The grand finale of the ‘Future of Design & Construction’ sessions organised by CorpGini proved to be a real game-changer with presentations by ten shortlisted startups as part of a concerted effort to understand, discuss, and deliberate on innovative solutions that can help solve some of the challenges faced by the real estate and construction industry due to COVID-19. PillarPlus was named the winner and declared the most relevant solution with 49% votes in the live audience poll. The other finalists, GMetri (18% votes), Snaptrude (14% votes) and Modulex (20% votes) also received substantial interest from the audience so it was a win-win scenario for all in what a participant described as ‘Shark Tank.. desi style!’ The other shortlisted startups were CRE Matrix, Get Parking, Stallions, DigiQC, Coaspect and Smatbot.
Naman Kasliwal of PillarPlus shared that this was the first time they had participated in such a session and looked forward to working with a lot of the participants. Utsav Mathur, Founder, CEO of GMetri, termed it a very good and exciting format, pointing out that the platform also offered the scope for collaboration with each other. The Feedback Poll on the format asking if the participants would be interested in attending a similar session every month with new solutions, generated an absolute 100% positive response.
Amit Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, CorpGini, emphasised, “This was a most interesting day with so many startups presenting so many different types of applications and solutions for the real estate industry crisis caused by COVID-19 in just one hour! We have seen a lot of interest from the participants who want to interact with the startups; during the session itself, we received 760 messages indicating the startups they would want to engage with. Participants can send an email to tanya@corpgini.com and take the process forward as well.”
Highlighting the opportunity to give back to society and contribute to support the less fortunate affected by COVID-19, Amit said, “We have created a platform for contributing towards the PM Cares Fund and raised around Rs. 5 lakh already. Participants can donate, coming together as a community in this time of crisis.”
Eric Malis, co-founder and partner of Talis Partners, and co-founder of Lincode Labs, opined that the sessions have been instrumental in highlighting viable business solutions in the time of the coronavirus. “There has been overwhelming support for events like this as they add value with solutions that may be relevant to the real estate recovery. The first two days of the ‘Future of Design & Construction’ sessions saw over 25,000 unique participants.”
The process commenced with a solution showcase through a 90-second elevator pitch followed by Jury Q&A. An Audience Poll was then conducted for selection of top 4 solutions for qualifying to next round. Those 4 startups made a detailed presentation with a Jury Q&A and face-off between 4 selected solutions. The Winner was selected by an Audience Poll. Another Audience Poll was conducted for engaging further with any of the Companies for Work Contract or POC followed by a Feedback Poll on the format and inviting the audience to the next session with new solutions.
The Jury Panel comprising Amit Jain, Co-Founder & CEO, CorpGini; Anup Mehta, Co-Founder & COO, Z Nation Lab & Vinay Unique Group; Dhaval Ajmera, Director, Ajmera Group; Meghna Srivastava, Managing Partner, MAP Architects India; Architect Reza Kabul and Shashie Kumar, COO – Retail, Brigade Enterprises Ltd, evaluated the startups based on parameters like relevance, ‘must-have’ or ‘nice to have’ and whether they would be needed now or later.
Commenting on the concept, Meghna Srivastava described the sessions as “Absolutely amazing. These were very promising startups, it was a very enriching experience. This is the need of the hour for the real estate industry, this is the time we can think and ideate, so now is the best time for doing this.”
Shashie Kumar concurred. “It was an amazing session with a lot of learning. It activated some of my thoughts, I see a lot of opportunities. This was pretty exciting and given COVID-19, very relevant. Some of these startups had interesting solutions that can impact the cost of productivity.”
Anup Mehta felt that the next session could have different genres of startups making presentations together. “This would enable them to understand the needs of the industry and get more and more problems solved. More hardware related companies can be included in the next phase. Have 5-6 solutions across genres and give benefit to the industry,” he suggested.
This marked the third and concluding day of the second theme sessions of the series, after two days of intense discussions and expert insights on themes like ‘Realty Check, Industry impact and business continuity,’ ‘The future of Design’ and ‘Urban Fabric + Space Management,’ by panels that included legendary industrialist & philanthropist Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons and Architect Hafeez Contractor along with industry icons, RE and infra fund managers, developers entrepreneurs, and design professionals among others.
The panel held across 3 days (April 20-22, 2020) witnessed an amalgamation of expertise from varied professionals within the design and construction community and the financers backing the construction industry. It’s a given that COVID-19 will bring about a change that no one can anticipate and these sessions have helped the community poise itself for this change.
These sessions on the ‘Future of Design & Construction’ followed the first virtual panel discussion o ‘In fight against COVID-19 to solve corporate sustainability and growth challenges’ ‘ held previously, which witnessed participation from 50+ leaders, 10,000 plus corporates and 100 + startups. CorpGini will continue to conduct sector-specific panel discussions moving forward true to its ethos of being a global innovation platform connecting corporates and startups across the globe.
This event was organized by CorpGini in collaboration with GMetri, FLOW Studio, EQUALS TO design lab, and KPa. CorpGini will continue to organize more such vertical-specific events with a view to solve bigger corporate concerns with startups innovative solutions.
CorpGini, founded in 2019, is an initiative by Pantomath Group and Z Nation Lab that connects leading corporates to innovative startups that are building solutions that solve industry-wise problems. The panel discussion will be followed by select pitches from CEOs of startups which can provide valuable solutions to Corporates around key areas of challenges in present times.
The (Corporate) Punch will, hence, help aid all participants to not just feel a sense of community in this time of crisis, but also aid as a platform for prospective business development and lead generation. Via the virtual sessions, will be a welcome relief in the times of quarantine and self-isolation; helping participants to feel like they belong to a larger global community that is trying to fight this battle together.
