8 Start-ups Raise 70Lakhs In Funding

Eight start-ups under UPES incubation programme ‘Runway’ raise more than 70 lacs in the 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, eight start-ups out of the selected 82 raised more than INR 70 lacs from a group of investors that included Rahul Narvekar, CEO- Of the India Network, Dr Ram Sharma, Pro VC at UPES, Mudit Verma, UPES Alumni and Gagan Ghai, Angel Investor- Director Crest Innovation, the first instance in UPES and Uttarakhand where funds were raised on the spot.

The eight start-ups that raised funding were:

1. 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.
2. DAAC, an Automotive Design studio founded by Siddharth Prakash and co-founded by Kishore Tikale, Siddharth Da, Nithin Sharma
3. W&W Organic, founded by Aakansha Simra and co-founded by Pratiksha with the idea of organic soap bars in paper packaging.
4. AAGYO, a combined solution of the hyperlocal marketplace and e-commerce specially targeted to tier 3 and lower cities & towns, founded by Mukul Mehta
5. Vindyavasini, a period cramp relief belt founded by Nuveni Raina
6. 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
7. 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.
8. Roadz founded by Achal Agrawal, an idea which aims at route optimization based on road quality and precise warning of potholes.

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 start-up 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 the UPES Council for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (UCIE), which has been recognised 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 start-ups refine their ideas through a process involving Incubation, Mentoring, Pitching, Nurturing and Networking.