SOME TESTIMONIALS

2024 PROGRAM

8:30 - Ongoing | Registration of participants

Registration of participants.

9:30 - 10:00 | Official opening plenary

Official opening plenary.

10:15 - 11:30 | India as a destination of choice for investment in startups

As one of the world’s fastest growing economy leap-frogging the digitization process and a country with the 3rd largest – steadily growing – startup ecosystem, India is increasingly attracting the attention of foreign VCs, PEs and family offices eager to explore new investment opportunities.

  • What answers to the questions still on the mind of some foreign investors about involvement in India’s startup ecosystem?
  • What complementarities and synergies can be created between foreign and Indian investors?
  • How does India figure in the global startup ecosystems landscape? The Pluses and the minuses?

11:30 - 11:45 | Networking break

Networking break.

11:45 - 13:00 | Shapers of the future

Meet the pioneers of new technologies, the creators of new business models. They are one step ahead of new social and consumers’ trends…. There are on the stage.

11:45 - 13:00 | The GCCs dynamic and the startup solutions to boost corporate innovation

An increasing number of Indian and foreign MNCs operating in India have been sourcing innovation from startups in various domains to integrate in their global products and services offerings. The driver for this is the emergence of India as a global hub for Global Capability Centers (GCCs). A dynamic interaction is at play between GCCs and startups. The former using the relationship to expand and accelerate innovation processes and the latter benefiting from the support of global corporations in validating and scaling up their products and services.
Adding to the GCCs dynamic, the expanding partnerships between foreign and national MNCs and the startups contributing to source products and service innovation in their global offering is now transforming the overall picture of India’s corporate innovation.

  • What conditions for the innovation interaction between startups and corporations to work best?
  • How does the rise of GCCs impact on the expansion of the IT sector with respect to product development, innovation, and research?

13:00 - 14:00 | Buffet lunch

Buffet lunch.

14:00 - 15:15 | India’s unique innovation model: Getting to the next level

India is emerging as one of the world’s top innovation hubs, thanks to the cumulative impact of the expansion of Digital Public Infrastructure covering payments, identity, and Data management, of the development of engineering and research talent, and of the emergence of a dynamic startup ecosystem – now one of the top three in the world. Adding to that is the complementarity of a top-down and of a bottom-up approaches between the government and the private sector on innovation development.

  • The government as an innovation agent
  • What factor to add or to strengthen for the sustainability of India’s innovation model?
  • Addressing the perennial issue of corporate R&D weakness
  • What distinctive role for India in the global innovation landscape?

14:00 - 15:15 | Technology Update: Where is the Fintech sector going?

  • What are the technology trends in the sector?
  • Where do Indian and foreign players stand?
  • What opportunities to leverage and challenges to address?
  • How, and at what precise moment?
  • What does it take to go public at time of uncertainty and volatility

15:30 - 16:30 | The new technology and sciences trends non the horizon: How they will reshape economies, societies and business

Keynote address by – and discussion with:

David Passig, Futurist, Professor Bar-Ilan University (BIU), Member Israel National Council for Research & Development, Israel.

15:30 - 16:30 | Connect on: IP and innovation in healthtech

An interaction between startups founders and VC executives involved in Healthtech to create mutually beneficial synergies.

16:30 - 17:00 | Networking break

Networking break.

17:00 - 18:15 | Building the champions of the AI revolution

India produces 16% of the world’s AI talent pool, making it one of the top three AI talent markets in the world. The number of Gen AI Indian startups has doubled in 2023 and the country’s start-up ecosystems is moving ahead developing AI-powered tools in the development and delivery of their products and services. This is providing a huge addition and complementarity to the AI drive of the country’s public and private sectors.

  • How does India’s AI landscape compare with global top players AI capabilities?
  • What AI innovation partnerships can create win-win synergies?
  • What kind of quantum leap would Generative AI bring to India’s innovation capabilities?

18:30 - 19:30 | Reception

Reception.

19:30 - 21:30 | Seated gala dinner

Seated gala dinner.

