ET Soonicorns Sundowner in Hyderabad sets the table for India's product-first startup future
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Dr. Raj Narayanam, Founder, Zaggle , GV Keshav Reddy, Founder, Equal & Board Member, Reddy Ventures, Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO, Anthill Ventures, Sandeep Maheshwari, Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, Kavikrut, CEO, T-Hub, Moderated by Deepak Ajwani, Editor of EconomicTimes.com
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Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures
Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder and Executive Chairman of Zaggle
Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub
Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset
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'Hyderabad is like biryani—slow-cooked overnight, flavourful. That's how businesses should be built; not rushed, but carefully over time,' said Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder and Executive Chairman of fintech platform Zaggle, setting the tone for what would become a candid, thought-provoking, and richly insightful panel discussion on the rise of product-first startups from India's emerging innovation hub.This defining panel discussion—'Built in Hyderabad: The Rise of India's Product-First Startups'—was the centrepiece of the inaugural ET Soonicorns Sundowner in Hyderabad, held on 31 July 2025. The event marked the debut of a new after-hours format by The Economic Times, designed to spotlight regional startup ecosystems with high-growth potential. As a high-energy spin-off from the flagship ET Soonicorns Summit, which is returning to Bengaluru for its fourth edition on 22 August 2025, the Sundowner series now sets the tone for India's next wave of unicorn contenders.Moderated by Deepak Ajwani, Editor of EconomicTimes.com, the panel brought together a strong lineup of founders and investors: Dr. Raj Narayanam of Zaggle, GV Keshav Reddy, Founder of Equal and Board Member at Reddy Ventures, Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures, Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, and Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub.The evening kicked off with a pointed question from Ajwani: Why Hyderabad?GV Keshav Reddy, Founder of Equal and Board Member at Reddy Ventures, who shifted his data-tech startup Equal to Hyderabad from Mumbai, answered without hesitation: 'Hyderabad, without a doubt, is the best city to live in right now. We brought 81 of our 100 people from Bombay (Mumbai), Delhi, and Bangalore (Bengaluru). Many are from Bangalore. You just book them a ticket, show them the office, and they stay.'He attributed this migration to a potent combination: purpose, culture, a lower cost of living, and a fast-maturing ecosystem.Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures, whose venture fund Anthill was one of the first to back startups out of T-Hub nearly a decade ago, shared a personal anecdote: 'I thought we'd return to Bangalore from the US. But my wife won—her parents are in Hyderabad. That's how we landed here. A decade later, we're still here. There's real camaraderie in this ecosystem.'For Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder and Executive Chairman of Zaggle, the move was strategic: 'My uncle offered me an entire floor for my office, in exchange for some equity. We built a large team in Bangalore, but came back. Hyderabad gives you the quiet focus to build in stealth. Revenue is the goal, not just noise.'Talent, deep tech, and the new age of AIThe conversation widened from anecdotes to ecosystem dynamics.Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub, framed it as a national opportunity: 'This isn't a zero-sum game between cities. For India to succeed, we need 100 Bangalores and Hyderabads. But what makes Hyderabad unique is talent. We've exported the best tech minds globally. Now's the time to bring them back.'Kavikrut cited Hyderabad's rising influence in AI, defence, and aerospace. 'We have top universities, big tech offices—Apple, Alexa, Microsoft—and a deep talent pool. The concentration of Fortune 2000 companies is rising. We're at an inflection point.'Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, echoed this from an investor's lens: 'The ecosystem has matured beautifully. We're particularly bullish on defence and space. DRDO labs, PSUs, private innovators—Hyderabad is positioned like no other.'On the flipside of this momentum, however, is the volatility of artificial intelligence (AI) cycles.'Engineers expect you to ride every wave. Investors, too,' said Dr. Narayanam. 'But I never believed in 'fail fast' or 'scale fast'. My mantra has always been: stay close to the customer. Customers cut through the noise.'He admitted the AI downcycle has worked in his favour. 