Source ForPressRelease.com

AIC BIMTECH organised Tathagat Innovest on 12th March 2026, a new platform aimed to strengthen collaboration between industry innovation academia and government while advancing and promoting the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The event also marked the hosting of India Edition of the Startup World Cup pitching session.



The event was inaugurated by senior government officials and ecosystem leaders including Dr Nalin Kumar Srivastava, Additional Director at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Government of India and Mr Prateek Deshmukh, Program Lead at Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog in presence of Mr. Surya Kant CEO, AIC-BIMTECH and Dr Shalini Singh, Chairperson CIED, BIMTECH. The gathering reflected a strong commitment from government, industry, incubation and academia to promote innovation driven growth in the region.



Inspired by the vision of enlightened progress associated with Gautam Buddha, "Tathagat Innovest" initiative aims to strengthen collaboration and enable meaningful engagement through knowledge exchange startup showcases and investor connect. IT brought together over 300 participants including startups, investors, policymakers, academic institutions, incubators and industry leaders.



The event was attended by more than 40 speakers from almost all respective fields associated with innovation including Amit Singal - Indicorn Angels, Ajay Singh - Advantage Austria, Punit Thakur - Business Finland and Ishu Bansal - Truck Suvidha.



A key highlight of the event was the launch of the India Edition of the Startup World Cup organised globally by Pegasus Tech Ventures, USA. which is first time hosted by an incubator in India at AIC BIMTECH. With over 100 applications received from across India top 25 startups were invited for pitching on the day which was judged by 16 jury members from diversified industries. Based on pitching Top 10 Startups were selected who are Navmarg, 1SpecialPlace, Aerosearch, NEMAAI, MicroHeal, Gadget Guruz, Techknights, Punha and Cettlx Services. The winner of the India regional edition 2026 is Smalblu Technologies (Founder : Garv Goyal). Garv is a student innovator from BITS Pilani, he will advance to the Global Grand Finale scheduled in San Francisco, USA this November 2026 where all global startups will compete for a $1 million of prize money.



As part of the programme AIC BIMTECH also felicitated 6 emerging startups from small town who are funded under MeitY Startup Hub's GENESIS EIR grant: Doctigo, ZK Labs, Technite, Punha Prosthetic, Naikroop and Fettle.



The other most unique engagement during the event was a roundtable discussion with a vision of working for and from Gautam Buddha Nagar towards support of innovation as "Tathagat Innovation Corridor" bringing together 25+ representatives from incubators, industries, startups, investors and academia at a single platform. The discussion focused on collaborative initiatives needed to accelerate startup creation, strengthen incubation support and build sustainable innovation infrastructure aligned with the vision of Viksit UP 2047 and Viksit Bharat 2047. The event was executed with the support of AIC BIMTECH's supported startup name Reskill, founded by Mr. Punit Jain.



Established in 2017 under the aegis of the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India and situated within the legacy driven campus of BIMTECH, AIC BIMTECH has supported over 500 startups, enabled more than 7000 jobs and facilitated over 200 industry and global partnerships. Through initiatives such as Tathagat Innovest the centre continues to strengthen India's innovation ecosystem while enabling startups to scale and connect with global opportunities along with new Incubation development and ecosystem nurturing activities.