Conquest 2015: BITS Pilani collaborates with Applyifi.com to help idea-stage startups

To ensure a uniform and smooth evaluation of the application process, BITS Pilani’s International Annual Startup Challenge Conquest 2015 has collaborated with entrepreneurship evangelist Prajakt Raut's venture Applyifi.com, a private platform for startups and early-stage companies to create a comprehensive and elegant online investor pitch deck and get a scorecard and assessment report on its investment-worthiness.

The collaboration comes as a boon to all the idea-stage startups that Conquest aspires to help in the long run. With Applyifi on board, Conquest ameliorates in order to help applicants realise their strengths and weaknesses and help them in the challenges they face.

Conquest aims at encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship all over. It's a perfect Launchpad for ground breaking ideas. Conquest explores and caters to every need of a startup - incubation opportunities, IP filing, expert mentoring and networking sessions with Industry stalwarts, Angel investors and leading Venture Capitalists.

Conquest has the tradition of producing some of the best startups in India. All 10 finalists of Conquest 2013 are successful registered ventures. iTraveller (Runner up-Conquest 2013) raised $100K immediately after Conquest in 2013 and recently a million dollar as Series-A. PosterGully (Finalist-Conquest 2012) is incubated at The GSF Accelerator and has grown. Gharpay, the Conquest 2011 runner up, was funded by Sequoia Capital just after months of starting up and is presently India's biggest doorstep cash payment solution.

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Other startups produced by Conquest include Mobile Medics (acquired by Piramal Healthcare in 2008), iViz Security (raised $2.5 million funding in 2008, and NewDigmHealthcare was funded by various Government schemes to carry out low cost healthcare projects in Tamil Nadu. 

In its last edition, Conquest offered Rs 3 lakh in equity-less seed money and over $1 million worth of services, licenses, and incubation opportunities. The resource pool for the finalists of Conquest 2015 (cloud computing credits, accounting, sales, marketing, PR etc.) has already crossed Rs 2 crore.

The Application process

A two-step process will be followed for registrations, out of which top 50 will be finalized. The first step of registration will consist of a short questionnaire, while the second round will ask for elaborate answers.

Personalized mentoring sessions will be organised for these teams across 5 major cities in India, wherein the teams will have the liberty to choose their own mentors.

The semi-finalists will be asked to update their profiles including the progress made since the initial registration for Conquest.

The Grand Finale will be a two-day event with networking sessions and workshops with esteemed people from the startup ecosystem followed by a chance to pitch to the biggest VC firms in India. All teams, irrespective of their selection to the next round, will receive detailed feedback from the judges.

Conquest is the search to find groundbreaking zealous startups ready to add themselves to the hall of fame. It will be the perfect launchpad for all things entrepreneurial. Registration for participation closes on 7th of May.