New Delhi, India, April 07, 2025 – The third day of Startup Mahakumbh marked the grand conclusion of the Startup Maharathi Challenge 2025—a flagship initiative to design spotlight and support DPIIT-recognized startups tackling real-world challenges through innovation. Held under the Startup Mahakumbh umbrella, the challenge created a national scale effort to empower high-potential founders across ten key sectors with funding, visibility, and investor access.
The Startup Maharathi Challenge was concluded in the presence of Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Secretary, DPIIT, Shri Sanjiv, Joint Secretary DPIIT, Shri Amit Kumar, Deputy General Manager & Regional Manager, ECGC, Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner, Accel India ACT Grants, Sunali Rohra, Senior Executive Vice President, HDFC, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder & Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge, Aman Gupta – Co Founder and CMO – boat Lifestyle, actor-entrepreneur Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Rikant Pittie, CEO & Co-founder, EaseMyTrip, and Archana Jahagirdar, Founder & Managing Partner, Rukam Capital. The winning startups were felicitated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Aman Gupta, awarding prizes with a total outlay of INR 20 crores.
Referring to all startup founders at Startup Mahakumbh as “Maharathis,” Hon’ble Union Minister Piyush Goyal urged everyone to dream big. “Startup Mahakumbh last year saw 30,000 visitors. Surpassing everyone’s expectations, this year, around 2,30,000 visitors have attended Startup Mahakumbh. Similarly, next year I want to see Startup Maharathi Challenge receiving 25000 applicants—a giant leap from 2400 entries this year. India has the capacity for exponential growth. I am confident that the winners of today’s Challenge will go back inspired, with the confidence in their own ability to succeed in the future.”
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Amardeep Singh Bhatia, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said, “We don’t expect this to be a one-time activity. This is just the start. We expect more and more companies to get onboarded.”
“This is the culmination of everyone’s hardwork and our dreams. There has never been a startup challenge organized at this scale by the government or corporates so far. Going by the success of the Startup Maharathi Challenge 2025, I am confident we will be doing hundreds of such challenges in future,” said Shri Sanjiv Singh, Joint Secretary at the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Shri Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner, Accel India, shared his thoughts on the occasion, “The Grand Maharathi Challenge is special—it shows we don’t just encourage startups from high-tech sectors with words but with true action as well. This is also a free grant to the startup without any equity. We hope this motivates them to build the next generation of startups. We would not have dreamt this 10 years ago. I am happy that this partnership between private entities and government is multidimensional. The response this year is so encouraging. I can now proudly say we are at pole position to be the technology leader globally. “
The Startup Maharathi Challenge 2025 drew an overwhelming response with 2,000+ applications from across India. Through a multi-phase evaluation—spanning expert screening, data checks, and virtual jury rounds—over 240 promising startups were selected. The challenge tackled 11 critical problem statements in frontier sectors like satellite imagery, maritime awareness, cryptography, LLMs on sensitive data, and cybersecurity. With a funding outlay of over INR 20 crore, the initiative offered structured grant support, milestone-linked prize money, and non-monetary incentives including technical mentorship, cloud credits, business guidance, and procurement support.
Highlighting India’s rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem, nearly 40% of applications came from Tier 2 and 3 cities. Over 80 selected startups were led by women founders or co-founders, while 10 from emerging states like Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, and J&K received special recognition—underscoring how India’s entrepreneurial spirit is thriving beyond metro hubs and reaching the grassroots.
Amidst vibrant energy, the grand finale of the Futurepreneurs Challenge at Startup Mahakumbh brought together some of India’s most promising student innovators, showcasing AI-powered solutions to pressing local challenges. Ten finalist teams pitched their breakthrough ideas in a rapid-fire format to an audience of investors, policymakers, and industry leaders. Shri Jayant Chaudhary, Hon’ble Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship graced the occasion to present the award to the winners. With mentorship, funding support, and national exposure, Futurepreneurs proved to be a powerful platform for igniting the next wave of changemakers and creators driving India’s innovation journey.
To accelerate startup growth, top performers in each sector were awarded grants of INR 10 lakh, 5 lakh, and 1 lakh respectively. Beyond funding, all shortlisted startups gained access to curated Speed Dating sessions with investors. Over two days, more than 500 one-on-one meetings were facilitated with 250+ venture capital firms, angel networks, and family offices—each carefully aligned by sector and funding interests.
Union Minister for Industry and Commerce Shri Piyush Goyal also toured the vast exhibition and interacted with various startups.
The event also featured an engaging discussion with actor entrepreneur Sonam Kapoor Ahuja on the topic From the spotlight to Boardroom- Navigating the startup ecosystem.
Startup Mahakumbh showcased a remarkable array of innovations, including an advanced platform to detect deepfakes and extract intelligence from unstructured data, high-performance materials designed for extreme conditions, a globally patented AI-powered traffic vision system for real-time road and safety monitoring, a portable, trunk-fitted energy backup unit solving range anxiety in electric vehicles, solar-powered EV charging stations with IoT-backed remote diagnostics, and a digital business management app for rural and micro women entrepreneurs. These groundbreaking solutions demonstrated the diverse and impactful ways in which startups are addressing real-world challenges across industries.
This year’s edition of Startup Mahakumbh, India’s largest-ever startup gathering, brought together over 3,000 startups, 1,091 investors and incubators, and 10,000+ delegates from across India and 60+ countries and saw a footfall of around 2,30,000 over a span of three days. 211 sessions with 750+ speakers were conducted over 3 days, and a total of 1052 startups benefited through mentoring sessions. This unprecedented scale reaffirms India’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, driving deep-tech innovation, and cementing its position as a global hub for startup-driven solutions.
