Conquest BITS Pilani

Conquest, an initiative by students at the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus is India's first Student-Run Startup Accelerator. Their program includes online mentoring to the ten most exciting startups from across the country over six weeks, connecting them with field experts. Following this, the startups undergo a ten-day mentorship program in Bangalore. The program ends with the Grand Finale where these startups pitch before India's biggest investment firms and media houses.[1]

Conquest
TypeStartup Accelerator Program
IndustryVenture Capital
Founded2003
Headquarters
Bangalore
,
India
Websiteconquest.org.in

Past Editions of Conquest

Conquest 2015

In its 2015 edition, DCB Bank was selected as the Title sponsor. Conquest 2015 had a more streamlined application process through a tie-up with Applyifi, a newly launched platform that helped startups make online pitch-decks for investors. Over 1500 startups applied and were filtered down to 50 in number. After a three-month-long mentoring session, 50 startups were brought down to 10.[2]

The Grand Finale took place at ITC Sheraton, New Delhi. Swagene,[3] a Chennai based bio-tech startup, took the top honors and Gamezop,[4] a New Delhi-based gaming platform, finished as runners-up.


Conquest 2019

Conquest 2019 invited applications from startups across the world and has received 650+ applications from startups registered in India, Singapore, and other countries. The title sponsor for Conquest 2019 was LTI (Larsen & Toubro Infotech)[5] and Deskera as associate partner. Conquest 2019 had a more streamlined application process through a tie-up with Applyifi and Startup Buddy, who helped with the shortlisting of top 15 startups for the mentorship stage.[6] Each startup went through a 3-month-long mentoring session with various mentors in common sessions. A personal mentor was also assigned to each of the startups based on the need of the startups and selection by mentors. After 3 months' remote mentoring, a list of Top 11 startups was arrived at based on the feedback from mentors and questionnaires filled out by startups. The top 11 startups went through a further round of face-to-face mentoring and industry connect for a week at Bengaluru. The Grand Finale took place at The Leela Palace on 28 July 2019, Bengaluru. ScoutMyTrip,[7] a Mumbai based travel-tech startup, took the top honours[8] and HRBot,[9] a Gurugram-based AI recruitment platform, finished as runners-up.

Conquest 2020

With the onset of COVID, Conquest 2020 was held online. The number of registrations crossed 3000 and winning entries stood to win an equity-less cash prize of Rs 50 lakh and guaranteed investment up to Rs 50 crore from the event's investment partners. The startups attended investment workshops by leading firms like Accel Partners and Blume Ventures.[10]

Conquest 2021

For its 17th edition, Conquest's first phase included one-on-one mentoring sessions for the top 40 startups where they got a chance to gather insights from established industry experts. Varghese Mathew (AVP, BYJU’s), Mahesh Vandi Chalil (Head of Technology, BookMyShow), Anirvan Chowdhury (Investments, Blume Ventures), and Brijesh Bharadwaj (Director of Product, Dunzo) were among the 70+ confirmed mentors for these top 40 mentoring sessions.

Newsreach, an Ahmedabad-based digital media, tech start-up, took the award home and the runner-up was Ecovia, a progressive, sustainable packaging company. The second runner-up was Backyard Creators, an innovative tech start-up addressing environmental, social, and medical problems, specifically in the healthcare and disability sectors.[11]

References
  1. "Conquest | Home". conquest.org.in. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
  2. "iamwire.com". Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  3. "techinasia.com". Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  4. "firstpost.com". Retrieved 11 September 2015.
  5. "lntinfotech.com". Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  6. "moneycontrol.com". Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  7. "scoutmytrip.com". Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  8. "businessfortnight.com". Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  9. "hrbot.co". Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  10. "BITS Pilani unveils 16th edition of 'Conquest' startup accelerator". The Times of India. April 6, 2020. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
  11. "BITS hosts 17th edition of 'Conquest' start-up accelerator". BLoC. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
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