NIIT University (NU) hosts the first Founders Growthcamp
New Delhi : Established with a vision to bring about innovation in higher education and learning in emerging areas of the knowledge society, the University of the Future, NIIT University (NU), hosted the first Founders Growthcamp on its campus in Neemrana from Nov 16th – 18th 2022. Early stage EdTech founders Videt Jaiswal from Airblack, Arman Ahmed from EdYoda, Jatin Solanki from Expertrons, Manvender Singh from INSAID, Jignesh Talasila from PerspectAI, Pratik Agarwal from School of Accelerated Learning, Simulanis, Raman Talwar from uLektz Learning Solutions & Rashmi Jha from vani.coach, participated in the 3-day Growthcamp.
The first-of-its-kind EdTech Growthcamp had a great mix of startups working on solving interesting problems in the higher education and upskilling space. The participating founders got an opportunity to pitch their ideas before the angel investors. industry leaders and experts. Investors from 5 investment firms – Omidyar Ventures, Chiratae, Titan Capital, Indian Angel Network Fund and Lead Angels Network, attended the Growthcamp. All 9 founders have been directly inducted into Microsoft Founders Hub and will be getting significant benefits and support from Microsoft. They will also get access to up to $150K in Azure credits, free access to Microsoft productivity tools as well as its extensive mentor network.
NIIT University also found strong synergies with the participating start-ups and would be actively exploring collaboration opportunities with them. The investors were impressed by the participating founders and will pursue the discussions further.
The Founders Growthcamp is the culmination of the EdTech Growth Summit that was organised by NU last month to chart a growth path for emerging EdTech leaders in the higher education and skilling space. Drawing upon the legacy of the NIIT Group, the first of its kind Growthcamp has been organised in consultation with industry experts and top investors to support promising Edtech start-ups accelerate growth through knowledge sessions, mentorship, funding opportunities, and more.
Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman & Co-founder, NIIT Group said, “In my opinion EdTech is probably one of the toughest sectors, for creating a technology platform to enable learning is not easy. Each learner learns differently, each teacher has their own style of teaching. Every transaction is distinctive and unique, therefore, to be successful in this space it is important to have innovative ideas and good technology. The sector in India is currently faced with funding crunch which is hitting the early stage start-ups the hardest. Since our whole focus for the last 40 years has been on education, we would like to take the lead in building an ecosystem to help these young start-ups to transition through this difficult phase by mentoring and guiding them and providing them with funding support.”
In the 3-day Founders Growth Camp the young entrepreneurs got the opportunity to network and interact with industry experts, prospective investors and peers. NIIT Group Founders Rajendra Pawar and Vijay Thadani; Nitya Agarwal – VP, 3One4 Capital; Vinayak Godse, CEO – Data Security Council of India; Sapna Moudgil, Director – NIIT Foundation; Avani Davda, Ex-CEO – Tata Starbucks, Strategic Advisor at Bain, Board Member – NIIT Ltd; Shanoop Krishnan, Azure Data & AI Lead – Microsoft India; Saurabh Saha, Global Product Coach; Ravi Garikipati, Co-founder – Davinta Finserv, Ex-CTO – Flipkart, Board Member – NIIT Ltd; senior faculty members from NU Prof Rajesh Khanna – President; Prof Vijay Mandke, Founding Professor; Associate Prof Ritu Dangwal; Geetica Rastogi, Associate Dean; shared their insights with the start-up founders.
Conceptualized as an institution of excellence, NIIT University provides exceptional education based on the Four Core Principles that make learning Industry-linked, Technology-based, Research-driven and Seamless. NU is well poised to meet the emerging needs of the knowledge economy through its focus on building strong industry linkages and a research-oriented approach.