The Startup Policy Forum lit up the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square as part of our first international delegation - Startup Safari - US Edition. We were thrilled and grateful as the iconic Nasdaq tower welcomed a joint delegation of USIBC - US India Business Council and the Startup Policy Forum.
Special thanks to USIBC Chairman and Nasdaq Executive Vice Chairman Edward Knight for hosting an insightful session with our delegation — sharing perspectives on the future of global capital markets and the ongoing resurgence in IPOs and valuations. Our delegates, in turn, reflected on their growth journeys, expansion plans, and how they are taking Indian innovation global. Thank you Arun Anandaiah for co-hosting this special engagement for us.
SPF was honoured to lead a delegation to the United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies where we delved into trends shaping India’s startup ecosystem, with specific insights into how AI is redefining our worlds. The Startup Policy Forum delegation was warmly hosted by Under-Secretary-General and UN’s Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Gill who offered an inspiring overview of ODET’s work at the frontiers of global technology and AI governance.
A special highlight: founders and leaders —Shashank ND of Practo, Anshuman Singh of Scaler, Ajay Lakhotia ofStockGro, Gopal Sharma of Physics Wallah (PW), Nishchay Ag ofJar, Dhruvil Sanghvi of LogiNext, Shivam Agarwal of Signzy presented to the United Nations team sharing firsthand how they are integrating AI into their core business practices to drive growth and create new value. Their stories illustrated the vibrant innovation landscape powering India's AI adoption and use case story.
Our deepest gratitude to the UN team and Mr. Gill for their generous knowledge sharing and leadership in fostering global cooperation on emerging technologies.
We had an excellent session with The World Bank and IFC - International Finance Corporation in New York. Talking Tech with World Bank —where senior leaders from both institutions met our visiting delegation of founders and leaders.
World Bank’s Jay Heimbach underscored how the incredible work being done by Indian startups aligns with many of their goals and priorities including innovative solutions for solving development challenges at scale.
IFC’s Chief Investment Officer Mohamed Eissa shared his optimism on India, highlighting the strengths of Indian founders, their global edge, and the unique opportunities they have. His message to founders: this is India’s decade and now is the time to turbocharge the innovation story.
Special thanks to Maria Dimitriadou for her insights into business resilience through inclusion and diversification.
A huge shout out to Tanvir Gill for curating this fabulous interaction. We at the Startup Policy Forum are grateful for this opportunity to spotlight Indian innovation on a global stage.
The Startup Policy Forum delegation visited the World Economic Forum’s New York office, engaging in a thoughtful conversation with Matthew Blake, Member of Executive Committee and Head of the New York office.We also interacted with the Global Innovators community team led by Saemoon Yoon gaining insights into how startups from across the world are collaborating with the Forum on emerging technologies.Thank you WEF team for hosting us and opening up avenues for exchange on how global innovation, finance, and healthcare intersect with the startup ecosystem.
We are grateful to the Consulate General of India New York for hosting our US Startup Safari delegation and convening dialogues on — “Global Pathways for Indian Founders” across two powerhouse cities.A big thank you to Ambassador Binaya S. Pradhan, Consul General (NYC) and Mr. Vishal J. Harsh, Deputy Consul General (NYC) for their time and presence in these sessions.We’re equally grateful to our guest speakers — Malachy Nugent, Vice President US-India Strategic Partnership Forum and Alok Bansal, Co-founder, Policybazaar.com and to our insightful panelists on sharing their perspectives on building global pathways: Chris Kettmann, DGA Group, Mira Jhala, Founder, Frogo, Shashank ND, Founder, Practo, Anshuman Singh, co-founder Scaler and Vishesh C Chandiok, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP.By backing such exchange initiatives, Indian government missions strengthen the bridge for our founders from India to engage with global innovation ecosystems while inviting international stakeholders to lean into the India story.
Our gratitude to Covington & Burling LLP, America’s leading corporate law firm, for hosting the Startup Policy Forum delegation of founders in New York.The session deep-dived into key legal considerations for Indian startups entering the US market — from IP strategy and tax structures to M&A pathways and compliance.These insights will be invaluable as our founders chart global growth journeys.We’d also like to thank the ICICI Bank US team and USIBC - US India Business Council for their gracious hospitality for our delegation.
A privilege to visit OpenAI’s HQ in SF — the OGs of AI innovation — and to be hosted by Srinivas Narayanan, Vice President of Engineering; Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat, Applied AI and Colin M Evans, Startups and VC Partnerships.
Srinivas — who has recently transitioned to an expanded role of CTO of B2B applications — shared OpenAI’s engineering vision to scale AI safely and efficiently, emphasizing India’s vital role as a powerhouse of engineering talent.
Shyamal highlighted the practical impact of applied AI across industries and how Indian startups are uniquely positioned to build innovative, responsible AI solutions.
Colin spoke about OpenAI’s collaborative approach with startups and venture partners, reflecting a deep optimism for the Indian startup ecosystem’s ability to pioneer global AI use cases.
