IT Minister Shri. Rohan Khaunte graced the 1st Edition of National Startup Investor Day hosted by BITS Goa Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES), on 16th January 2023 at BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus. The event was celebrated as a part of the Startup India Innovation Summit 2023 and National Startup Day celebrations across the country.

Shri. Khaunte interacted with each of the startups and gave useful insights on product development to them. He also flagged off the “Goa Startup Yatra” an Initiative by the Startup Promotion Cell, Goa during the event.

The Startup showcase was inaugurated by the Director of BITS Pilani, Goa Campus Prof. Suman Kundu, who is also the President of BGIIES.  The event was sponsored by AIC-GIM, Goa Shipyard, MyGalf, Startup Promotion Cell Goa and the support partners were IvyCap Ventures and Headstart.

Prof. Mridula Goel, Joint Secretary BGIIES, stated that the first edition of BGIIES National Startup Investor Day was designed explicitly to help Start-up businesses scale with mentorship, business resources & Investor connections. BGIIES launched its website and logo on the occasion.

Startups from across the country showcased their products and technology. Some notable Startups from consumer space were

•  Accessibility Redefined (Delhi) for physically challenged,
• Arista Vault (Gurugram) building smart bags and wallets,
• Durmeric nutraceuticals (Madurai) creating nano-extracts of turmeric
• Eazy Park (Bengaluru) a mobile app for smart parking solution,
• Jayvio Technologies (Hyderabad), a platform for automotive spares,
• MyGalf (Mumbai) a holistic wellness ecosystem,
• NFT Creator (Tamil Nadu) India’s First media & Entertainment IP Rights marketplace,
• PayCrunch (Bengaluru) a microloan lending app for students,

In the B2B space the showcase included Intellicon, Greenshift Energy, Aaiena, Techinergio and Tessact.

The event also included Startups from Goa viz Clubr Technologies, FunMinds learning, GHMS, Innovation Labs, Kula Studio, Perception.ai, Science On Wheels and SMD Power Solutions.

BGIIES welcomed the Investors from ah! Ventures, Athera Venture Partners, Build3, Inflection Point Ventures, Innoplexus, IvyCap Ventures, Mumbai Angels, StartupXseed Ventures and Unicorn Ventures to the Networking Dinner, 15th January 2023. The startups interacted with the Investors late into the night.

The event concluded with a panel discussion on “What Investors bring along with money” with Investors and startup founders on the panel sharing inputs on Angel vs VC funding, When and how much to raise, Unit economics and commercialization, Relevance of Advisory Board and Mentors, Building brand, capabilities and ecosystems and much more. Successful incubated startup; Vibhav Joshi, Co-founder & Product Director, Child and Maternal Healthcare at InnAccel was felicitated at the event. 

Mr. D S Prashant, CEO, FiiRE - Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship 

Mr. Praveen Volvotkar, Director IT, MD ITG and CEO Startup Promotion Cell Goa

Prof. Mridula Goel, Joint Secretary, BITS Goa Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES)

Shri. Rohan Khaunte, Minister for Information Technology, Government of Goa

Prof. Suman Kundu, Director of BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus and President, BITS Goa Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES)