Vadoo, Bengaluru StartUp Wins Rs. 50 Lakhs from India's Largest Student-run Startup Accelerator Conquest BITS Pilani

The 16th edition of Conquest, BITS Pilani's startup accelerator, concluded successfully on Sunday with Vadoo, a Bangalore based startup providing a P2P platform to enable users to simultaneously consume and deliver the stream, emerging as the winners of this edition and was awarded an equity less cash prize of Rs. 50 lakh rupees. Regarded as the country's largest student-run startup accelerator, Conquest is backed by Canbank VC, Accel Partners, and WeWork.


For the first time, Conquest decided to kickstart BITSian Track, a special program tailored exclusively for BITSian startups. Keeping up with BITS Pilani's reputation of churning out brilliant entrepreneurs, it witnessed several great startups participating. Fighting off stiff competition, it was BiteSpeed, a Gurgaon based startup that helps e-commerce brands build their own Facebook Messenger Chatbots to re-engage website visitors and recover lost revenue, that bagged the first prize.

Vadoo, Winner Conquest 2020

After the mentoring sessions of top 50 startups, the best 15 startups were shortlisted. Sessions were conducted on topics like Growth and Fundraising by personalities like Vishal Jain, VP, and Head, Growth at Shuttl, and Roopan Aulakh, Managing Director at Pi Ventures. Fireside chats were also delivered by founders of startups similar to the Top 15 startups to help them get the opinion of people who had already been in their shoes.

The best 10 startups were selected for the finale. Conquest set up investment meetings for startups with Investment firms like AngelList, Arali Ventures, Parampara VC, NuVentures, Villgro, Prime VP, Sangam Ventures, Chiratae Ventures and Rebright Partners. For the Pre Demo Day, analysts from VC firms were called upon to fine-tune the pitches of the startups, essentially acting as a build-up to the main event.

On the Virtual Demo Day, all the founders pitched their startup ideas to a decorated audience with personalities like Nilesh Kothari, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital, and Vinit Bhansali, Vice President, Orios Venture Capital in attendance. Post the pitching, the Chief Guest, Mohandas Pai, Padma Shri Awardee and Chairman of Manipal Global Education and Namakal Parthasarthy, Managing Partner at Mela Ventures said a few words of inspiration that invoked the entrepreneurial mindset in everyone. It was followed by a panel discussion on 'Post Pandemic Consumerism in 2021' by Sanjay Mehta, Founder, and Partner at 100X.VC, Mahesh Murthy, Founder and Director at Exseed Space, Srikanth Sundarajan, General Partner at Ventureast, and Barath Subramanian, Partner at Accel.

In the past, Conquest BITS Pilani has had success stories like SocialCops, which was acclaimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has also been recognized as the Most Impactful Startup of 2017 by YourStory. One of the program's latest finalists, Trell, raised $4 million and is currently valued at $19 million.

The registrations for the next edition of Conquest BITS Pilani would be beginning soon. Interested startups are suggested to visit www.conquest.org.in and register themselves.

Conquest 2020: 15 Startups Selected for Mentorship Stage

Conquest, BITS Pilani, in association with Accel and Canbank VC recently concluded its Top 50 Online Mentoring Sessions, despite the challenges faced by them during today's extraordinary situation caused by COVID-19.

The sessions, that were initially supposed to be held in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, were conducted online due to the unpreceded circumstances and yielded great results. For the 1st time in 16 years, Conquest also decided to kickstart BITSian Track, a special program tailored exclusively for BITSian startups.

[caption id="attachment_150518" align="aligncenter" width="549"] Timeline Conquest 2019[/caption]

The sessions were held over two days on the 6th and 7th of June. The sessions were interactive and had the participation of eminent personalities like Saptarshi Prakash, Design, Swiggy, Vedanarayanan Vedantham, SME Business Head, Razorpay, Raghu Ramanujam, Director of Products(Payments), Flipkart, Mitesh Shah, Head of Finance, BookMyShow, Suhas Khuller, Strategy Head and CFO, Shuttl. Based on their feedback, fifteen startups from diverse fields qualified for the next stage.

The startups were mentored individually by mentors in the categories of Strategy, Technology, Fundraising, UI/UX Design, Growth and Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Acquisition and Product.

Top 15 Startups Shortlisted from Pan India Track:

Autointelli Inc.: An AIOps company that provides modern solutions that handle modern IT Operations (ITOps) with a duo of automation and machine learning.

