January 9: Around 5000 “enthusiastic youths” attended the GBG BizFest 2019, a startup meet organised by Google Business Group, Kathmandu in the capital on Saturday, January 5.

According to the Kathmandu chapter of Google Business Group, a community of business professionals, they organised the expo to bring every kind of startups together in a single platform.

Issuing a statement, the organiser said that the participating startups ranged from online game developing companies to those working on animation production, from digital marketing to 3D printing, from online shopping startups to the companies that manage cash-on-delivery to these startups, from online education to online medicine, Nepali clothing brands and handicrafts to agro-startups among others.

“The event also provided a learning platform for students and others who want to start their own businesses in the future,” the statement said.

Enthused by the huge turn-out of visitors and startups in the BizFest, Amit Agrawal, manager of GBG Kathmandu shared, “Startup is a recent phenomenon in Nepal. We can see many startups emerging to solve various need gaps existing in our society. However, not many people know about the emerging Nepali startups and there was no such expo focused on startups only. Also, it’s not possible for all recently founded startups to pay a heavy fee to exhibit in expos. Thus GBG Kathmandu took an initiation to bring all major startups of Nepal in a single platform. Through BizFest, we tried providing them a free and open platform to connect with their potential users and customers.”

According to the organiser, the event turned out to be an ideal platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to meet and talk with fellow entrepreneurs who have already founded startups and gain knowledge and ideas. The event also provided an opportunity for exhibitors to get opinion and feedback from the people.

During the expo, four workshop sessions were also held on topics like ‘Growth Hacking’, ‘Overcoming legal challenges in business’, ‘Google Sheets for Business Growth’, and ‘Ads and Analytics for Business Growth’ that were delivered by experts in the industry.

Through all these activities Google Business Group Kathmandu claimed that it aimed to groom startup founders and promote entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nepal.

The organiser claimed that it was a first of its kind technology and business expo in Nepal organized in collaboration with Khalti digital wallet.