8 startups under UPES incubation program Runway raise more than Rs 70 lakhs in first round of funding

In December last year, UPES, a multidisciplinary university in Dehradun launched an ambitious incubation program ‘Runway’, to work with start-ups within and outside the university to help them transition into scalable businesses.

Completing a quarter, Runway initiated its first pre-incubation cohort in a two-day event hosted at UPES with selected 82 start-up ideas from over 400 applications.

In the first round of pitching, 8 start-ups out of the selected 82 raised more than Rs 70 lakhs from a group of investors that included Rahul Narvekar, CEO- The India Network, Dr Ram Sharma, Pro VC at UPES, Mudit Verma, UPES Alumni and Mr Gagan Ghai, Angel Investor- Director Crest Innovation, a first instance in UPES and Uttarakhand where funds were raised on the spot.

The eight start-ups that raised funding were-

• Elteridium, founded by Akhil Damodaran and co-founded by Dr Rupesh Kumar, it is one of India’s first Blockchain-based smart contract companies. It will develop smart contract products which can be used in education, healthcare, logistics, etc.

• DAAC, an Automotive Design studio founded by Siddharth Prakash and co-founded by Kishore Tikale, Siddharth Da, Nithin Sharma

• W&W Organic founded by Aakansha Simra and co-founded by Pratiksha with the idea of organic soap bars in paper packaging

• AAGYO, a combined solution of hyperlocal marketplace and e-commerce specially targeted to tier 3 and lower cities & towns, founded by Mukul Mehta

• Vindyavasini, a period cramp relief belt founded by Nuveni Raina

• Buzzinga Chicken Chips founded by Dia Goel and co-founded by Akul Goel, a novel FMCG nonvegetarian product that solves the problem of unhealthy snacking

• Anime Devta founded by Dev Taneja and co-founded by Himangshu Goswami aims at providing the coolest, unique anime & graphic merchandise at the most affordable prices

• Roadz founded by Achal Agrawal, an idea which aims at route optimization based on road quality and precise warning of potholes.

Speaking at the launch of the pre-incubation program, Rahul Nainwal, CEO of Runway said, “We had launched the Runway program and the first fundraising and incubation event has given it a positive and successful start. The objective now is to nurture and mentor the selected start-up ideas and encourage more students, alumni, faculty and staff to pursue their start-up dream and get incubated at Runway”.

The selected start-up founders also had an opportunity to interact with entrepreneurs such as Naveen Rawat and Manish Ahuja of Holisol Logistics; Sarika Panchhi, Founder-Jivisa Wellness; Richa Bansal, Founder-Saarathee, Mudit Verma, CEO- RayMach Technologies; Taranjeet Singh, Founder-Innvocon; Kuldeep Parashar, founder of Pension Box and Rahul Narvekar, CEO of The India Network.

The selected 82 Runway startup ideas will now go through an eight-week, carefully curated programme where they will learn how to build a business, how to incorporate companies and how to make a pitch to investors by interacting with seasoned entrepreneurs, CAs and start-up mentors. At the end of the pre-incubation programme, the start-ups will get an opportunity to raise grants and get formally incubated at Runway or pitch to a group of investors and raise funds.

‘Runway’ is established under UPES Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UCIE), which has been recognized by the government of Uttarakhand as a business incubator and the state nodal agency to encourage entrepreneurship and help incubate start-ups in the state. The objective of Runway is to help these startups refine their ideas through a process involving Incubation, Mentoring, Pitching, Nurturing and Networking.

Published on: Tuesday, April 05, 2022, 04:16 PM IST