Community farm: An online marketplace for farmers and Agri/food startups solving the problem of traceability and transparency in the food sector.

Credlo: Provides a payment method that allows its partnered retail merchant to offer their end-customers the ability to buy goods and services on a 'Buy now, pay later' basis.

DARWYN: A B2B Electric vehicle company, helping businesses electrify their last and first-mile fleet.

EasyKrishi: A technology startup working in the field of agriculture, allowing Indian farmers to directly communicate with the buyers.

Elear Solutions Tech Pvt. Ltd.: Provide an edge intelligence-enabled Smart Home Platform as a service to Telecom and Internet Service Providers.

Emote Electric: Designs, engineers and develops smart electric vehicles to compete with and displace petrol counterparts by surpassing them in price and convenience.

HiPER Automotive: Building embedded hardware (IoT device) for vehicles to analyze, personalize, and improve the engine performance to cut fuel usage by 15% and reduce emissions by 10%.

Kashware: Links all cards, wallets, banks, etc. into one single payment card that works on all card machines and websites

Lincode: Uses 2D camera built-in IoT and artificial intelligence to identify visual defects in manufacturing lines and use robotics to eliminate defective products from the lines.

OroPocket: A universal investment platform on the blockchain, enabling users to be able to invest in digital assets and be able to use them as real money in real-time.

Sonant Technologies Pvt. Ltd.: Vision to empower specially-abled people through sustainable and affordable technology.

Sova Health: A precision nutrition platform that uses science and technology to simplify healthy eating.

Spathion Labs: Building an e-invoicing network platform based on blockchain technology for automating indirect tax reporting, auditing and building financial applications.

Vadoo: A Peer to Peer enabling users to simultaneously consume and deliver the stream.

Top 4 Startups Shortlisted from BITSian Track:

ATHVed Innovation Labs: Provides a physical and virtual card that will handle all cards in a single card.

BiteSpeed: Helps E-commerce brands build their own Facebook Messenger Chatbots to engage website visitors and recover lost revenue.

Dataxi: A B2B Data Marketplace to facilitate end-to-end data exchange between organizations.

SolarGridX: Provides a crowd investing platform that lets people invest in Solar Panels and earn returns from users who use their funding to put up Solar Panels.

The shortlisted startups will now be having online coaching sessions starting from the second week of July till the first week of September. Design, Pitching, Sales, Product, Hiring, and Legal are some of the domains that are going to be covered in these sessions. There will also be frequent networking sessions for the startups, with the Conquest finalists of previous years joining in as well to share their wonderful experiences.

The program ends with the Grand Finale, with the Startups getting an opportunity to pitch in front of India's leading investment firms. Prominent entrepreneurs, top investors, policymakers and various other stakeholders of the startup ecosystem will be attending the Finale.

BITS Pilani Ed-Tech Startup Project Mudra Grabs The Winner’s Title At Conquest 2016

The Grand Finale of Conquest 2016, BITS Pilani’s international startup challenge, concluded on a high note this Sunday at ITC Maurya, New Delhi in association with the title sponsor DCB Bank. Simultaneously, one name was mentioned throughout the startup ecosystem with excitement and awe. An idea that bounced around within a 4*4 room for months together, will now bask in the limelight as proud winners of Conquest 2016, savouring all the success and
spotlight.

The winner position was grabbed by Project Mudra, a technology based intervention to provide Braille literacy and K12 lessons for the blind while the runners up were Comfort Products, specializing in manufacturing of home appliances which includes SwiftChill, a portable beverage chiller that chills any drink in less than 5 minutes. The winner and the runner-up have been awarded INR 200k and INR 100k of equity-less cash funding.

Leading the brains behind Conquest, the Chief Executive Officer of Conquest 2016, Dhairik Fuletra says, “We feel delighted to see the culmination of yearlong hard work end on such a high note in the presence of investors, entrepreneurs and students joining in from across the nation. With the evolving Indian startup ecosystem, we have reinvented Conquest such that it delivers a perfect launchpad to emerging startups with funding, mentoring and broad networking opportunities with the key players all under one roof."



Attracting close to 1200 applications this year, followed by a month long rigorous analysis of these startups on the grounds of their revenue model, market traction, customer acquisition and various other parameters, the top 50 startups were shortlisted. These top 50 then attended one of the three networking sessions held in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Mentors shared their expert opinion with startups on critical aspects like Fundraising, Product Management,Customer Acquisition, Tech and Operations. The top 10 startups were then selected by the jury
to be a part of the Grand Finale.

