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Every few years, India’s startup story reinvents itself. New technologies emerge, founders evolve, and industries find fresh purpose. Yet through all the change, one thing that stays constant is the spirit of people building with conviction, creativity, and intent. YourStory’s TechSparks 2025, returning to Bengaluru’s Taj Yeshwantpur from November 6 to 8, celebrates that evolution. Under the theme ‘India 2030: Powered by AI’, this year’s edition brings together global founders, investors, and technology leaders driving the next wave of growth. Here’s a look at the next set of speakers reimagining what’s possible for India’s innovation decade: Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, PeakXV Partners and Surge Few people occupy a rare vantage point as expansive as Rajan Anandan, who sits at the intersection of product, capital, and talent. As MD at PeakXV Partners and head of Surge, he has mentored and invested in scores of startups that went on to scale regionally and globally. At TechSparks, he’ll share a playbook for building category-defining companies, covering unit economics, founder-market fit, and the leadership traits that matter when growth gets hard. Umesh Bude, CTO, Pocket Entertainment Umesh Bude leads technology at Pocket Entertainment, the parent company of Pocket FM, driving innovation across audio, storytelling, and generative AI. His work focuses on building scalable tech infrastructure and AI-led tools that power immersive content experiences for millions of users globally. Expect insights into engineering for scale in the creator economy and how AI is shaping the future of personalised entertainment. Sankara Srinivasan Aiyyathurai, Founder, Koot A seasoned entrepreneur with multiple successful exits, Sankara Srinivasan now helps SaaS businesses scale globally through Koot, a consultancy that accelerates enterprise and GCC sales. Aiyyathurai will talk about how India’s GCCs are transforming enterprise technology buying and the new opportunities for SaaS founders building from India for the world. Ariane Bucquet Pousette, Head of Startup Ecosystem – Entrepreneurship, Stockholm Business Region From Sweden’s thriving startup hub comes Ariane Bucquet Pousette, who bridges creativity, entrepreneurship, and policy. At Stockholm Business Region, she works with founders, investors, and city stakeholders to build a more inclusive and globally connected innovation landscape. At TechSparks, she will share how ecosystem collaboration between India and Sweden can drive inclusive innovation- and open new cross-border opportunities. Emma Rozada, Founder, Interplanetary Species, Nexular & The Techno Creatives A designer, technologist, and serial entrepreneur, Emma Rozada has spent over two decades turning bold ideas into ventures that transform everyday life. Through The Techno Creatives, she has co-built and backed companies across e-mobility, fintech, and sustainable food systems,including Bokio, Nexular, and Green City Farming. Her talk will explore how design, AI, and entrepreneurship can converge to solve global challenges, and why imagination, not just infrastructure, fuels the most transformative innovation. Akis Evangelidis, Co-founder and India President, Nothing As Co-founder and India President at Nothing, Akis Evangelidis is building a design-first tech brand rooted in transparency and community. He will unpack what it takes to build global consumer brands from India, and why design thinking is the true differentiator in a crowded market. Abilash Narahari, VP - Head of Technology & Digital Natives, QualityKiosk Technologies Abilash Narahari leads the intersection of AI, automation, and customer experience at QualityKiosk Technologies, helping large organisations innovate with precision and speed. A strong believer in measurable impact, he focuses on making AI practical, not experimental, by turning quality engineering into a strategic growth driver. Expect a deep dive into how agentic AI and automation are redefining enterprise resilience, helping businesses innovate faster while building trust that lasts. Prabhu Rangarajan, Co-founder, M2P Fintech Prabhu Rangarajan is a serial entrepreneur and infrastructure builder in India’s fintech stack. As Co-founder of M2P Fintech, he has helped enable dozens of fintech products that make payments and payouts seamless and developer-friendly. At TechSparks, he will decode the technical and regulatory building blocks of modern finance and how embedded infrastructure is powering India’s fintech leap. Gaurav Hinduja, Co-founder, Axio Gaurav Hinduja brings an operator’s clarity to the challenge of serving new-to-credit consumers at scale. At Axio, he’s designing data-led credit products that are both inclusive and responsible. Onstage, he will discuss credit access, product-led trust, and how companies can balance growth ambitions with sustainable customer outcomes. Anuj Kacker, Co-founder, Freo Anuj Kacker is reimagining credit and money management for young professionals. He focuses on designing transparent, behaviourally smart products that lower friction and improve financial health. He will share lessons from building in one of India’s most regulated markets, from navigating compliance shifts and credit risk to sustaining trust in a sector built on credibility. Joining them are some of the most influential voices across fintech, SaaS, cloud, and enterprise transformation – including Rahul Regulapati, Founder at Galleri5 (acquired by Collective Artists); Hemant Mohapatra, Partner at Lightspeed India; Vishal Gupta, CEO at PhonePe Insurance; Aniruddha Patwardhan, Head of Engineering at PhonePe; Praveen Sridhar, Director of Partnerships at AWS; and Goutam Kurumella, Head of Startup Solutions Architecture at AWS. Global and enterprise innovators such as Ramakant Sharma, Founder and CEO at Livspace; Takahisa Ohira, Head of Asia Region at Deloitte Tohmatsu Venture Support; Rajesh Ramachandran, Global Chief Digital Officer at ABB; Tsuyoshi Morimoto, Vice President at Denso International India; Soumyajit Ghosh, COO at Balancehero India; Aditya Soni, Founder and CEO at CheQ; Rajendran Dandapani, Director of Technology at Zoho Corp.; Mathangi Sri Ramachandran, Head of YuVerse at Yubi Group; Khadim Batti, Co-founder and CEO at Whatflix; Vishal Virani, Co-founder and CEO at Rocket; and Sagar Kumar, Vice President of Engineering at PayU, will share how technology and scale intersect across industries to power India’s innovation economy. Curious to explore the full speaker list? Click here. Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to be part of the movement building an AI-powered India. Click here to register for TechSparks 2025.
