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Business Standard
a day ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Bangalore Gears Up For Conquest, BITS Pilani's Pitching Event: Here's How To Register
VMPL New Delhi [India], August 8: Startup accelerators are on the rise, with more and more founders opting for them because of access to mentorship, industry leaders, funding opportunities and networks. A common goal for accelerators is ensuring that their startups have ample visibility in the ecosystem. A common way accelerators ensure this is through Demo Days--the idea is to bring together the entire ecosystem for a day full of networking, panel discussions, and most important: shark tank-style pitching sessions. BITS Pilani's flagship startup accelerator, Conquest, is one such accelerator program. While Conquest itself stands out as an accelerator for its unique zero-cost, zero-equity model (essentially meaning that founders don't have to give up anything to enter the cohort), the program demonstrates its pinnacle at its flagship event--the Demo Day, in Bengaluru. Through Conquest's seven-week long program, their cohort startups, shortlisted from close to 3000 applications from across the country, have experienced growth that would otherwise take months to achieve. Demo Day is their platform to showcase this growth to the Bengaluru ecosystem during their pitching slots. Demo Day also features panel discussions by ecosystem leaders like Akhil Gupta (NoBroker), Pulkit Jain (Vedantu), Prashant Pitti (EaseMyTrip), Srikanth Subramanian (Angel One), and Shyam Menon (Bharat Innovation Fund), sharing their perspectives on growth, resilience, and the future of entrepreneurship in India. Through the pitching contest, 13 startups will compete for non-dilutive grants and business credits, with the goal of giving them practical support for the next phase of their growth. For founders, Demo Day is a chance to learn from established industry leaders and connect with investors. For investors, the day offers an early look at new ideas and emerging sectors. In general, Demo Day offers an opportunity to experience the energy of the Indian startup ecosystem and get inspired by the next generation of entrepreneurs. Demo Day 2025 is scheduled for the 10th of August, and promises to bring together over 300 high-profile attendees, comprising 50+ founders, 40+ VC firms, 15+ media houses, and 20+ CXOs.
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Business Standard
30-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
NoBroker's Convozen AI unveils no-code platform for WhatsApp agents
NoBroker's conversational AI suite, has launched a new platform that allows businesses to build agentic bots for WhatsApp without any coding, and deploy them in 10 minutes. These agentic bots have multilingual capabilities, can handle complex customer journeys, remember context, make decisions, and continuously improve the customer service experience. The platform brings together voicebots and chatbots into a unified, multilingual experience on WhatsApp. Built on Meta's voice and chat application programming interfaces (APIs), it allows brands to deploy AI agents seamlessly. 'With Agentic AI, we're no longer just answering customer queries. We're anticipating needs, resolving friction, and elevating the experience to a new standard,' said Akhil Gupta, founder, Convozen, and co-founder of NoBroker. 'These bots speak the customer's language literally and figuratively as they are able to switch between languages like people do in normal speech. This frees up our human agents to focus on complex, value-driven conversations rather than repetitive, mundane tasks,' he added. The new platform enables brands to deploy AI agents that communicate via voicebot, chatbot, or a combination of both, offering a seamless, unified experience.
South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
How resilient brands grow in volatile times
South China Morning Post (SCMP) Advertising+ and its insights partner, Ipsos Hong Kong, launched its third annual brand study at The St. Regis Hong Kong on June 25, in front of an influential audience of more than 200 marketing and key business figures. A number of leading marketers and creative leaders spoke at the event, sharing their insights on the role of brand in driving growth, resilience and loyalty. Additionally, CEOs and senior leaders from over 20 agencies participated in a pre-briefing to discuss the research findings. CEOs and senior leaders from over 20 agencies at a pre-briefing. Trust fuels resilience and growth Akhil Gupta, director, market strategy & understanding, Ipsos Hong Kong, and Paul Phillips, marketing director, SCMP, shared recent research which showed that up to 41 per cent of affluent people have already cut back on non-essentials or plan to do so. Left (from left to right): Tom Kao, chief executive officer, Publicis Groupe Hong Kong; Simone Tam, chief executive officer, Greater Bay Area, dentsu; Akhil Gupta, director, market strategy & understanding, Ipsos Hong Kong. What was fascinating was that the research revealed consumers were up to six times more likely to continue spending on brands they trust, despite cutting back on non-essential spending. They are also willing to tolerate a seven per cent price increase from brands they trust before reconsidering their purchases. Brands that consumers have faith in are resilient even in the toughest of times. The key drivers of this trust are product and service quality and a robust brand identity. The key to building that identity in a way that resonates with consumers is storytelling.