Shri R Chandrasekhar, the Chief Guest of the event , is the current president of NASSCOM and former Secretary to the Indian Department of Information Technology. He motivated the startups in his speech by quoting his journey from an IAS Officer to the President of NASSCOM. Talking on Conquest, Prof. Ashoke Sarkar , the Director of BITS Pilani, says, “As part of the BITS’s Vision 2020, it is our imperative to promote entrepreneurship among students who are
the future of the country. Conquest, which was started by a group of enterprising students, has become a launch pad for young entrepreneurs. It is really hard to believe the amount of energy and effort coming from the students to pull such a great event".

The itinerary consisted of two panel discussions, a pitching round for the Top 10 startups in front of investors from over 25 investment firms and leading industrialists, a networking lunch along with interaction of the jury with the audience in the Fish Bowl round.

The first panel discussed the essence of hiring talent as well as retaining it in the fast paced world of startups. Some of the panelists who shared their thoughts on the topic were Sanjay Nath , Cofounder and Managing Partner of Blume Ventures, Abhiraj Bhal , CEO at UrbanClap and Bhawna Agarwal , CEO at NDTV Gadgets, Samar Singla , CEO at Jugnoo and Prukalpa Sankar , CoFounder at Social Cops.

The second panel consisting of Rajesh Sawhney , CEO and CoFounder of GSF Accelerator and InnerChef, Jitendra Gupta, CEO at Citrus Pay, Pankaj Jain , Partner at 500 Startups amongst other leading entrepreneurs discussed the pressing issues faced by a young entrepreneur today and how to resolve them.

Pankaj Jain on sharing his experience with Conquest, said “This is my second year at Conquest and the event has grown phenomenally with more people, better delivered pitches and entrepreneurs in different stages. Conquest has really evolved with wonderful ideas addressing real issues and problems and trying to get ahead of the curve instead of trailing the existing paths."

The Fish Bowl round was the most looked forward session where the students and entrepreneurs in the audience were given a chance to directly interact with the Jury members for the first time . ever by asking them questions in an opentoall discussion. The jury members included Dev Khare , MD at LightSpeed India Partners Advisors, Rajan Anandan , MD at Google India , Bharat Shanker , VC at Accel and Murali Natrajan, MD & CEO at DCB Bank were amongst other distinguished industry leads.

Some of the best entrepreneurs from across the nation were amongst the audience. Besides these distinguished personalities, enthusiastic students from the best institutes of the country also made it to the event. Altogether, the Grand Finale was everything a startup could ask for. From funding opportunities to networking with industry stalwarts and potential users, the Finale was in every way a perfect launchpad for the Top 10, just as promised.

Watch the Top 10 Startups Battle it Out At India’s Biggest Student-­Run Startup Conclave's Final

Conquest is India’s biggest student-run startup conclave organised by the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) of BITS Pilani. Conquest was born out of an attempt to provide a chance to startups for voicing their ideas, networking with industry leaders, and obtaining incubation and funding opportunities and we thrive year after year to accomplish this vision of ours.

This edition of Conquest in association with DCB Bank, witnessed a participation of more than 1200 startups from varied sectors, ranging from Healthcare and Social Enterprises to Internet of Things and even Virtual Reality. These applications were scrutinised based on 36 extensive parameters to shortlist the top 50 startups for personalised mentoring sessions held in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Conquest offered the startups an insightful experience and networking opportunity by providing mentorship in five major categories which included Fundraising, Product Management, Customer Acquisition, Tech, and Operations. Murali Natarajan, MD & CEO at DCB Bank, Bhawna Agarwal, CEO at NDTV Gadgets, Chandni Jafri, CEO at Mumbai Angels are among the many esteemed mentors who were present at the networking sessions to guide the startups on a one-on-one
basis. The jury members then selected the finalists of Conquest 2016, the ten most innovative and promising startups in India, to be a part of the finale.

Here’s a look at the top 10 :

Comfort Products : Comfort Products is an innovation driven startup specializing in manufacturing of home appliances. The product mix includes SwiftChill, an innovative beverage chiller, that chills beverages instantly wherever you go .

Buddy4Study : Buddy4Study helps individuals & organizations to set up their own scholarship
programs as social, CSR initiative in a transparent and effective manner.

