SPARKL – GLA Technology Business Incubator, in collaboration with Easy Knowledge Club and MeitY Startup Hub, successfully hosted VENTURETHON-2025: Think. Build. Pitch, a two-day entrepreneurship festival that brought together student innovators, early-stage founders, mentors, and investors from across the region.

The event showcased the 12th edition of Fund My Venture, the flagship investor–startup pitching platform of Easy Knowledge Club, where 13 high-potential startups presented their ideas across key sectors such as HealthTech, IoT & Robotics, AI/ML, and consumer innovations.

The investor panel featured prominent names including Amar Dixit (IIT Delhi Angels / Lead – Swiftseed Ventures), Amit Singal (Partner, Indiracorn Angels & Fluid Ventures), Anuj Maheshwari (Finance Leader & Ex-CFO, Kammo Group, Indonesia), Rajesh Ranjan (Designated Partner, O2 Angel Network), Vartul Jain (Investment Analyst, Inflection Point Ventures), and Gautam Aggarwal (Principal, Soonicorn Ventures).
Startup mentors Madhur Malik (Founder, StartupNews.FYI) and Chandan Tiwari (Founder, EDC India) guided founders on business strategy, storytelling, and fundraising preparedness.

VENTURETHON-2025 featured a holistic lineup of initiatives:

• Fund My Venture 12.0: 1:1 startup–investor pitching

• Startup Discovery Camp: Expert-led learning sessions

• Venture Sprint: A 24-hour innovation challenge to support rapid prototyping

Dr. Anup Kumar Gupta, Vice Chancellor, GLA University, highlighted that academic incubators like SPARKL play a pivotal role in helping young innovators build scalable solutions that contribute to India’s economic development.

During a session on ‘Understanding Investability and Scalability’, Ravikumar Tiwari, CEO – SPARKL, emphasized that investors now prioritize founders with strong execution capability and sustainable business models.

“A startup becomes truly investable when the founder shows deep customer understanding, strong unit economics, and scalability,” he noted.

Encouraging student innovators, Amit Singal, Founder – Easy Knowledge Club, stated:

“The startup journey is filled with learning and impact. Focus on real problems, stay persistent, and leverage every opportunity to grow.”

Speaking on ‘Spotting the Next Billion-Dollar Opportunity’, Madhur Malik stressed that India’s startup ecosystem is entering a maturity phase focused on deep-tech, meaningful impact, and resilience across market cycles.

Major Highlights

• A student startup from Venture Sprint received a ₹5 lakh grant commitment from EDC India

• Avasar secured a ₹1 crore debt funding offer from EDC India

• Coroda AI and Anveshan Robotics won ₹15,000 and ₹10,000 respectively in the Venture Sprint challenge

With strong participation and high-impact startup outcomes, VENTURETHON-2025 reinforced GLA University’s commitment to nurturing a thriving innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem for India’s next generation of founders.

By: Arushi Agarwal