Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras' Centre for Research on Startups and Risk Financing (CREST) hosted the International Confluence Conference on Startups and Innovation from December 13 to 15, 2023. This unique conference served as a global platform for scholarly discourse, bringing together a diverse array of experts, researchers, practitioners and policymakers from across the world
The Indian Startup Ecosystem and Investor Platform was launched during the inaugural session on December 13, 2023 by Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in the presence of Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, and Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Capital.
The Information and AI platform, developed in partnership with YNOS, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up, contains comprehensive information on about 1,96,000 start-ups; 10,800 angel investors; 4,800 VCs; 965 incubators; 102 government schemes for start-ups; and 560 institutions for loan funding, making it the most comprehensive platform for start-ups and investors.
This is the only information platform in the Indian context that captures the complete spectrum of funding options available for early-stage start-ups. Apart from information, the platform also contains various AI-driven tools such as startup valuation and investor connection tools for entrepreneurs.
Addressing the valedictory Session on December 15, 2023, Dr PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services, Government of Tamil Nadu, said, “The notion of an advanced economy is that it should also have a very efficient capital market. If I take the US as an example, there was every kind of risk-return profile in the investment community, and therefore, available to entrepreneurs, businesses, government and real estate developers. Capital was available to finance risk at varying levels. In the start-up space, there were hundreds of billions of dollars available at the angel investing level and in other stages to finance start-ups at different stages of their journey.”
