Conquest, in association with Larsen and Toubro InfoTech Ltd. [LTI], Accel Partners and Grant Thornton, is the first student-run startup accelerator of India. This annual event organized by BITS Pilani wrapped up with its Top 50 Mentoring sessions on the 26th of May. With participation from over 600 startups across the country, the Top 50 were shortlisted by our esteemed partners LetsVenture and Applyifi, to take part in multi-city mentoring sessions held in – Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
The Delhi and Bangalore sessions were held at the NASSCOM offices, while the Mumbai session was held at the LTI Office, located in Powai. The sessions were interactive, and had eminent personalities like Gaurav Dahake, the co-founder of Buyhatke; Mitesh Shah, the CFO at Bookmyshow, and Saurabh Jain, VP at PayTM.
With the Top 50 startups being shortlisted based on their model, sustainability, scalability and other such parameters after several rounds of scrutiny, fifteen startups from diverse fields qualified for the next stage. Conquest aims to provide the top 15 startups with a platform where they can get proper guidance and training to successfully execute their vision.
The Top 15 startups for this year are
- ScoutMyTrip Pvt Ltd – A DIY [Do It Yourself] road trip planner & market place of travel experts who can be hired to curate and provide virtual trip assistance.
- Shreyasi By PassiveReferral – BOT Shreyasi is an AI-based Virtual Recruiter which can interview candidates over the phone and conduct an end to end recruitment Process.
- HRBOT – AI-based remote hiring platform that can identify potential job seekers in small towns and create their profile using automated chatbots, which eliminates the need for a resume.
- AAYUSH – Cost effective ingestible battery-less electronic Health Pill supported by AI and Cloud to predict and prevent Heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrests.
- LetsEndorse – A matching platform for proven social innovations with nuanced local challenges and development capital, to eradicate social issues at scale.
- Checkin – Checkin leverages AI to identify customers & analyse their dining preferences, to make personalized new recommendations just as a waiter would do.
- Xplorazzi – A technology development and services company focused on 360 imaging, virtual reality and augmented reality; building AI to aid efficient property inspection.
- 4MirrorTech Innovatives Pvt. Ltd. – India’s first IoT Based monitoring platform for big facilities; building solutions like Washroom, Rodent, Dustbin, Seat Occupancy and Employee monitoring.
- SecondHandKart – Delivering quality checked used products with up to 12 months repair Warranty, 12 months buyback guarantee, ‘Check on delivery’, 3 days replacement policy and even after-sales service.
- InvestoAsia – A seamlessly efficient system that enables investment into emerging markets by digitizing their securities using the blockchain technology into tokenized assets and further trade them on a private platform.
- GnomikX – Reducing the lifestyle disorder burden by shifting the mindset from cure to prevention, using personalized genetics.
- Nimble Vision Pvt. Ltd. – Simplifying water consumption with latest technologies like Smart Water Meter; Leakage detection; Water Quality Indicator [TDS]; Water consumption metrics based on pin code/area/city and much more.
- VenueMonk – A high-tech booking platform which helps people book venues quickly, effortlessly and at the lowest possible price.
- Sorted AI – An AI-based document management app which is a digital vault for your personal docs, automatically segregated & tagged by an AI Engine.
- Farmsurge – A digital platform which connects small farmers directly with agribusinesses for both forward & backward market linkages, providing a one stop solution of farm inputs, farm services and farm produce market linking.
These startups are currently undergoing 6-weeks of online mentorship by renowned entrepreneurs and field experts, like Suvonil Chatterjee from OLA Cabs, Anuj Rathi from Swiggy and Abhishek Nayak from Accel. The first session was conducted on 12th June and received very positive feedback from the startups. In further sessions, topics like Customer Acquisition, Pitching, Fundraising, Scaling Up & Operations, Product Management and Tech [UI, UX and Development] are to be covered, so as to give an all-round experience to the startups.
To ensure that the critical areas of a startup’s growth are touched upon and given the necessary attention on a personal basis, each startup will be assigned a Startup Coach.The mentor would personally guide the startup throughout the program.
Based on the feedback from the mentors, the top 10 startups will participate in the 7-day accelerator program where they will be provided free Co-living and Co-working spaces. The program will consist of investment workshops by firms like Blume Ventures and Accel Partners, mentoring sessions by successful founders and pitching to seed stage investors, along with a wide array of other activities.
The accelerator program will culminate with a Grand Finale on 28th July 2019, where the startups will pitch before media partners and investors. Prominent entrepreneurs, top investors, policymakers and various other stakeholders of the startup ecosystem will be attending the Finale.
Conquest has grown into a well established platform which has something to offer to every entrepreneur and continues to attract more and more startups every year. With the belief that even the craziest ideas should be given proper recognition because they are the ones that change the world, Conquest has made its mark into being one of the best startup launchpads.