iMatch International Launchpad 2009: Pitch to Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Benchmark Capital and Google

i.Match was launched in 2008, with much fanfare and hype, to help bridge the funding gap between the seed funding that MDA offers for their iJam scheme and series funding offered by venture capitalists. This is primarily offered to Interactive Digital Media companies (more specifically IDMPO funded companies) looking for that extra juice to commercialize their products and grow their companies. The upcoming Launchpad 2009 event looks like a great way for startups to do that.

Launchpad 2009 aims to showcase great, game changing innovation in Asia. The platform provides the opportunity for startups to mingle with investors, fellow entrepreneurs, incubators etc. Apart from networking alone, there will be a pitching element to it as well. The top 5-10 startups will get an opportunity to pitch to top notch international investors from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Benchmark Capital and Google (more panelists will be confirmed). Pitching to them is good, but let’s hope they follow on with some funding please.

Companies interested in taking part can do so in the following manner:

(i) Submit a copy of their 1-minute elevator pitch to Junus Eu from Expara. Her email id is Junus [at] expara [dot] com. The email subject should be labelled as: “CFP for i.MATCH International by [Name of Company]”.

(ii) Submissions should include all relevant company information as requested above (this is based on the information available here).

(iii) Submissions received after the specified deadline (November 24th 2009) will not be considered.

Some of the overseas panelists for the event include:

Benchmark Capital – Jonathan Teo

Jonathan Teo has spent his career helping companies build distributed engineering organizations that enable technical teams and infrastructure to expand and scale globally.

Most recently he served as Engineering PM in the Search Properties and Enterprise Products groups at Google in Mountain View, and was an early member of its Strategy and Business Operations team. In both roles, he created highly leveraged engineering and product organizations in countries around the world, with a focus on expanding R&D to Asia and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining Google, he worked at Bain & Company, helping a Fortune 100 client optimize and grow its technical support organization. He also served as a consultant to Intuit, Electronic Arts and other technology companies, spent two years in the Republic of Singapore Air Force and was a founding member of a software development group focused on developing security protocols and analyzers. He currently holds patented work in the area of link layer security.

Jonathan’s investment areas cover enterprise software and infrastructure as well as mobile technologies. He is currently involved in investments in Twitter and Eucalyptus.

Education: M.S. from Stanford University. B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Sydney University.

DFJ India – Mohanjit Jolly

Mohanjit Jolly has spent the last ten years working with and investing in technology startups. Prior to DFJ, Mohanjit was Managing Director at Garage Technology Ventures, a seed and early stage venture capital firm. While at Garage, Mohanjit worked with over 30 companies, including LeftHand Networks, PureSight (BCGI), Jibe Networks (CTRX), Qumu, Thermoceramix, Kaboodle (Acq: Hearst Media) and SimplyHired. Prior to joining Garage, Mohanjit was part of the strategic planning group at Mattel where he helped launch the Mattel/Intel joint venture, Intel Play. He also spent several years in both engineering and business development roles with Itek Optical Systems, a manufacturer of high-resolution reconnaissance systems for both military and commercial use. While earning his M.B.A from the Anderson School at UCLA, Mohanjit helped launch ViaSpace, a technology incubator in Southern California in conjunction with Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mohanjit earned a B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, with a specialization in electric propulsion systems.

Google Corporate Development Group – Mike Pearson

Previously, he worked in investment banking with Goldman Sachs both in New York and London. Michael holds undergraduate degrees in Economics and Italian from Emory University and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard. Michael joined the Corporate Development Group at Google in 2005 and is a senior member of the team responsible for all the company’s acquisitions and strategic minority investments. Prior to Google, Michael held positions at the private equity group McCown De Leeuw & Co focusing on investments in early stage companies.

Google: Corporate Development Group – Thomas Duterme

Tom is a Corporate Development Manager at Google. He focuses on acquisitions for Google in both the US and international markets. Tom previously worked in the New Business Development in Google and spearheaded early stage businesses for Google including Adsense for Games and also helped develop infrastructure partnerships for Google

Voice. Prior to joining Google, Tom helped launch two companies in the Internet space in China, playing the role of CTO and head of sales for each venture. While in China, Tom also helped multinational corporations negotiate market entries in the form of domestic acquisitions and joint ventures.

Tom graduated with a degree in physics from Macalester College. He also possesses an MBA from the MIT Sloan of Management. Tom is fluent in Mandarin and French, and has lived in China, Japan, France, Belgium, and various parts of the U.S.

Images courtesy: MDA