

It's game on!
Episode | Pioneer Name | Date | View |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Prelude | 04-Nov-2017 | View Episode |
2 | Curtain Raiser | 11-Nov-2017 | View Episode |
3 | Roopa Kudva, MD, Omidyar Network | 18-Nov-2017 | View Episode |
4 | Zorawar Kalra, Founder & MD, Massive Restaurants | 25-Nov-2017 | View Episode |
5 | Devita Saraf, Founder, CEO, Design Head, VU Technologies | 02-Dec-2017 | View Episode |
6 | Gaurav Burman, Director, Dabur International | 09-Dec-2017 | View Episode |
7 | Neha Kant Founder, Clovia | 16-Dec-2017 | View Episode |
8 | Pramod Saxena, Founder & Chairman, Oxigen Services India | 23-Dec-2017 | View Episode |
9 | Ameera Shah, MD, Metropolis Healthcare | 30-Dec-2017 | View Episode |
10 | Masterclass with Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Board Member, TiE Delhi-NCR | 06-Jan-2018 | View Episode |
11 | Semi Finale | 13-Jan-2018 | View Episode |
12 | Grand Finale - Live | 20-Jan-2018 | View Episode |
About
Participants
Name | Designation | Company Name |
---|---|---|
Deep Bajaj | Co-Founder | Pee Buddy |
Saahil Parekh | Co-Founder | Khetify |
Chirag Gupta | Co-Founder | Deyor Camps |
Rishab Suresh | Co-Founder | The Gourmet Jar |
Pankaj Sharma | Co-Founder | Mr. Hot Foods |
Asad Khan | Co-Founder & COO | Tpot |
Divyanshu Poddar | CEO & Co-founder | Rocketeers |
Summit Nayak | Founder Member & VP-Business | Staqu Technologies |
Shubhi Agrawal | Co-Founder | Loco Buzz |
Abhinav Parashar | Co-Founder | Digio |
Sumeet Kumar | Co-Founder | Eantra |
Vijayananda Reddy | CEO & Co-Founder | Loanyantra.com |
Devika Srimal | Founder | Kanabis |
Meghna Saraogi | Founder | StyleDotMe |
Yogesh Mittal | Founder | EliteString Apparels |
Karthikeyan Krishnan | Founder | Fastura Technologies |
Arjun Chakraborti | President & CEO | TrakInvest |
Mukesh Bubna | Founder & CEO | Monexo FinTech |
Dr. Rasmi Mishra | Co-Founder | AllizHealth |
Shilpa Malik | Co-Founder | Bioscan Research |
Arita Abrol | Co-Founder | Mr. Med |
Elevator Pitch
Founded by a brother duo Yogesh Mittal and Neeraj Mittal, EliteString Apparels specialises in intimate clothing. It's brand La Intimo is India's first premium innerwear brand for men. EliteString Apparels has its own online store laintimo.com and also sells on major e-commerce platforms. In early 2016, La Intimo was amongst world's very few brands to come up with the concept of 'Complementing Sets for Couples'. The brand offers an elegant collection of undergarments, including Thongs, G-Strings, Jocks, Trunks, Bikini etc.
Dr. Rasmi Mishra is Co-Founder of AllizHealth, a technology startup in the preventive health space, developing a 'Health Management Platform' that offers solutions, tools and resources to help users identify health risks early, as well as track and manage risks and conditions. This platform comprises three integrated solutions - User Health Risk Assessment, Personal Health Record and Analytics Dashboard. The venture has been founded by a four member team with extensive experience and expertise in healthcare and technology. It has over 700,000 users.
Founded in 2013 by Robin Jha,Asad Khan and Atit Kumar, Tpot is built around the bona fide pleasure of handmade tea. Tpot's focus is to spark fresh cup of conversation - be it a Tulsi tea, masala chai, or kadak ginger tea. It serves around 40 types of freshly-brewed tea in a cafe-like setting. To complete chai-nashta, the company tagline, Tpot serves a diverse range of snacks, including cookies, muffins, sandwiches, vada pav, keema pav, wraps and more.
