IIT Kanpur conducts two-day annual Startup Festival 'Abhivyakti'

By Team Startupcity  |  Monday, 06 March 2023, 09:25 IST

IIT Kanpur conducts two-day annual Startup Festival 'Abhivyakti'
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and its Startup Incubation & Innovation Centre (SIIC) hosted the two-day "Abhivyakti" Startup Festival, which was completed on Sunday. At the opening session on Saturday, IIT-Kanpur professor-in-charge of innovation and incubation Professor Ankush Sharma welcomed the attendees.
Although the institute's director, Prof. Abhay Karandikar, stressed the need to support startups and entrepreneurship in India in his inaugural address, Nikhil Agarwal, CEO, SIIC & AIIDE-CoE, IIT Kanpur, talked on the significance of innovation and entrepreneurship.
More than 600 government representatives, innovators, venture capitalists, angel investors, startups, and students were present on the first day of the conference. Dignitaries in attendance included Ajay Hinduja of the Hinduja Group (virtually), Arun Tiwari, group president of the BFSI division of the Hinduja Group, Dr. Ajay Kumar, a former defence secretary of the GOI, and Sivasubramanian Ramann, chairman and managing director of SIDBI.
On the inaugural day of the event, SIIC, IIT -Kanpur also signed an MoU with the Hinduja Group to collaborate on promoting the startup ecosystem in India by providing crucial support to budding entrepreneurs, fostering innovation and driving growth in the Indian startup ecosystem. The SIDBI Seed Equity Support Scheme (S4-SIIC) was also launched on the occasion. 
With this fund, SIDBI is setting up a pilot fund for supporting the hard-tech startups incubated at SIIC. Prof Karandikar said, “We are proud to host the Abhivyakti Startup Festival at IIT-K, which brings together the brightest minds in the startup ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, and government officials. We believe that the festival will serve as a launchpad for many promising startups .”
"Abhivyakti is a terrific project that gives a forum for companies to promote their ideas and interact with investors and mentors," claimed Prof. Sharma. "The Vision for Fund of Funds is aligned with the government's purpose of supporting entrepreneurship by providing indirect finance to developing businesses through Venture Capital (VC) Funds," stated Sivasubramanian Ramann, chairman & MD, SIDBI, in his keynote address. Former Defense Secretary Ajay Kumar emphasised the importance of young innovators in the defence industry.
Around 70 companies from a range of industries, including Agritech, Cleantech, Cybersecurity, Fintech, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Defense, Sustainability, the Internet of Things, and Artificial Intelligence, took part in the event's first day. The event featured participation from more than 40 investors from across the nation.
Government se Baat, a panel discussion on "Government Efforts for Encouraging Deep-Tech Startup Culture in India," and FundSights, a panel discussion on "Investing in Deep-Tech Startups: Opportunities and Challenges," were events and activities that were hosted during the festival. Samvaad with Industry, a different event, emphasised the importance of corporate-startup collaborations in fostering innovation.

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