NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore SummitUp 2025 Draws 400+ Startup Leaders, Ventures Cross $7.37 Billion in Value

This year’s SummitUp featured five tracks, DeepTech, FinTech, Climate, Social Impact, and Women’s Entrepreneurship.

NSRCEL, incubation centre at IIM Bangalore marked its 25th year with latest edition of SummitUp, a day-long gathering that drew more than 400 founders, investors, policymakers and sector specialists to the campus.

Over past two-and-a-half decades, NSRCEL has helped shape 3,178 ventures across sectors, and those startups have together created 35,792 jobs. In the last year alone, the centre extended its reach to 82 towns, a detail that signals its growing push beyond the metros.

This year’s SummitUp featured five tracks — DeepTech, FinTech, Climate, Social Impact, and Women’s Entrepreneurship. Many of the discussions were centred on the immediate concerns of founders, including market uncertainty, how early teams should approach partnerships, and what shifts investors are watching. Sessions such as “The VC Blind Spot: Founder Learnings and Strategies” and “AI for Bharat” saw packed halls through the day.

“Reaching 25 years is meaningful for us because we’ve seen ideas turn into ventures that genuinely solve problems. SummitUp 2025 carries that spirit forward,” said Anand Sri Ganesh, CEO, NSRCEL. “Our role has been to make sure founders have the support to build with ambition and stay grounded in what the market actually needs.”

Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner at Accel, pointed to a shift he has noticed in the new generation of founders.

“You simply can’t build every component of a complex product on your own. When a part of the challenge sits outside your strengths, you must lean on the ecosystem. That mix of capabilities often decides how quickly a company moves forward,” he said. He added that more founders are now borrowing from global playbooks and forming partnerships earlier in their journeys.