MaaxMarket : MaaxMarket is an all in one marketing platform designed for small businesses to help them scale and grow with the help of artificial intelligence.

Project Mudra : Project Mudra delivers a technology-based intervention to provide Braille
literacy and K12 lessons to the 90% of blind people left out of the Braille education pipeline.

Hound Electric : Hound Electric builds zero emission, high performance electric motorcycles
with aim to change the way we commute and look at the automotive sector as a whole.

Watsan Envirotech : Watsan Envirotech’s sole purpose is to provide water and sanitary solutions to the rural population by manufacturing and distributing low cost, yet effective electricity-free water filters to urban slums and rural families who cannot afford other expensive options.

Ekam Eco Solutions : Ekam Eco Solutions works in the domains of Sustainable Sanitation, Value added Bamboo Products and Sustainable Livelihoods. Their objective is to design, develop and disseminate safe and sustainable sanitation solutions so that the abundance of pure water is restored.

Indusbuzz Technologies : Indusbuzz is India’s first SAAS based “Just In Time” procurement
platform for the global construction industry, connecting every stakeholder with Business Intelligence.

Ethnus Technologies : Ethnus Technologies is a platform for on demand simulated interviews
for job seekers from experts. Ethnus makes every effort to plug the gap in aptitude, exposure and interpersonal abilities of students and makes them industry ready.

JoGo : JoGo App provides easy access to 100,000 curated health, fitness products & 1000 services across 20 categories, thus solving the lack of access/time issue. Further the social features make it fun for all.

The Top 10 will share the stage at the Grand Finale in ITC Maurya, New Delhi on 28th August pitching their ideas to distinguished VCs and potential investors as a whole new world of opportunities unfolds to them. The Jury comprises fifteen of India’s biggest investment firms like Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, Matrix Partners and likewise. The Grand Finale would also cover Panel Discussions and Keynotes from industry stalwarts like Sanjay Nath (Managing
Partner, Blume Ventures), Dev Khare (MD, Lightspeed Partners), Suchi Mukherjee (CEO, Limeroad) and many more. The event will be a star studded affair, with some of the biggest names in the world of startups turning up for the mega event.

Registrations for attending the Grand Finale are now open. Register on www.conquest.org.in and get a chance to witness the next startup behemoth getting crowned the winner of Conquest 2016.

Conquest, India’s Biggest StudentRun Startup Challenge, Is Back

Conquest, BITS Pilani’s International Startup Challenge, is back again with its twelfth edition. Conquest is India’s biggest studentrun startup challenge that provides an exemplary platform for emerging startups to grow. It offers incubation opportunities, networking sessions with industry leaders, funding opportunities and equityless cash prize.

Conquest has been backed by investors from over thirteen investment firms and industry bigwigs like Neeru Sharma, CEO at Infibeam, Satyen Kothari, MD at Citrus Pay and Samay Kohli, CEO at GreyOrange Robotics, Rohit Bansal, COO at Snapdeal as mentors and judges in its past editions. Commenting on his associations with Conquest, Sanjay Nath, CoFounder & Managing Partner of Blume Ventures said, “It was a memorable experience to be a part of Conquest 2015. I
was pleasantly surprised by the variety (covering both BITSianfounded as well as other startups) and maturity of startups at the Conquest finale. The volunteer team behind Conquest has always put in commendable efforts to make the entire journey culminating in the grand finale a success. I'd encourage more startups to tap into such startup friendly platforms to grow."

Conquest boasts off a BITS Pilani tag, with a team of just fifteen intrepid students involved in the entire organisation of the conclave. Dhairik Fuletra, the CEO at Conquest, says, "We believe one must startup not just to live one’s visionary dreams, but rather, to generate employment that would lead thousands to live their own dreams. Every waking day, we see thousands of budding entrepreneurs willing to startup and we, at Conquest, provide them with the perfect platform to launch their venture in the form of networking and funding opportunities."

About Conquest 2016

Conquest eyes the so far untapped startups in tier 2 and tier 3 cities of the country with immense entrepreneurial talent and provides them an opportunity to be on equal footing with ventures across the globe. Catering to over 1400 applications in the last edition, Conquest has widened its outreach this year in Asia with its incubation partners in all major countries. Conquest, with a cash prize of INR 3,00,000, a million dollar worth startup resources, a dream opendoor pitching and knowledge enriching panel discussions, is a perfect launchpad for any budding entrepreneurs.