'In 2021-22, it was chaos. We lost great talent. Now we're acquiring solid companies at a good value. Hyderabad helps—less hype, more substance.'Maheshwari was blunt about the investment lens: 'One OpenAI release can wipe out 20,000 startups. The only real moat today is customer love, or regulatory ones like licenses. Application-layer AI is easy to prototype but hard to productionise.'T-Hub's Kavikrut agreed. 'We tell founders: benchmark globally. The best teams—such as Pulse, which builds product agents—have clarity and resilience. That mindset is what early-stage investors should back.'Ajwani steered the panel into familiar, yet vital territory: what not to do.Vanga said, 'Don't follow the hype cycle. Go against the grain. The truly successful founders are often the ones going the other way.'Maheshwari added, 'Adaptability is a high-value trait. Almost every founder we've seen succeed has pivoted. The 'what' remains, but the 'how' changes.'Kavikrut expanded on this: 'We actually look for founders who've pivoted and stayed in the game. It shows mental resilience—often more valuable than capital.'Dr. Narayanam brought in a hard-won perspective: 'If I had to do it again, I'd focus on small niches. You stay under the radar; VCs don't see the TAM, so they ignore you. That's where you build quietly, constantly pivoting.'Reddy added: 'We pivoted three times in three years—first personal data, then health, then financial services. Now, we power a billion transactions. Most people don't even know they're using us.'Vanga responded with nuance: 'It depends. High-scale, low-revenue businesses must chase scale. But if you're building with good margins, you lean towards sustainability.'Reddy summed it up succinctly: 'The right answer is sustainable scale.'Ajwani closed with a hard-hitting dilemma: When founders want to play long and VCs push for speed, who blinks first?Maheshwari replied with a laugh: 'Honestly, I'd like to blink first. But this depends on the stage. VC money is meant for scale. Traditional investors expecting instant profit derail founders. It becomes a lifestyle business. That's not how this works.'Dr. Narayanam added, 'India needs patient capital. But it doesn't exist. The VC model is imported. We need an India-specific version. Sometimes you need to spend ₹10 to earn ₹1, and that's a hard pill for investors.'He credited early disrupters: 'Tiger Global and Lee Fixel changed the game. They wrote the big cheques that others hesitated to. That's what changed our ecosystem.'If one theme defined the session, it was this: Hyderabad has emerged as a serious contender in deep innovation. Its product-first culture, engineering discipline, and rising investor confidence signal a shift that could shape India's startup story over the next decade.And as the ET Soonicorns Sundowner series suggests, this is only the beginning. The Hyderabad edition has set a high bar for upcoming Sundowners in Gurugram and Mumbai—expanding the franchise of the ET Soonicorns Summit, returning on 22 August 2025.With a room full of changemakers, candid debates, and a renewed call for patient capital and deep IP, the Hyderabad Sundowner offered a glimpse into what its next startup frontier might truly look like. Just like its biryani—layered, slow-cooked, and rich with flavour, this ecosystem isn't about fast burn but lasting impact.360 One is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025. T-Hub is the ecosystem partner of the ET Soonicorns Sundowner 2025 Hyderabad edition.
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Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
ET Soonicorns Summit grows its footprint with Hyderabad launch of ET Soonicorns Sundowner series
ET Spotlight Report Unveiling Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills ET Special Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary (I&C), Government of Telangana ET Special Dr. Raj Narayanam, Founder, Zaggle , GV Keshav Reddy, Founder, Equal & Board Member, Reddy Ventures, Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO, Anthill Ventures, Sandeep Maheshwari, Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, Kavikrut, CEO, T-Hub, Deepak Ajwani, Editor, Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder & Executive Chairman, Zaggle GV Keshav Reddy, Founder, Equal & Board Member, Reddy Ventures Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO, Anthill Ventures Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset Kavikrut, CEO, T-Hub ET Special Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder & Executive Chairman, Zaggle ET Special Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset ET Special Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub ET Special GV Keshav Reddy, Founder, Equal & Board Member, Reddy Ventures ET Special Kishore Tallam, CFO at Skyroot, Nishanth Dongari On a balmy July evening in Hyderabad, as the sun dipped behind the skyline of Knowledge City, a different kind of spark lit up the city—a spark of ambition, resilience, and realism. The inaugural