Conquest BITS Pilani

This article contains promotional content. Please help improve it by removing promotional language and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic text written from a neutral point of view. (February 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Conquest

Conquest
Company type	Startup Accelerator Program
Industry	Venture Capital
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Bangalore , India
Website	conquest.org.in

Conquest, an initiative by students at the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus is India's first Student-Run Startup Accelerator. Their program includes online mentoring to ten startups from across the country over six weeks, connecting them with field experts. Following this, the startups undergo a ten-day mentorship program in Bangalore. The program ends with the Grand Finale where these startups pitch before India's biggest investment firms and media houses.^[1]

In its 2015 edition, DCB Bank was selected as the Title sponsor. Conquest 2015 had a more streamlined application process through a tie-up with Applyifi, a newly launched platform that helped startups make online pitch-decks for investors. Over 1500 startups applied and were filtered down to 50 in number. After a three-month-long mentoring session, 50 startups were brought down to 10.^[2]

The Grand Finale took place at ITC Sheraton, New Delhi. Swagene,^[3] a Chennai based bio-tech startup, took the top honors and Gamezop,^[4] a New Delhi-based gaming platform, finished as runners-up.

Conquest 2019 invited applications from startups across the world and has received 650+ applications from startups registered in India, Singapore, and other countries. The title sponsor for Conquest 2019 was LTI (Larsen & Toubro Infotech)^[5] and Deskera as associate partner. Conquest 2019 had a more streamlined application process through a tie-up with Applyifi and Startup Buddy, who helped with the shortlisting of top 15 startups for the mentorship stage.^[6] Each startup went through a 3-month-long mentoring session with various mentors in common sessions. A personal mentor was also assigned to each of the startups based on the need of the startups and selection by mentors. After 3 months' remote mentoring, a list of Top 11 startups was arrived at based on the feedback from mentors and questionnaires filled out by startups. The top 11 startups went through a further round of face-to-face mentoring and industry connect for a week at Bengaluru. The Grand Finale took place at The Leela Palace on 28 July 2019, Bengaluru. ScoutMyTrip,^[7] a Mumbai based travel-tech startup, took the top honours^[8] and HRBot,^[9] a Gurugram-based AI recruitment platform, finished as runners-up.

With the onset of COVID, Conquest 2020 was held online. The number of registrations crossed 3000 and winning entries stood to win an equity-less cash prize of Rs 50 lakh and guaranteed investment up to Rs 50 crore from the event's investment partners. The startups attended investment workshops by leading firms like Accel Partners and Blume Ventures.^[10]