Business Wire IndiaStartup Mahakumbh, the nation’s biggest celebration of the startup ecosystem, commenced today, at Bharat Mandapam, setting the stage for three days of collaboration, inspiration, and transformative discussions. The event saw an inaugural address from Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Axilor ventures and Infosys Science foundation, highlighting the significance of startups in the overall pie of the Indian economy.
The event is spearheaded by the collaborative efforts of ASSOCHAM, nasscom, Bootstrap Incubation & Advisory Foundation, TiE and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA) and supported by Invest India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY). Startup Mahakumbh promises a showcase of unparalleled innovation, highlighting transformative products and revolutionary business models by its key presenter Government e Marketplace, pavilion leads including Zerodha and National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development (NABARD) and support from states including Bihar, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Kerala. Powered by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Zomato and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India (ECGC), Startup Mahakumbh also has the state of Uttar Pradesh as state partner for the event.
Post inauguration, the day one witnessed a diverse range of activities and sessions across 10 pavilions including AI + SaaS, D2C/Consumer brands, Agritech, Fintech, Deep Tech, Biotech & Pharma, Incubators, Climate Tech, E-sports, and B2B Manufacturing.
Mr. Rajan Navani, Founder & CEO of JetSynthesys announced the launch of second season of GEPL (Global e-Cricket Premier League).
Highlighting the journey of Jetsynthesys Mr. Navani said, "We are thrilled to announce the culmination of a 10-year journey, from envisioning a simulated cricket video game on mobile to the launch of a new global sport played on mobile, Real Cricket 24, for India, and the world. We have forged universal leadership, uniting a community of more than 100 million Real Cricket players with more than 15 million playing the game for more than hour a day. From discovering the top 100 rigorously trained heroes of our new sport to creating livelihoods for them through player auctions in the first-ever franchise-based Global e-Cricket Premier League (GEPL), we are breaking boundaries and opening new opportunities.”
“Today, amidst esteemed industry veterans including Kris Gopalakrishnan, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Ashish Hemrajani, Archana Jahagirdar and Hitesh Jain, we also announced Prashanth Prakash, as our inaugural team owner and launched the league at the largest ever Startup Mahakumbh in New Delhi. I believe that in the coming years, like any other sport, athletes in e-Cricket will have the opportunity to bring home an Olympic medal in e-sports." Mr. Rajan added.
GEPL season 2 announcement was followed by panel discussion on the topic “Impact of GEPL on bridging the gap between gaming, e-cricket and entertainment”. The panelists included Mr. Girish Menon, Chief Strategy officer, Jetsynthesys, Mr. Rohit Potphode, CEO, GEPL, Mr. Anuj Mankar, Nautilus mobile app, Mr. Krishna Daswani, Head content at Jetsynthesys and Mr. Siddharth Deshmukh, Head revenue at GEPL moderated the session.
Startup Mahakumbh onboards top unicorns in the sponsors list, with Games 24X7, Oyo and Info Edge as Unicorn Gold sponsors, Dream11, Flipkart, Infra Market, Moglix, Nykaa as Unicorn Silver sponsors, BharatPe and Razorpay as Unicorn Bronze sponsors. The list of AIF sponsors includes Accel, Rukam Capital and Peak XV in the gold category, Aavishkar Group, Elevation Capital, Iron Pillar in the silver sponsorship category and Avendus Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Fireside Ventures, IvyCap Ventures and Sorin Investments in the bronze category of AIF sponsors.
The event will also connect Indian startups with event partners including Dalmia Bharat & Google (silver partners), Acko, Captain Fresh, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Jetsynthesys, Tally (bronze partners), IAN & Blume Ventures (session partners), IDFC First Bank (Bank partner), MM Active & India Mobile Congress (IMC) (Event partners) and Indian School of Business (ISB) (Academic partner).
