IIT Madras ‘Entrepreneurship Summit 2022’ to feature more than 800 Start-ups & 5,000 students across India

CHENNAI : Indian Institute of Technology Madras Entrepreneurship Cell will host the seventh iteration of its annual ‘Entrepreneurship Summit’ to promote innovation and entrepreneurship from 3rd to 6th March 2022. This edition of the annual summit will be conducted in an online mode with carefully-curated events and initiatives.

Being held with support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, Alumni and private sector organizations, the Summit will cater to over 800 startups in various sectors with participation from over 715 colleges.

Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, will deliver the Keynote address for the Seventh Edition of the annual E-Summit.

Addressing a Press Conference today (2nd March) to announce E-Summit 2022, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “IIT Madras, over the last decade and half, has been concentrating on Entrepreneurship. We have been orienting ourselves towards translational Research and we want our research to reach the society at large. Many of our startups, through their hard work, have been of great use to society, including during the COVID times. The E-Summit is an important event that the Institute conducts specifically to provide a direction for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs and those in the early stages of setting up a company.”

Congratulating the E-Cell team for putting together this program in a record time, Prof. V. Kamakoti said, “There are four conclaves being held as part of E-Summit 2022. These are all extremely important and lot of thought process has gone into organizing them. These will address people in different stages of entrepreneurship.”

The 1990 Alumni Batch of IIT Madras and WestBridge Capital, an Investment firm based in San Mateo, U.S., and Bangalore, India, are also supporting E-Summit 2022, which will feature over 50 events spread across under four conclaves – Youth Conclave, Innovators’ Conclave, Start-up Conclave and Sustainability Conclave. E-Summit 2022 is further supported by HSBC, the Multinational Bank and GoToPitch, a video matching platform to connect start-ups with investors.

Highlighting the unique aspects of this edition of E-Summit, Prof. Nilesh J. Vasa, Dean (Students), IIT Madras, said, “Entrepreneurship Cell is a student driven activity towards sharing entrepreneurial knowledge and promoting networking among aspiring entrepreneurs. E-Summit is one of the flagship events by the E-Cell team. The 7th E-Summit is an online event which should provide an opportunity to many students and entrepreneurs to interact with each other effectively through a remote mode.”

Speaking about this edition of E-Summit, Prof. Ashwin Mahalingam, Faculty Advisor, E-Cell, IIT Madras, said, “We are very excited to continue inspiring entrepreneurs all over the country with our next edition of E-Summit. While we used to be focused on helping young entrepreneurs start-up, E-Summit this year will also now focus on going beyond starting up and helping entrepreneurs scale and succeed.”

Around 400 start-ups are participating in the ‘Innovators Conclave’ with another 400 start-ups taking part in the ‘Start-up Conclave.’ The Youth Conclave has recorded around 1,500 registrations. In addition, the Sustainability Conclave has received over 700 ecological and entrepreneurial solutions for sustainability challenges.

Highlighting the newer additions introduced this year, Ms. Vaidehi Mishra, Students’ Head, E-Cell, IIT Madras, said, “Through case study events and policy competitions, the campaign will encourage the use of innovative products, services and business models that unite the social, ecological and environmental interests of India.”

Adding on to these points, Mr. Shreyas Wani, Co-Head, E-Cell, IIT Madras, said, “This edition of E-Summit along with entrepreneurs caters to enthusiasts in a customised manner to inculcate the entrepreneurial skills and learnings through a variety of masterclasses, competitions and challenges.”

E-Summit 2022 also brings forth the fifth edition of the prestigious pan-India fund-raising competition, ‘Elevate’, featuring 477 startups of various domains. Elevate brings together eminent startups and world-class mentors from across the nation in a series of sponsor sessions, elevator pitches, live pitches and investor pitching rounds.

E-Summit is characterised by its lineup of flagship Inspirit lectures, where industry leaders from across sectors give talks highlighting their personal travails in grappling with the central theme of the summit. This year’s line-up will include:

Mr. Piyush Goyal, Hon. Minister of Industry & Commerce
Mr. Sanjeev Barnwal, Co-founder of Meesho
Mr. Ashish Singhal, Co-founder of CoinSwitch Kuber
Mr. Aadit Palicha, Co-Founder of Zepto
Mr. Kaivalya Vohra, Co-Founder of Zepto
Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, Co-founder of HCL
Mr. Amit Acharya, Co-founder of Zetwerk
Mr. Vasant Sridhar, Co-founder of OfBusiness

Further details about E-Summit are available on the website: https://esummitiitm.org/