Key takeaways from Thyrocare's Arokiaswamy Velumani, Ketto's Kunal Kapoor, Dream 11's Harsh Jain, and others from Day 5 at TechSparks 2021
YourStory's TechSparks 2021 returned on day five with insightful sessions with Thyrocare Founder and Chairman Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani, award-winning actor Kunal Kapoor, and more. Here's all the top action:
YourStory's TechSparks 2021 returned on day five with a deep dive into how Founder and Chairman Dr Arokiaswamy Velumani built one of India’s largest medical diagnostics chains, which was recently acquired by .
“I am exiting the segment when it is exciting. COVID-19 has made sure that healthcare is going to be an exciting space for 20 years but I just wanted to relax. I also didn’t give the business to my children, even though they knew it. And I put in money in the company that acquired my company,” Velumani said.
Speaking of the sector today, Velumani said healthcare was no different from other sectors, including fintech. Both sectors used to be very manual; today, both are completely automated.
Siddharth and Velumani during the Pharmeasy and Thyrocare deal
Here's the rest of the top action from Day 5 of TechSparks 2021:
Regulatory challenges are Dream 11’s moat
Co-founder and Culture Enforcement Officer (CEO) of fantasy sports platform , Harsh Jain, is unfazed by criticism and naysayers.
After being rejected by 150 investors, and being told it was a startup idea created ‘just for fun’ by Harsh and his Co-founder Bhavit Sheth, Dream 11 created history in 2019 by becoming India’s first online gaming unicorn.
The validation has been tremendous after the company figured its product market fit, Harsh said at TechSparks 2021. The key was to keep at it and build with a passion, said Harsh, who started the company in 2008.
Kunal Kapoor at TechSparks 2021
Award-winning actor, a trained pilot, rally car driver, and entrepreneur, Kunal Kapoor dons several hats all at once. The co-founder of Asia’s largest crowdfunding platform sat down for a fireside chat at TechSparks 2021.
At the event, he shared his method to madness between acting and entrepreneurship. He also delved into the next big step for Ketto and how it expanded 4X during the pandemic.
Kunal said, “We’re working towards going beyond being a crowdfunding platform to a platform that also provides medical information and solutions. We’ve taken our first step towards it with a healthcare community app called Healthnest that we recently launched. The idea is to connect patients and caregivers so they can share their experiences in a safe and secure environment."
Other top sessions
Day 5 of TechSparks featured other key startup ecosystem stakeholders such as healthtech founders Geetha Manjunath, Founder of Nirmai, Anu Acharya, Founder of , Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO of , and Gaurav Agarwal, Co-founder of , among others, who spoke about why it’s imperative for healthcare to merge with technology, especially in a vast country like India where last-mile healthcare is still not up to the mark.
Also on the agenda was proptech, a sector that took a hit last year, but seems to be bouncing back well. Tanuj Shori, CEO of , spoke about how the startup is reshaping the real estate domain. There will also be a showcase of how , the proptech startup has helped many buy, sell, and rent homes.
Other top sessions included a conversation with Jay Vijayan, ex-CIO of Tesla, and Founder and CEO of , who traced his life journey, from Chennai to California, and shared his experience of working closely with Tesla Founder Elon Musk and building Tekion ground up.
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For a line-up of all the action-packed sessions at YourStory's flagship startup-tech conference, check out TechSparks 2021 website.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta