SUMMARY
Merge 2020 will support startups by connecting them with industry experts
The applications are open for corporates that already have an active investment arm
The applications will select over 30 startups across health, media and urban technology
Amid a slew of corporates looking to invest in Indian startups, Anthill Ventures on Monday (January 20) announced the third edition of Merge, in association with HSBC India. Merge is focused on fostering co-innovation and collaboration between tech startups, blue-chip corporates, and global investors in the ecosystem.
For this, Anthill has partnered with Amazon’s cloud computing arm, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to identify the need of corporate participants at the event, and curate startups specific to their business requirements.
The companies said that Merge 2020 will support startups by connecting them with industry experts, including leading corporates and global investors. In addition, corporates and investors will get an opportunity to explore the startup landscape and source innovative solutions.
The applications are open for corporates that already have active investment and innovation arms in India.
“There has always been a technology gap between the corporates who are struggling to innovate, and startups who are struggling to scale. Merge 2020 will help bridge the gap, by co-innovating solutions and benefit both the corporates and startups,” said Prasad Vanga, founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures.
The applications will select over 30 startups across health, media and urban technology to showcase their products and solutions to leading corporates such as HCG, Jubilant, AWS, HSBC, and other leading industry and global investor giants.
In addition, the startups, corporates, and investors will have access to seven healthtech startups from Singapore that are conducting a market study trip in India under a global innovation alliance with Anthill Ventures.
In the last edition of Merge in September 2017, the companies saw multiple collaboration opportunities for startups with leading corporates like Accenture, Samsung, Qualcomm, PwC, Deloitte, Tata, among others.
Corporates and conglomerates can help startups leverage their domain expertise, corporate access and get startup and tech ecosystem access in return to enable new experiences for employees, customers and consumers.
In this light, several leading corporates across the world like Google, Walmart, Alibaba, Microsoft, Reliance, Hero Group, Times Internet etc continue to regularly invest and support the startups.
