A swiftly growing digital infrastructure, supportive government initiatives, favourable business environment, abundant access to capital, and a skilled workforce have fuelled India’s rise towards being a leading startup ecosystem in the world.
Yet, 80% of startups in India fail within the first five years of their inception and the scarier fact is that 1,27,000 startups fail every day.
This brings us to these key questions:
- Is there something that needs to be done differently?
- Are we failing in resilience or adaptability?
- Do we need to be more innovative with our ideas?
- Or do we not learn from our mistakes?
These are some of the pertinent questions. But the larger question is, where do we get the answers? From policymakers, industry leaders, investors, and industry influencers—of course. Voila! The ET Soonicorns Summit 2024, scheduled to take place on September 20 in Bengaluru, is bringing all these people, and more, to a single platform.
Discover the stories of your interest
It is your opportunity to engage with industry leaders, innovative disruptors, investors, and thought leaders and gain invaluable actionable insights into navigating the most common pitfalls that make a startup fail. They are people who have successfully navigated and weathered the storms that come with aiming high in the startup ecosystem.
To register now, click here.
Also read:
What to expect from the summit? Here is a sneak peek!
- Priyank Kharge’s keynote address: A stalwart in his own right and a pivot in steering Bengaluru’s startup landscape to a top ecosystem in the country, Priyank Kharge, Minister for Electronics, Information Technology, Bio-Technology, and Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Government of Karnataka, will deliver the keynote address–titled ‘From Resilience to Resurgence with Sustainable Business Models’–at the summit and will delve deep into his vision and mission for the startup ecosystem of the state.
- Spotlight on VCs: Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed India Partners Advisors; Amit Somani, Managing Partner, Prime Ventures; Anand Datta, Partner, Nexus Venture Partners; Prayank Swaroop, Partner at Accel; and Ritesh Banglani, Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners, are set to decode investor sentiments amid the arrival of a funding spring as part of the panel discussion, titled ‘Surge in Investor Interest: Vision and Outlook of the Indian VC Ecosystem Beyond Hype and Uncertainty’. The panel is part of the track ‘Funding Spring not Far Away?’ Glean key insights into investor sentiments and how to attract investor attention during the time of recalibrated growth.
- India’s AI Edge: As Artificial Intelligence (AI) remains poised to disrupt the landscape it is imperative to look at the way forward in this domain and be prepared for any and every eventuality that might 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 Deep Tech & AI Landscape: Policies, Perspectives, and India-First Models for GenAI Growth,’ while Siddharth Bhardwaj, Co-founder and CTO at Beatoven.ai; Geetha Manjunath, Co-founder and CEO of Niramai; and Umakant Soni, Chairman AI foundry & Co-founder ARTPARK will speak at a round-table, diving deep into the theme ‘Countering Deepfakes, Inauthentic Content: Responding to the Ethical AI Imperative Through India’s AI Policy and Global Regulations’.
- How not to be the 90% of Startups: Imagine the gains when you listen to the life experiences of someone who has been a millionaire, went broke, and made a fortune again—all of it before he turned 40! Kim Hvidkjaer has written about why “90% of startups fail”, in a book, and we are pleased to have him in the eminent lineup of speakers at the Soonicorns Summit. Tune in to as Hvidkjaer shares critical mistakes to avoid.
- From Hari Menon to Aman Gutpa, inside founders’ playbooks: The ET Soonicorns Summit 2024 will continue with its tradition of compelling Fireside chats, including the one featuring Hari Menon, Co-founder of Big Basket, who will be in conversation with ET Tech Deputy Editor, Digbijay Mishra, spotlighting 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 Fireside chat titled ‘To India with Love: Aman Gupta on Orchestrating boAt’s Product-driven Success’. It is the proverbial, “coming from the horse’s mouth” on building a successful startup. What are the odds that a startup founder will afford to miss this for anything?
Mayank Kumar, Co-founder and MD of upGrad will demystify the journey of this edtech disruptor while Jitendra Chouksey, Founder of FITTR, will speak on the exciting and emerging frontier of fit-tech 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, upGrad Enterprise; Shanti Mohan, LetsVenture; Shally Modi, Pratilipi; Minu Margeret, BlissClub; Akash Sinha, Cashfree Payments; Lizzie Chapman, SwiffyLabs; Hardika Shah, Kinara Capital; Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, Turtlemint; Mukul Rustagi, Classplus; Srinath Ravichandran, AgniKul; Sriram Kannan, Routematic; Madhur Jain, Varaha; Priyadarshi Panda, International Battery Company; Shweta Bhatia, Eight Roads Ventures India; Lalit Bhise, Bizom; Yamini Bhat, Vymo; and Tarun Joshi, IGP.com, will illuminate the path forward for startups in India.
What will these founders and disruptors offer at the ET Soonicorns Summit 2024?
- Showcase strategies to move beyond the resilience exhibited by the ecosystem during the funding winter and unlock key insights to power the next phase of growth through ‘Recalibrate. Rebound. Reinvent’.
- Unicorn leaders will unpack their playbooks for soonicorns to learn from. The idea is to enable founders climbing the success ladder in a challenging ecosystem, chalking innovations to navigate the ever-evolving startup landscape.
- The report ‘50 Future Unicorns of Karnataka’, in collaboration with research partner Tracxn, will be unveiled at the summit with sharp-shooting insights into what goes into the making of a soonicorn.
- The summit is going to be a confluence of ideas, innovation, discussions, insights, knowledge sharing, and most importantly, networking opportunities. The participants can learn from the very best in the business.
- What’s more? An exclusive ‘How to Raise Money? We’ll Tell You at the Soonicorns’ track will unveil the untold story of funding.
That’s not all.
The other panels and roundtables include:
- Homecoming Heroes: Unveiling the Strategic Shift of Startups to India and its Tax Payout Conundrum;
- Women in the Indian Startup Ecosystem: Breaking Barriers and Bridging the Gender Funding Gap;
- Fintech: How to Strike a Balance between the regulatory lens and growth?;
- Building for Tomorrow: Insights from Changemakers in India’s Space Tech, Climate Tech, Clean Energy, and EV Sectors; and
- Expanding the Indian SaaS Footprint at Home and Abroad: Scaling Strategies to Achieve the $37B Target
A premier tech-startup initiative by The Economic Times, this annual summit is aimed at driving growth and bridging the gap between businesses and their potential. The summit offers a wealth of information, actionable insights, and opportunities with the people in attendance having the privilege of access to 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-ever ticketed version of the summit, is themed ‘From Resurgence to Resilience’ encouraging startups to ‘Recalibrate. Rebound. Reinvent’.
The discussions featuring industry leaders, investors, and innovators have been designed to identify gaps, as the ‘funding winter’ withers to pave the way for a spring.
The aim will be to learn and let go of past mistakes, and adopt a forward-looking approach even as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technological disruptions are further evolving the startup ecosystem of India—leveraging successful playbooks and lessons learnt 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 skilling partner for the ET Soonicorns Summit 2024.
To learn more about the ET Soonicorns Summit, visit the website.
To register now, click here.
(This article is generated and published by the ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them at [email protected])