Mysore/Mysuru: A plethora of ideas and startup products and services were showcased by the women which included an affordable rural health care plan, a platform for protecting IT infrastructure from cyber-attacks, a digital platform for providing mental health care and igniting and supporting the dream of learning about flying during the TiE Women’s Pitchfest 2022.

The final event for selecting the winners was conducted on Oct. 15 in Mysuru where the top nine teams from these three categories — Idea Stage, Pre-Revenue Stage and Growth Stage — presented their products, services and ideas to the jury members. A total of 44 applications were received from nine cities across the country for the competition, out of which 21 of them were at idea stage, 15 at pre-revenue stage and 8 were at growth stage. There were 17 applicants from Mysuru. The winners from each category received a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 each.

An independent panel of jury members including Janani Venkatraman, Chief Executive Officer, Biomoneta, Bengaluru, Jayashree Krishna, Managing Partner, Beej Learning LLP, Bengaluru, Dr. Ramasastry Ambarish, Chairman, Board of Governors, MYRA School of Business, Mysuru, evaluated and gave their feedback to each team. 

Winners: The winner of Growth Stage was Mindfully Sorted, a behavioural and mental health platform focused on working adults, especially women. It provides tech enabled psychology-based solutions to help people reach their true potential and sort their life. The startup is incubated at IIM NSRCEL, and is among one of the top 50 women ventures. For the TiE Mysuru Women Pitchfest, this team was mentored by TiE Charter Member Bhaskar Kalale.

The winner at Pre-Revenue Stage was Breachpoint Pvt Ltd., an organisation focused on Cyber Security and is an Indian bug bounty platform. Bug Bounty is a concept where bounty, which is a monetary reward, is paid to an ethical hacker if he/she finds a valid bug in the website or any IT asset. Its Founder Shefali Cyclewala is one of the first women cyber security experts in India. For this Pitchfest, Breachpoint Pvt. Ltd. was mentored by Charter Member Kantharaj Urs.

The winner of Idea Stage was Magnetech Innovation Pvt Ltd, which is a startup building Expertise in BLDC Motors used in Drones for surveillance application, agri applications, Motors for Missile Fin Actuation and Motors for Exoskeleton Robots. The motors designed by Magnetech are rugged, high efficiency, high torque resulting in long battery life. Magnetech Innovation Pvt Ltd. was mentored by Charter Member Dr. Mahesh Rao.

The competition which was tough saw some great ideas and products which missed winning by a whisker. Like Hapito, a product that keeps the public toilet clean and uses less water for cleaning was presented by Dr. Divya Rathore while Gouthami Shivakumar presented her startup called Aeronuts which makes gliders and RC models for helping youngsters learn flying them.

There was also Flt. Lt. Kanchan Dwivedi whose startup LoanGini is working on providing access to finance through digital platforms for under-served population. “I have served the country being part of the Indian Air Force, and now this is another exciting journey as an entrepreneur,” she said.

Gouthami Shivakumar, Co-Founder, Aeronuts, said that this is an era of air dominance, and it is our duty to help our kids get grounding and learn about flying. Towards this at Aeronuts, we have models, both manual and RC models that help them fly which they learn through our learning platform, as well as in interactive mode. Aeronuts was the runner-up of TiE University Program held in March 2022.

Speaking after presenting the prizes to the winners, D. Sudhanva, President, TiE Mysuru said that TiE’s objective of providing a supporting and enabling environment for entrepreneurs are bearing fruit when he saw such great turn out and amazing energy of the entrepreneurs. “We will support these startups as a cohort going forward, and help them become viable businesses,” he added.

Dr. Shrilakshmi, Chairperson of TiE Mysuru Women’s Pitchfest said that this time the turnout was much more, and from wider geography, which showed that women are in no way behind men in the startup world.

TiE Women’s Pitchfest is a platform for realising the dreams of these women, who will be mentored and supported by TiE Mysuru in future and enable them to reach their full potential, she added.

More than 80 TiE Members, Women Entrepreneurs and Students attended the TiE Mysuru Women Pitchfest 2022 which was supported by partner organisation Catalyst for Women Entrepreneurship (CWE), a not-for-profit organisation. CWE is a comprehensive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs to start up and scale up their businesses.