SUMMARY
WISC is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in the country
MyPetrolPump, ITILITE and Credenc won the challenge
The VC panel included Padmaja Ruparel of IAN, Prayank Swaroop of Accel Partners
The Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF) hosted the sixth edition of the Wharton India Startup Challenge (WISC) in Mumbai where 10 startups selected out of more than 550 applications pitched to the investors for prizes.
The Wharton India Economic Forum along with the annual Wharton India Startup Challenge (WISC) aims to promote entrepreneurship in the country. Out of the top 10, three startups which won the funding are:
MyPetrolPump
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Ashish Gupta and Nabin Roy
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Winning amount: $10K
Business: MyPetrolPump is an online platform to provide doorstep delivery of diesel for generator or cars in specialised refuellers.
ITILITE
Founded in: 2017
Founders: Mayank Kukreja and Anish Khadiya
Headquarters: Bengaluru
Winning amount: $6K
Business: ITILITE is a SaaS-integrated travel desk solution for corporates and helps them reduce travel cost and improve booking experience, by incentivising employees to save on their travel expense.
Credenc
Founded in: 2017
Founders: Avinash Kumar and Mayank Batheja
Headquarters: Delhi
Winning amount: $4K
Business: Credenc is an educational financial services company and helps students to get study loans for their college.
The startups had to pitch to the VC panel constituting investors such as Padmaja Ruparel of India Angel Network, Prayank Swaroop of Accel Partners, Rajinder Balaraman of Matrix Partners, Sakshi Chopra of Sequoia Capital and Badri Pillapakkam of Omidyar Network.
The pitch consisted of a seven-minute presentation and a six-minute question and answer sessions by audience and judges. The winners got the funding along with prizes from Amazon, Digital Ocean, Thinqbate and exclusive mentorship from the Wharton Mentors Network.
Talking to Inc42, Juhi Bhatnagar, Wharton India Economic Forum co-chair said, “This has been a record-breaking year with unprecedented attendance and more than 500 quality startup applications. The top three finalists had incredible pitches and energy, and we are so excited about what they plan to build. We are certain that the winners are going to benefit greatly from the value addition in terms of the network, validation as well as reach that winning WISC will provide.”
The co-chairs for the WIEF are Khushboo Goel, Kartik Das, Juhi Bhatnagar, Sonal Panda and Swati Ganeti.
The seven other startups which pitched at the Wharton India Startup Challenge are:
GoComet
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Mehul Katiyar, Chitransh Sahai, Ayush Lodhi, and Gautam Prem Jain
Headquarters: Mumbai
Business: GoComet is an online platform to extract the lowest international freight costs
Nuo
Founded in: 2018
Founders: Varun Deshpande, Ratnesh Ray, and Siddharth Verma
Headquarters: Mumbai
Business: Nuo is a peer-to-peer debt marketplace for crypto-backed loans, margin trading with leverage and tokenised bonds.
LifePage
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Kapil Rawat
Headquarters: Dehradun
Business: LifePage is a Career selection tool featuring 1,140 Career Talks from real professionals.
CashPositive
Founded in: 2016
Founders: Nitish Mehta and Aniruddha Verma
Headquarters: Delhi
Business: CashPositive is an SME-focused financial technology startup based in Delhi, that aims to improve credit management in business-to-business (B2B) commerce.
AgroWave
Founded in: 2017
Founders: Anu Meena
Headquarters: Gurugram
Business: AgroWave is mobile e-vendor of fruits and vegetables that serve small and medium businesses directly from farmers.
Reculta
Founded in:
Founders: Utsav Bhattacharjee, Kajal Malik and Vidyarthi Baddireddy
Headquarters: Delhi
Business: Reculta is making use of automation and data analytics to simplify placement processes for the principal stakeholders in the said communities i.e. students, corporates and colleges.
Wink & Nod
Founded in: 2017
Founders: Sandeep Prasad
Headquarters: Pune
Business: Wink & Nod is an innovative sleep-focused company which creates premium sleeping products designed for the modern Indian consumer.
The previous winners of the Wharton Startup Challenge have gone on to raise over $50 Mn (INR 349.95 Cr) in funding from more than 20 institutional investors. These success stories include Bizongo, Zoomcar, Zostel, Detect Technologies and more.
