CorpGini’s virtual summit aims to help corporates, startups collaborate amid coronavirus crisis

The economic situation looks dire in India amid the coronavirus crisis. With the number of cases rising steadily and the country in the middle of a lockdown, businesses and enterprises have come to a standstill.

CorpGini, a platform that acts as an innovation bridge between corporates and startups is organising a virtual summit of more than 2,500 corporates across India to help businesses get a perspective on balanced decisions leaders need to take to survive the unexpected economic consequences of coronavirus. 

“Corporates need to assess the situation, anticipate what's next, and how to manage it,” says Amit Jain, Co-founder of CorpGini and ZNation Lab. 

The pitching sessions will begin virtually on April 6. The panel discussions are scheduled from April 6-11. 

If startup founders want to help corporates innovate in the time of COVID-19, they can sign up at  https://bit.ly/thecorporatepunchstartups to pitch at “The Virtual {Corporate} Punch”.

Corp Gini has identified solutions from startups that can help corporates close the gap and take actions. “Keeping in mind the problem areas or gaps faced by corporates in these challenging times, cross-synergies between startups and corporates can be explored to create a winning collaboration,” Amit says. 

These include aspects such as: 

• Stress-testing the P&L and managing liquidity 
• Post-crisis scenarios and planning for the same
• Team motivation, skill development, and role of HR
• How technology can help companies operate during a pandemic
• Workforce productivity in this time of crisis
• Economy and business, post COVID-19.

These key themes emerged from CorpGini's research after talking to a large number of corporates that they work with. Their research is supported by a stellar list, which includes Bombay Stock Exchange, UC Berkeley extension, British Deputy High Commission, and Toronto Business Development Centre amongst others.  

“I believe that the need of the hour is four-fold. First, we need to identify or pre-empt the challenges that corporates and startups will face pre and post the crisis. Second, we need to prioritise problems that need immediate attention. Third is finding solutions through collaborations and partnerships,” Amit says. 

Last, but definitely not the least, is holding your guard and “plans to implement solutions at great speed to turn this threat into an opportunity and capitalise when the timing is right”. 

CorpGini believes that there must be transformative changes in terms of consumer behaviour, business dynamics, product preferences, and spending priorities after the coronavirus crisis. It wants to help corporates prioritise, in terms of spending on diversification towards new behaviours or run the business the old way, assuming we will soon be past the pandemic and the markets bounce back. 

“This started as a small initiative a week back. Since then, we are getting responses and participation from all over the globe. We have 2,500-plus corporate participants joining the series of panel discussions and startups pitching innovative solutions. It has truly become a national initiative to support corporates, startups and SMEs from all sectors of India,” says Mahavir Lunawat, Co-founder, CorpGini and Pantomath Group. 

Amit says large corporations are like big, slow ocean liners: “difficult to steer when it comes to innovation at the pace the market requires”. 

CorpGini's objective is to align corporates and startups, and bring them together at an intersection where they can collaborate and find cross-synergies.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)