Karthikeyan Krishnan is Founder & CEO of Fastura, a mobile app development company for the commodity and equity market. It develops user-friendly mobile apps for technology solutions for trading platforms. Derived from the words Fast and Accurate, the name Fastura stands for the core aspects of exemplary end-user experience. Karthikeyan is an enthusiastic entrepreneur and loves exploring new opportunities to develop mobile and web products. He is a MCA Graduate with 12+ years of experience in Web Usability and UI Designing.
Bioscan Research has developed an affordable, non-invasive screening tool for a quick onsite scan that can be effectively used to detect intracranial bleeding. Co-founded by computer engineer Shilpa Malik, the Ahmedabad-based start-up tackles an important problem by developing a practical, easy-to-use device that can help assess an injury's seriousness. It enables early detection of traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by road accidents, falls, violence, or natural calamities. This minimizes the wait time at tertiary care centres by sending non-critical patients to other hospitals.
Kanabis is a non-leather, animal-friendly, comfortable and fashionable footwear brand for women. As an animal lover and PETA volunteer, Devika Srimal launched Kanabis in 2015 as a fun, colourful and quirky footwear brand that gives comfortable, long lasting product which is made purely out of ingredients that are vegan. The brand is PETA approved and endorsed by animal loving celebrities like Jacqueline Fernandez and many others. Kanabis specialises in women's footwear crafted from leather substitutes like canvas and jute.
Divyanshu Poddar is CEO & Co-Founder of Rocketeers Research Institute, providing educational programs for students and institutions. It teaches students Grade 4 onwards the basics of model rocketing, providing 'Plug and Play Solutions' that can be deployed without disrupting normal activities of the organization. Students learn a step by step path to becoming spacecraft builders of tomorrow, irrespective of location and formal education. Divyanshu quit his job with ISRO to provide children with guidance to become part of the space industry.
Saahil Parekh co-founded Khetify with an aim to fuse traditional knowledge of agriculture with 21st century technology to make kheti (farming) contemporary. Khetify develops compost-based modular 'khets' (farms) on vacant rooftops and enables households to grow organic vegetables in as small a space as 200 sq ft. It uses a remote controlled Internet of Things enabled drip irrigation system, which also helps in conserving water. An IIT Kharagpur graduate, Saahil Parekh previously worked as a sustainability researcher at TERI.
Monexo FinTech is a Peer to Peer (P2P) lending platform in India. Having spent 20 years with Citibank in Asia overseeing credit cards and consumer loans, Founder & CEO Mukesh Bubna launched Monexo with an aim to solve the problem of access to loans at reasonable rates by providing individual savers the opportunity to diversify their portfolio. Monexo does not carry any credit risk on its balance sheet, creates a market place for borrowers and lenders, and provides a secured ecosystem.
Deep Bajaj co-founded PeeBuddy in 2014 to provide an innovative solution that protects women from infections resulting from using dirty toilets. PeeBuddy is an easy to carry, disposable tunnel-shaped paper urination device that ergonomically fits between the legs to enable women to stand and urinate. A post graduate from The Australian National University, Deep is focused on Intimate Hygiene and Wellness products that make life simpler for Women, is a TEDx presenter and has won multiple awards.
Rishab Jain is Co-Founder The Gourmet Jar, a start-up that offers a variety of home-made jams, marmalades and spreads. All its products are handmade in small batches using all-natural ingredients and do not have any preservatives or chemicals. The Gourmet Jar was conceptualised in 2012 by French Teacher & Food Blogger Apeksha Jain. Though she does not have formal training in cooking or making jams, she has enjoyed whipping up delicacies from the young age of 15 years.
