More details to be released soon!
SOME TESTIMONIALS
2024 PROGRAM
8:30 - Ongoing | Registration of participants
Registration of participants.
9:30 - 10:00 | Official opening plenary
Keynote address by honorary guest:
Shri Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Chief Minister TBC
10:15 - 11:30 | India as a destination of choice for investment in startups
As one of the world’s fastest growing economy leap-frogging the digitization process and a country with the 3rd largest – steadily growing – startup ecosystem, India is increasingly attracting the attention of foreign VCs, PEs and family offices eager to explore new investment opportunities.
- What answers to the questions still on the mind of some foreign investors about involvement in India’s startup ecosystem?
- What complementarities and synergies can be created between foreign and Indian investors?
- How does India figure in the global startup ecosystems landscape? The Pluses and the minuses?
Shri Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT/BT & Rura Development & Panchayat Raj, Government of Karnataka TBC
In conversation with:
David Abikzir, Chief Investment Officer & Executive Director, Jupiter Capital Private Ltd, India
Satya Bansal, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Blue Ashva Capital, Singapore
Andreea Danila, Founder & General Partner, Global Millennial Capital, UAE
Takeshi Ebihara, Founding General Partner, Rebright Partners, Japan
Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar Capital Management, UAE
Dana Taigman Koren, Managing Partner & Board Investor, Q Fund Ventures, Israel
James Tan, Managing Partner, Quest Ventures, Singapore
11:30 - 11:45 | Networking break
Networking break.
11:45 - 13:00 | Shapers of the future
Meet the pioneers of new technologies, the creators of new business models. They are one step ahead of new social and consumers’ trends…. There are on the stage.
Speakers:
Kumaar Bagrodia, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Arkni PhotoBioLife and NeuroLeap, India
Avinash Sharma, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, ElectricPe, India
11:45 - 13:00 | The GCCs dynamic and the startup solutions to boost corporate innovation
An increasing number of Indian and foreign MNCs operating in India have been sourcing innovation from startups in various domains to integrate in their global products and services offerings. The driver for this is the emergence of India as a global hub for Global Capability Centers (GCCs). A dynamic interaction is at play between GCCs and startups. The former using the relationship to expand and accelerate innovation processes and the latter benefiting from the support of global corporations in validating and scaling up their products and services.
Adding to the GCCs dynamic, the expanding partnerships between foreign and national MNCs and the startups contributing to source products and service innovation in their global offering is now transforming the overall picture of India’s corporate innovation.
- What conditions for the innovation interaction between startups and corporations to work best?
- How does the rise of GCCs impact on the expansion of the IT sector with respect to product development, innovation, and research?
Speakers:
Vic Bhagat, Senior Vice President and Global Advisor, Kyndryk, USA
Shivi Jain, Program Director German Accelerator India, Start2 Group, Germany
Shalini Pillay, India Leader – Global Capability Centers, KPMG, UK
Pankaj Vyas, Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Technology & Services, Germany
Moderated by:
Madanmohan Rao, Research Director, YourStory Media, India
13:00 - 14:00 | Buffet lunch
Buffet lunch.
14:00 - 15:15 | India’s unique innovation model: Getting to the next level
India is emerging as one of the world’s top innovation hubs, thanks to the cumulative impact of the expansion of Digital Public Infrastructure covering payments, identity, and Data management, of the development of engineering and research talent, and of the emergence of a dynamic startup ecosystem – now one of the top three in the world. Adding to that is the complementarity of a top-down and of a bottom-up approaches between the government and the private sector on innovation development.
- The government as an innovation agent
- What factor to add or to strengthen for the sustainability of India’s innovation model?
- Addressing the perennial issue of corporate R&D weakness
- What distinctive role for India in the global innovation landscape?
Speakers:
Rajeev Banduni, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, OpenI Partners, India
Mohandas Pai, Co-Founder & Chairman, Aarin Capital, India
Chintan Vaishnav, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, India
14:00 - 15:15 | Technology Update: Where is the Fintech sector going?
- What are the technology trends in the sector?
- Where do Indian and foreign players stand?
- What opportunities to leverage and challenges to address?
- How, and at what precise moment?
