global consultancy Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, told IANS.

‘In India on the contrary, many companies which are already operational give much higher returns. Then why risk money in a new venture?’

And the problem has also compounded by the current economic scenario, where financial institutions are more concerned with keeping their capital safe than risk their funds with a new venture.

‘Venture capital firms invested $740 million India in 2008 compared to $876 million in the previous year,’ said the managing director and chief executive of Venture Intelligence, Arun Natarajan, adding hardly any funding went to start-up projects.

‘The number of deals were also down to 125 in 2008 from 144 in 2007.’

Jagannadham Thunuguntla, equity head at SMC Capitals, has an explanation. ‘The confidence among foreign funds, be it venture capital or private equity, hasn’t been restored after what happened back home.’

According to him, these funds will start returning to the equities markets first, and later look at other avenues.

Among start-ups, too, there is intense competition to get venture capital funding. And more often, there is one set of firms that comes up tops — IT-based businesses or companies that use the web to reach out to customers, said veteran venture capitalists.

‘A lot of venture capital firms look favourably at IT start-ups because once the concept takes off it is easier for such businesses to scale up,’ said Rahul Chandra, director at Helion Advisors, an India-focussed venture fund with $350 million under management.

‘Also venture capitalists generally have a Silicon Valley background and have a greater understanding of such types of business models,’ said Chandra. Past record also matters — a larger number of IT firms have given attractive returns.

‘There is a reasonably long list of IT firms — MindTree, Spectramind, Mphasis, Daksh, Naukri.com — which have delivered good exits for venture capitalists,’ said Natarajan.

Perhaps, that’s the reason why people like Manish Malhotra – who quit his position with a top bank to start a hospitality agency – are still floundering with their business.

‘Venture capital is difficult to get. I come from the banking industry and know people. But even then it hasn’t been easy at all to convince them that my plans will work,’ Malhotra said.

(James Jose can be contacted at james.jose@ians.in)