Chirag Gupta co-founded Deyor Camps, an online platform, to make the process of discovering, verifying and booking a campsite a seamless process. Deyor Camp enables travellers to discover various forms of alternative accommodation, verify details for each campsite, and help campsites to build trust with their potential customers. A graduate from Delhi University, Chirag decided to launch Deyor Camps in 2016 with three friends when they discovered that the adventure travel market was fragmented and unorganised, despite a 200-percent year-on-year growth.
Launched by shopaholic and Delhi-based designer Meghna Saraogi, StyleDotMe helps users get instant fashion advice from fashion experts and friends. The USP of the app is a live-timer option which allows the users to ask for a quick opinion from friends and followers. The user has to post two pictures in different outfits for which they can get votes from friends, fashion bloggers and stylists. StyleDotMe is like a personalised fashion community with over 100+ fashion bloggers associated with the app.
Arjun Chakraborti is President & CEO of TrakInvest, which enables users to try stock market trading in a game-like simulation using virtual money. The platform lets users make mock investments in real companies through real stock exchanges. It has tied up with stock exchanges worldwide to provide real time data - with a lag of 10 seconds. On signing up, users can access news, tools and Rs. 50 lakh in virtual cash, providing a risk-free ecosystem to learn trading on the stock market.
Vijayananda Reddy is Founder & CEO of Loanyantra.com, India's first and only online marketplace that monitors and manages home loan, and a transparent online marketplace for instant customised rate quotes on home loans. It established India's first technology enabled 'Loan Facilitation Platform' set up with the aim of empowering offline loan agents with the right technology to make processing of loans smoother, faster and more efficient. All with the single aim of providing a premium service to the customers free of cost.
Pankaj Sharma co-founded Mr. Hot Foods, to bring home-cooked food to its customers in a restaurant style of ordering and standardised packaging. Faced with the dearth of 'home-cooked food' service during their IIT Kharagpur days, Pankaj and his co-founder Achal Bansal decided to solve the problem by starting Mr Hot Foods. The company offers features like multiple delivery addresses, different delivery timeslots for different meals, balance transfer facility, and alteration of meal plans to save the hassle of ordering every day.
Shubhi Agrawal is Co-Founder of LocoBuzz, an end-to-end online reputation management platform, which provides users with simple yet intuitive dashboards that help increase their efficiency with relevant information. An analytics-based integrated marketing platform, it enables brands to listen, analyse and engage with the right target audience across digital platforms. LocoBuzz facilitates quick turnaround using system-generated alerts to key stakeholders. With features like multiple sentiment analysis and robust reporting system, it provides an in-depth performance analysis across the entire digital ecosystem.
Abhinav Parashar is Co-Founder of Digiotech Solutions, a start-up enabling digital transformation in India by providing software platforms for businesses and consumers to bring existing paper based and offline processes online in legally accepted way. The idea of Digio is to build software products for paperless documentation for industries like BFSI, Fintech and Telecom. It has created digital infrastructure to connect the Government, businesses and consumers leveraging Aadhaar. Their customer base includes big brands across Banking, Finance, Insurance, Broking, Real-Estate, Medical, etc.
Mr. Med is an on-demand service for providing the right medical equipment at home. Established by Co-Founders Arita Abrol and Aprameya Rajput, the company aims to make medical equipment in home healthcare understandable, accessible and affordable. Mr. Med also provides on-call assistance and remote monitoring support to build a more connected homecare ecosystem. From purchasing a basic wheelchair, to renting an entire ICU set-up, it helps ease the transition from hospital to home by taking care of all equipment needs.
Sumeet Kumar is Co-Founder of Eantra, a financial services provider. The primary objective of Eantra is to instil confidence in investors and traders with regard to their exposure in the markets. Eantra intends to make trading a hassle-free, paperless and a very transparent experience. Its strategies help investors feel that they are at par with the best in the markets and it is possible to make good money (by investing) or save money (by hedging) with a much personalised advisory from Eantra.
