Photo Source: Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh University: 55 Startups pitch for funding, venture capitalists pledge investment to 4 startups on Day 2 of NIICS 2025
Chandigarh University’s ‘Incubators & Capital Summit 2025’ Connects Startups in 8 Northern States with Top Venture Capitalists of India
Chandigarh University launches 4 Homegrown Startups at ‘Incubators & Capital Summit 2025’ Showcasing Innovation in AI and Healthcare
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, April 19, 2025: Four out of 55 selected Startups, who made a pitch before top Venture Capitalists (VCs) to secure funding, succeeded in getting the VCs’ pledge for investment to support their venture during Chandigarh University’s first-of-its-kind ‘North India Incubators & Capital Summit (NIICS) 2025’, a two-day flagship event aimed at fostering innovation, collaboration, and advancement within the startup and investment ecosystem, which brought together Venture Capitalists, Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), AIFs, Fintech leaders, and Corporate Investors to drive funding momentum for startups and incubators.
The dignitaries who attended the Summit on its concluding day included Abhishek Kakkar, Vice President Investments, Indian Angel Network, Amit Singhal, Founding Partner, Fluid Ventures, Neha Lakhwara, Co-founder & CEO of Agility Ventures, Manish Verma, Co-founder & CEO, AngelBlue Holdings Pvt Ltd, Sahil Makkar, Chairman & CEO, Punjab Angels Network, Gaurav Patil, Assistant Vice President, Transition VC, Rajesh Mane, Founding Partner, 100 Unicorns, Pulkit Mehrotra, Vice President, Unicorn India Ventures, Dhruv Rathod, Research and Investment Team, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) and Aakaashh Deep. Founding Partner, Unnati Ventures India.
Organised by Chandigarh University’s Technology Business Incubator (TBI) in collaboration with T-Hub, one of the world’s leading startup incubators, the ‘North India Incubators & Capital Summit (NIICS) 2025’ brought together stakeholder from eight states - Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab to outline the roadmap to transform North India’s entrepreneurial landscape.
In partnership with STEPs and Business Incubators Association (ISBA), TiE (IndUS Entrepreneurs) Chandigarh, MeitY Startup Hub and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Summit brought together over 100+ Incubators from eight states in the region, 250+ top Startups, 20+ Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors and Entrepreneur for creating innovation and investment opportunities in the region.
A highlight of the Incubators & Capital Summit included the launch of four Startups -- Chem0, Vertexlabs, Plobbo AI and Medoc Health -- which were nurtured at the Chandigarh University.
Co-Founded by Praneeth Kumar Regulavalasa, a BE (Computer Science Engineering) student at Chandigarh University and Suryaprakash, Vertxlabs bridges the gap between startups and investors. Vertxlabs, an AI-integrated platform that connects startups with investors through LinkedIn, Twitter, and other networks. It’s already serving in over 65 counties with daily active users of over 2500 and has connected about 18 Venture Capitalists and about 500 Startups.
Founded by Chandigarh University’s final year Bachelor of Engineering (CSE) student Utkarsh Luthra, Medoc Health is an healthcare automation system for Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities through advanced softwares for better health care results. It’s designed for making healthcare easier and more efficient by helping hospitals run smoothly, assist doctors with smart tools, and give patients easy access to their health records.
Founded by Chandigarh University student, Krishna Arjun Bhatia, Chem0 works as an AI powered simulation engine for Chemistry experiments. It helps in interacting, visualizing and manipulating various reactions while conducting experiments in chemistry. Chem0 helps in innovating and manipulating chemistry experiments in order to get in-depth knowledge of the subject and encourage Research and Development in this field.
Co-founded by Chandigarh University students, Rahul Sain and Mayank Sain, PLOBBO AI, is an AI based social networking tool which helps write and share the content on all social networking platforms with just one click. “CUTBI helped me a lot by providing me mentorship and facilities to work on our Startup,” said Mayank Sain.
Government Schemes Fuelling Startup Growth Beyond Metros, Says Abhishek Kakkar, Vice President Investments, Indian Angel Network
Participating in a panel discussion titled “Capital Cartography: Mapping North India's Investment Terrain” which was moderated by Neha Lakhwara, Co-founder & CEO of Agility Ventures, Abhishek Kakkar, Vice President Investments, Indian Angel Network which is India's leading platform for seed and early-stage investments, said the Start-Up India initiative by the Union government has led to deeper engagements to encourage and develop the second generation of incubators.
“Google and Facebook came out of university campus and they did not have industry validation at their inception. All of these visionaries or founders have failed a lot of times before making it big. Students must stay hungry, stay foolish and take risks. Any start-up or any business opportunity, the first investor is friends and family and that’s widely available throughout the length and breadth of the country. With the advent of Start-Up India campaign by the Indian government, we have seen a lot of deeper engagements to encourage and develop the second generation of incubators,” he said.
“And then there is DST (Department of Science and Technology), they have many more programs and schemes aimed at nurturing the start-up ecosystem. Today, a lot of interventions are coming into trickling down as capital from government initiatives as well. We have many incubators which are facilitating start-up funding today. The knocking on the doors at incubators is one option and of course there is a TBI at the Chandigarh University campus now. There are grants and schemes available for start-ups by the government; all of these have been done in a way so that it’s not concentrated in just metropolitan cities but there are more than 200 plus tier 2 cities in the country which are path on become the start-up hubs,” Kakkar said encouraging students to adopt the strategy of ‘build fast, break-fast and Fail fast and be agile” while working on a startup.
Focus on your product, use available government grants to build it,Founding Partner of Fluid Ventures, Amit Singhal tells Startups at Chandigarh University’s ‘Incubators & Capital Summit 2025’
Amit Singhal, founding partner of Fluid Ventures said funding decisions are based on the capabilities of Startup founders and their teams, not their geographical location. “If someone has built software, we evaluate the team’s ability to develop and scale it. Funding depends on the strength of the idea and execution ability, not where the founder comes from,” he said.
Singhal also cautioned founders against being overly obsessed with funding. “In India, funding is overhyped. In the US, no one asks how much you’ve raised. Instead, focus on the product and use available government grants to build it.”
Highlighting success stories from across India, such as Transport Simple from Raipur, which now serves clients in the US, Dark AI from rural West Bengal, which built a portable ECG machine that works offline, and V360 from Bhopal, led by a 22-year-old dropout now opening an office in the US, Singhal said, “Startups are no longer confined to Bangalore—innovation is emerging from every corner of India. If founders stay focused on product and customer demand, venture capital will follow,”.
The Summit 2025 featured five thematic pavilions covering emerging sectors like AI, Health & Wellness, Genentech & Sustainability, Business & Finance, Consumer Technology. These apart, two pavilions featured startups related to products and services.