Fashion app wins IIM Ahmedabad Endowment Fund’s ‘Best Startup Pitch Contest’

An AI powered digital wardrobe solution ideated by a team of two PGPX graduates – Parul Vashist and Varun Jhaveri – won the contest after a competitive round of presentations and discussions with the jury, the institute said.

“This is the first ever contest with such a high gratification that has been announced by any management institution in the country. The contest, which will now be an annual property, has been introduced with the objective of encouraging IIMA students explore entrepreneurship as a career path,” an official statement said.

Sharing his views and congratulating the winners, Sandeep Singhal, Chairman, Board of Directors of IIMA Endowment Fund said, “It is a very promising decade for innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, and this contest is rightly timed to reinforce this theme. It was encouraging to see their innovative and unique ideas, and I am confident that the contest has helped build a momentum for entrepreneurship on IIMA campus. I wish Parul and Varun the best ahead.”

IIMA students were allowed to partner with team members outside the institute to build business concepts, list out the addressable market, present the competitive advantage, elaborate on fund utilisation and capital requirement, and chart out the sales and profit projects in the next three years, the institute informed.

The winning team comprised other team members from  institutes like IIT and Duke University.

Besides the prize money, the winning team also gets the opportunity to be mentored by IIMA alumni.

As many as 35 participating teams – many of whom are current fellows under CIIE’s IIMAvericks program – presented startup ideas for the contest, IIM Ahmedabad said.