Startup Mahakumbh: Day 2 Sees Insightful Discussions, New Launches By Startups

From fintech and regulations to fundraising and esports, the second day of ‘Startup Mahakumbh’, India’s largest startup event, was packed with informative insights from seasoned industry professionals and government officials. The topics ranged from empowering startups for a thriving tomorrow to cultivating resilience on the entrepreneurial journey. 

The Day 2 of Startup Mahakumbh featured Kris Gopalakrishnan from Axilor Ventures and Infosys Science Foundation, Ajit Chavan from Government e Marketplace (GeM), Sandeep Aggarwal from Droom, Nitya Sharma from Simpl, among others, as speakers.

In his keynote address on the role of regulatory sandboxes in fintech, Gopalakrishnan gave the example of UPI and highlighted how it has put India on a leadership pedestal and boosted financial inclusion for individuals and small businesses. 

“The RBI created its sandbox to test it first with banks. It is an open-source tool which can be easily used by other banks now. By the end of the pilot, we will be able to issue credit cards instantly. The digital lending platform can then be extended to MSMEs, allowing seamless lending even for meagre amounts,” he said.

He added that it will completely transform how digitisation happens in the country and democratise data with all ecosystem players coming together,” he said.

Meanwhile, MeitY Startup Hub hosted a session on the mistakes and learnings of founders during the first round of fundraising. The session was moderated by Inc42 cofounder and CEO Vaibhav Vardhan. Droom’s Aggarwal, Shiprocket’s Vishesh Khurana and Simpl’s Sharma were the speakers during the session. 

Synchronised Brainstorming For The New India

In his keynote address on ‘Empowering Startups For A Better Tomorrow’, Chavan said, “GeM is on its way to cross INR 4 Lakh Cr in GMV within seven years of its inception and is one of the earliest success examples of startups in the government. GeM hosts 1.5 Lakh buyers across all three tiers of the government – Centre, state and local.”

He added that the marketplace is focusing on helping young startups in onboarding. Talking about GeM Sahay, which provides financing solutions, Sahay said, “Sellers will be able to avail collateral-free small-ticket loans. GeM Sahay 2 will soon be launched. Then, loans worth INR 10 Lakh will be disbursed within minutes for all sellers registered on GeM.”

In a fireside chat with Accel’s Prashanth Prakash on the topic ‘Navigating Success And Failures: Insights From Building Startups’, BookMyShow’s Ashish Hemrajani advised founders to learn from cockroach startups. 

“Startup founders are in the business of creating value for society,” he said, and adviced innovators to look at India’s growth story and not try to replicate from other developed nations.

“Don’t look at unicorns but at cockroaches. We had zero revenue during the two years of the pandemic, but we went on cloud and revamped BookMyShow. We took to live events.,” Hemrajani said. 

Startups Showcase Their Innovations 

JetSynthesys CEO Rajan Navani launched the GEPL (Global eCricket Premier League), which the gaming startup claims to be the first-ever franchise-based ecricket league in India. 

Besides this, many startups showcased their innovative offerings on the second day of the Startup Mahakumbh including Noccarc, Dhruva Space, ShramIn Jobs, Enkrypt AI, Portkey.ai, AdagioVR, and Chargeup.

The second day of Startup Mahakumbh provided a much-needed platform to startups to boost their investor connections and gain valuable knowledge for the journey ahead. 

“Mahakumbh is helping us solidify our network. It is putting our offerings in front of people and they are getting to know about our product. The event is a good way to learn from each other,” said a spokesperson of AdagioVR, which provides VR-based mental health solutions. 

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.