The third edition of the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave brought together leading Indian founders, investors, policymakers and technology leaders in Bengaluru to discuss the changing landscape of the country’s startup ecosystem.

Held in September 2026 around the theme ‘The Big Reset’, the conclave examined the startup ecosystem at a crucial inflection point, with businesses navigating AI-led transformation, changing capital markets and growing expectations around sustainable growth and valuations.

According to a press release, the event opened with a welcome address by Nalin Mehta, Managing Editor, Moneycontrol and Chief AI Officer – Editorial Operations, Network18. The opening panel featured Pratyush Kumar, Co-Founder, Sarvam, and Mukund Jha, Founder, Emergent, who discussed how artificial intelligence is changing the economics of entrepreneurship and shaping the next generation of Indian startups.

The programme featured a series of fireside chats, panel discussions and keynotes covering the relationship between startups and profitability, the growing role of domestic capital and the emergence of deep tech as an important area for Indian innovation.

A key focus of the conclave was Karnataka’s startup ecosystem, with senior policymakers discussing the state’s position as a major hub for entrepreneurship and technology. Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Chief Secretary to the Government of Karnataka, said AI would improve productivity and quality rather than replace human beings across sectors.

She highlighted Karnataka’s efforts to encourage innovation among school students, noting that around 40,000 innovative ideas are generated by students from Classes 8, 9 and 10. She also stressed the importance of making AI inclusive by taking its benefits to rural areas, particularly through applications in agriculture and collaboration between investors, startups, farmers and farmer producer organisations.

Sharath Kumar Bache Gowda, MLA, Hosakote, and Chairman of Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation, said the increasing concentration of data centres and computing infrastructure among large corporations was making technology “undemocratic”. He said Karnataka wanted to take AI to the grassroots by developing an affordable computing ecosystem.

Tejasvi Surya, MP, Bengaluru South, spoke about the growing role of social media in shaping public discourse. He said young people were increasingly using digital platforms to bring together issues that were earlier treated separately, changing the way politicians communicate with citizens through formats such as reels and other digital content.

The role of AI in financial services also emerged as an important theme. V Vaidyanathan, CEO and MD, IDFC First Bank, said AI could bring an even bigger transformation to banking than digitisation did. He pointed to the combination of India’s demographics and growth, the country’s digital ecosystem and AI as a significant opportunity to expand financial services to the lower end of the economic pyramid.

Vaidyanathan also stressed the importance of responsible AI adoption, comparing the technology to a “nuclear button” that could be used for both constructive and destructive purposes. He said the key question for financial institutions should be what impact AI ultimately has on the customer.

PhonePe Founder and CEO Sameer Nigam reflected on the rapid growth of digital payments in India and said the scale of transformation had been difficult to predict a decade ago. While acknowledging that AI valuations could be overstated, he said the underlying technology itself was not, drawing a comparison with the dot-com boom and the lasting impact of the internet.

Nigam said he hoped India could expand the reach of financial services to a much larger section of the population over the next decade and argued that the country could move faster in unlocking its entrepreneurial potential.

The conclave featured a wide range of speakers from the startup, financial services, technology and policy sectors, including V Vaidyanathan, Sameer Nigam, Lalit Keshre, Aravind Sanka, Ritesh Agarwal, Varun Dua, Swapnil Jain, Sankaran Naren, Prashanth Prakash, Rahul Taneja, Mridul Arora, Naga Bharath Daka, Kshitij Khandelwal, Professor Satya Chakravarthy, Sandeep Jethwani, Kunal Kalawatia and Vishal Goenka, among others.

The Moneycontrol Startup Conclave 2026 was presented by PhonePe, with IDFC First Bank as the Banking Partner and White Gold, Spinny and Reliance Industries Limited as Associate Partners.

The conclave reinforced Moneycontrol’s focus on bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers and technology leaders to discuss the forces shaping India’s next phase of innovation, entrepreneurship and value creation.