The startup ecosystem of India's media and entertainment (M&E) industry is witnessing a fresh wave of innovation and investment. Wavex 2025, the premier startup platform of the World Audio-Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES), has received huge interest from entrepreneurs and investors alike.

Inaugurating the initiative, Ashutosh Mohle, Joint Director, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), penned Wavex's national vision: to nurture promising startups in the M&E space and scale their ideas through a community-led ecosystem approach.

Sandeep Jhingran, Internet and Mobile Association of India's (IMAI) Chief Growth Officer, showed interest in the program's momentum. "We saw over a thousand applications. Thirty startups directly pitched to investors, and half are already having active conversations," he mentioned, pointing towards the growing need for encouraging M&E-targeted startups.

Investors are also extremely interested. Rajesh Joshi of Warmup Ventures, an erstwhile founder turned investor, said, "Life has come full circle. We are currently in talks with 11 startups," signaling a huge shift in investor attention toward the M&E space.

While speaking about the criteria for assessing content-based startups, Joshi pointed to 'Giggle,' an anti-cyberbullying app, as a case of responsible innovation having a positive impact. "It is a benchmark for balancing user interaction with ethical standards," he said.

As far as gender diversity in the cohort is concerned, Jhingran accepted the current gap. "We are working to enhance this. In subsequent editions, we look forward to more women entrepreneurs being part of it," he said.

The program gave 30 startups direct exposure to investors in the form of carefully curated one-on-one pitching sessions spread over two days. Harnesswala also underlined the need for more robust monetization channels for content creators and said that platforms like Wavex are key to bridging this gap.