Startup MahaRathi Challenge honoured India’s top innovators on the final day of Startup Mahakumbh
New Delhi: Startup MahaRathi Challenge 2025 was launched to recognize and support India’s most promising DPIIT-recognized startups solving real-world problems through innovation. Organized under the broader Startup Mahakumbh platform, the challenge created a structured national initiative to identify high-potential founders across ten high-impact sectors and empower them with capital, exposure, and investor access.
The challenge attracted over 2,000+ applications from all over the country. A rigorous multi-phase evaluation process, including data sufficiency screening, expert shortlisting, and virtual jury pitches, led to the final recognition of over 240 startups. Sectoral jury rounds were hosted by investment and institutional partners who brought domain depth and market insight to the process.
The challenge includes 11 problem statements spanning critical domains such as satellite imagery, maritime domain awareness, cryptography, cybersecurity, signal analysis, and large language model applications on sensitive data. With a total outlay of over INR 20 crores, the initiative offers structured prize money, grant support across three stages, and robust non-monetary incentives such as technical mentorship, business support, cloud computing access, and opportunities for post-challenge procurement.
Grant support was awarded to top startups in each track to accelerate their journey. In every sector, startups have been awarded grants of ten lakh, five lakh and one lakh. The program was not limited to financial recognition. To deepen the opportunity, all recognized startups were invited to participate in curated Speed Dating sessions with investors. More than 500+ one-on-one investor meetings were facilitated over two days, with participation from over 250+ venture capital firms, angel networks, and family offices. These interactions were structured to match startups and investors based on sector alignment and funding interest.
Nearly 40% of the total applications came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 80+ startups recognized were led by women founders or co-founders. Ten startups from India’s emerging states, including Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, and Jammu & Kashmir, were identified for recognition. These numbers underline how India’s innovation ecosystem is rapidly expanding beyond urban hubs and into the grassroots.
