A mega startup event in NCR that collapsed at the start

NEW DELHI: Indian startups are booming and so is the need and hunger for funding among the new generation entrepreneurs, and what could be better for these budding entrepreneurs than attending the “World Startup Convention”? It boasted of hosting the who’s who of the industry and big business and investment magnets, including Tesla founder Elon Musk, an important Prince of Dubai, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani, “all under one roof”.
It sounded too good to be true, and it was. Detractors quickly alleged that the event was a huge “scam” that sucked in crores of rupees from hundreds of
startups. The masterminds are allegedly Luke Talwar and Arjun Chowdhury, and an FIR against them has been registered by at least 20 people in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. This was where the grand event was supposed to take place. Similar FIRs have been filed in some places in Coimbatore, Mumbai, Bangalore, among other cities.
The “World Startup Convention”, which took place in Greater Noida’s Expo Mart between 24 and 26 March this year, not only said investors from across the globe would be visiting Noida to make billions of dollars’ investment in Indian startups, but also advertised and posted social media advertisements and made graphics and banners claiming that Union Ministers Mansukh Mandaviya and Nitin Gadkari, Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Dhami, among other eminent political personalities, would be a part of this event.
The co-founder of this event, Luke Talwar, also posted his images with Mansukh Mandaviya and Nitin Gadkari on social media in the run-up to the event, making the thousands of startups that registered to come to their event believe that it would be a useful exercise in terms of business and investment for their ideas.
The Sunday Guardian reached out to the office of Nitin Gadkari and Mansukh Mandaviya for seeking clarification if the Ministers were actually scheduled to attend the “World Startup Convention”. This newspaper did not receive replies from their office till the time of going to the press.
Not only this, the organiser also used famous and prominent social media influencers and eminent personalities, including Chetan Bhagat, Ankur Warikoo, Prafull Billore (Founder of MBA Chai Wala) to make and post Instagram reels and videos promoting the event.
Raj Suthar, founder of Grocify, a tech startup, who came from Jodhpur to attend the Convention, told The Sunday Guardian, “What was promoted and what was served were two completely different worlds. The organisers charged Rs 8,000 from every participant and there was not even drinking water provided in the hall. We were told that there would be thousands of investors, but there were none. We were told it would be the world’s biggest conglomeration of investors, but there were not a single one there. The hall was not even big enough to accommodate 3,000 people, yet it was advertised that one lakh people would be attending the event.”
Raj further added that “When influencers like Chetan Bhagat and Ankur Warikoo promote the event and say that it is one of the world’s biggest startup conventions, it brings authenticity to the event. When the organisers post photos with Union Ministers writing that they have confirmed their attendance, this instils confidence about the event for startups like us to invest in the event. But all this turned out to be an illusion, which is what we realised when we reached the venue.”
The Sunday Guardian also reached out to Chetan Bhagat and Ankur Warikoo; while Chetan Bhagat did not reply till the time of going to press, Ankur Warikoo told The Sunday Guardian, “As part of an Instagram collab, I made a reel on 19 January and spoke about the importance of funding for a startup and how this event could be a good opportunity to explore the same and meet other founders. The terms of the collab were clear that my video will not be used for promoting the event, but they went ahead and used my video to promote and advertise their event. In January itself, we distanced from this event and asked them to take down the video. I even declined to be part of the event. But despite sending several emails, they have still not taken down my video. It is really tragic to see how the event eventually ended up.”
Another startup from Bangalore, Bambree, lost Rs 50 lakh that they paid in terms of sponsorship fees for the event. Vaibhav Anant, co-founder of Bambree, told The Sunday Guardian, “I don’t know what to do now, as for a startup like ours, losing Rs 50 lakh is a big deal. We went there with a lot of hope as it was advertised that global investors are coming. We made samples, got sponsorship of the event, got a stall there by paying a hefty sum to display our products. But after reaching the venue, we saw the size of the stall sent to us reduced by two times, and there were no investors present there, leave alone foreign investors.”
Vaibhav also further told this correspondent that their legal team is in the process of drafting a formal complaint against the event and its organisers, and that they would move court to recover their money.
The website, worldstartupconvention.com is still live and up, and the website still has the videos of the social media influencers up and live (till the time of going to the press). It also has the posters of politicians coming to attend the event, and the website is still selling tickets for the event.
As mentioned by the attendees, the website also claims that over 9,000 angel investors and over 1,500 institutional investors from 90 countries would be attending the event. It also claimed that 75,000 plus startups and service providers would be a part of the event. On its website, it also claims that the event was supposed to happen in three halls with huge spaces for investors and startup meets, huge spaces for stalls and displays, for which allegedly Rs 15,000 per square metre was taken from several sponsors.
The event, which was supposed to take place in January was postponed to March. Later, posters and banners which advertised about the presence of Elon Musk, Gautam Adani, and the Dubai Sheikh were taken down. According to multiple attendees who are founders of several startups across the country, chaos broke out about three hours after the event began. Attendees demanded answers from the organisers about the presence of investors from around the globe. Attendees also demanded to know about the other halls of the event, and also wanted an investor and startup meet. The Greater Noida police had to step in and calm down the situation.
Following this, an FIR was registered with the Knowledge Park II police station in the Greater Noida district of the Gautam Buddh Nagar Commissionerate of the Uttar Pradesh police under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (criminal breach of trust) of the IPC.
A lawyer, Raghumanyu Taneja, who was also present in the event and helped lodge the FIR with complaints from 20 attendees told The Sunday Guardian; “The organisers charged huge amounts of money from startups to attend, and not only this, they charged lakhs from sponsors, making promises that were not kept. We have registered an FIR and we hope the police will investigate and book the culprits.”
Arvind Kumar, ACP I of Greater Noida police, told The Sunday Guardian that they have registered the FIR under relevant sections and investigation is currently underway in this case. “We are in the process of collecting evidence. We have also spoken to Luke Talwar and have taken his statement. Investigation is in process,” ACP Arvind Kumar said.
The Sunday Guardian also reached out to Luke Talwar, the organiser of the event. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Talwar said, “This is a huge conspiracy. The truth will come out.” All charges of fraud and cheating were denied.