Conquest 2026, the 22nd edition of BITS Pilani's student-run accelerator, closed on 26 July in Bengaluru. Pamawel won the Pan India Track and CDISC Technologies the Greenovation Track, with EcoFurnish first runner-up - a result announced only on Conquest's own channel.
26 July 2026 | Radisson Blu Atria, Bengaluru, India | 22nd edition | 3,000+ applications, 22 in the cohort, 13 on stage
The 22nd edition of Conquest, the student-run accelerator operated by the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani, closed on Sunday 26 July 2026 with a Demo Day at the Radisson Blu Atria in Bengaluru. Conquest describes itself as Asia's largest student-run startup accelerator and runs on a zero-cost, zero-equity model: no application fee, no equity taken, and equity-free grants for the companies that place.
The results:
Conquest announced the winners through its own LinkedIn channel. Indian startup publications covered the 2026 cohort in detail through June and July, but no equivalent standalone results report appeared in the major outlets reviewed for this article, which made the final outcome considerably harder to find than the cohort announcement that preceded it.
We index exhibitions. Conquest is not one. It is a one-day startup Demo Day at a Bengaluru hotel, built around 13 pitches rather than an exhibition floor.
It is worth understanding precisely because of that contrast. A demo day is designed to offer something an exhibition struggles to guarantee: a scheduled pitch delivered to a concentrated audience of investors, judges and ecosystem operators. A large exhibition floor sells reach and discovery. Thirteen scheduled pitches before a five-person jury and a room of investors sell attention density.
Neither format replaces the other. Many early-stage founders use both at different points: curated demo days for concentrated investor access, and larger industry events for discovery, partnerships and market visibility. For anyone weighing event budget, the useful question is which of the two you are actually buying.
Conquest markets a "6+1" hybrid programme: roughly six weeks of online mentorship and workshops, then an offline stretch in Bengaluru ending with Demo Day. Registration opened in mid-April and closed around the end of May.
Conquest reported more than 3,000 applications for its 2026 cycle and selected 22 startups for the cohort, an acceptance rate under 1%. Those 22 went through the online mentorship phase across June and July. Thirteen were then shortlisted for the offline programme in Bengaluru and pitched on Demo Day. EcoFurnish founder Ayush Panwar, writing about the experience afterwards, described that offline stretch as nine days rather than the advertised week.
The full 2026 cohort (22): Placestation, JANOOMA, Chaiomi, Aliment (previously So-Air), CargoShakti, Medblue Innovations, Pamawel (be.ing painfree), Sputnik Brain, MicroHeal, Auraa, Finplify, Rta Forge, circuitEvolve, Greenathon Technologies, NovoEarth, EcoFurnish, Sunbird Coconut Leaf Straws, SAMSAN Innovation and Labs, Navariti Innovation (HELIOT.AI), Anuna Labs, CDISC Technologies and Fandoro Technologies.
The thirteen who pitched: Sputnik Brain, Auraa, Chaiomi, Anuna Labs, Fandoro, Sunbird Coconut Leaf Straws, Finplify, JANOOMA, Rta Forge, Aliment, Pamawel, CDISC Technologies and EcoFurnish.
On the money: Conquest promoted the 2026 programme with an equity-free grant pool advertised at over ₹30 lakh, alongside partner resource credits from AWS, Notion and Tally. The accelerator says it has disbursed over ₹1 crore in equity-free grants across the last three years. The only 2026 figure confirmed publicly is EcoFurnish's ₹4,00,000 as first runner-up. The amounts awarded to Pamawel and CDISC Technologies have not been disclosed.
Pamawel (Pan India Track winner) is a women's health company founded in 2024 by Nikhil Gk and Dr. Sharmistha Mondal. Its be.ing painfree line is built around cramp-relief sanitary pads, a topical gel, and a zero-sugar superfood blend aimed at bloating, positioned as a period-care system rather than a single product.
CDISC Technologies (Greenovation Track winner) is a women-led construction R&D company based in Kozhikode, Kerala, incubated at NIT Calicut's technology business incubator. It works on light-gauge steel framed structures, EPS 3D panels, pre-engineered steel building systems and a pre-engineered nail foundation system, aimed at modular, lower-carbon housing.
EcoFurnish (Greenovation first runner-up, ₹4,00,000) is the youngest of the three, founded in 2025 and based in Pilani, Rajasthan. It makes what it calls PEP boards: epoxy-based thermoset composite panels that permanently embed mixed and contaminated plastic waste, the fraction conventional recycling rejects, inside a cross-linked polymer matrix. The boards are pitched as a wood-free, waterproof, termite-resistant substitute for plywood and MDF. Founder Ayush Panwar was 18 at the time of the programme and the youngest founder in the cohort.
Both Greenovation selections focused on materials and construction, giving the sustainability track a notably infrastructure-heavy result. The track was run with support from EarthON Foundation USA.
