06 December 2016, Bengaluru, India – World Startup Expo, the three day extravaganza concluded on 23 November 2016 at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre. For the first time in the startup ecosystem, India witnessed a unique exhibition and a conference that provided a platform to interact and learn from global startup gurus. It was a massive gathering of 300 startup exhibitors, thousands of entrepreneurs, leading technology providers, investors, thought leaders, banks, policy makers, influencers and a host of national and international speakers.
The elaborate event began on 21 November 2016 and comprised of a 3-day exhibition; 2-day conferences (WSE main conference and expo conference); four masterclasses conducted over two days; a 36-hour coding challenge – World Tech Hackathon; pitch competitions to compete for the Startup World Cup – India Chapter, and 100 Open Startups level 3; and WSE awards, all under one roof.
Day-1 had a great line-up of speakers that included George Molakal, Chief Executive Officer, Alcor Fund; Ravi Belani, Managing Director at Alchemist Accelerator; Baybars Altuntas, Global Entrepreneur, Best-Selling Author, Angel Investor Dragon of the Dragons’ Den; Amit Gupta Co-Founder & President at InMobi; Ritesh Malik, Chief Executive Officer at Innov8 work. One of the interesting panel discussions held on the first day of the WSE conference was – Biggest Challenges & Rewards for angel investors Both Lie with the Entrepreneurs. It was moderated by Baybars Altuntas, Global Entrepreneur, Best-Selling Author, Angel Investor Dragon of the Dragons’ Den and the panellists were Nagaraj Prakasam, Partner at Acumen Fund; Utsav Somani, India Angelists; Mahavir Pratap Sharma, Chairman and Co-Founder at Rain Rajastan Angels and Abhishek Sanghvi, Co-Founder at Swan Angel Network.
Second day had an interesting mix of speakers like, Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder at Yatra.com; H.E. Sara Al-Madani, Board Member at UAE SME and Enterprise Counsel; Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder at Shop Clues & Droom; Kunal Kapoor, Actor & Co-Founder at Ketto; and Inder Sharma, Visionary, Serial Entrepreneur & Angel Investor, to name a few. Adrian Johnson, Managing Director at Startup Bootcamp Fintech moderated one of the distinguished panel discussion – Women Entrepreneurs In the Startup Ecosystem and was participated by some successful women entrepreneurs like Sabina Chopra, Co-Founder at Yatra.com; H.E. Sara Al-Madani, Board Member at UAE SME and Enterprise Counsel; Manjul Kubde, Founding Member & Chief Product Architect at Seclore; and Priti Sawant, Founder & CEO at JoulestoWatts Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
The event concluded with pitch competitions and an awards ceremony on day three. 25 startups were screened, evaluated and selected out of over 300 pitches that were submitted. World Startup Expo was the Regional Partner for Startup World Cup and the winner at this pitch competition will represent India in the final round that is to be held in San Francisco, USA in March 2017.
Nebu K Abraham, Chief Executive Officer of Cocoon Ventures said, “We were truly delighted to see so many ambitious startups with great ideas. I take this opportunity to wish them the best of luck in their endeavours”.
The 25 startup finalists were: AVR EdGE Networks Pvt. Ltd, Triofit, Boston Ivy Healthcare Solutions Pvt. Ltd., BRAINSTARS, Creatella Pte Ltd, Crysp, Doctors’ Circle, Endless Robotics, FlippAR – MovingUp Products â,,— Ltd, Healthiply.in, Hello World, Hug Innovations, I2U2 Robot, Innovision (Inceptor Technologies Pvt Ltd), JUSTAP Media Pvt Ltd, LMN Technology pvt ltd – All Author, Parin Global LLP, SchoolSaamaan.com (Agrim Education Services Pvt. Ltd.), Shapecrunch, Snackexperts, My Taxi India, Use my Vouchers, Navalt Solar & Electric Boats, Energyly ( Vidabest), and Gift XOXO.
And the winner for Regional Startup World Cup – India was CRYSP. Representatives of Crysp will compete for 1 million USD at Startup World Cup taking place on 24 March 2017 at San Francisco, USA.
“This is a first of its kind mega show for startups and was conducted in a much larger scale covering the entire gamut of startup ecosystem. Trescon is immensely proud to successfully organise this event”, said Mohammed Saleem, Chief Executive Officer, Trescon.
