Startups and investors meet at two-day fest Abhivyakti at IIT-Kanpur

KANPUR: A two-day Startup Festival – ‘Abhivyakti’, held by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, along with its Startup Incubation & Innovation Centre (SIIC), concluded on Sunday.
The fest commenced on Saturday with Professor Ankush Sharma, professor-in-charge, Innovation & Incubation, IIT-Kanpur, welcoming the delegates at inaugural session.
Nikhil Agarwal, CEO, SIIC & AIIDE-CoE, IIT Kanpur, spoke on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship while director of the institute Prof Abhay Karandikar, in his inaugural address, emphasized on the need to promote startups and entrepreneurship in India.
Dignitaries, including Hinduja Group’s Ajay Hinduja (virtually); Arun Tiwari, group president, BFSI, Hinduja Group; Dr Ajay Kumar, former Defence Secretary, GOI; and Sivasubramanian Ramann, chairman & MD, SIDBI along with more than 600 government officials, innovators, venture capitalists, angel investors, startups, and students were present on the inaugural day.
On the inaugural day of the event, SIIC, IIT -Kanpur also signed an MoU with the Hinduja Group to collaborate on promoting the startup ecosystem in India by providing crucial support to budding entrepreneurs, fostering innovation and driving growth in the Indian startup ecosystem. The SIDBI Seed Equity Support Scheme (S4-SIIC) was also launched on the occasion. With this fund, SIDBI is setting up a pilot fund for supporting the hard-tech startups incubated at SIIC. Prof Karandikar said, “We are proud to host the Abhivyakti Startup Festival at IIT-K, which brings together the brightest minds in the startup ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and government officials. We believe that the festival will serve as a launchpad for many promising startups .”
Prof Sharma said, “Abhivyakti is a great initiative that provides a platform for startups to showcase their ideas and connect with investors and mentors..” In his keynote speech, Sivasubramanian Ramann, chairman & MD, SIDBIsaid, “The Vision for Fund of Funds is aligned with the government’s objective of promoting entrepreneurship by providing indirect funding to emerging startups through Venture Capital (VC) Funds”. Ajay Kumar, former Defence Secretary highlighted the significant role of young innovators in the field of defense.
On the inaugural day, over 70 startups from various sectors, such as Agritech, Cleantech, Cybersecurity, Fintech, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Defence, Sustainability, the Internet of things, and Artificial Intelligence, participated. Over 40 investors from across the country also took part in the event. Events and activities organized during the fest included -’Government se Baat’ – a panel discussion on “Government Initiatives for Promoting Deep-Tech Startup Culture in India” and FundSights, a panel discussion on ‘Investing in Deep-Tech Startups: Opportunities and Challenges.’ Another event — ‘Samvaad with Industry’ focused on catalyzing innovation through corporate-startup partnerships.