Mysore/Mysuru: From upgrading the financial tracking of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to focusing on visually challenged personalities, and charging electric vehicles to glamourise fashion with bio-ons for plastics, the finalists of TiE University Pitchfest 2023 stood apart in their innovations.

The programme was hosted by TiE Mysuru Chapter and notably, it was the only chapter in Karnataka that hosted TiE University Programme five years year in a row. There were nearly 90 teams from across Karnataka and 20 teams were selected for mentoring — 9 teams made it to the finals on Mar. 31, 2023.

A series of free workshops and mentoring sessions were organised by TiE for the teams.

All teams were mentored and guided by TiE Mysuru Chapter Members and partners. The top 9 teams were categorised under the idea stage, minimum viable product stage and traction stage and the results were declared with cash prizes.

Traction stage: Winners – Effinity – Rs. 75,000; Runners – BlisCare – Rs. 50,000

MVP stage: Winners – Ultra Electric – Rs. 40,000; Runners – EcoWidens – Rs. 30,000

Idea stage: Winners – Glamour Garden – Rs. 20,000; Runners – ApnaEV – Rs. 10,000

About the winners

Effinity: Founded by Shobith Mallya from Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management, Mangaluru, Effinity provides the digital nucleus for SMEs to track production, regular reports and calculations and facilitate remote functionality to manage a warehouse, production process etc., with the frame of Scale as a Service (SaaS). Effinity works as e.grow for micro-enterprises and e.scale for small and medium enterprises.

BlisCare: Founded by Chinmaya Naik from the Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR, Bengaluru), it is an assistive tech and health support start-up that aims to provide affordable digital solutions for visually impaired students with a digital braille display system which can replicate in real-time into digital braille that will replicate any text and graphical diagram at affordable cost.

Ultra Electric: Provides innovative electric vehicle charging system implementable in public transport, commercial and private vehicles, railway stations parking, bus stand, schools and colleges parking area. It is founded by Shriram Kulkarni  of BLDEACET, Vijayapura district.

Eco-widens: This is a group of doctors focusing on building an alternative material for food packaging rather than plastic called bio-ons through their start-up. It emerged as visionary team focusing on eliminating plastic all the way. Eco-Widen is founded by Rituparna Kundu, Urvi Patel, R.C. Manish, A.J. Keerthik and Midhuna Iype from JSS Medical College, Mysuru.

Glamour Garden: It is an online store that offers a wide range of high-quality unbranded clothing items that have been thoroughly evaluated and endorsed by fashion experts. Additionally, they have developed a cutting-edge fashion recommendation algorithm that provides customised fashion solutions to customers based on their individual preferences and body sizes through their mobile application. Glamour Garden is founded by C.T. Abhishek and S. Nidhishree from MYRA School of Business, Mysuru.

 ApnaEV: With the motive of monetising your “EV residential charging unit” and earning while you sleep, ApnaEV is a platform that maps the nearest charging residential availability and comforts charging of electric vehicles generating revenue to the already EV owners and increase installation of EV charging points. It is founded by Vedansh Singh Manral and P.S. Nagaprapthi from Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering, Mysuru.

The panel of judges included Sukumar Rangachari, Business Mentor NSRCEL IIMB, B.K. Achutha, Chairman of Infopine Consultancy Services, Mysuru and Srinivas Varadarajan, Cofounder and CEO of Vigyanlabs Innovations, Mysuru.

President of TiE Mysuru Sudhanva Dhananjaya spoke about the support TiE Mysuru provides to entrepreneurs and start-ups by declaring free student membership for all the members of nine finalist teams for 2023-24.

TiE University programme Chair Shivshankar, TiE Mysuru Chapter Executive Director Mahesh Kattale and TiE Mysuru Chapter Associate Member G.S. Kishan coordinated the programme while all the Charter members and Associate members of TiE Mysuru Chapter contributed for the success of the event. 

Team Effinity will represent TiE Mysuru Chapter at TiE Global Pitchfest which will be held on May 14 and 15, 2023 in Silicon Valley, USA., and will present the idea to an international jury and competes for cash prizes of 100,000 dollars including a grand first prize of 50,000 dollars and in-kind awards of 500,000 dollars.

TiE Mysuru Chapter will offer benefits for the finalists that include workshops and mentorship support from TiE Global teams, incubation support at K-Tech innovation hub powered by IKP in Mysuru, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Shivamogga and Belagavi, participation in TiE Nurture programme, an accelerator programme to fast-track growth, seed fund support and grant-in-aid from SJCE-STEP for eligible teams and complimentary TiE Mysuru student membership for one year.

For more details, contact Mahesh Kattale on Mob: 94481-54063.