Summit Nayak is a founder member and VP-Business of Staqu Technologies, a Gurgaon based Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up that has developed an innovative image-to-image matching system, simplifying image search, automated meta-tag generation and real-time recommendation for e-commerce companies. Staqu aims at solving real world problems by leveraging the unique capabilities and applications of artificial intelligence in image domain amalgamated with textual analysis. It uses AI, deep-learning and image-search technologies that powers fashion e-tailers to simplify catalogue search, drive customer engagement and get higher conversions.
Jury
Co-founder & CEO, Indifi
Alok is co-founder and CEO of Indifi, a platform to expand access to debt financing for Indian SMEs. A successful first generation entrepreneur based in India, Alok is also a founding member of Indian Angel Network, which is a forum for making angel investments.
He last led India operations of Canaan Partners, a premier US based venture capital firm. Earlier, he cofounded JobsAhead.com in 1999. JobsAhead.com is the leading e-recruitment business focussed on the Indian market, and was acquired by Monster.com recently. Before founding JobsAhead, Alok worked with Hughes software in telecom and internet technologies. Alok is a computer science graduate from IIT Delhi, and completed his MS and Management of Technology programs from UC Berkeley.
Alok is passionate about creating value through startups! He is also keenly interested in entrepreneurship development in India. He has organised a venture community blog at http://www.venturewoods.org/.
Founder, CEO, Design Head - VU Technologies
Devita Saraf is the Founder, CEO and Design Head of Vu Televisions. She is also a promoter of Zenith Computers (India) and Zenith Infotech Limited along with her family members.
From the age of 16, Devita started working in various departments of the company to learn the ropes of running a firm. As a member of the conservative Marwari community, Devita broke the taboo by entering into the male dominated business world.
Devita pursued an undergraduate programme in Business at University of Southern California. While her batch mates were applying for jobs at consulting firms, Devita was clear that she wanted to run her own company. She came back to join Zenith Computers, a firm founded by her father, Rajkumar Saraf, to pick up the much needed practical skills.
VU TV was established in 2006. With a sharp focus on creating a high quality product, Devita was clear that VU would not be a cheap Indian alternative to higher priced international brands, which were perceived by customers as being superior in quality. VU offers a wide range of 22 television sets, priced between Rs 9,500 and Rs 3 lakh, which is roughly 30 percent lower than those sold by international market leaders, but about 20 percent higher than Indian competitors.
In 2014, when the company achieved a turnover of around Rs 500 crore, Devita ventured into e-commerce space, with presence on e-tailers such as Snapdeal and Flipkart.
MD - Metropolis Healthcare
Ameera Shah is the Managing Director of Metropolis Healthcare - a multinational chain of pathology centers based in Mumbai, with presence in seven countries.
Ameera realised early on in her career that a standard corporate career wasn't for her. She saw the potential in the diagnostic lab founded by her father, Dr. Sushil Shah, in Mumbai. She set herself the goal to build a pan-India brand in the diagnostics space.
When Ameera joined her father's business in 2001, it was an 1800 square feet single laboratory in Mumbai. In the same year, the laboratory was renamed Metropolis. It has subsequently grown to become a 135 laboratory chain, not just in India but also in Srilanka, UAE, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana. Over the last 16 years, Metropolis has created a seamless network of health centres globally.
Under her stewardship - Metropolis has become a well-respected healthcare brand, catering to over 50,000 doctors, 10,000 laboratories and hospitals.
Metropolis's goal for 2020 is very clear - to reach a valuation of Rs. 12,000 crores to Rs. 15,000 crores.
Ameera received a degree in Finance from The University of Texas, and completed the prestigious Owner-President Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Director - Dabur International
Gaurav Burman is the Director of Dabur International, and a 5th generation member of the family that founded Dabur over 130 years ago. Dabur has grown to become the largest Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company over the years. It manufactures a range of over 400 products in healthcare, oral care, personal care, home care, packaged foods, and non-carbonated soft drinks. Dabur became a listed business in 1995.
In 1996, Gaurav and his family started to invest in new businesses as India started to liberalise.
