Bloomberg TV India’s third season of The Pitch has moved into its final phase. The jury, comprising of successful entrepreneurs Mahesh Murthy, Vishal Gondal and Neeraj Roy, have selected the FINAL 10 contenders who will be competing for the top spot. Starting 27 September, the elimination episodes of “The Pitch” will be telecast on Fridays at 10:30 pm and Sundays at 5 pm.

The top 10 contenders are Nikhilesh Tayal from Udaipur, an IIT Kharagpur graduate; Afsal Salu from Bangalore, an IIM Lucknow graduate; Shirish Bhatt from Pune, a Computer Engineer; Dr. Ketan Jhunjhunwala from Mumbai is an MBBS and is currently pursuing MD-PhD in clinical neurosciences; Sujayath Ali from Chennai is an MBA in Technology and Finance and also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science Engineering; Rahul Agrawal from Kanpur is a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur; Sudeepta Sanyal from Kolkata is a Sociology graduate and an MBA; Varun Khona from Bangalore is a Bachelor in Business Management; Pandurang Taware, a graduate from Sanghvi Village in Baramati and Ankit Mehrotra from New Delhi is a CFA and a graduate in Computers & Telecommunication Engineering .

Sriram Kilambi, President – Bloomberg TV India said, “We are happy to have some of the brightest minds in India on the show and I am sure the eliminations are going to be keenly contested. Each of these contenders is already running their own enterprises and are passionate about it. It will be interesting to see who has the wherewithal to cross the finishing line.”

The contenders will now face challenges given to them by some of India's prominent business leaders each week. In every episode, a business leader will assign a task to the participants. The task will challenge the contenders on critical skills required to be a successful entrepreneur and one contender will be eliminated each week to narrow down to the most competent and deserving aspirant. Piyush Pandey, Sunil Alagh, B S Nagesh, K V Srinivasan & Sunil Karwal are some of the business leaders who will be testing and evaluating the contenders of The Pitch Season 3.

Mahesh Murthy, Founding Partner of Seedfund and Jury Member at Pitch said, “Entrepreneurship is about innovation, passion and risk. At Seedfund, we aim to encourage budding entrepreneurs by giving them funding and mentoring to help them build great businesses. The Pitch is a platform we've co-created with Bloomberg TV India to motivate and inspire entrepreneurs who will be the future of Indian business. We've been happy with the quantity and quality of businesses who applied to participate".

K V Srinivasan, CEO - Reliance Commercial Finance said, “Our aim of associating with “The Pitch” is the show’s underlying philosophy to help budding entrepreneurs culminate their business ideas into ventures. We are already working with successful entrepreneurs across Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) and enabling them expand their business by providing tailor-made loans for generating productive assets. Our initiative with The Pitch therefore is a natural extension and complements our business philosophy. May the best idea win.”

The Pitch Season 3 is presented by Reliance Commercial Finance and powered by Hyundai. Big Daddy Productions are the concept partners for The Pitch. The show will be supported by a 360 degree marketing campaign spread across Television, Outdoor, Print, OOH, Online, Mobile, Radio, Multiplex, Retail, Café’s, Malls, etc.