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Entering its 16th edition, Conquest has successfully become one of India’s leading Startup Accelerator, enabling more than 1000 startups to succeed every year. One ideology that has remained constant throughout the years is to reform every other one in order to provide the most topical and relevant support to the startups in accordance with the ever-changing dynamics of today’s ecosystem.

Assimilating learnings from various revamped models and experiences from the ecosystem, backed by Accel, Conquest 2020 will be divided into 3 phases. It will commence with Multi-city mentoring sessions in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

Conquest will further go on to provide the top 15 most exciting startups of India with extremely vigorous 6-week long online mentorship from some of the best entrepreneurs and field experts out there. This will be followed by a 10-day Accelerator Program in Bangalore consisting of investment workshops by firms like Accel Partners and Blume Ventures and networking sessions with successful founders and prominent CEOs from across the country.

All of this culminating with a Grand Event, being attended by all the top pioneers from the ecosystem, giving Conquest’s shortlisted startups a platform to pitch their work in front of them and an array of Investment Firms. All set with this year’s edition, Conquest is on a path to empower founders from across the country.

Last year, Venture Catalyst had pledged 20 Crore for every startup that registered for Conquest, which met their criteria of investment. With investors like Dev Khare from Lightspeed, Shanti Mohan from LetsVenture, Sanjay Nath from Blume and Barath Shankar from Accel, coupled with mentors like Suvonil Chatterjee from Ola Cabs, Abhishek Nayak from Accel and Anuj Rathi from Swiggy, Conquest serves as a networking paradise for every startup out there.

In the past, Conquest has had success stories like SocialCops, which is acclaimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has been recognized as the Most Impactful Startup of 2017 by YourStory. One of our recent finalists, Trell, raised $4 million and is now valued at $19 million. XWards, another finalist, has received Rs. 8 crores of funding recently. Do check our coverage of Conquest 2019.

Mayank Singh, CEO Conquest, co-Leading it with Kartikeya Gupta, says

While building Conquest, we wanted to give anyone with the passion to create solutions and build big businesses a platform to grow. In 16 years since its inception, we have come very close to holding all the cards which propel them to the top, and every year is a step forward to realizing that vision. At Conquest, we believe in nurturing the startup ecosystem with the best of knowledge and resources to steer their journey to the top.

Overview of Conquest 2020

Conquest strives to build a platform aimed to bring together all stakeholders from the ecosystem and create an impact with its utmost capacity.

The following are the various initiatives to help founders succeed in their quest.

  • Online Mentorship Program – Conquest connects the Top 10 Startups with industry stalwarts from all over the country, enabling them to grow remotely while they continue to learn and work.
  • Accelerator Program – With a goal to help the best founders build great businesses, Conquest provides a 10-day long accelerator program in Bangalore. Fueled by the belief that multiple founders tackling similar problems in close proximity would lead to efficient solutions, Conquest provides all its startups with Co-Working and Co-Living Facilities. Every day is a huge leap forward for the founders with investment workshops, fundraising pitches, networking with successful founders and much more.
  • Grand Finale – The Grand Finale serves as the perfect platform for the Top 10 startups to pitch before Top Investors and Media houses for a prize money of INR 5 Lakhs.
  • Conquest Academy – A one-stop-shop of localized content for Indian startups. Whether you need help in acquiring your first 100 customers or in designing the perfect UI for your app, Conquest Academy ensures that you don’t have to go through tons of foreign resources.

Conquest has opened registrations, embark on your journey at www.conquest.org.in. To know more about Conquest, check out their blog Conquest 2020: Make Ideas Happen

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Founded in 2004, Conquest soon became India’s biggest student-run startup conclave receiving over 1000 startup applications consistently since previous three editions. Fourteen years have passed by, with a couple of revamped models and success stories laden throughout, Conquest has now evolved into a six-week summer program for India’s top ten startups which receive free space to live and work in Bengaluru along with intensive mentoring, investment opportunities and media coverage.