edition of ET Soonicorns Sundowner took off on July 31, 2025, in the heart of India's newest startup innovation corridor. This marked the launch of a high-powered regional spin-off from the flagship ET Soonicorns Summit, now in its fourth year and slated for a grand return in Bengaluru on 22 August ET Soonicorns Summit initiative, originally conceived as a data-driven list, has evolved into a multi-city franchise that recognises startups with growth potential. Hyderabad was the natural choice to kickstart the Sundowner series, given that it is an increasingly vital innovation hub, yet often Sundowner format may be breezier in tone, but make no mistake—Hyderabad's edition delivered heavyweight insights and hard data in equal measure.A tribute to the grit behind the gloss in India's startup story, the evening delivered a three-part punch: the unveiling of the ET Top Soonicorns and Minicorns X Priority Sectors Telangana-Andhra Pradesh 2025 report, a high-wattage founder-investor panel on Hyderabad's product-first DNA, and a raw, open-mic finale featuring founder stories that rarely make it to pitch decks.A key highlight was the official unveiling of the ET Top Soonicorns and Minicorns X Priority Sectors Telangana-Andhra Pradesh 2025—a comprehensive cluster map of the regional startup ecosystem, curated in collaboration with research partner Tracxn, a data intelligence report identifies breakout companies and signals sectoral shifts in one of India's fastest-rising tech corridors, whilst analysing funding patterns, capital flows, and high-growth soonicorns and minicorns poised to produce the region's next Ranjan, Principal Secretary (I&C), Government of Telangana, Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, and Deepak Ajwani, Editor, jointly launched the report to a packed a special address, Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, reflected on the government's proactive stance in catalysing innovation since 2014: 'We believed the government could strategically solve ecosystem pain points. And I think we've proven that. But we could do more, especially in accelerating those on the cusp of unicorn status.'Importantly, Ranjan extended an open invitation to founders: 'If you need help and the government can play a role, we'll do it.'If the report offered the data, the panel delivered the lived reality of building quietly, purposefully, and against the by Deepak Ajwani, Editor, the session featured a formidable lineup:The discussion that followed was equal parts rooted and revealing. GV Keshav Reddy, Founder of Equal and Board Member at Reddy Ventures, spoke with clarity on Hyderabad's appeal: 'I could have started Equal in any major city, but we chose Hyderabad. Purpose, culture, lower cost, better lifestyle—it's a founder-friendly city. Out of our 100 people, 81 moved here from other metros with no prior connection.'Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures, shared his own pivot back to the city: 'I built my first company in Bangalore, then moved to the US. When we returned to India, I thought we'd go back to Bangalore. But my wife won—her parents are in Hyderabad. Ten years later, we're still here.'Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder & Executive Chairman, Zaggle, who traded New York for Delhi before choosing Hyderabad, offered a flavourful metaphor: 'This city is like biryani—slow-cooked overnight. That's how businesses should be built.' He emphasised Hyderabad's USP of 'quiet focus and fewer distractions'.His view was echoed by Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, as he pointed to Hyderabad's natural advantages in frontier sectors: 'Especially in defence and space, Hyderabad is uniquely positioned.'Offering the investor lens, he added: 'There's excellent engineering talent here and a frugal mindset—cost discipline is built in from day one.'Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub, zoomed out to connect regional strength with national vision: 'This isn't a competition between cities. India needs 100 Bangalores and Hyderabads. The artificial intelligence (AI) wave won't be built in just one place—Hyderabad has the ingredients: top universities, large tech campuses, and deep talent pools.'But the panel didn't sugar-coat the journey. Ajwani's sharp question on hype cycles led to a candid response from Narayanam: 'I've never believed in 'fail fast' or 'scale fast.' My focus has always been revenue. Customers keep you grounded.'On navigating the AI boom and bust, Maheshwari didn't hold back: 'One release from OpenAI can wipe out 20,000 companies overnight.' For investors, he said, 'The only real moat is customer love—or regulatory licenses.'The consensus? Bet on founders, not just the discussion shifted to hype cycles, Narayanam stressed the importance of customer-first discipline: 'I've never believed in 'fail fast' or 'scale fast'. From Day One, my focus was revenue and staying close to the customer. The