The “World Startup Convention” in Greater Noida, which was advertised as the largest funding festival worldwide, ended up being a scam.
The “World Startup Convention” in Greater Noida, which was advertised as the largest funding festival worldwide, ended up being a scam.
The event was billed as the “world’s biggest funding festival” and featured business titans like Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, and venture capital firms Sequoia and Tiger Global on the panel. But it never materialised.
The event’s organisers also included images of members of the union cabinet, including Nitin Gadkari, to imply that they would also be in attendance. Due to their alleged affiliation with the World Startup Convention, authors Chetan Bhagat and financial content creator Ankur Warikoo also received criticism.
The World Startup Convention, organised by “investors” Luke Talwar and Arjun Chaudhary, was originally scheduled for January 14–16 but was moved to March 24-26. As many as 2,000 startups were conned, according to a Tweet. Later, police officers showed up at the venue of the event.
More than 2000 startups have been scammed for over 100cr of wealth in the name of a startup event-World Startup Convention- World Biggest Startup Funding Festival, which eventually didn't even witness a single investor. #JusticeforStartups #WSCScam @nitin_gadkari @myogiadityanath
— Aman Jindal (@mannkeviews) March 26, 2023
The convention promised to offer a venue for aspiring business owners to network with potential investors and sector authorities in order to secure funding. However, on the day of the event, investors broke every significant promise they had made. Attendees were shocked to learn that none of the well-known figures who had been used to promote the event were present on the event day.
No investors, No format, No explanations, No chief guests.
Absolutely a fraud show at World Startup Convention in Noida.
They made a fool out if all startups here. Shame@nitin_gadkari @Prafull_mbachai @chetan_bhagat @warikoo @rajshamani @kpmaurya1 @pushkardhami @myogiadityanath pic.twitter.com/iN9T7HTym9— Gestureminds Webservices (@gesturemindsllp) March 24, 2023
The programmes and events themselves also turned out to be of poor quality. At that point, irate business owners started requesting refunds. The tickets cost around Rs 8,000 each, and many attendees came from far-flung locations like Nashik, Chennai, and Surat, incurring significant expenses for travel, lodging, and meals.
According to a report, Ankur Warikoo denied any direct involvement in the event and reportedly said that his team had asked the organisers to take down ads involving him after he disassociated from the event in January, but they never complied.
“I am not involved in the conceptualising or organising of the event. We had done an Instagram collab reel on January 19… video will not be used for promoting the event. However, I realised that this was not respected. While they took down the ads when we asked them to, the video was still used on their website and in all of their communication,” he told CNBCTV18 News.