AIC BIMTECH, part of BIMTECH, organised Tathagat Innovest, a new platform aimed at strengthening collaboration between industry, innovation, academia and government while advancing and promoting the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event also marked the hosting of the India Edition of the Startup World Cup pitching session.
The event was inaugurated by senior government officials and ecosystem leaders including Dr Nalin Kumar Srivastava, Additional Director at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, and Prateek Deshmukh, Program Lead at Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, in the presence of Surya Kant, CEO, AIC-BIMTECH, and Dr Shalini Singh, Chairperson, CIED, BIMTECH. The gathering reflected a strong commitment from government, industry, incubation and academia to promote innovation-driven growth in the region.
Inspired by the vision of enlightened progress associated with Gautam Buddha, the “Tathagat Innovest” initiative aims to strengthen collaboration and enable meaningful engagement through knowledge exchange, startup showcases and investor connect. It brought together over 300 participants including startups, investors, policymakers, academic institutions, incubators and industry leaders.
The event was attended by more than 40 speakers from various fields associated with innovation, including Amit Singal of Indicorn Angels, Ajay Singh of Advantage Austria, Punit Thakur of Business Finland and Ishu Bansal of Truck Suvidha.
A key highlight of the event was the launch of the India Edition of the Startup World Cup, organised globally by Pegasus Tech Ventures, USA, which is being hosted for the first time by an incubator in India at AIC BIMTECH. With over 100 applications received from across India, the top 25 startups were invited to pitch, which were judged by 16 jury members from diversified industries. Based on the pitching session, the top 10 startups selected were Navmarg, 1SpecialPlace, Aerosearch, NEMAAI, MicroHeal, Gadget Guruz, Techknights, Punha and Cettlx Services.
The winner of the India regional edition 2026 is Smalblu Technologies, founded by Garv Goyal, a student innovator from BITS Pilani. He will advance to the Global Grand Finale scheduled in San Francisco, USA, in November 2026, where global startups will compete for a $1 million prize.
As part of the programme, AIC BIMTECH also felicitated six emerging startups from small towns funded under MeitY Startup Hub’s GENESIS EIR grant: Doctigo, ZK Labs, Technite, Punha Prosthetic, Naikroop and Fettle.
Another engagement during the event was a roundtable discussion with a vision of working for and from Gautam Buddha Nagar towards supporting innovation as the “Tathagat Innovation Corridor”. It brought together more than 25 representatives from incubators, industries, startups, investors and academia on a single platform. The discussion focused on collaborative initiatives needed to accelerate startup creation, strengthen incubation support and build sustainable innovation infrastructure aligned with the vision of Viksit UP 2047 and Viksit Bharat 2047. The event was executed with the support of AIC BIMTECH-supported startup Reskill, founded by Punit Jain.
Established in 2017 under the aegis of the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India, and situated within the BIMTECH campus, AIC BIMTECH has supported over 500 startups, enabled more than 7,000 jobs and facilitated over 200 industry and global partnerships. Through initiatives such as Tathagat Innovest, the centre continues to strengthen India’s innovation ecosystem while enabling startups to scale and connect with global opportunities along with new incubation development and ecosystem nurturing activities.
Inspired by its founders, Late Basant Kumar Birla and Sarala Birla, BIMTECH offers programmes such as PGDM, PGDM (International Business), PGDM (Insurance Business Management), PGDM (Retail Management), PGDM-Online and Fellow programmes (FPM/E-FPM), nurturing individuals into global leaders. BIMTECH is among the globally recognised B-schools in management education, supported by its alumni network of over 8,000 individuals placed across the world.