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Startups take centre stage as UpStart 2025 gives ideas a lift-off

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MUMBAI: Bengaluru didn’t just host a startup event, it felt like India’s entrepreneurial pulse kicked into overdrive. UpStart 2025, the flagship national pitching competition by Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kanpur, touched down in the city with its biggest-ever edition, turning the Davanam Sarovar Hotel into a buzzing arena of ideas, ambition and unapologetic hustle. With 20 plus dignitaries, including global VCs from South Korea and Singapore, the atmosphere crackled with the energy only a startup capital can conjure.

The event showcased 24 plus early-stage startups spanning technology, healthcare, defence, ed-tech, fashion, sustainability and F&B. In a Shark Tank-style live arena, founders had 7 minutes to pitch and 5 minutes for grilling, facing sharp questions from investors who came armed with appetite and scrutiny.

The competition reached viewers beyond Bengaluru too, it was telecast live with StartupTV and iQue Ventures, pushing early-stage innovation straight onto national screens.

These selected startups will now progress through multiple screening rounds and in-person mentoring sessions before heading to the grand finals at the IIT Kanpur campus on January 25, 2026, part of E-Summit’25.

And Bengaluru wasn’t the only pit stop: editions in Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad have already seen 23 plus startups pitch across fintech, health tech, deep tech, Web3, cybersecurity and more. The circuit now rolls into Mumbai on December 6, before finalists emerge.

The organising team from Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kanpur summed up the day with characteristic clarity, “Bengaluru represents the heartbeat of the Indian startup ecosystem. Today’s event showcased highly innovative founders building for the future. We remain committed to helping them reach the pinnacle of success.”

Heavy-hitters from across the venture landscape turned up, including:
• Unicorn Incubator South Korea
• Emphasis Investments
• Ankur Capital
• Thaksil Ventures
• IAN Ventures
…along with several others evaluating the country’s next breakthrough ventures.

Delhi-NCR’s earlier edition featured VCs from GMR Group, Inflection Point Ventures, Finvolve, GrowX Ventures, and more signalling the rising investor appetite for UpStart’s national pipeline.

Across its editions, UpStart has transformed into a rare confluence where founders gain:
• network access
• industry-veteran feedback
• storytelling refinement
• visibility across cities
• cross-sector insight

For many, it’s not just a business competition, it’s a career-shaping accelerator, and a rare chance to pressure-test ideas under the brightest lights.

With Bengaluru wrapped, Hyderabad buzzing, Delhi-NCR completed and Mumbai next in line, UpStart 2025 is rolling across India with the force of a nationwide innovation tour.

If early signs are anything to go by, the finals at IIT Kanpur may just witness India’s next big headline-maker, one pitch at a time.
 

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Delhivery chairman Deepak Kapoor, independent director Saugata Gupta quit board

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Gurugram: Delhivery’s boardroom is being reset. Deepak Kapoor, chairman and independent director, has resigned with effect from April 1 as part of a planned board reconstitution, the logistics company said in an exchange filing. Saugata Gupta, managing director and chief executive of FMCG major Marico and an independent director on Delhivery’s board, has also stepped down.

Kapoor exits after an eight-year stint that included steering the company through its 2022 stock-market debut, a period that saw Delhivery transform from a venture-backed upstart into one of India’s most visible logistics platforms. Gupta, who joined the board in 2021, departs alongside him, marking a simultaneous clearing of two senior independent seats.

“Deepak and Saugata have been instrumental in our process of recognising the need for and enabling the reconstitution of the board of directors in line with our ambitious next phase of growth,” said Sahil Barua, managing director and chief executive, Delhivery. The statement frames the exits less as departures and more as deliberate succession, a boardroom shuffle timed to the company’s evolving scale and strategy.

The resignations arrive amid broader governance recalibration. In 2025, Delhivery appointed Emcure Pharmaceuticals whole-time director Namita Thapar, PB Fintech founder and chairman Yashish Dahiya, and IIM Bangalore faculty member Padmini Srinivasan as independent directors, signalling a tilt towards consumer, fintech and academic expertise at the board level.

Kapoor’s tenure spanned Delhivery’s most defining years, rapid network expansion, public listing and the push towards profitability in a bruising logistics market. Gupta’s presence brought FMCG and brand-scale perspective during a period when ecommerce volumes and last-mile delivery economics were being rewritten.

The twin exits, effective from the new financial year, underscore a familiar corporate rhythm: founders consolidate, veterans rotate out, and fresh voices are ushered in to script the next chapter. In India’s hyper-competitive logistics race, even the boardroom does not stand still.

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Meta appoints Anuvrat Rao as APAC head of commerce partnerships

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SINGAPORE: Anuvrat Rao has taken charge as APAC  head of commerce and signals partnerships at Meta, steering monetisation deals across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from Singapore. The former Google executive, known for launching Google Assistant, PWAs, AMP and Firebase across Asia-Pacific, steps into the role after a high-growth stint as chief business officer at Locofy.ai.

At Locofy.ai, Rao helped convert a three-year free beta into a paid engine, clocking 1,000 subscribers and 15 enterprise clients within ten days of launch in September 2024. The low-code startup, backed by Accel and top tech founders, is famed for turning designs into production-ready code using proprietary large design models.

Before that, Rao founded generative AI venture 1Bstories, which was acquired by creative AI platform Laetro in mid-2024, where he briefly served as managing director for APAC. Alongside operating roles, he has been an active investor and advisor since 2020, backing startups such as BotMD, Muxy, Creator plus, Intellect, Sealed and CricFlex through a creator-economy-led thesis.

Rao spent over eight years at Google, holding senior partnership roles across search, assistant, chrome, web and YouTube in APAC, and earlier cut his teeth in strategy consulting at OC&C in London and investment finance at W. P. Carey in Europe and the US.

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Brnd.me enters Europe as haircare brands power global expansion

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Bengaluru:  Brnd.me, the global consumer brands company formerly known as Mensa Brands, has entered the European market following strong momentum across the Middle East, the United States and Canada.

The company has launched across the UK, Germany, France and Spain, with plans to expand into Italy, the Netherlands and Poland over the next year. The push is being led by its haircare and aromatherapy brands, Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure, marking Brnd.me’s first structured expansion into Europe.

The European beauty market represents a total addressable opportunity of over $4 billion across haircare and aromatherapy, supported by high digital adoption and demand for accessible, performance-led products.

Brnd.me’s hair care and aromatherapy business currently operates at an annual run rate of around $6 million, with Botanic Hearth and Majestic Pure delivering roughly 10 per cent month-on-month growth, driven by expansion and rising repeat demand.

To support regional growth, the company has appointed a general manager based in Germany and is evaluating investments in warehousing and local team expansion.

Early traction has been strong. Within weeks of launch, Botanic Hearth’s rosemary hair oil ranked among the top five hair oils in Germany, signalling strong consumer pull in a competitive market.

Brnd.me founder and chief executive officer Ananth Narayanan, said Europe represents the next phase of the company’s international strategy. He added that the European business is expected to scale to a $10 million annual run rate by the end of 2026, with long-term ambitions to reach $60 million over the next six years.

The company’s Europe strategy centres on digital-first distribution, repeat demand and TikTok-led discovery, alongside direct-to-consumer expansion to strengthen brand equity and margins.

The move also aligns with growing EU–India trade engagement, supporting long-term sourcing and cross-border supply chains.

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