The two-day StartAP fest celebrating “Andhrapreneurship” got under way at the Tummalapalli Kala Kshetram here on Saturday.
The festival was inaugurated in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Innovation Society CEO Nikhil Agarwal, Y Square Business Incubator director and CEO Y.V. Ratna Kumar, StartAP CEO Siddharth Marupeddi and several other experts and innovators.
A large number of entrepreneurs from across the country took part in the fest, while some of them presented their start-ups at the counters set up at the venue.
‘Mitra’, a robot made by the Bengaluru-based start-up Invento, stood out as a special attraction at the fest. Other start-ups-based on innovative ideas surfaced at the fest and provided insights to the entrepreneurs.
According to Murali Krishna, a representative of Invento, ‘Mitra’ speaks and responds to human commands and the firmware was patented. Mitra is a humanoid assistant for offices and retail outlets.
Customised drones
Customised drones built by Fopple, a start-up associated with KL University and 3D printers were also presented at the fest.
Bodha, a Thulluru-based start-up, exhibited its unique organic disposable shaving brush made out of plants. A. Rama Prasad of Bodha said using the organic brush would put an end to spread of many contagious diseases.
Manam, a social connect App for Telugus, Kulfi, a picture and video-sharing App, Localwire, another innovative networking App, are among other start-up initiatives presented at the fest.
Celebrity Cricket League, Chairman, Vishnu Induri, Sri Peddu from Powerhouse Ventures, Dr. Madhu from Deep Marathons, Murali Talasila from PWC, Ranjith Kumar from UX India, Gayatri Choda from Digitant, Issac John Weasely from Inkmonk , Seetharam from Societe Generale and Hemasundhar from OYO and others spoke at the fest and took part in panel discussions.
Under the Mad about Ideas Challenge, 15 innovative ideas were short-listed. As part of the StartAP Pitching Challenge, a couple of start-ups were offered a deal on the spot.
The fest saw about 50 start-ups.
