IIT Bombay’s Eureka! 2025: The Biggest Opportunity for All the Startup Founders

Returning for its 28th edition, the competition will provide founders and leaders with months of networking, one-on-one mentoring, investment opportunities, incubation, and essential insights into building scalable businesses.

Last date for registration: 10th August, 2025

Click here to register for Asia’s largest business model competition!

https://www.ecell.in/eureka/

Last year saw over 25,000 entries, with passionate entrepreneurs and startups undergoing three rigorous rounds spread over five months. The winning startups stand to win prizes worth INR 2 crore! IIT Bombay's Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell), Asia's largest student-run entrepreneurship organization, has garnered support from UNESCO, Make in India, Startup India, and Digital India for its role in promoting entrepreneurship. For the past 28 years, E-Cell has served as a vital link connecting different elements of the startup ecosystem.

E-Cell is ready to host its flagship business model competition, Eureka!, back for its 28th year. With 8 tracks, the competition aims to provide founders with months of learning, networking, and sector-specific mentoring, and investment opportunities to master the key components of building a scalable business.

The event is tailored for early-stage entrepreneurs, particularly those in the ideation and MVP stage, offering one-on-one mentoring focused on developing go-to-market strategies.

Eureka! 2025 promises to be grander than ever, with incentives worth INR 2 crore, 50+ venture capitalists, 300+ mentors, and opportunities to win sponsored visits to the USA to pitch in global entrepreneurship-based competitions. Eureka! is presented by Technosoft Engineering Solutions and co-presented by WestBridge Capital in association with BPCL, powered by FedEx, brought to you by Voltas, co-powered by UoT India Foundation

We are also supported by Sustainability Partner EarthON Foundation, Healthcare partner Emil Pharma, and Tattva by Somany Impressa Group as knowledge partner.

Supported by Startup India, MeitY Startup Hub, T-Hub,  iStart Rajasthan, Startup Karnataka, MSINS, Startup Bihar, We Hub, Startup Haryana, Startup Odisha, Startup TN, APIS(Andhra Pradesh, Startup Uttarakhand and many others.

Get Incubation Opportunities from top Incubators including SINE IIT Bombay, iCreate, T-Hub, Razorpay Rize, EvolveX, NSRCEL IIM Bangalore, FITT IIT Delhi, and many more.

Investment Opportunities from 50+ VCs including- 100X, 3one4 capital, Equirus capital, TDK Ventures, IIMA ventures, Ankur Capital, etc.

What’s In It For Startups?

With over 25,000 entries last year, entrepreneurs will go through three intensive rounds spread over five months. The first round will feature on-stage mentoring to help founders build a robust business model, starting with the basics of creating a business model canvas.

In previous editions, mentors included industry leaders such as Kanchi Daiya from Indian Angel Network, Amit Jain from StartupBay, Piyush Surana from Tomorrow Capital, and Pradeep Rathi from 3i Zone.

The shortlisted startups will then enter a mentorship round with workshops designed to refine their business models and products. Founders will be judged on the viability of their ideas and their unique value propositions.

Once the finalists are selected, they will participate in a three-day accelerator program to prepare for the final stage of the competition. The final pitch will take place at IIT Bombay’s E-Summit 25, an annual business conclave in February 2025. Finalists will pitch their ventures in a closed-door event before a panel of industry experts.

Last year's jury included Rajesh Mane from 9Unicorns, Reshma Jhaveri from Venture Catalysts, Rahul Baviskar from Swadeshi Handicrafts, and Douglas Peris from Hyper Accelerator, among others. The live pitches took place on the IIT Bombay campus in the first week of February 2025.

The winning startups will receive prizes valued at over $120,000, including incentives from MSG91, Clevertap, GitHub, Zendesk, and many others. Investors on the jury will also have the option to provide additional funding to the participating startups.

Beyond India, Eureka! has expanded to six countries in the GCC region, including Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The competition offers a prize pool of $100,000 and a fully-sponsored trip to Dubai for the Eureka! GCC finals, where participants will pitch their ideas to global investors.

Past Eureka! Winners include startups such as P-TAL, Sputnik Brain, Dehaat, BlisCare, Jeevan Lite, SPARC, MyWays, DocEye, Curomates, and AI-Genix. These startups also had the opportunity to present their business ideas at the Indian Pavilion during Dubai EXPO 2020, where BlisCare, DocEye, Curomates, and AI-Genix secured spot funding.

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