IIT Bombay’s Eureka! 2024: The biggest opportunity for all the startup founders
Returning for its 27th edition, the competition will provide founders and leaders with months of networking, one-on-one mentoring, investment opportunities, incubation, and essential insights into building scalable businesses.
Last date for registration: 29th September, 2024
Click here to register for Asia’s largest business model competition!
Last year saw over 18,000 entries, with passionate entrepreneurs and startups undergoing three rigorous rounds spread over five months.
The winning startups stand to win prizes worth INR 2 crore!
IIT Bombay’s Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell), Asia’s largest student-run entrepreneurship organization, has garnered support from UNESCO, Make in India, Startup India, and Digital India for its role in promoting entrepreneurship. For the past 26 years, E-Cell has served as a vital link connecting different elements of the startup ecosystem.
E-Cell is ready to host its flagship business model competition, Eureka!, back for its 27th year. With 7 tracks, the competition aims to provide founders with months of learning, networking, and sector-specific mentoring, and investment opportunities to master the key components of building a scalable business.
The event is tailored for early-stage entrepreneurs, particularly those in the ideation and MVP stage, offering one-on-one mentoring focused on developing go-to-market strategies.
Eureka! 2024 promises to be grander than ever, with incentives worth INR 2 crore, 50+ venture capitalists, 300+ mentors, and opportunities to win sponsored visits to USA and Dubai to pitch in global entrepreneurship-based competitions. Eureka! is co-presented by WestBridge Capital in association with FedEx, powered by Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), with Ovington Capital Partners as the Venture Studio Partner. It is supported by The Nudge Institute as Social Partner, Enrission India Capital as Gold Sponsor, Venture Catalysts as Venture Capital Partner, and NRL as Energy Innovation Partner.
What’s In It For Startups?
With over 18,000 entries last year, entrepreneurs will go through three intensive rounds spread over five months. The first round will feature on-stage mentoring to help founders build a robust business model, starting with the basics of creating a business model canvas.
In previous editions, mentors included industry leaders such as Kanchi Daiya from Indian Angel Network, Amit Jain from StartupBay, Piyush Surana from Tomorrow Capital, and Pradeep Rathi from 3i Zone.
The shortlisted startups will then enter a mentorship round with workshops designed to refine their business models and products. Founders will be judged on the viability of their ideas and their unique value propositions.
Once the finalists are selected, they will participate in a three-day accelerator program to prepare for the final stage of the competition. The final pitch will take place at IIT Bombay’s E-Summit 25, an annual business conclave in February 2025. Finalists will pitch their ventures in a closed-door event before a panel of industry experts.
Last year’s jury included Rajesh Mane from 9Unicorns, Reshma Jhaveri from Venture Catalysts, Rahul Baviskar from Swadeshi Handicrafts, and Douglas Peris from Hyper Accelerator, among others. The live pitches took place on the IIT Bombay campus in the first week of February 2025.
The winning startups will receive prizes valued at over $120,000, including incentives from MSG91, Clevertap, GitHub, Zendesk, and many others. Investors on the jury will also have the option to provide additional funding to the participating startups.
Beyond India, Eureka! has expanded to six countries in the GCC region, including Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The competition offers a prize pool of $100,000 and a fully-sponsored trip to Dubai for the Eureka! GCC finals, where participants will pitch their ideas to global investors.
Past Eureka! winners include startups such as P-TAL, Sputnik Brain, Dehaat, BlisCare, Jeevan Lite, SPARC, MyWays, DocEye, Curomates, and AI-Genix. These startups also had the opportunity to present their business ideas at the Indian Pavilion during Dubai EXPO 2020, where BlisCare, DocEye, Curomates, and AI-Genix secured spot funding.