Crowning the strong show by Indian start-up ecosystem at Expo 2020, 50 Indian start-ups have showcased their innovative ideas and scalable business solutions to global investors at the fifth edition of the ‘Elevate’ pitching series. 

 

Founders and Cofounders of start-ups from various parts of India including a delegation from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, DPIIT-Startup India, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and UT of Jammu & Kashmir showcased their range of business ideas to investors at the popular pitching series.

 

‘Elevate’ series is a key initiative of the India Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai that aims to display unconventional solutions created by 500 Indian start-ups over five months under the India Innovation Hub umbrella and is supported by HSBC. 

 

Start-ups from UT of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) that showcased their prowess at Elevate-V were FastBeetle, a tech-driven logistics services solution for providing the last mile delivery; Efruitmandi, J&Ks first B2B farm produce marketplace; Kashmir Trout, a Kashmir-based Trout procurement platform, which works towards procuring the fresh trout to processing, storage and delivery to the customers & Sky Robo Drones, which uses hexacopter drones to help people caught in disasters.

 

Some of the other start-ups, who also presented their business ideas include, Greenlams, an award winning clean construction technology company, which aims to replace conventional clay bricks, fly ash bricks, AAC blocks with Agrocrete, the world’s only carbon negative load bearing block, made using crop residues and industrial by-products; Prognica Labs, an award winning Dubai based AI powered health-tech company, which aims to improve clinical outcomes in the fight against breast cancer; NavAlt, a pioneer in solar-powered electric boats thus making marine transport more efficient by drastically reducing the energy and resources needed for operations and maintenance and Sascan Meditech, which is working on a mission to develop affordable healthcare devices using biophotonics and allied technologies for the management of epithelial cancers among many other.

 

The event saw representation from 136 investors, financial institutions, family offices and HNIs in Dubai. Among the 50 start-ups, over 35% were women entrepreneurs and over 50% start-up founders were from Tier 2 and 3 cities in India. 

 

The event was crucial to the start-ups as it gave a global stage to the founders to pitch their ideas before global investors. The session was hosted live in Dubai as well as virtually and saw a good viewership online generating queries for the start-ups.

 

The start-ups presented their ideas across sectors like drone technologies, lifestyle, mobility sustainability, health and wellness, agriculture, IT, technology, education, industries among others. 

 

As part of the session, start-ups also learnt about the latest sectoral trends and participated in specially designed sessions with leading corporates along with fireside conversations with new-age entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors.

 

India has emerged as the 3rd largest ecosystem for start-ups globally with over 60,770 DPIIT-recognised start-ups across 636 districts of the country. As of December 29, 2021, India is home to 81 unicorns with a total valuation of $274.17 billion. Amidst the covid challenges, India saw the birth of the maximum number of Indian unicorns with 44 (and counting) between 2019-21. 

 

The first Elevate session saw 10 start-ups across sectors from the states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, pitching their ideas to over 15 investors, while the second session had 13 start-ups from Telangana presenting their ideas. The third session showcased 10 start-ups from Karnataka, Kerala and the UAE and the fourth session saw participation from 10 start-ups from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi NCR.

 

The opening ceremony was attended by eminent dignitaries including  Ghanem Al Falasi, Senior Vice President of Innovation & Corporate Services at Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority;  P K Gulati, Angel Investor and Chairman Emeritus, TiE Dubai, Dr Arshi Ayub Mohamed Zaveri, Chief Executive Officer, Trust with Trade Group and Senior Advisor Royal Family Offices, UAE & Dr Gunveena Chadha, Assistant Secretary-General, FICCI & Director of India Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. 

 

The next Elevate session will happen on January 17, 2022. -- TradeArabia News Service