current AI downcycle is helping; we're acquiring great companies at good value.'Maheshwari added perspective on the volatility: 'One release from OpenAI can wipe out 20,000 companies. The only real moat today is customer love or regulatory moats like licenses.'When asked 'what not to do', the consensus was firm: 'Don't chase hype. Pivot with purpose. Founders who've pivoted and stayed in the game, that's who we look for,' said perhaps said it best: 'Find your niche, scale it to the deepest level, and keep pivoting. That's what keeps you alive.'Keshav Reddy's own story proved the point: 'We pivoted three times in three years—from personal data to health to financial services. Now we power a billion transactions a year.'When Ajwani posed the age-old dilemma—scale vs. sustainability—Reddy framed it as a false binary. 'The right answer is: sustainable scale.'The evening ended on a note of introspection about India's capital culture. 'We need patient capital,' said Narayanam. 'But there's none of it around.' Citing Flipkart's early struggles and the role of Tiger Global, he remarked, 'One man, one strategy—Lee Fixel changed everything.'The final segment, One Moment That Changed Everything, brought the mic to the founders. Three entrepreneurs shared pivotal moments of heartbreak, reinvention, and unexpected breakthroughs in an unscripted storytelling the lights dimmed and conversations spilled into corridors and cocktails, one thing was clear: the ET Soonicorns Sundowner isn't just another networking evening. It's a mirror, a spotlight, and a platform for founders building quietly, investors betting wisely, and ecosystems readying for the next intimate founder journeys, it offered a raw, real look at the emotional core of building a Tallam, CFO at Skyroot, Nishanth Dongari, Founder and MD of PURE EV, and Sankarsh Chanda, Founder - Stardour, took to the stage to share personal turning points—stories of pivots, heartbreaks, near-failures, and surprising a narrative-rich layer to the evening, the launch of the Limitless Founder Journeys: N to X report—featuring 20 behind-the-scenes stories curated by 360 ONE—brought founder voices to the fore in fine editions in Gurugram and Mumbai coming up, and the flagship ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 returning to Bengaluru on August 22, the stage is set. Hyderabad has raised the bar.360 One is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025. T-Hub is the ecosystem partner of the ET Soonicorns Sundowner 2025 Hyderabad edition.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
ET Soonicorns Sundowner in Hyderabad sets the table for India's product-first startup future
On 31 July 2025, some of Hyderabad's important founders and funders met to participate in a panel. Here's what they had to say on redefining scale and substance at this panel, the centrepiece of the inaugural ET Soonicorns Sundowner series, a spin-off from the flagship ET Soonicorns Summit 2025. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Dr. Raj Narayanam, Founder, Zaggle , GV Keshav Reddy, Founder, Equal & Board Member, Reddy Ventures, Prasad Vanga, Founder & CEO, Anthill Ventures, Sandeep Maheshwari, Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, Kavikrut, CEO, T-Hub, Moderated by Deepak Ajwani, Editor of Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder and Executive Chairman of Zaggle Kavikrut, CEO of T-Hub Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads 'Hyderabad is like biryani—slow-cooked overnight, flavourful. That's how businesses should be built; not rushed, but carefully over time,' said Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder and Executive Chairman of fintech platform Zaggle, setting the tone for what would become a candid, thought-provoking, and richly insightful panel discussion on the rise of product-first startups from India's emerging innovation defining panel discussion—'Built in Hyderabad: The Rise of India's Product-First Startups'—was the centrepiece of the inaugural ET Soonicorns Sundowner in Hyderabad, held on 31 July 2025. The event marked the debut of a new after-hours format by The Economic Times, designed to spotlight regional startup ecosystems with high-growth potential. As a high-energy spin-off from the flagship ET Soonicorns Summit, which is returning to Bengaluru for its fourth edition on 22 August 2025, the Sundowner series now sets the tone for India's next wave of unicorn by Deepak Ajwani, Editor of the panel brought together a strong lineup of founders and investors: Dr. Raj Narayanam of Zaggle, GV Keshav Reddy, Founder of Equal and Board Member at Reddy Ventures, Prasad Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures, Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, and Kavikrut, CEO of evening kicked off with a pointed question from Ajwani: Why Hyderabad?GV Keshav Reddy, Founder of Equal and Board Member at Reddy Ventures, who shifted his data-tech startup Equal