In the past, Conquest has had success stories like SocialCops, which is acclaimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has been recognized as the Most Impactful Startup of 2017 by the YourStory team. Swagene and Gamezop which were the top two startups in Conquest 2015 went on to create genetically customized medicine and social gaming platforms respectively. Thinkerbell Labs, winner of Conquest 2016 aims to bring Braille within the reach of all visually-impaired people.

With a network of top investors like Sanjay Nath, Dev Khare, Barath Shankar from investment firms like Blume Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners, and Indian Angel Network, Conquest serves as a networking paradise. Infotech Hub and Balsamiq as associate sponsors, Conquest is on a mission to empower founders, to catalyse innovation and to assist creation.

Rahul Chhabra, CEO at Conquest, BITS Pilani, says

The only way to push the human race forward is to have enterprising small groups of people reject the status quo and build the future. In those magical moments of giving birth to innovation, we stand by the crazy ones who dare to change the world, the ones who love building  and creating just for the fun of it.

What all is Conquest upto ?

From one of India’s grandest startup events, Conquest is now under transition to become a leader in India’s startup ecosystem with multiple initiatives for all stakeholders in the industry.

  • Summer Mentorship Program – With a goal to help the best founders build great businesses and raise money, Conquest provides a six-week long summer mentorship program at Bengaluru to their Top 10 Startups. This will comprise of free co-living space at The Hub – a coliving space where people come together to live, work and express themselves, along with free co-working facilities. A separate co-living space will also be provided at BHIVE workspace.
  • Grand Finale – The Summer Mentorship Program will be followed by a Grand Finale where the Top 10 Startups get to pitch themselves before India’s top investors and media houses to raise funds and gain media attention.
  • Conquest Mentoring Sessions – From among all the startups that register for Conquest, the Top 50 are called for a day-long mentoring session in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai with industry stalwarts in tech, customer acquisition, fundraising and so on.
  • Conquest Community – The Conquest Community is a curated community of past startups, investors, mentors and experts from the Conquest network. It sparks discussions and provides an opportunity for members to connect with and gain insights from each other.
  • Conquest Hiring Platform – This gives an opportunity to Conquest Campus Ambassadors, college E-Cell partners and developers to get a chance to work with one of the previous Conquest Finalists as well as the current startups looking to hire.
  • Conquest Academy – Building a repository of great advice to first time founders which have everything from how to find the right co-founders to how to achieve a product market fit.
  • Conquest Meetups – Regularly held meetups and hackathons with mentors, founders and developers which helps get the most talented people of the country under one roof.

Why should a startup register for Conquest?

If you are an early stage startup founder who really cares about the company you are building, then Conquest has built a distraction-free, high growth environment for you so that you can single mindedly focus on building your company.

Conquest provides intensive mentoring from founders who have built great companies themselves who are the best source of experiential knowledge on nascent stage startup problems. Another important element of the program is a collaboration focused environment which requires all Top 10 Startups to stay and work together in order to solve each other’s problems and leverage complementary skill sets. Finally, Conquest helps the startups overcome one of the most common roadblocks – fundraising.

Conquest provides investors from top VC firms, Conquest alumni and experienced founders to help craft your pitch, build your deck, maneuver deals and secure funding.

Conquest has opened registrations, join the journey here. To know more about Conquest, check out their blogs – Conquest: Building India’s First Student-Run Startup Launchpad, Why register your startup for Conquest?.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The Grand Finale of Conquest 2017, BITS Pilani’s international startup challenge, concluded on a high note at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi. With DCB Bank as the title sponsor, Conquest has been become a paradise for startups, providing them with a chance to voice their ideas, network with industry leaders, and obtain incubation and funding opportunities.

The winner’s position was grabbed by Recopro,? which manufactures recyclable paper pallets which are cheaper, stronger & greener than the traditional wood counterparts, while the runners up were Incredible Devices,? which works on providing affordable treatment techniques for CVD, a disease with a fatality rate of 80%. The winner and the runner-­up have been awarded INR 250k and INR 150k of equity­-less cash funding.

