Sixteen start-ups showcased their entrepreneurial spirit and pitched innovative ideas and scalable business solutions to investors from the UAE and the world over at the seventh edition of the ‘Elevate’ pitching series held recently.
Among the sixteen participants, six start-ups were from India, while nine were based out of the UAE and one was from the Netherlands. The Founders and Co-Founders of these start-ups presented their scalable business ideas to the investors highlighting solutions across sectors such as Technology, Health-tech, Agri-tech & Food Processing, Vocational Skills, Sustainable Energy Storage, Fintech and Edutech, among others.
‘Elevate’ series is a key initiative of the India Pavilion at EXPO2020 Dubai that aims to display unconventional solutions created by 500 Indian start-ups over five months under the India Innovation Hub umbrella and is supported by HSBC.
The event saw representation from various investors, financial institutions, family offices and HNWIs. The event was crucial to the start-ups as it gave a global stage to the founders to pitch their ideas before global investors.
Some of the start-ups, which presented their business ideas include, Kamaxi Skills, which provides high-quality culinary training and soft skills to students with an aim to make India the culinary skill capital of the world; Panacea, a deep learning and hard-coded hybrid software designed to optimise the virtual learning experience for people of determination; Offgrid Energy Labs, a deep technology IP led company that has innovated in design, materials of batteries; PJP Tailorsmart Services Private Limited, an E-commerce platform for young and budding designers and Miracle Boocha, a wellness brand that aims at educating and promoting the health benefits of Kombucha, an ancient fermented beverage from the East among many others.
As part of the session, start-ups also learnt about the latest sectoral trends and participated in specially designed sessions with leading corporates along with fireside conversations with new-age entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors.
Dr Aman Puri, Consul General of India in Dubai and Deputy Commissioner General of India at EXPO2020 said, “We are proud that startups from India as well as several other parts of the world, including the UAE and Netherlands have participated in this Elevate session. These sessions are becoming a viable platform for innovators and start-ups from various countries and can be a huge opportunity for investors from the UAE and across the globe.”
“We are glad that our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has declared January 16 as ‘National Start-up Day’. There is a huge emphasis on start-ups in India and we have several start-ups that we are hoping will turn into unicorns this year,” added Dr Puri.
The Indian start-up ecosystem today has over 60,000 DPIIT-registered start-ups from 628 districts across all 28 States and 8 Union Territories. India ranks in the top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) and is the 5th most start-up friendly country in the world (leading in Asia). Embodying the true spirit of a self-reliant India, and despite the extreme challenges posed by the global pandemic, 42 new unicorns came into existence in India, taking the total number of unicorns to 82. Today, India is the country which in 2021 is amongst the top three creators of unicorns in the world.
The event was attended by eminent dignitaries including Shri K. Kalimuthu, Consul (Eco & Com), Consulate General of India, Dubai; Mr Antony Jos, Executive Director, Joyalukkas Exchange; Mr Pramendra Garg, CEO, Yas Holding; Mr Kamal Vachani, Group Director, Al Maya Group; Mr Kuber Rai, Managing Partner, Corniche Capital; Mr Venkatesh Mahadevan, Chief Information Officer, Dubai Investments; Mr Sanjay Siroya, Director, Belgium Diamond Jewellery; Mr Chandra Sen Hada, Head Investment Operations, Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) & Mr Varun Sharma, Investment Associate, Wamda Capital among others.