to Hyderabad from Mumbai, answered without hesitation: 'Hyderabad, without a doubt, is the best city to live in right now. We brought 81 of our 100 people from Bombay (Mumbai), Delhi, and Bangalore (Bengaluru). Many are from Bangalore. You just book them a ticket, show them the office, and they stay.'He attributed this migration to a potent combination: purpose, culture, a lower cost of living, and a fast-maturing Vanga, Founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures, whose venture fund Anthill was one of the first to back startups out of T-Hub nearly a decade ago, shared a personal anecdote: 'I thought we'd return to Bangalore from the US. But my wife won—her parents are in Hyderabad. That's how we landed here. A decade later, we're still here. There's real camaraderie in this ecosystem.'For Dr. Raj P. Narayanam, Founder and Executive Chairman of Zaggle, the move was strategic: 'My uncle offered me an entire floor for my office, in exchange for some equity. We built a large team in Bangalore, but came back. Hyderabad gives you the quiet focus to build in stealth. Revenue is the goal, not just noise.'Talent, deep tech, and the new age of AIThe conversation widened from anecdotes to ecosystem CEO of T-Hub, framed it as a national opportunity: 'This isn't a zero-sum game between cities. For India to succeed, we need 100 Bangalores and Hyderabads. But what makes Hyderabad unique is talent. We've exported the best tech minds globally. Now's the time to bring them back.'Kavikrut cited Hyderabad's rising influence in AI, defence, and aerospace. 'We have top universities, big tech offices—Apple, Alexa, Microsoft—and a deep talent pool. The concentration of Fortune 2000 companies is rising. We're at an inflection point.'Sandeep Maheshwari – Senior Fund Manager, 360 ONE Asset, echoed this from an investor's lens: 'The ecosystem has matured beautifully. We're particularly bullish on defence and space. DRDO labs, PSUs, private innovators—Hyderabad is positioned like no other.'On the flipside of this momentum, however, is the volatility of artificial intelligence (AI) cycles.'Engineers expect you to ride every wave. Investors, too,' said Dr. Narayanam. 'But I never believed in 'fail fast' or 'scale fast'. My mantra has always been: stay close to the customer. Customers cut through the noise.'He admitted the AI downcycle has worked in his favour. 'In 2021-22, it was chaos. We lost great talent. Now we're acquiring solid companies at a good value. Hyderabad helps—less hype, more substance.'Maheshwari was blunt about the investment lens: 'One OpenAI release can wipe out 20,000 startups. The only real moat today is customer love, or regulatory ones like licenses. Application-layer AI is easy to prototype but hard to productionise.'T-Hub's Kavikrut agreed. 'We tell founders: benchmark globally. The best teams—such as Pulse, which builds product agents—have clarity and resilience. That mindset is what early-stage investors should back.'Ajwani steered the panel into familiar, yet vital territory: what not to said, 'Don't follow the hype cycle. Go against the grain. The truly successful founders are often the ones going the other way.'Maheshwari added, 'Adaptability is a high-value trait. Almost every founder we've seen succeed has pivoted. The 'what' remains, but the 'how' changes.'Kavikrut expanded on this: 'We actually look for founders who've pivoted and stayed in the game. It shows mental resilience—often more valuable than capital.'Dr. Narayanam brought in a hard-won perspective: 'If I had to do it again, I'd focus on small niches. You stay under the radar; VCs don't see the TAM, so they ignore you. That's where you build quietly, constantly pivoting.'Reddy added: 'We pivoted three times in three years—first personal data, then health, then financial services. Now, we power a billion transactions. Most people don't even know they're using us.'Vanga responded with nuance: 'It depends. High-scale, low-revenue businesses must chase scale. But if you're building with good margins, you lean towards sustainability.'Reddy summed it up succinctly: 'The right answer is sustainable scale.'Ajwani closed with a hard-hitting dilemma: When founders want to play long and VCs push for speed, who blinks first?Maheshwari replied with a laugh: 'Honestly, I'd like to blink first. But this depends on the stage. VC money is meant for scale. Traditional investors expecting instant profit derail founders. It becomes a lifestyle business. That's not how this works.'Dr. Narayanam added, 'India needs patient capital. But it doesn't exist. The VC model is imported. We need an India-specific version. Sometimes you need to spend ₹10 to earn ₹1, and that's a hard pill for investors.'He credited early disrupters: 'Tiger Global and Lee Fixel changed the game. They wrote the big cheques that others hesitated to. That's what changed our ecosystem.'If one theme defined the session, it was this: Hyderabad has emerged as a