Gaurav Burman manages his family's investment program and is responsible for many joint ventures and investments. He also sits on the Board of Dabur International, the holding company for Dabur's international activities, which include FMCG manufacturing operations in Sri Lanka, the Middle East, Africa, and the US.
As on date, the Burman family have investments in Healthcare, Media, Financial Services, Retail, and Education, and have multiple joint ventures with Global Fortune 100 businesses including Aviva for Life Insurance, Experian for Financial Information, Healthcare at Home for Home Healthcare, Yum Brands for Taco Bell, and previously with Fidelity and ABN Amro.
Gaurav graduated from Tufts University in 1993 with a dual BA in Economics and History.
Founder - Clovia
Neha grew up in Haridwar, where, since her father was an engineer in the public sector (BHEL), she was surrounded by engineers and was even expected to follow in her father's footsteps. Though Neha took up science in school, she did not pursue engineering. She went on to complete her graduation from Miranda House in Delhi University, followed by an MBA.
After a decade of experience in corporate India, she decided to address the gap she found in the lingerie market, and launched Clovia in 2013, along with her husband and a tech founder and a lingerie expert.
With in-house designing and sourcing teams, Clovia produces its own products with imported fabrics, laces, and satins. Their manufacturing is outsourced but, being a firm believer of 'Make in India' campaign, all their products are manufactured in the country.
Clovia's USP is the variety of styles they offer to customers. They offer more than 200 styles per month with over 75% of their inventory being less than 30 days old.
Founder & Chairman - Oxigen Services India
Pramod Saxena is the founder of Oxigen Services and has been its Managing Director since January 2017. He holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Roorkee.
Oxigen Services was established in 2004 and is India's first non-banked mobile wallet, approved by RBI in 2013 for instant money transfers to any bank. These money transfers can be done real-time in association with National Payments Corporation of India using IMPS. Oxigen received an approval from the RBI in 2016 to be a part of the Bharat Bill Payment System, connecting users with the central bill payments and settlement system of National Payments Corporation of India.
The firm also set up 'Super PoS - Micro ATM' (point of sale) terminals to meet the requirements of merchants as well as banks. This Super PoS demonstrates features such as Micro ATM - Cash-In and Cash-Out, as per the specifications of NPCI, biometric scanner for Aadhaar transactions, Jan Dhan account servicing, merchant payments and eKYC.
Prior to launching Oxigen Services, Pramod was CEO of the Telecom Business at Essar Group from 1994 to 1998. He was also Country President at Motorola Inc. in India from 1998 to 2003.
MD - Omidyar Network
Roopa Kudva is partner at Omidyar Network and Managing Director of Omidyar Network India Advisors, where she leads overall investment strategy, operations and portfolio development.
Omidyar Network, a US-based philanthropic investment firm, established its India office in October 2009 to expand the firm's investments in the rapidly growing economy. Since then, Omidyar Network has invested over $200 million via grants and equity across 70-72 organisations.
Omidyar works in five sectors, which include financial services, education, emerging technologies, property rights and governance and citizen engagement. It invests in three types of organizations— market innovator (for-profit enterprises), organisations that build sector infrastructure and organisations that do policy-related work. It also provides equity capital to for-profit organisations and grants to non-profits.
Prior to joining Omidvar Network, Roopa was MD and CEO at the global analytical company CRISIL She led CRISIL's evolution from a leading Indian rating agency to a diversified analytical company with clients ranging from the largest investment banks of the world to tens of thousands of small firms spread across India. Under her leadership, CRISIL's market capitalisation grew four-fold and revenues tripled.
Roopa Kudva holds a postgraduate diploma in management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and also received the ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award' from her alma mater.
MD - Omidyar Network
Zorawar Kalra is the founder & MD of Massive Restaurants - a company that includes a range of brands such as Masala Library, Farzi Cafe, Made in Punjab, Masala Bar and Pa Pa Ya, etc. under its umbrella. Zorawar is the son of Jiggs Kalra, widely considered the czar of Indian cuisine and also known as the walking encyclopaedia of food.
