Conquest, the startup conclave arranged by BITS Pilani was found in 2004 and soon it became famous as India’s biggest student-run startup conclave, as per media reports.
It has been receiving around 1000 applications since its last three editions.Conquest has now evolved into a six-week summer program for India’s top ten startups which receive free space to live and work in Bengaluru along with intensive mentoring, investment opportunities and media coverage.
Infotech Hub and Balsamiq are the associate sponsors for the conclave.Conquest is on a mission to empower founders, to catalyze innovation and to assist creation.
Conquest and its success stories
Conquest has had success stories like SocialCops, a startup which was acclaimed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Swagene and Gamezop which were the top two startups in Conquest 2015 went on to create genetically customized medicine and social gaming platforms respectively. Thinkerbell Labs, winner of Conquest 2016 aims to bring Braille within the reach of all visually-impaired people.
With a network of top investors like Sanjay Nath, Dev Khare, Barath Shankar from investment firms like Blume Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, Accel Partners, Matrix Partners, and Indian Angel Network, Conquest serves as a haven for the startups to get into the networks.
“The only way to push the human race forward is to have enterprising small groups of people reject the status quo and build the future. In those magical moments of giving birth to innovation, we stand by the crazy ones who dare to change the world, the ones who love building and creating just for the fun of it.”,
says Rahul Chhabra, CEO at Conquest, BITS Pilani.
He has plans for building India’s first student-run startup launchpad for early age startups.
What does Conquest offer?
Conquest has a number of things to offer to its variety of stakeholders. Some of them are listed below-
- Summer Mentorship Program
With a goal to help the best founders build great businesses and raise money, Conquest provides a six-week long summer mentorship program at Bengaluru to their Top 10 Startups. This will entail free coliving space at The Hub where people come together to live, work and express themselves, along with free coworking facilities.
- Grand Finale
The Summer Mentorship Program will be followed by a Grand Finale where the Top 10 Startups pitch their innovative ideas before India’s top investors and media houses to raise funds and gain media attention.
- Conquest Mentoring Sessions
The top 50 startups among those who have registered themselves with Conquest will be privy to the guidance of the best minds for a day-long mentoring session in Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai with industry stalwarts in tech, customer acquisition, fundraising and so on.
- Conquest Community
A curated community of past startups, investors, mentors, and experts from the Conquest network, this provides an opportunity for members to connect with and gain insights from each other.
- Conquest Hiring Platforms
This gives an opportunity to Conquest Campus Ambassadors, college E-Cell partners and developers to get a chance to work with one of the previous Conquest Finalists as well as the current startups looking to hire.
- Conquest Academy
This helps in building a repository of great advice to first-time founders that would help them in all the probable difficulties that they would face in their path.
- Conquest Meetups
Regularly held meetups and hackathons with mentors, founders, and developers that help bring all the great minds in the field, together under one roof.
Why is Conquest special?
Conquest has built a distraction-free, high growth environment so that the upcoming innovators can single-mindedly focus on building their company. With intensive mentoring from the best minds who have founded great businesses, Conquest offers the right atmosphere.
The collaboration focused environment which requires all Top 10 Startups to stay and work together in order to solve each other’s problems and leverage complementary skill sets is a significant feature of this conclave.
Finally, Conquest helps the startups overcome one of the most common roadblocks – fundraising. Conquest provides investors from top VC firms, Conquest alumni, and experienced founders to help get the required funds at early stages when it is most difficult.
Also Read: Kovalam In Kerala Is All Set To Host A Startup Conclave Next Month