serious contender in deep innovation. Its product-first culture, engineering discipline, and rising investor confidence signal a shift that could shape India's startup story over the next as the ET Soonicorns Sundowner series suggests, this is only the beginning. The Hyderabad edition has set a high bar for upcoming Sundowners in Gurugram and Mumbai—expanding the franchise of the ET Soonicorns Summit, returning on 22 August a room full of changemakers, candid debates, and a renewed call for patient capital and deep IP, the Hyderabad Sundowner offered a glimpse into what its next startup frontier might truly look like. Just like its biryani—layered, slow-cooked, and rich with flavour, this ecosystem isn't about fast burn but lasting impact.360 One is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025. T-Hub is the ecosystem partner of the ET Soonicorns Sundowner 2025 Hyderabad edition.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Time of India
The future of Indian retail is AI and omnichannel: A preview from ET Soonicorns Summit 2025
Venu Nair, Chief of Strategic Planning and Omnichannel, Myntra Chief of Strategic Planning and Omnichannel, Myntra Ankit Gupta, VP, Head of Product & Tech, Reliance Retail VP, Head of Product & Tech, Reliance Retail Rahul Kothari, COO, Razorpay You're browsing for a new pair of spectacles. The website instantly filters styles based on your face shape, recent screen time habits, and even suggests blue-light blocking lenses for your late-night scrolling. Before you click 'add to cart,' it shows you how each frame would look on your face, using your past selfies and purchase a working day. A nudge on your phone offers a personalised bundle—your favourite brand of sneakers, now paired with curated accessories based on your last purchase. At checkout, there's no queue. You're recognised, and your payment goes through above scenarios are not pages from sci-fi. They are glimpses of predictive and precision retail. All thanks to artificial intelligence or to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Indian retail landscape, caught in the throes of a seismic shift. The era of one-size-fits-all storefronts and generic marketing is rapidly fading, replaced by a new paradigm where the customer experience is not just king, but the entire kingdom. Traditional storefronts and generic campaigns are giving way to hyper-personalised, data-driven experiences powered by AI in retail. Today, building a loyal customer base means delivering not just transactions but tailored, predictive, and omnichannel shopping experiences that resonate deeply across digital and physical touchpoints. This is the new retail battleground, and AI is the weapon of critical transformation will be the focal point at the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025, scheduled for August 22 in Bengaluru. A pivotal session, 'AI-Driven Personalisation and Omnichannel Commerce: The Next Retail Battleground,' featured under the track 'From Pilot to Product-Market Fit', will convene some of the most influential minds from India's retail and technology sectors to dissect this revolution. The conversation will explore how startups and incumbents alike are leveraging AI to craft bespoke customer journeys, implement dynamic pricing, and orchestrate seamless omnichannel strategies to elevate the retail panel features a powerhouse trio, each at the helm of this change within their respective domains:The modern consumer is inundated with choices, and their attention is the new currency. To capture it, retailers must do more than just sell a product; they must sell an experience. This is where hyper-personalisation—the use of real-time data and AI to deliver highly tailored interactions—becomes essential. Deloitte's June 2024 report, titled Personalising Growth: It's a Value Exchange Between Brands and Customers, reveals that brands excelling at personalisation are 48% more likely to exceed revenue goals and 71% more likely to improve customer loyalty. However, the research also finds a significant gap between brand intent and customer perception: while brands believe 61% of touchpoints are personalised, only 43% are recognised as such by consumers, which makes the ET Soonicorn Summit panel on AI and personalisation all the more fact, the Indian market reflects this global trend with a unique intensity. The AI in the Indian retail market is projected to skyrocket from USD 216.26 million in 2023 to nearly USD 2.97 billion by 2032 , per data released by Credence Research. This is propelled by the insatiable demand for personalised shopping. A recent study from Zebra Technologies' 17th Annual Global Shopper Study found that 77% of Indian shoppers now prefer retailers that provide tailored recommendations powered by AI. This is not a future-state desire; it is a present-day personalisation is only one half of the equation. The other is creating a cohesive experience across every touchpoint, a