- Themed “Indian Startups, Global Footprint”, the 4th edition of the Summit aimed to empower Indian innovators to create value at global scale
- Unicorn founders such as Jaspreet Singh (Druva) and Harsh Jain (Dream11), spoke about their entrepreneurial journeys
- 14 startups supported by TiE Global Angels; USD 4 million raised, announced Nitin Rai
- 15 SaaS companies to become unicorns in the coming years, predicted Rajan Anandan
- 28 billion IoT devices will be connected to the network by 2022, CISCO Systems India predicted
- Dr Santhosh Babu, Principal Secretary to Government – IT Department, Government of Tamil Nadu shed light on major tech-centric policies announced by the state government to boost e-governance
Hosted by TiE Delhi-NCR, the 4th edition of TiE Global Summit witnessed power-packed fireside conversations by eminent ecosystem stakeholders. Over the next two days, the Summit will host 200+ speakers across more than 60 sessions. The inaugural day registered a footfall of 2,000 delegates.
Geetika Dayal, Executive Director – TiE Delhi-NCR, welcomed the guests and opened the fore for TiE leadership. Kick-starting the event, Nitin Rai, Chair – TiE Global Board of Trustees, talked about the theme “Indian Startups, Global Footprint”. He shared insights about the impact of various TiE Global programs focused on youth, angel investing, and women entrepreneurs. Talking about the TiE Global Angels (TGA), he said, “In the past three years, TGA, with the help of 273 Charter Members across 33 chapters, has invested USD 4 million in 14 companies.”
Welcoming the attendees, Rajan Anandan President – TiE Delhi-NCR, said, “This year, the Indian startup ecosystem welcomed 7 new unicorns from different sectors. This is suggestive of how and how much entrepreneurship in the country has grown in the past few years. In line with the theme of this year’s edition of TiE Global Summit, we aimed to celebrate startups that have successfully penetrated international markets while providing budding innovators with the opportunity to network, learn, and grow.”
The first fireside keynote address was by Jaspreet Singh, founder of Druva, a data security and management solutions company. He talked about his journey towards becoming a unicorn startup. Asha Jadeja Motwani, a Silicon Valley-based angel investor and enabler was the Grand Keynote for the inaugural day.
Speaking about ‘Re-defining e-governance’, Dr Santhosh Babu, Principal Secretary to Government, IT Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, made three landmark announcements by the Tamil Nadu government to boost startups. These include setting up centres of excellence for startups, adoption of API route for accelerating regulatory processes, and an investment of USD 5.5 million for enabling blockchain as a service. Later, highlighting the ever-growing relevance of technology, Krishna Sundaresan, VP Engineering – CISCO Systems India, quoted IDC estimates saying that 93% of organizations will use multiple clouds by 2022.
The event also witnessed the presence of distinguished personalities such as noted Author Shiv Khera; and Dia Mirza, Actor, Producer, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador. She was the Guest of Honour for the session focused on environment: ‘Making Habitats Livable’. She spoke about the urgent need for recognizing and acting upon the problems posed by air pollution in India. “What we need today is to be responsive, not reactive. The adverse effect of the poor quality of air is evidenced in our lives – in the health of our children and those around us. Sustainable development goals are about acknowledging that we have a problem and then acting upon it. In our personal capacity, we can begin, by bolstering the waste management infrastructure by properly segregating waste. We can, and indeed must, commit ourselves to do more,” she concluded.
Later in the day, Amitabh Kant, CEO – NITI Aayog, Government of India, delivered a keynote. He said, “It is good to see the tremendous amount of energy, vibrancy, and dynamism shown by startups in India. There are many startups that are driving disruptions across sectors. From the government’s side, we are doing and will continue to do all we can to support the growth of Indian entrepreneurship. I would like to congratulate TiE for four glorious editions of the TiE Global Summit and wish them all the best as they continue to foster the global startup ecosystem.”
The event also facilitated several knowledge-sharing sessions including ‘Fostering Entrepreneurship & Innovation’ powered by STPI and featuring industry leaders such as Subroto Bagchi, Chairman of Odisha Skill Development & Co-founder – Mindtree and Dr Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India, among others. The panel discussed the future of entrepreneurship in the country across Indian states.
Another session during the day was ‘Innovations in the interplay of Digital & Physical Worlds’, powered by Microsoft and led by Dr Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer & Strategy Lead – Microsoft India. She shared invaluable insights regarding the need for digital integration in streamlining various business as well as regulatory processes. Further, the session titled ‘Enabling Startup Ecosystem’ powered by Google, featured an expert panel comprising Shalini Girish, Director – Google Customer Solutions India, Abhinav Kishore, India Head SMB – Google Cloud, and Shalini Poddar, Head of Business Development – Google Play India. The point of discussion was the role of Google India in driving innovations to bolster the start-up ecosystem.
TiE’s 4th Global Summit was backed by several domain-leading institutions including Google, Motwani Jadeja Foundation, Startup India, Indian Angel Network Fund, Flipkart, Deloitte, BIRAC, CISCO Systems India, Microsoft, and MG Motor, among others.
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