Meet The Winners Of The 6th Edition Of Wharton India Startup Challenge

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.

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