Conquest, BITS Pilani’s International Startup Conclave, is an initiative whose wheels were set in motion back in 2004. Thirteen years have passed by, with a couple of revamped models and success stories laden throughout, with a lot more promise exuding from Conquest 2017. The edition, in association with Zoho, Accel, WNS and PayU, raked in 1000+ startup applications and in partnership with Letsventure filtered the number down to the Top 50. The demographics and sectors of the registered startups were variegated in equal measure, making the competition pan-India with a few foreign applicants. The number was brought down to the Top 50 based on a rigorous scrutiny spread across 36 extensive parameters.

The top 50 startups were then mentored on a one-on-one basis in mentoring sessions held at Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The networking sessions witnessed attendance from the likes of Meera Iyer, CMO – Big Basket, Ashish Goel, Head of Product – Zomato and Suvonil Chatterjee, former CDO, Housing and Flipkart.

Dr. Bindu Dey, the Guest of Honour for the Grand Finale, ?is the current secretary of the Technology Development Board. In her address to the gathering, she emphasized on the importance of commercializing the results of research, and the role played by Technology Development Board in the same.

Praveen Kutty, Head of Retail and SME Banking, DCB Bank, on his experience with Conquest, said

The experience has been brilliant as always. It is our third year of association with Conquest, and each year, the finalists have been splendid. We have actually started interacting and doing business with a couple of finalists from the previous editions. Conquest is a remarkable event, and it is commendable what the team does to put it together.

The itinerary consisted of two panel discussions, a pitching round for the Top 10 startups in front of  investors from over 25 investment firms and leading industrialists, a networking lunch along with interaction of the jury with the audience in the Fish Bowl round.

The first panel discussed nuances that a young entrepreneur should keep in mind. Some of the panelists who shared their thoughts on the topic were Nishith Rastogi, CEO & Founder of Locus.sh, Barath Shankar, Senior Analyst, Accel Partners. Dhruv Mathur, Co-Founder at Little Black Book, Abhishek Gupta, COO at Tlabs and Sanjay Nath, Managing partner at Blume Ventures.

The second panel, consisting of Vivek Khare, Director Strategy at LetsVenture, Abhiraj Bahl, Co-Founder at Urban Clap, Vikram Upadhyay, Chief Mentor at GHV Accelerator, Shantanu Mathur, Country Head at Knowlarity and Sujit Panigrahi, CEO, Fitness 365,  discussed the troubles of innovating in a risk averse country like India.

Erik Azulay, Director, Nexus Startup Hub was among the members of the jury. Talking of Conquest, he said

The quality of startups and the pitches that I saw here has been much better than at other events. Kudos to Conquest for ensuring quality at every stage!

The Fish Bowl round was the most looked forward session where the students and entrepreneurs in the audience were given a chance to directly interact with the corporate leaders at the event by asking them questions in an open ­to ­all discussion. The jury members, including Nilesh Kothari, Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital amongst other distinguished industry leads, were part of the session. The session was an enthralling experience, with discussions on topics ranging from the rise in popularity of Initial Coin Offering [ICOs] to the heated debate on Artificial Intelligence.

With a handpicked audience consisting of some of the biggest names among VCs and Angel investors, the top 10 start-ups in the country as well as students from the leading institutes of India, the Grand Finale of Conquest 2017 has lived upto its reputation of being a startup paradise, and every startup enthusiast’s networking dream.

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Conquest [earlier coverage here], India’s biggest student-run startup challenge has been centred over the years to provide a perfect platform for startups to prosper. With DCB Bank as the title sponsor, Conquest has become a paradise for startups, providing them with a chance to voice their ideas, network with industry leaders, and obtain incubation and funding opportunities.

Raising the standards set by previous editions, Conquest 2017, in association with Zoho, Accel, WNS and PayU, witnessed a participation of more than 1000 startups from across the nation. Startups from various sectors ranging from education, manufacturing, engineering to even virtual reality competed for a spot in the top 50. These applications were scrutinised based on 36 extensive parameters to shortlist the top 50 startups for personalised mentoring sessions.