Sachin Arya, CEO of Incubation and Entrepreneurship at BITS Pilani, opened the day. Abhinay Choudhari, co-founder of bigbasket and LaundryMate, gave the keynote. Ashish Singhal, co-founder and Group CEO of CoinSwitch, took the fireside chat.
The investor panel, titled "Ahead of the Curve," featured Vishnu Acharya (Razorpay), Kushal Bhagia (All In Capital), Rahul Seth (Industrial47) and Venugopal Sathyanarayana (Blue Ashva Capital), moderated by Sameer Kaul, Chief Advisor at Chaabi.
The jury that scored the pitches: Rahul Sanghi (Tigerfeathers), Pramod Jajoo (angel investor), Caleb Friesen (Runtime), Kunal Wadhwa and Trinika Kaushik (Industrial47).
Mentors across the online phase included Shibu Vijayan (Chief Medical Officer, Qure.ai), Anil Sinha (CTO, Fibe), Sulbha Kaushal Rai (Chief People Officer, RenewBuy), Arjun Nohwar (MD India and South Asia, Warner Bros. Discovery), Ranjith Mukundan (CEO, Stellapps) and Shantanu Jha (Group CHRO, Jubilant Ingrevia).
EarthON Foundation USA, ViSure Investment Affairs, Tigerfeathers and WeWork India were credited as partners, with The Hosteller as hospitality partner for the offline week. The programme is led by Ishan Malhotra as CEO of Conquest.
Conquest's own pages date the programme to 2004, while its About page traces the origin further back to a BITS Pilani business plan competition in 2002. It is registered as a nonprofit, headquartered in Pilani, Rajasthan, and is run by a rotating team of roughly 20 to 25 students.
Alumni the organisation points to include Atlan, the data collaboration company formerly known as SocialCops; Sarla Aviation, in electric air mobility; Thinkerbell Labs, which builds self-learning devices for visually impaired students; Gamezop; and CoRover.
That alumni list is the argument for taking a student-run accelerator seriously. The gap this year was in the telling: a programme that placed cohort profiles across the national business press in June and July let the actual result land only on its own channel.
Conquest signed off its 2026 recap with "see you in 2027." On the current cadence, registrations for the 23rd edition should open around April 2027, with Demo Day in the second half of July.
For founders considering it, the terms are the unusual part and worth restating plainly: no application fee, no equity taken, non-dilutive grant money, and a mentor bench drawn from operators rather than only investors. The trade-off is access. More than 3,000 applicants competed for 22 cohort places in 2026, and only 13 of those reached the stage.
For anyone tracking India's event calendar more broadly, Bengaluru remains one of India's principal hubs for startup accelerators, investor events and demo days. You can browse what else is scheduled in the city on our Bengaluru events page, or across the country on our India page.
Who won Conquest 2026?
Pamawel, the company behind the period-care brand be.ing painfree, won the Pan India Track. CDISC Technologies won the Greenovation Track, with EcoFurnish finishing as first runner-up and receiving ₹4,00,000.
When and where was Conquest 2026 Demo Day held?
Sunday 26 July 2026, at the Radisson Blu Atria in Bengaluru, India. It closed the 22nd edition of the programme.
How many startups were in the Conquest 2026 cohort?
Conquest selected 22 startups from more than 3,000 applications, an acceptance rate under 1%. Of those 22, thirteen were shortlisted for the offline programme in Bengaluru and pitched on Demo Day.
Does Conquest take equity or charge a fee?
No. Conquest runs a zero-cost, zero-equity model: there is no application fee, no equity is taken, and grants are paid as equity-free cash. It says it has disbursed over ₹1 crore in equity-free grants across the last three years.
How much grant money did Conquest 2026 award?
Conquest promoted the 2026 programme with a grant pool advertised at over ₹30 lakh. The only confirmed 2026 figure is EcoFurnish's ₹4,00,000 as first runner-up; the amounts awarded to Pamawel and CDISC Technologies have not been disclosed.
When do applications open for Conquest 2027?
Conquest has not published 2027 dates. On its recent cadence, registration for the 23rd edition would be expected to open around April 2027, with Demo Day in the second half of July.
Who runs Conquest?
It is run by students at the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, BITS Pilani, by a rotating team of roughly 20 to 25, and led by Ishan Malhotra as CEO. Conquest describes itself as Asia's largest student-run startup accelerator.
Reporting based on Conquest's own published posts and programme pages, its 2026 cohort announcement, contemporaneous coverage in the Indian business press during June and July 2026, a first-hand account published by EcoFurnish founder Ayush Panwar, and company records for the three named companies.
On the Greenovation result: Conquest's winners announcement grouped CDISC Technologies and EcoFurnish together under the Greenovation Track. Panwar separately identified CDISC as the winner and EcoFurnish as first runner-up, and gave the ₹4,00,000 figure. Grant amounts for the Pan India Track winner and the Greenovation Track winner have not been disclosed publicly. Conquest's programme page still displayed the 2025 schedule at the time of writing.