9:00 - 10:15 | Learning from 2023: The trends shaping the evolution of VC/startup ecosystems and their implications

  • From a focus on valuation to creating real value
  • Focus on capital efficiency
  • Greater investor prudence
  • Continuing to do more with less
  • Focus on adaptation and resilience
  • ……

9:00 - 10:15 | What time for exit?

There were almost no IPOs in 2023 and M&As involving VC-backed companies were also severely hit. However, the context seems to be changing, with a number of public companies and PEs awash with cash to invest. So, the time for a revival of IPOs and M&As may have now come back. And, for many startup investors, the questions might be:

  • How, and at what precise moment?
  • What does it take to go public at time of uncertainty and volatility?

10:15 - 10:45 | Networking break

Networking break

10:45 - 11:45 | What does it take for India to join the world’s semiconductors‘ top players group?

India has taken significant steps to create the propitious framework conditions to join the world’s top players in the fields of semiconductor manufacturing, research, and development. The country’s semiconductor market is expected to be at around US$ 80 billion by 2028.

  • How are the government policies working in terms of developing a top-level chip manufacturing capability?
  • How to expand the proven semiconductor design capabilities of Indian engineers? What actions to address the scarcity of cutting-edge infrastructure labs in the country’s universities?
  • How to capitalize optimally on the increasing involvement of semiconductors manufacturers giants in India?

10:45 - 11:45 | Biotech and Genomics: Navigating turbulences and seizing opportunities

Brainstorming
The biotech industry has witnessed remarkable developments in India as well as at the global level. The Indian biotech and life sciences sector is emerging a hub for pharmaceutical innovation. On the genomics side, The Genome India Project has completed sequencing 10’000 Indian genomes, providing a database for Indian genetic diversity. The biotech and genomics sector is now at an inflection point in India as well as at the global level, with technological advances and evolving market
conditions creating a new paradigm for the sector.

  • Adjusting to more difficult funding conditions
  • How can startups in the sector leverage in an efficient way AI technology, the CRISPR developments and the increasing data available?
  • How to develop the collaboration between biotech and genomics startups and the pharmaceutical companies?
  • How to navigate the increasingly complex regulatory and ethical issues involved as the biotech and genomics sector makes new advances?

12:00 - 13:00 | Managing the opportunities and challenges of the changing dynamics of the deep tech ecosystem:

An interaction between startups founders and VC executives involved in Deep Tech to create mutually beneficial synergies

  • Leveraging AI capabilities to fast-track growth-stage strategies?
  • Sustaining lengthy R&D cycles in a difficult fundraising environment

12:00 - 13:00 | Technology Update: Where is the supply chain technology sector going?

  • What are the technology trends in the sector?
  • Where do Indian and foreign players stand?
  • What opportunities to leverage and challenges to address?

12:00 - 13:00 | Technology Update: Where is the sustainability tech sector going?

  • What are the technology trends in the sector?
  • Where do Indian and foreign players stand?
  • What opportunities to leverage and challenges to address?

13:00 - 14:00 | Buffet lunch

Buffet lunch.

14:00 - 15:00 | Betting on India’s innovation and growth story

A conversation with:

Thierry Porté, Managing Director & Vice Chairman, JC Flowers & Co LLC, USA

15:15 - 16:15 | Cracking the code on scaling up: Listening to those who did it

All startups have to address the challenges of time to market and of cracking scale. They have to make do with internal factors they need to manage and external factors such as market readiness or competitive risk on which they have scant control. And the challenge of time to market and scaling up is made more acute in the present context of the decrease of financial resources available to startup founders.

  • Are there best practices to optimize the product development process of fast-paced technological changes and market evolution?
  • What to be learnt from the entrepreneurs who have succeeded in cracking scale?

16:30 - 17:30 | Closing plenary

Making intelligent use of intelligent technologies

Keynote address by – and discussion with:

Soumitra Dutta, Dean and Professor of Management, Saïd Business School, Oxford University, Chair, OECD Taskforce of Experts on AI, UK

17:30 - 18:15 | Farewell drinks

Farewell drinks.

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