- What does it take to go public at time of uncertainty and volatility
Speakers:
Pritam Dutta, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Zoth, Singapore
Yasmeen Thimiri, Chief Executive Officer, MyFundbox, Germany
Ryotaro Tsukii, Director – Corporate, Ginco Technologies, Japan
15:30 - 16:30 | The new technology and sciences trends non the horizon: How they will reshape economies, societies and business
Keynote address by – and discussion with:
David Passig, Futurist, Professor Bar-Ilan University (BIU), Member Israel National Council for Research & Development, Israel
15:30 - 16:30 | Connect on: IP and innovation in healthtech
An interaction between startups founders and VC executives involved in Healthtech to create mutually beneficial synergies.
Speakers:
Shashank Avadhani, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Alyve Health, India
Sowjanya Kallakuri, Associate Director of Future Health Technologies, ETH Centre, Singapore
Moderated by:
Florin Müller, Head of Swiss Business Hub India, Switzerland
16:30 - 17:00 | Networking break
Networking break.
17:00 - 18:15 | Building the champions of the AI revolution
India produces 16% of the world’s AI talent pool, making it one of the top three AI talent markets in the world. The number of Gen AI Indian startups has doubled in 2023 and the country’s start-up ecosystems is moving ahead developing AI-powered tools in the development and delivery of their products and services. This is providing a huge addition and complementarity to the AI drive of the country’s public and private sectors.
- How does India’s AI landscape compare with global top players AI capabilities?
- What AI innovation partnerships can create win-win synergies?
- What kind of quantum leap would Generative AI bring to India’s innovation capabilities?
With opening keynote speech:
Ekroop Caur, IAS Secretary to Government Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology Government of Karnataka TBC
Speakers:
Sakyasingha Dasgupta, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, EdgeCortix, Japan
Vinayak Hegde, CTO-in-Residence, Microsoft for Startups, USA
Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder & General Partner, Antler India, Singapore
Moderated by:
Jose Jacob Kalayil, Director & Curator, The India Advantage Summit & Future ICT Forum, India
18:30 - 19:30 | Reception
Reception.
19:30 - 21:30 | Seated gala dinner
With keynote speaker:
Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa, India
9:00 - 10:15 | Learning from 2023: The trends shaping the evolution of VC/startup ecosystems and their implications
- From a focus on valuation to creating real value
- Focus on capital efficiency
- Greater investor prudence
- Continuing to do more with less
- Focus on adaptation and resilience
- ……
Speakers:
Madhu Gupta Khandelwal, Managing Partner, EthAum Venture Partners, Singapore
Mikihide Katsumata, President & Chief Operating Officer, Member of the Board, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Japan
Pranav Pai, Founding Partner & Chief Investment Officer, 3one4 Capital, India
Sudhir Rao, Senior Partner, Celesta Capital, USA
9:00 - 10:15 | What time for exit?
There were almost no IPOs in 2023 and M&As involving VC-backed companies were also severely hit. However, the context seems to be changing, with a number of public companies and PEs awash with cash to invest. So, the time for a revival of IPOs and M&As may have now come back. And, for many startup investors, the questions might be:
- How, and at what precise moment?
- What does it take to go public at time of uncertainty and volatility?
Speakers:
Anjani Bansal, Partner and India Country Head, Global Brain Venture Capital, Japan
Derick Jose, Managing Director, Industrial AI, Accenture, Ireland
10:15 - 10:45 | Networking break
Networking break
10:45 - 11:45 | What does it take for India to join the world’s semiconductors‘ top players group?
India has taken significant steps to create the propitious framework conditions to join the world’s top players in the fields of semiconductor manufacturing, research, and development. The country’s semiconductor market is expected to be at around US$ 80 billion by 2028.
- How are the government policies working in terms of developing a top-level chip manufacturing capability?
- How to expand the proven semiconductor design capabilities of Indian engineers? What actions to address the scarcity of cutting-edge infrastructure labs in the country’s universities?
- How to capitalize optimally on the increasing involvement of semiconductors manufacturers giants in India?