Conquest provided these startups with an insightful experience and a networking opportunity by organising mentorship sessions in the 3 major cities of the country – Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

File Photo : Conquest

Mentors from various sectors provided their insights on various aspects of entrepreneurship: Fundraising, Product Management, Customer Acquisition, Tech, and Operations. Meera Iyer, CMO – Big Basket, Ashish Goel, Head of Product – Zomato and Suvonil Chatterjee, former CDO, Housing and Flipkart are some of the many esteemed mentors that provided guidance to participants on a one on one basis. The jury then selected the top 10 startups for the Grand Finale.

Here is a look at the top 10 startups that made the cut.

  • Incredible Devices Pvt. Ltd – Incredible Devices provides affordable treatment techniques for CVD, a disease with a fatality rate of 80%.
  • Recopro – Recopro’s recyclable paper pallets are cheaper, stronger and greener than the traditional wood counterparts.
  • Drone Nation – Drone Nation is an aerial data solutions company providing end to end solutions using custom-built drone hardware and software technologies.
  • Dcoder – Dcoder lets you code anywhere, anytime through its mobile coding platform.
  • JuiceWorx – JuiceWorx is working on an IoT led beverage dispensing technology that gives enhanced experience and greater health benefits to users.
  • Adloid – Adloid is a trail AR platform where you can try a product before buying- just by using your phone.
  • Trell – Trell has built a 170K strong community for millennials to discover and share local explorations.
  • Be-Hold – Be-Hold is a glove designed to function as a phone for the visually impaired.
  • Clodura – Clodura uses technology to help you find high value leads which are more likely to close!
  • Aquivio – Aquvio has revolutionised Reverse Osmosis based water purifiers by minimising the
    waste-water generated.

The top 10 will take the stage in the Grand Finale, to be held on 3rd September at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi. The finalists will pitch their ideas in front of of the panel of investors and VCs, as they try to captivate the imagination of potential investors.

The Finale is going to a ensemble of the some the the biggest names in the startup industry, along with some future greats to watch out for. The Grand Finale of Conquest has the reputation of being a star studded networking event, with attendance from numerous industry stalwarts.

Previous editions have witnessed attendance from the likes of R. Chandrashekhar, President – NASSCOM, Padmaja Ruparel, President – Indian Angel Network, Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner – Blume Ventures and Nilesh Kothari, Managing Partner – Trifecta Capital Registrations for attending the Grand Finale are now open. Register on Conquest for a chance to network with the best names in the industry.

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Conquest, BITS Pilani’s International Startup Challenge, hosted its first networking session in the city at the Accel Office in Koramangala. Conquest, backed by DCB Bank, serves as a brilliant launchpad for emerging startups across the country.

Source – LetsVenture

As part of the mentoring sessions, the participants were provided with expert guidance from industry leaders. Some noteworthy mentors include Brijesh Bhardwaj, Product Manager at Hike, Suvonil Chatterjee, ex-CDO Housing and Flipkart and current advisor at Unacademy, Abhishek Nayak, CEO, Bicycle AI and Rishabh Kaul, CEO, Belong.

Expressing her views on the Networking Sessions, Meera Iyer, CMO at BigBasket and one of the mentors, said

For an economy to be sustainable, it needs to nurture the culture of new setups and new constructs surfacing constantly, and I feel that these mentoring sessions wherein such ideas and the youths behind them are groomed, is a really strong medium to connect to. This sharing of ideas also has mutual benefits, helping me in ideate on similar lines and implement them in my daily life.

Conquest, through its tie-ups with incubators and investment firms across the country, offers funding and incubation opportunities for participating startups. The top startups at Conquest receive, in addition to USD 1M worth resources, Rs 3 lakh worth of equity-less funding.

Conquest 2017, in association with Zoho, Accel, WNS and PayU, witnessed a participation of more than 1000 startups from across the nation. These applications were scrutinized based on their models, sustainability, user traction and a number of other parameters, after which, the top 50 were shortlisted for the Networking Sessions held in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Fundraising, Product Management, Customer Acquisition, Tech, and Scaling up & Operations comprise the five categories in which the startups received expert guidance from the mentors.