strategy known as omnichannel commerce. As the lines between online and offline blur, customers expect to transition seamlessly between a brand's app, website, and physical store. Recent data indicates that omnichannel retail in India has been growing approximately 50% faster than single-channel retail formats, while 73% of customers use multiple channels—such as online, in‑store, and mobile—before making a purchase decision. These findings reflect evolving consumer behaviour, highlighting the importance of integrated retail strategies in India's this fusion of AI-driven personalisation and omnichannel execution is the definitive challenge for Indian retail. The stakes are monumental. The Indian retail market is expected to reach US$1.4 trillion by 2024 , according to a report by NASSCOM. Brands that successfully harness AI to deliver a unified, intelligent, and personal customer journey will capture a disproportionate share of this growth. Those who fail will be left speakers for this session bring a wealth of in-the-trenches experience, representing the convergence of fashion e-commerce, large-scale physical and digital retail, and the financial technology that underpins it Nair helms strategic planning and omnichannel initiatives at Myntra, a company synonymous with fashion e-commerce in India. With a vast catalogue of over 2.3 million styles, Myntra has made AI a core part of its strategy to solve the challenge of product discovery. The company employs sophisticated AI tools such as MyFashionGPT and My Stylist to offer personalised style recommendations, allowing users to have a more meaningful, discovery-led shopping experience. Myntra's generative AI assistant, built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, helps users shop with open-ended natural language queries, such as 'what to wear for a festival,' leading to a threefold increase in the likelihood of purchase for those who use it. Nair, a retail veteran with over three decades of experience at giants such as Shoppers Stop, Westside, and Marks & Spencer, is tasked with managing and expanding this omnichannel strategy, making his insights into blending digital innovation with physical retail Gupta, as the VP and Head of Product & Tech at Reliance Retail, operates at an unparalleled scale. Reliance Retail operates over 18,650 stores and a vast digital ecosystem. The company's strategy is deeply rooted in creating a seamless omnichannel model with a common inventory that enables hyper-local delivery. Gupta's teams utilise AI and ML across the entire value chain—from product recommendations, demand forecasting, and supply chain optimisation to automated replenishment and customer support chatbots. The goal is a 'zero-touch' self-optimising network that enhances customer experience through deep technology Kothari, the Chief Operating Officer of Razorpay, provides a critical and often overlooked perspective: the payment layer that enables commerce. A seamless checkout is the final, crucial step in the customer journey. Razorpay has aggressively pursued an omnichannel strategy, acquiring point-of-sale (POS) firm Ezetap to merge online and offline payment experiences. The company is focused on building a system where a customer's identity is unified across channels, allowing for personalised payment experiences. As COO for India and Malaysia, Kothari's role involves enhancing this seamless customer experience across all of Razorpay's business lines. His focus on reducing friction in transactions and leveraging data to improve conversion rates is essential for any retailer looking to optimise their omnichannel Economic Times Soonicorns Summit 2025, India's largest congregation of soon-to-be unicorns, returns to Bengaluru on August 22 for its fourth edition. This premier event brings together founders, VCs, CTOs, and policymakers under the theme 'From Research Labs to Revenue Models: The Billion-Dollar Blueprint for Scaling Indian AI Startups.'As India's startup ecosystem matures, with AI as its definitive growth engine, the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 serves as a strategic launchpad. The Summit promises not just to highlight trends but to deliver actionable insights for anyone building the next AI-powered unicorn or investing in India's deep-tech discussion on AI-driven retail is more than just an academic debate; it's a playbook for survival and growth in one of India's most dynamic sectors. For founders, product leaders, and investors, this session represents a unique opportunity to learn from the leaders who are defining the future of commerce. It's where the blueprint for India's next generation of retail champions will be for the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025 is now open. Register Here. 360 One is the presenting partner of the ET Soonicorns Summit 2025.(This article is generated and published by the ET Spotlight team. You can get in touch with them at etspotlight@ .)
