NITKonnect Announces its Annual Flagship Conference - NITKonnect 2023

NITKonnect, a platform created by NITK Alumni Association Bangalore Chapter has announced its annual flagship conference, NITKonnect’23, on Feb 4^th,2023.The 2^nd edition of this annual event will feature a power packed line-up of Indian and global business leaders, experts, strategists, and policy makers. The summit will focus on the theme  –“Engineering the New Bharat”, keeping in mind the rapid growth trajectory that India is on in its quest to become the no.3 economy in the world by 2030. 400+ Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs will be participating in the deliberations spread out between the plenary sessions, keynotes, panels and sectoral huddles.

Mr.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Hon'ble Minister for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, IT & Electronics. said " Thank you for inviting me for the NIT Alumni Konnect. I am sure that after passing out of NITK, a prestigious institution for high quality technical education and research, you all have charted your own lives in the manner you always wished.

I am happy that many of you have become entrepreneurs and run successful startups. Our government has always been supportive of such initiatives and has worked towards providing an enabling policy framework.

Today India is the third largest startups ecosystem in the world. Our Government under Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi ji has put in place well-calibrated policies & programmes that are catalyzing India’s Techade while nurturing a vibrant startup and innovation ecosystem.

Events such as NITKonnect are in my opinion an important element of fulfilling the vision of New India. At many places, alumni associations are helping entrepreneurial growth by incubating and handholding startups. As a government we intend to encourage and co-partner with such associations and drive India’s progress during the Amrit Kaal.

The plenary session will feature Mr.Aravind Melligeri(Chairman & CEO,Aequs Group and a NITK Alumnus) & Mr.Koshy(CEO, ONDC) who will outline the key imperatives and policy initiatives that are essential for the country to progress towards the vision of “Amrit Kaal” over the next decade.

Key speakers participating in the event include other NITK Alums who are at the helm of affairs in global corporations like Mr.Rajesh Rege, President-HoneyWell India, Mr.Ravindranath Gumaste, MD-Kirloskar Ferrous, Mr.Lingaraju Sawkar,President-Kyndryl India, Mr.Kaniappan,MD-ZF CV India and Ms.Srishti Sofat,SVP-Oracle Fusion CX. They will be outlining what it will take for ‘Bharat’ to become the Innovation Engine of the World by 2030.

To complete the innovation spectrum,  celebrated start-up founders like Mr.Aprameya Radhakrishna(Koo),Mr.Utham Gowda(Captain Fresh),Mr.Krishna Kumar(Simplilearn) and Mr.Raghunandan(Zolve) will share insights from their experiences on navigating the funding winter and staying afloat with startup founders.

 Top notch organisations and emerging blue chip companies such as Effigo, Capstone Ventures, IMML, Koo, Peps, Kyndryl, Saint-Gobain, ZF, eSumudaay, Simplilearn, Smart Q, DriveU,Aequs, Poise Motors, Kirloskar Ferrous and Good Meetings have provided the much needed support for hosting this event.

Key Highlights

❖      NITK Alumni have founded exceptional startups in the last 5-6 years. The startups have achieved valuation in excess of USD 10 bln. To sustain this momentum, NITKonnect organised a Start-up Pitch session to identify budding entrepreneurs within the community. Over 50 start-ups participated in this challenge, of which the Top 5 promising start-ups that demonstrated innovation, viability and novelty were selected via a stringent evaluation process run by a Global Investor Panel. These start-ups attracted a commitment of upto USD 1.5 Mln from the investors and will be accorded special recognition at the event.

❖      The Curtain Raiser event for the Summit saw the launch of an unique cross border collaboration between Bengaluru and Bay Area via the ‘𝑵𝑰𝑻𝑲 𝑩𝒂𝒚 𝑨𝒓𝒆𝒂 𝒕𝒐 𝑩𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒓𝒖 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕’ Initiative. This will be a common platform for global NITK alumni to leverage synergies for business growth, market expansion and access to funding.

❖      NITKonnect also announced the inking of two powerful collaborations with TiE Bangalore and Your Story respectively.Commenting on these collaborations, Mr.Niranjan M,President-NITK Alumni

❖      Association(Bangalore Chapter) opined “At NITKonnect, our vision is to set up an investment syndicate and an incubation centre which will groom and mentor start-ups to set up sustainable ventures, with potentially a Unicorn in the next 5 years. We are absolutely thrilled at the prospect of partnering with two giants of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in TiE Bangalore and Your Story. We are eagerly looking forward to working closely with both of these organizations in realising this dream.”

❖      NITKonnect has signed a MOU with TiE Bangalore to jointly further the growth of the start-up ecosystem in Karnataka. Early stage start-up founders will be able to draw upon the collective expertise of the 1000+ strong community for mentorship, access to funding, capability enhancement through knowledge sharing sessions and networking for business growth. To facilitate this, TiE Bangalore will be offering membership at a special price to start-up founders associated with NITKonnect. Commenting on this development,

 Mr.Madan Padaki, President-TiE Bangalore said “ We are really excited to partner with NITKonnect on this unique initiative. Enabling access to funding & investors and providing support to entrepreneurs by way of mentorship, access to markets and customers are key pillars of TiE Bangalore. This collaboration with NITKonnect will provide a great fillip to the combined efforts of both the organizations in expanding the ecosystem further by way of a larger pool of mentors & investors.”

❖      NITKonnect’s collaboration with Your Story, a leading media technology company for startups, entrepreneurs, investors, innovators and change makers, will focus on coverage of the various initiatives undertaken by NITKonnect as well as mutual speaking/workshop opportunities. The phenomenal reach of Your Story’s digital platform will be leveraged to capture compelling stories of entrepreneurial ventures launched by the NITK alumni.