Two more mentoring sessions were organised by the Conquest team, in New Delhi and Mumbai. Now the participants await the announcement of the coveted spot in the top 10 startups of Conquest 2017. The finalists will then present their ideas before the jury at the Grand Finale to be held on 27 August at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi.

Talking about the mentoring sessions, one of the mentee start-ups said

I was pleasantly surprised by the paramount expertise and brilliant insights offered by the mentors. Not only were the mentors willing to hear us out, but also agreed to keep in touch after the sessions. I look forward to setting up a meeting with them.

The Grand Finale of Conquest has the reputation of being a star studded networking event, with attendance from numerous industry stalwarts. Previous editions have witnessed attendance from the likes of R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network, Sanjay Nath, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures and Nilesh Kothari, Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital. With two insightful panel discussions, fishbowl sessions open to the audience and a networking lunch with industry leaders, the finale fulfills any startup enthusiast’s dream.

For more details on the process of Conquest and the Grand Finale, visit Conquest official website.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

BITS Pilani’s Annual Startup Conclave – Conquest is back with it’s 2015 Edition. Conquest has had ten successive editions over the past and this year, the model has been revamped to make it even more grand. Last edition of Conquest saw around 2000 applications from all over India. Conquest provided a platform to support our teams raise millions of dollars of investment upon completion of the Grand Finale held at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi.

Conquest_Conclave

Highlights of Conquest 2015

  • Close to 2000 applicants would be fighting it out to win the challenge.
  • Last year 3.5 Lakhs equity-less cash was handed over to the winners of Conquest. However in this edition, along with the equity-less cash, winners would also get $1 million worth CRM and other support services.
  • Freshmentors, an online mentoring platform that was backed with angel investment of Rs 1 crore in 2014 would  seek personalized mentoring on college admissions and their careers via live video chats. It caters to its customers with the help of over 300 mentors spread across 150 foreign universities.
  • The short-listing process of the top 50 startups would be done by a panel of Investors and mentors.

Some of the jury members include:

  1. Rohit Bansal, Co-founder Snapdeal
  2. Amit Ranjan, Co-founder of Slideshare
  3. Ankur Warikoo, CEO of Groupon India
  4. Alok Kejriwal, Founder & CEO of Games2Win
  5. Dev Khare of Lightspeed Ventures &
  6. Rajesh Sawhney, Founder of the GSF Accelerator & GSF Superangels

For providing comprehensive feedback to all the applicants of Conquest,2015; they have partnered with Applyifi, a private platform for startups to create a comprehensive pitch-book & thereafter apply to multiple investors or accelerators/incubators.

How to apply for Conquest,2015

  • Registrations for Conquest are open from 31st March & would be open through the month of April. Registrations would close on 1st May.
  • The list of 50 short-listed startups would be announced in the month of June.
  • Any startup which was registered after 1st Jan 2013 is eligible to participate in Conquest 2015.
  • Startups can register at Conquest website. Applicant has the option of saving his form & filling it at any time before the registration closes.

The networking sessions meant to connect every startup with their mentor will be held in 5 cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai in the month of July.

Previous winners of Conquest

Some of the success stories of previous editions of Conquest are listed below:

  1. I-Traveller – Runners-up, 2013
  2. Solar Town – Runners-up, 2012
  3. PosterGully  – Finalist, 2012
  4. Phyzok – Winner, 2011
  5. GharPay – Runners-up, 2011
  6. iViz Security – Winner, 2006
  7. Mobile Medics – Winner, 2005

The title sponsor of the event is DCB Bank.

Startups, please make the most of this opportunity & head over to Conquest website for registration & more details.

* We would update this post once we receive more details from the Organization Team of Conquest. Stay Tuned !!! Please leave a comment in case any information on Conquest is required.

Image Credit  – Conquest