MIF’s InnoWin Day: Catalysing India’s Innovation Ecosystem

They’ve cracked it. The solutions exist. Furniture from agricultural waste. Chemical gold from industrial emissions. Motors without rare-earth magnets. Water harvested from the atmosphere. Indian innovators now possess the technical brilliance to solve our most urgent problems. Their roadblock isn’t invention—it’s scale. The missing link is strategic connections that transform successful early-stage startups into market revolution.

This gap between breakthrough Indian innovation and implementation is precisely what Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) addressed with its inaugural InnoWin Day, held in Mumbai on April 3, 2025. The event was not merely another startup showcase but an intervention in India’s innovation narrative—designed and delivered in partnership with Startup Réseau.

24 innovators—winners from MIF’s Indian Innovation Icons 2025 and participants from its Scale-Up program—found themselves in structured conversations with representatives from Vedanta, Colgate-Palmolive, Reliance Industries, ITC, JSW Ventures, India Climate Collaborative, and more. The format was precise 20-minute meetings arranged in a speed networking format across four sectors: Agri-technology, Clean Technology, Plastic Waste Management, and Social Impact.

“InnoWin Day is a space for idea exchange, new partnerships, and limitless growth opportunities. It is a first-time initiative by MIF to be a bridge between innovators, funders, and investors, where we aim to create prolonged impact through ‘beyond capital’ metrics. It’s vital for startups seeking funding, but also for building strong relationships that lead to mentorship and partnerships.”

-Harsh Mariwala, Founder, MIF and Chairman, Marico Limited

Breakthrough Indian Innovations: From Niche to Necessity

The day featured a panel discussion on “Scaling Strategies” that cut through the usual startup platitudes. Two startups which graduated from the Scale-Up program as ‘Soonicorns’—S4S Technologies and Atomberg—shared how they transformed niche innovations into market necessities. These success stories exemplify MIF’s impact: S4S revolutionising food preservation with their solar dehydration technology, and Atomberg disrupting the appliance market with energy-efficient brushless DC motors. Both have grown from early-stage ventures to companies that have crossed INR 100 crores in annual revenue. 

What distinguishes MIF’s approach is its emphasis on measurement beyond capital. Its Scale-Up program—a no-equity accelerator currently providing bespoke mentorship to 20 innovative startups addressing India’s most urgent challenges across agri-tech, clean tech, and plastic waste management sectors—has helped these ventures achieve an average revenue growth of 60% last year. This data point represents solutions moving from experiment to everyday reality.

“At InnoWin Day, the key thing was the format itself. Hands-on meetings between startups and possible customers or strategic partners were already structured, with both parties having an idea who they were meeting and what could be the possible agendas. That actually made the meetings really fruitful. This format has been helpful for startups like us, and it all happened without any payments or equity.” 

-Swapnil Shrivastav, Co-Founder & CEO, Uravu Labs, a Scale-Up portfolio company

The innovators present spanned an impressive spectrum. Scale-Up participants like Brisil, GreenPod Labs, Ishitva Robotic Systems, Ricron Panels, Uravu, and Urban Kisaan showcased their market-ready solutions alongside AssisTech Foundation, Chara Technologies, Indra Water, PARI, and Rocket Learning—all recent winners of the Indian Innovation Icons 2025. For these award winners, InnoWin Day represented a key component of their victory package, providing direct access to potential investors and partners as part of MIF’s comprehensive support beyond the recognition itself.

“I believe that awards can’t just end with an event. That’s where MIF is so different. On InnoWin Day, we got the chance to meet a lot of industry players and investors. We connected with so many people who hopefully will join our mission to support technology interventions for people with disabilities. I’m grateful to continue our partnership going forward.”

-Prateek Madhav, Co-Founder & CEO, AssisTech Foundation, winner of Indian Innovation Icons 2025 – Social category

Beyond Capital Markets

What makes InnoWin Day significant isn’t just who was in the room but what happened there. The traditional model of innovation funding in India has often focused narrowly on financial investments. MIF’s approach recognises that scaling requires a more comprehensive ecosystem—access to markets, pilot opportunities, strategic guidance, and visibility among decision-makers.

“InnoWin Day is being launched to ensure we bring all the right resources—capital, customers, and conversations—to our innovators. We recognise that these innovators have large-scale solutions that need the support of a wider ecosystem to scale.” 

–Suranjana Ghosh, Head of MIF on the need for InnoWin Day

This marks an evolution in MIF’s work. Through its flagship programs—Scale-Up and the biennial Indian Innovation Icons awards—MIF has identified and supported breakthrough Indian innovations with transformative potential. With InnoWin Day, it now actively creates connections that accelerate the journey from prototype to market penetration.

For the innovators who participated, the day offered something beyond funding possibilities. It provided a pathway to transform promising technologies into widely adopted solutions with real-world impact. And in India’s crowded innovation landscape, that transition from potential to proven value makes all the difference.