Success Stories

Over the years, Conquest has produced some of the best startups in India. Conquest winners include startups like Gamezop, iTraveller, PosterGully, GharPay (Acquired by Delhivery), Social Cops, Voonik and many more. Gamezop, the Runnerup of Conquest ‘15, raised a funding of USD 350,000 after Conquest Grand Finale. Gaurav and Yashash, the Agarwal siblings, who founded Gamezop in 2015, have been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 this year.

The Application Process

Applying for Conquest 2016 is a fairly simple process. The participants are required to fill a form on the Conquest website. The Conquest Jury, a panel of entrepreneurs and investors, would be screening the applications based on various parameters gauging the startup performance. The semifinalists would get personalized mentoring across five major cities in India, wherein the teams will be offered to choose their own mentors. Finally, a networking lunch with prestigious industrialists and a pitching opportunity to the biggest VC firms in India would commemorate
the Grand Finale, a star studded affair with distinguished personalities from the business world present. A startup can find here everything that they may possibly require ranging from funding and networking to potential teammates and users and that too, without paying a single penny throughout the timeline.

Registrations for participation close on 20th April . For more details, visit www.conquest.org.in/Register .

Conquest, India’s Biggest StudentRun Startup Challenge, Is Back

Conquest, BITS Pilani’s International Startup Challenge, is back again with its twelfth edition. Conquest is India’s biggest studentrun startup challenge that provides an exemplary platform for emerging startups to grow. It offers incubation opportunities, networking sessions with industry leaders, funding opportunities and equityless cash prize.

Conquest has been backed by investors from over thirteen investment firms and industry bigwigs like Neeru Sharma, CEO at Infibeam, Satyen Kothari, MD at Citrus Pay and Samay Kohli, CEO at GreyOrange Robotics, Rohit Bansal, COO at Snapdeal as mentors and judges in its past editions. Commenting on his associations with Conquest, Sanjay Nath, CoFounder & Managing Partner of Blume Ventures said, “It was a memorable experience to be a part of Conquest 2015. I
was pleasantly surprised by the variety (covering both BITSianfounded as well as other startups) and maturity of startups at the Conquest finale. The volunteer team behind Conquest has always put in commendable efforts to make the entire journey culminating in the grand finale a success. I'd encourage more startups to tap into such startup friendly platforms to grow."

Conquest boasts off a BITS Pilani tag, with a team of just fifteen intrepid students involved in the entire organisation of the conclave. Dhairik Fuletra, the CEO at Conquest, says, "We believe one must startup not just to live one’s visionary dreams, but rather, to generate employment that would lead thousands to live their own dreams. Every waking day, we see thousands of budding entrepreneurs willing to startup and we, at Conquest, provide them with the perfect platform to launch their venture in the form of networking and funding opportunities."

About Conquest 2016

Conquest eyes the so far untapped startups in tier 2 and tier 3 cities of the country with immense entrepreneurial talent and provides them an opportunity to be on equal footing with ventures across the globe. Catering to over 1400 applications in the last edition, Conquest has widened its outreach this year in Asia with its incubation partners in all major countries. Conquest, with a cash prize of INR 3,00,000, a million dollar worth startup resources, a dream opendoor pitching and knowledge enriching panel discussions, is a perfect launchpad for any budding entrepreneurs.

Success Stories

Over the years, Conquest has produced some of the best startups in India. Conquest winners include startups like Gamezop, iTraveller, PosterGully, GharPay (Acquired by Delhivery), Social Cops, Voonik and many more. Gamezop, the Runnerup of Conquest ‘15, raised a funding of USD 350,000 after Conquest Grand Finale. Gaurav and Yashash, the Agarwal siblings, who founded Gamezop in 2015, have been featured in Forbes 30 under 30 this year.

The Application Process

Applying for Conquest 2016 is a fairly simple process. The participants are required to fill a form on the Conquest website. The Conquest Jury, a panel of entrepreneurs and investors, would be screening the applications based on various parameters gauging the startup performance. The semifinalists would get personalized mentoring across five major cities in India, wherein the teams will be offered to choose their own mentors. Finally, a networking lunch with prestigious industrialists and a pitching opportunity to the biggest VC firms in India would commemorate
the Grand Finale, a star studded affair with distinguished personalities from the business world present. A startup can find here everything that they may possibly require ranging from funding and networking to potential teammates and users and that too, without paying a single penny throughout the timeline.

Registrations for participation close on 20th April . For more details, visit www.conquest.org.in/Register .