World Startup Expo was the Global Strategic Partner for 100 Open Startups who selected 30 startups to pitch at their level 3 event held at World Startup Expo. Out of the 30, top eight winners will compete for the level 4 in Brazil to be held in February 2016. And those eight are: Green Dzine, Interpretonomics; Snack Experts, Trizzio, Zilico, Drone Aerospace, R2 Robotronics and Minimac Systems.
Winners of WSE awards under organisation category
- Blue Pepper – Food & Beverage
- Rure Bank – Fintech
- Trizzion – Science & Technology Platforms
- Esysoft Technologies – Energy & Utilities
- Zoylo – Healthcare
- Ready Assist – Boot Strap Champ
- Reaching Soon – Open Challenge
- Hug innovations – Wearables
- Klenty – Small Business
- Newee By Athena – Industry of the Future
- Cloudra – Information Society
Winners of WSE awards under Individual category
- Startup Founder of the Year 2016 – Vaun Anand for his startup MphRx
- Versatile Startup Founder of the Year 2016 – Rishabh Jain for his startup UseMyVoucher Technologies Private Limited
- Startup Youth Founder of the Year 2016 – Sneha Priya for her startup Kidobotikz (SP Robotics)
Winner of World Tech Hackathon is Picasso, Jayaa Bharadwaj
Sponsors of the event
7 Nodes, Moolya, RAK Free Trade Zone, Flock, AirMeLive, #MyBag, Kerala Startup Mission, Coworks and Ready Assit and Furlenco
World Statup Expo was supported by 10,000 Startups- A Nasscom initiative; Contributing partner – Invest India; Radio & Entertainment Partner – Radio Indigo; Presentation Partner – Slyds; Sms Partner – Kapsystems; Marketing Partner – Moshi Moshi; Content Marketing partner – Comezzo; Ticketing Partner – Events High; Live Streaming partner – Castkom; Accommodation Partner – Oyo Rooms; Online news Distribution partner – Business Wire India; travel Partner – Travel Mela; Video partner – Couch Potato Productions; Hackathon Partners – C4 Workspace and Hasura
Association Partners
91 Spring board, Asian – Arab Chamber of Commerce, BHIVE, Construkt, Diplomatic and Consular Corps of Karnataka, Events Tiger, Indian Entrepreneurs Club, INNOV 8, Native Angels Network, Ninzabiz, Software Startup Association, Startup Chile, Startup Club, Startup Leadership Trust, Startup Manufactory, Startup Oasis , Startup Square, Turkish Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry TICCI, Wadhwani Foundation, WorkBench Projets, Startups World Network, Startup Mechanics, Innov8 and Text local .
Accelerators
ah! Ventures, Alchemist Accelerator, Angel Paisa, Chatur Ideas, Hatch Station, Hatch Station, NUMA, Startup Bootcamp, TLABS, Jaarvis, REVVX
Incubators
50 Partners, Centre for Incubation and Business Acceleration, Composite Technologies, DKTE’s Yashwantrao Chavan Polytechnic, E-Health TBI, Ginserv, Health Start, ICREATE, IIIT-H Foundation, KIIT Technology BusinessS Incubator, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Startup Village, Amrita TBI, GUSEC and Udgam
Angel Networks
African Business Angels Network, Blue Sky Angels and E-Health TBI, Chandigarh Angels, CIO Angel Network, Hyderabad Angels, Indian Angel Network, Mumbai Angels, World Business Angels Investment Forum, Swan Angel Networks, Turn8, Saha fund, Zsolt Capital, Z Nation Lab, TBAA, Kalaari Capital, Kstart, Green Capital, 50K ventures, Idea Spring and Keirtsu Forum
Media Partners
The Asian Entrepreneur, Tech in Asia, Startup Success Stories,IndianCEO, Entreprenuer, Iamwire,Asia Pacific Security Magazine, Chief IT, Chaaipani, Channel Times, CXO Today, Support Biz, Convergence Plus, Inc42, India Core, IndiaSpark, Insights Success, The Plunge Daily, Newswire Network.IN, Newsvoir, Tech Portal, Tech Story, TechVoize, Business Guru, Storified ME, The Vault Show and Crenovate.
World Startup Expo is an initiative by Cocoon Ventures, a Dubai based venture capital and organised by global business events and consulting firm, Trescon.