Web Summit, the planet’s largest and most influential tech and startup event, is launching its Indian edition as SURGE 2016. Aimed at the tech and startup communities in India and internationally, SURGE 2016 will be held in Bangalore on February 23-24, 2016.
Paddy Cosgrave, CEO of Web Summit, announced the event today along with Vikram Ahuja, founder, Beyond Travel, and outlined how SURGE will act as a catalyst in supporting the startup community in the country and the region. Web Summit has been recognised as staging “the best technology conferences on the planet” (Forbes).
Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder of Web Summit said: “Web Summit is now the biggest and most influential startup gathering in the world. In recent years, we’ve seen a significant rise in the number of Indian startups attending our global conferences. India is increasingly producing globally competitive startups that have disrupted markets and the way we live. Bangalore is a significant part of the global startup ecosystem and we think it is the ideal venue for SURGE 2016.”
In its first year SURGE 2016 is expected to attract more than 4,000 attendees, including startups, investors, media and speakers, from India and beyond. The Web Summit flagship event, held in Dublin for the last five years has seen growth from 400 attendees to over 42,000 from more than 134 countries in 2015.
Vikram Ahuja, founder Byond Travel, said: “Bangalore is leading the way for the rapidly developing startup ecosystem in India. It”s great that SURGE is coming to Bangalore. I am sure SURGE will be an important part of the startup ecosystem in India within a very short space of time.”
In the past, Web Summit has hosted some of the most influential speakers including Da Vinci Code’s Dan Brown, Tinder’s Sean Rad, Instagram’s Ed Catmull, and Tour De France Winner Chris Froome along with 30,000 attendees, over 2000 start-ups, 1000 investors and 650 speakers.
Paddy Cosgrave added: “100s of Indian startups and founders have been to our events in recent years, principally to Web Summit in Dublin. This year 80 Indian startups came to our RISE event in Hong Kong.
“Attendee numbers are rising fast and we expect to have several thousand entrepreneurs, investors, media and speakers at SURGE, including 500 of the most exciting startups from across the region. We already have 300 startups and 2,000 attendees registered.
“They have been telling us for some time that Web Summit should come to India and we have been blown away by their creativity and innovation. India has arguably the most important and accessible startup ecosystem in the world right now and we want to support it by giving them a world-class event where they can gather, network and grow.”
SPEAKERS already confirmed for SURGE
–Nicolas Brusson, Co-Founder & COO, BlaBlaCar
–Sachin Bansal, Co-Founder & CEO, Flipkart.com
–Rohit Bansal, Co Founder & COO, Snapdeal
–Ambarish Mitra, Founder & CEO, Blippar
–Greg Moran, Co-Founder, Zoomcar
INVESTORS already confirmed for SURGE
–Dave McClure, Founding Partner, 500 Startups
–Subrata Mitra, Partner, Accel Partners
–Saul Klein, Founder, Seedcamp
–Bharati Jacob, Managing Partner, Seedfund