This visit was truly memorable — meeting with the original architects and go-to leaders of AI innovation. It enhanced our understanding of OpenAI’s global roadmap, opportunities of enterprise-scale AI deployment, and potential for India to lead in shaping the future of AI.
Thank you Pragya Misra for your support in making this happen!
A remarkable day at the NVIDIA campus for the Startup Policy Forum delegation, where we experienced firsthand the best of AI innovation in action. Our visit gave a glimpse into why NVIDIA, the world’s most valuable company with a market capitalisation of over USD 4 trillion, is at the very forefront of global technology and innovation.
In our interaction, Pradeep Gupta Vice President Generative AI and Accelerated Computing, shared insights on how NVIDIA’s work in agentic AI, intelligent hardware, and developer platforms is shaping the next era of computing.
The visit to the Experience & Briefing Center (EBC) with Vanessa Ching was deeply immersive - from humanoid robot demos to high‑performance GPUs powering generative AI and simulation environments - it was a window into how NVIDIA continues to set benchmarks as the world’s leading AI computing platform, accelerating innovation across domains from healthcare to mobility to enterprise.Heartfelt thanks to Vishal Dhupar for making this amazing engagement happen.
Members of the Startup Policy Forum were delighted to spend time with the OG investor Vinod Khosla at the Sand Hill Road office of Khosla Ventures.
He shared deeply thought‑provoking insights in a freewheeling chat — from AI utopia to dystopia, to India’s rightful place in the global AI journey, how education and healthcare will dramatically change with AI, all the way to how geopolitics is reshaping the world.
A symbolic souvenir marked our visit to Groq’s headquarters in Palo Alto last week — a coin representing the famed “gold coin challenge” set by founder Jonathan Ross to break performance barriers in AI compute: 25 million tokens per second.We are grateful to Groq’s leadership — Mohsen Moazami, Ian Andrews, Gavin Sherry, Christopher Stephens and Mehul Patel for hosting the Startup Policy Forum delegation and showcasing Groq’s groundbreaking technology.The live demos of AI workloads on custom LPUs (language processing units) were a revelation on how speed, performance, and cost are being redefined – challenging incumbents in AI compute.Having met Jonathan in India just last month, it was a delight for team SPF to get our members to see his vision taking shape in Silicon Valley. Prior to Groq, Jonathan began what became Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) where he designed and implemented the core elements of the first-generation TPU chip.The visit, set in the dynamic Playground Global co‑working hub and surrounded by innovators, was immersive and energising — a front‑row glimpse into the future being built.Cross‑border dialogues like these matter: they bridge ecosystems, inspire collaboration, and connect India’s startups with global pioneers at the very frontier of AI.
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Our immersion into the heart of venture capital included visits to Lightspeed, Bain Capital Ventures and Salesforce Ventures in San Francisco Bay Area - among the most influential investment firms.These conversations provided a front-row view into how Silicon Valley is thinking today: where AI hype meets reality, growing conviction around India and its unique role in the global startup ecosystem, and the new playbooks shaping innovation and venture capital worldwide.We are grateful to Dev Khare, Saanya Ojha, Rak Garg and Khushboo Patel for their generosity of time and candor in answering questions, challenging assumptions, and sharing hard-earned insights with the Startup Policy Forum delegation.
A fun visit to vibe coding startup Replit’s office in the Bay Area. SPF members engaged with the leadership team shaping the future of coding — Michele Catasta, President & Head of AI, Scott Kennedy, VP of Engineering and Jeff Burke, Head of Business Development & Partnerships.At the core of our exchange was learning all about vibe coding — a new approach that makes programming more collaborative, intuitive, and creative. Replit is pioneering this shift, enabling innovators, founders, and developers to move from concept to prototype faster than ever.For India, the impact could be game-changing. With one of the world’s largest pools of young developers and a surge of AI-first startups, the India market is central to Replit’s journey.Their team shared valuable insights on global coding trends and how Indian founders can harness this momentum to build transformative products. They also shared how some of their India customers like Razorpay are fast embracing and integrating the technology.The highlight was a live coding demo of an idea proposed by the SPF team — brought to life on the spot. A glimpse of the future of building, unfolding right before our eyes.
We are grateful to the Consulate General of India, San Francisco for hosting our US Startup Safari delegation and convening dialogues on — “Global Pathways for Indian Founders” across two powerhouse cities.A big thank you to Mr. Rakesh Adlakha, Deputy Consul General (SF), and Mr. Abhishek Kumar Sharma, Consul (Commerce, SF) for their time and presence in these sessions.We’re equally grateful to our guest speakers — Malachy Nugent, Vice President US-India Strategic Partnership Forum and Alok Bansal, Co-founder, Policybazaar.com and to our insightful panelists on sharing their perspectives on building global pathways: Chris Kettmann, DGA Group, Mira Jhala, Founder, Frogo, Shashank ND, Founder, Practo, Anshuman Singh, co-founder Scaler and Vishesh C Chandiok, Grant Thornton Bharat LLP.By backing such exchange initiatives, Indian government missions strengthen the bridge for our founders from India to engage with global innovation ecosystems while inviting international stakeholders to lean into the India story.
