Nagpur News : Conquest 2013, international competition for startups, invites applications Organized by students of BITS Pilani; Winner to get prize money of over Rs 1 million Conquest 2013, the ninth edition of the international startup competition organized by Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has begun inviting applications.
The competition involves initial shortlisting on the basis of proposals submitted by the applicants who will be given personal mentoring sessions across the major cities of India.
The final round of Conquest will be held in Delhi in the last week of August 2013 in which Teams will compete for an expected INR 1 million + in prizes. Also there are additional prizes of over INR 2 Lacs to be won.
Besides, there will be opportunities to interact with top Venture Capitalists who will be funding upto INR One crore in investment offers.
Registration for participation closes on 30th March 2013. Conquest 2013 places promising startups on the international map. Speaking about the competition, Mr Suvonil Chatterjee, Coordinator of the event said, ” Conquest is not just another competition, it offers startups incubation opportunities worth one crore, the much needed network support by organizing face to face mentoring sessions with Industry stalwarts, Angels and leading Venture Capitalists.
Besides, there are chances of winning other incubation support in the form of getting free website domain, hosting, and legal support to name a few. The competition is for new, independent ventures in the seed, start-up, or early growth stages”.
Giving the details of the competition process, Mr Chatterjee added, “After the startup details have been filled at the website, Conquest will organize personal mentoring sessions for the top shortlisted teams across the major cities in India, wherein the teams will have the liberty to choose their own mentors.The semi-finalists will be asked to update their profiles including the progress made since the initial registration for Conquest.
Every team is also required to submit a Video Pitch which will be used as part of the evaluation process to select teams for the Grand Finale”. All teams irrespective of their selection to the next round will receive detailed feedback from the judges, added Mr Chatterjee.
The final round of Conquest will be held in New Delhi in the last week of August 2013. The teams will go through a number of simulation rounds where they would be scrutinized by the Judges and their plans discussed in detail before the Winner is decided.
Explaining other benefits of participation, Mr Chatterjee added, “Teams will have the opportunity to meet and network with over 250 venture capital principals, early stage investors, and successful entrepreneurs who will serve as judges for the competition”. Conquest has the tradition of producing some of the best startups in India.
All 10 finalists of Conquest 2012 are successful registered ventures. Enerture was the winner of Conquest 2012 and received prize money of Rs. 1 Lakh. Phyzok, the Conquest 2011 winner, is currently incubated under Technology Business Incubator Scheme of Department of Science & Technology (Govt. of India), at BITS-Pilani. Gharpay, the Conquest 2011 runner up, was funded by Sequoia Capital just after months of starting up. Other startups produced by Conquest include Mobile Medics (acquired by Piramal Healthcare in 2008. The founder was just 23 years old then), iViz Security (raised $2.5 million funding in 2008, a big name in security solutions today), NewDigmHealthcare (Funded by various govt. schemes to carry out low cost healthcare projects in Tamil Nadu).
Further details can be found on www.conquest.org.in.
