A rapidly growing digital infrastructure, supportive government initiatives, a favorable business environment, abundant access to capital, and a skilled workforce have fueled India’s rise to become a world-leading startup ecosystem.
Still, 80% of startups in India fail within the first five years of their inception and the scariest fact is that 127,000 startups fail every day.
This brings us to these key questions:
- Is there anything that should be done differently?
- Are we failing in resilience or adaptability?
- Do we need to be more innovative with our ideas?
- Or don’t we learn from our mistakes?
These are some of the pertinent questions, but the most important question is: where do we get the answers? From policy makers, industry leaders, investors and industry influencers, of course. And voila! The ET Soonicorns Summit 2024, scheduled for September 20 in Bengaluru, will bring together all these people, and more, on a single platform.
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It’s your chance to interact with industry leaders, disruptive innovators, investors, and thought leaders and gain valuable, actionable insights to navigate the most common obstacles that cause startups to fail. These are people who have successfully navigated and weathered the storms that come with aiming high in the startup ecosystem.
To register now, Click here.
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What to expect from the summit? Here’s a sneak peek!
- Priyank Kharge’s Inaugural Speech: Priyank Kharge, Minister of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Government of Karnataka, is a stalwart and instrumental in steering Bengaluru’s startup landscape towards a superior ecosystem in the country. He will deliver the keynote address, titled “From Resilience to Resurgence with Sustainable Business Models,” at the summit and elaborate on his vision and mission for the startup ecosystem in the state.
- Focus on VC: Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed India Partners Advisors; Amit Somani, Managing Partner at Prime Ventures; Anand Datta, Partner at Nexus Venture Partners; Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel; and Ritesh Banglani, Partner at Stellaris Venture Partners, set out to decipher investor sentiments amid the arrival of a funding spring as part of the panel discussion titled, “Rising Investor Interest: Insight and Perspective on the Indian VC Ecosystem Beyond the Hype and Uncertainty.” The panel discussion is part of the theme, “Is Funding Spring Not Far Away?” Gain key insights into investor sentiments and how to grab their attention during the time of recalibrated growth.
- The AI Advantage in India: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) remains poised to disrupt the landscape, it is imperative to analyze the way forward in this area and be prepared for any eventuality that may have a lasting impact on the ecosystem.
- Sangeeta Bavi, Executive Director, Digital Natives at Microsoft India, will deliver a TED Talk on the topic ‘Empowering India’s AI and Deep Tech Landscape: India-First Policies, Outlook, and Models for GenAI Growth’, while Siddharth Bhardwaj, Co-Founder & CTO, Beatoven.ai; Geetha Manjunath, Co-Founder & CEO, Niramai; and Umakant Soni, Chairman, AI Foundry & Co-Founder, ARTPARK, will speak at a panel discussion, delving into the topic ‘Countering Deepfakes and Inauthentic Content: Responding to AI’s Ethical Imperative through India’s AI Policy and Global Regulations’.
- How not to be 90% of startups: Imagine the gains you’ll gain from hearing the life experiences of someone who was a millionaire, went broke, and made a fortune again – all before turning 40! Kim Hvidkjaer has written a book about why “90% of startups fail” and we’re excited to have him among the featured speakers at the Soonicorns Summit. Tune in as Hvidkjaer shares critical mistakes to avoid.
- From Hari Menon to Aman Gutpa, inside the founders’ manuals: The ET Soonicorns Summit 2024 will continue its tradition of engaging fireside chats, including one featuring Hari Menon, Co-Founder, Big Basket, who will be in conversation with ET Tech Deputy Editor Digbijay Mishra, highlighting the next wave of e-commerce disruptions.
Aman Gupta, co-founder and CMO of boAt, will take a deep dive into his company’s product-driven success in the closing talk titled “To India with Love: Aman Gupta on orchestrating boAt’s product-driven success.” This is the proverbial “first-hand knowledge” of how to build a successful startup. How likely is it that a startup founder will miss out on it for something?
Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder and CEO of upGrad, will demystify the journey of this edtech disruptor, while Jitendra Chouksey, Founder of FITTR, will discuss the exciting and emerging frontier of edtech in a session moderated by Miloni Bhatt.
Other industry leaders including Lalit Keshre, Groww; Harshil Mathur, Razorpay; Abhishek Dubey, M&A, Venture Capital & Private Equity; Anand Lunia, IndiaQuotient; Bharat Dhawan, Forvis Mazars in India; Amod Malviya, Udaan.com; Ravish Naresh, Founder Khatabook.com; Shreyasi Singh, Senior Enterprise; Shanti Mohan, LetsVenture; Shally Modi, Pratilipi; Minu Margaret, BlissClub; Akash Sinha, Cashless Payments; Lizzie Chapman, SwiffyLabs; Hardika Shah, Kinara Capital; Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, Mint; Mukul Rustagi, Classplus; Srinath Ravichandran, AgniKul; Sriram Kannan, Rutamatics; Madhur Jain, Varaha; Priyadarshi Panda, International Battery Company; Shweta Bhatia, Eight Roads Ventures India; Lalit Bhise, Bizom; Yamini Bhatt, Vymo; and Tarun Joshi, IGP.com, It will light the way forward for startups in India.
What will these founders and disruptors offer at the ET Soonicorns Summit 2024?
- Demonstrate strategies to move beyond the resilience the ecosystem displayed during the funding winter and uncover key insights to drive the next phase of growth through ‘Recalibrate. Rebound. Reinvent’.
- Unicorn leaders will showcase their strategies for soonicorns to learn from. The idea is to enable founders to climb the ladder of success in a challenging ecosystem, creating innovations to navigate the ever-evolving startup landscape.
- The report ‘50 Future Unicorns of Karnataka’, in collaboration with research partner Tracxn, will be launched at the summit with precise insights into what it takes to create a soonicorn.
- The summit will be a meeting point for ideas, innovation, debates, perspectives, knowledge exchange and, most importantly, networking opportunities. Participants will be able to learn from the best in the industry.
- And what else? An exclusive track titled “How to Raise Money? We’ll Tell You at Soonicorns” will reveal the untold story of the funding.
That’s not all.
Other panels and roundtables include:
- Homecoming Heroes: Uncovering the strategic shift of Indian startups and their tax payment conundrum;
- Women in India’s startup ecosystem: Breaking down barriers and closing the gender gap in financing;
- Financial technology: How to strike a balance between regulatory and growth perspective?
- Building tomorrow: Perspectives from changemakers in India’s space technology, climate technology, clean energy and electric vehicle sectors; and
- Expanding SaaS presence in India at national and international levels: Scaling strategies to reach the $37 billion target
An initiative by The Economic Times for tech startups, this annual summit aims to drive growth and bridge the gap between businesses and their potential. The summit offers a wealth of information, practical insights and opportunities, and attendees are privileged to access thought-provoking discussions, a celebration of the soonicorns space, an incisive industry report and networking sessions that can potentially alter the trajectory of their startups.
This year’s edition, the first ticketed version of the summit, has the theme “From Resurgence to Resilience” and encourages startups to “Recalibrate. Bounce. Reinvent.‘.
The discussions involving industry leaders, investors and innovators are designed to identify gaps as the “funding winter” fades into a spring.
The aim will be to learn from and put past mistakes behind and adopt a forward-thinking approach even as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technological disruptions are further evolving India’s startup ecosystem, leveraging successful playbooks and lessons learned while countering a challenging “funding winter.”
To register, Click here!
Be a part of this transformative event and take the next logical step to elevate your business!
upGrad is the training partner for ET Soonicorns Summit 2024.
For more information on the ET Soonicorns Summit, visit the site website.
To register now, Click here.
(This article has been generated and published by ET Spotlight team. You can contact them at [email protected])
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