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Business Standard
08-07-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
360 One group gets CCI nod to acquire UBS India wealth and lending units
Fair trade regulator CCI on Tuesday approved 360 ONE group's proposal to acquire certain businesses of Switzerland-based multinational investment bank UBS AG. "The proposed combination comprises acquisition of portfolio management services business of Credit Suisse Securities (India) Pvt Ltd in India by 360 ONE Portfolio Managers Ltd and stock broking services and financial product distribution services of CS Securities by 360 ONE Distribution Services Ltd (360 Distribution)," the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in a release. Credit Suisse Securities (India) is a step-down wholly-owned subsidiary of UBS AG. CCI said it has also cleared a loan portfolio which forms part of lending and financing business of UBS Finance India Pvt Ltd, undertaken as a systematically important non-deposit taking non-banking financial company by 360 ONE Prime Ltd. Additionally, the competition watchdog approved UBS AG's subscription to warrants of 360 ONE WAM representing a 4.95 per cent of the paid up share capital. "CCI approves acquisition of certain businesses of UBS AG by 360 ONE entities," the regulator said in a post on X. In April this year, UBS announced that it entered into an exclusive strategic collaboration with 360 ONE WAM. As part of the collaboration, UBS will transfer its onshore wealth management business in India to 360 ONE. Further, UBS will acquire warrants for a 4.95 per cent stake in 360 ONE. "With this transaction, it opens the way for a global, personalised, and sophisticated wealth management experience for both sets of clients as well as significant value enhancement to our employees and shareholders," Akhil Gupta, Chairman of 360 ONE WAM, said. The deals beyond a certain threshold require approval from the regulator, which keeps a tab on unfair business practices as well as promotes fair competition in the marketplace. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Time of India
08-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
360 ONE group gets CCI nod to acquire certain businesses of UBS
Fair trade regulator CCI on Tuesday approved 360 ONE group 's proposal to acquire certain businesses of Switzerland-based multinational investment bank UBS AG. "The proposed combination comprises acquisition of portfolio management services business of Credit Suisse Securities (India) Pvt Ltd in India by 360 ONE Portfolio Managers Ltd and stock broking services and financial product distribution services of CS Securities by 360 ONE Distribution Services Ltd (360 Distribution)," the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said in a release. Credit Suisse Securities (India) is a step-down wholly-owned subsidiary of UBS AG. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo CCI said it has also cleared a loan portfolio which forms part of lending and financing business of UBS Finance India Pvt Ltd, undertaken as a systematically important non-deposit taking non-banking financial company by 360 ONE Prime Ltd. Additionally, the competition watchdog approved UBS AG's subscription to warrants of 360 ONE WAM representing a 4.95 per cent of the paid up share capital. Live Events "CCI approves acquisition of certain businesses of UBS AG by 360 ONE entities," the regulator said in a post on X. In April this year, UBS announced that it entered into an exclusive strategic collaboration with 360 ONE WAM. As part of the collaboration, UBS will transfer its onshore wealth management business in India to 360 ONE. Further, UBS will acquire warrants for a 4.95 per cent stake in 360 ONE. "With this transaction, it opens the way for a global, personalised, and sophisticated wealth management experience for both sets of clients as well as significant value enhancement to our employees and shareholders," Akhil Gupta, Chairman of 360 ONE WAM, said. The deals beyond a certain threshold require approval from the regulator, which keeps a tab on unfair business practices as well as promotes fair competition in the marketplace.