Blessed with an entrepreneurial bent of mind and a genetic love for food, he has studied the Indian food and beverage market extensively over the years. Counted among one of the youngest, and most successful restaurateurs of India, Zorawar has combined a penchant for Indian cuisine with his natural business acumen and a rich heritage spanning over four decades in the Indian culinary space and hospitality industry.
With an eye for detail and a passion to succeed, he is on a mission to take the Indian food to a global scale.
Zorawar holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Boston’s Bentley Business University.
Success Stories
Founder & CEO,
Heads Up For Tails
Grand Prize Winner, Runway to Success Season 4
Heads Up For Tails raises $2 million from HNIs
Runway to Success Season 4 Grand Prize Winner, Heads Up For Tails, has raised $2 million in a pre-series-A round from a group of high net worth individuals (HNIs). The fresh round of funding was a huge milestone for the pet products retailer and is being used to further enhance the end-user experience by investing in technology, as well as expanding business in domestic and overseas markets.
Founder & CEO,
Prozo
Finalist, Runway to Success Season 4
Ed-tech startup Prozo raises pre-Series A round
Runway to Success Season 4 Finalist Prozo.com has raised its pre-Series A round of funding. The online marketplace for buying and selling study material will use these funds to ramp up retailers' acquisition, build integrated technology solutions for other parts of the value chain, besides bulk ordering by buyers and order processing by Prozo. It will also add more domestic and international publishers to its supplier base.
Co-Founder & CEO,
(ReGlobe) Manak Waste Management
Grand Prize Winner, Runway to Success Season 3
ReGlobe.in raises funds from Bessemer Venture Partners and Blume Ventures
Grand Prize Winner, Runway to Success Season 3, ReGlobe.in, has raised early stage funding from Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and Blume Ventures. Manak Waste Management Pvt. Ltd that owns and operates ReGlobe is a recommerce or reverse commerce company, which connects sellers of used goods to merchants that deal in used goods. ReGlobe plans to expand to 30 cities in the near future and is looking to use the funds for its expansion plans and product innovation.
Co-Founder & Head - Mktg & Business Dev,
Chaayos
Finalist, Runway to Success Season 3
Chaayos raises USD 5 million in funding from Tiger Global
Runway to Success Season 3 Finalist, Chaayos, has raised USD 5 million in funding from Tiger Global. Post funding, the NCR-based tea-outlet chain has put together a strong team to work on its in-house software to link everything from its tea collection to outlets, connect with the data inflow from its user app, build a strong technology backbone, reduce turnaround time and ensure a standardised ‘Chaayos experience' at every store.
Co-Founder & CMO,
Vidooly
Finalist, Runway to Success Season 3
Vidooly secures US$1 million seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners
Runway to Success Season 3 Finalist, Vidooly, has secured US$1 million in seed funding from Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP). The video analytics startup from India will use the fresh funding for getting users from across the globe and product development. Vidooly offers a marketing and analytics suite for YouTube to help creators maximize organic views, build an audience base, and increase revenue.
Co - Founder,
Find My Stay
Semi Finalist, Runway to Success Season 3
Indian Angel Network leads funding in Find My Stay
Runway to Success Season 3 Semi-Finalist, Find My Stay, has received an undisclosed funding round led by Indian Angel Network, the country's oldest and largest angel investor group. The online hotel booking platform will use the proceeds towards product development, brand building and further building its technology. It will also use the capital to double its hotel partnerships and increase city coverage.
Founder & Director,
Sattviko
Participant, Runway to Success Season 3
Foodtech Startup Sattviko Gobbles Up Funding From Quattro Founder & Others
Runway to Success Season 3 Contestant Sattviko has raised a round of follow-on funding from a series of angel investors including Quattro founder Raman Roy and others. The investment in the Delhi-based health food restaurant chain will be focused on scaling up its packaged food business operationally and geographically. The funding will also be used to launch an IoT-based vending machine for corporates.
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