Speakers:
Gadhadar Reddy, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Nopo Nanotechnologies, India
Anshuman Tripathi, Member, National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), India
10:45 - 11:45 | Biotech and Genomics: Navigating turbulences and seizing opportunities
Brainstorming
The biotech industry has witnessed remarkable developments in India as well as at the global level. The Indian biotech and life sciences sector is emerging a hub for pharmaceutical innovation. On the genomics side, The Genome India Project has completed sequencing 10’000 Indian genomes, providing a database for Indian genetic diversity. The biotech and genomics sector is now at an inflection point in India as well as at the global level, with technological advances and evolving market
conditions creating a new paradigm for the sector.
- Adjusting to more difficult funding conditions
- How can startups in the sector leverage in an efficient way AI technology, the CRISPR developments and the increasing data available?
- How to develop the collaboration between biotech and genomics startups and the pharmaceutical companies?
- How to navigate the increasingly complex regulatory and ethical issues involved as the biotech and genomics sector makes new advances?
Speakers:
Darshan H.V., IAS Managing Director, Department of Electronics Information Technology Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka TBC
Leela Maitreyi, Director, BD & Global Alliances, Bugworks Research, India
Vivek Mishra, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Fibreoheal Woundcare, India
Utpal Tatu, Professor and Chairman at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India
Vivekanand Tiwari, Co-founder & CSO, ClimateCrop, Israel
12:00 - 13:00 | Managing the opportunities and challenges of the changing dynamics of the deep tech ecosystem:
Deep tech technologies such as IOT, Blockchain, Robotics, AI and Quantum computing have a tremendous disruption potential on almost every sector of activity. However, developing the potential of Deep tech technologies implies addressing a number of challenges including regulatory uncertainties, bringing together very specialized high-technology skills, high R&D costs in a tighter funding environment and long development cycles.
- Leveraging AI capabilities to fast-track growth-stage strategies?
- Sustaining lengthy R&D cycles in a difficult fundraising environment
- What kind of Deep tech startup are most attracting the interest of investors, whether traditional VCs or the VC arms of corporations?
Speakers:
Kalyan Sivasailam, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, 5C Network, India
Dana Taigman Koren, Managing Partner & Board Investor, Q Fund Ventures, Israel
Moderated by:
Madanmohan Rao, Research Director, YourStory Media, India
12:00 - 13:00 | Technology Update: Where is the supply chain technology sector going?
- What are the technology trends in the sector?
- Where do Indian and foreign players stand?
- What opportunities to leverage and challenges to address?
Speakers:
Manan Mehta, Co- Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Solar Ladder, India
Ranjith Mukundan, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Stellapps Technologies, India
12:00 - 13:00 | Technology Update: Where is the sustainability tech sector going?
- What are the technology trends in the sector?
- Where do Indian and foreign players stand?
- What opportunities to leverage and challenges to address?
Speakers:
Sriram Kannan, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Routematic, India
Aris Mukherjee, Co-Founder & CCO, RTDT Laboratories, Switzerland
Prasanta Sarkar, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Newtrace, India
Moderated by:
Jose Jacob Kalayil, Director & Curator, The India Advantage Summit & Future ICT Forum, India
13:00 - 14:00 | Buffet lunch
Buffet lunch.
14:00 - 15:00 | Betting on India’s innovation and growth story
A conversation with:
Thierry Porté, Managing Director & Vice Chairman, JC Flowers & Co LLC, USA
15:15 - 16:15 | Cracking the code on scaling up: Listening to those who did it
All startups have to address the challenges of time to market and of cracking scale. They have to make do with internal factors they need to manage and external factors such as market readiness or competitive risk on which they have scant control. And the challenge of time to market and scaling up is made more acute in the present context of the decrease of financial resources available to startup founders.
- Are there best practices to optimize the product development process of fast-paced technological changes and market evolution?
- What to be learnt from the entrepreneurs who have succeeded in cracking scale?
Speakers:
Amrit Acharya, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Zetwerk, India
Ramakant Sharma, CTO, COO & Co-Founder, Livspace, India
Moderated by:
Shubhankar Bhattacharya, General Partner, Foundamental, Germany
16:30 - 17:30 | Closing plenary
Making intelligent use of intelligent technologies
Keynote address by – and discussion with:
Soumitra Dutta, Dean and Professor of Management, Saïd Business School, Oxford University, Chair, OECD Taskforce of Experts on AI, UK
17:30 - 18:15 | Farewell drinks
Farewell drinks.
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