New Delhi: For startups betting big on visibility, the payoff appears hazy. With stalls costing between ₹15 lakh and ₹50 lakh for the week and the opening day turning into a near-wipeout, exhibitors at the five-day India AI Impact Summit are questioning the returns on their investment. Concerns have been compounded by tighter restrictions expected in the coming days due to VIP visits and, as several exhibitors put it, the absence of a “target crowd” that could help them showcase their businesses to investors.
“Unstable internet affected live demos, laptops and cameras were restricted at a tech event, and queues ran over an hour,” said Pravin Kaushal, director at Mrikal, a data and artificial intelligence (AI) firm exhibiting at the summit.
Kaushal wasn’t the only one ruining the glitches.
The founder of a Bengaluru-based robotics startup, also exhibiting at the venue, said the quality of visitors at the expo floor was underwhelming from the standpoint of returns on investments. “You want decision-makers, investors, and serious buyers walking up to your stall, not just curious students or crowds,” said the founder, requesting anonymity.
Tuesday’s edition of the AI Impact Summit continued to see heavy footfall, with Abhishek Singh, additional secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), declaring that the day saw 1.25 lakh visitors. Organizational chokeholds were reduced, after Day-1 of the summit saw widespread chaos, confusion among exhibitors and participants, and security personnel complaining about lack of clear information.
The disappointment among exhibitors could get even worse. Manish Kumar Agrawal, special commissioner of Delhi Police, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the entire venue will be closed from 4:30pm on Wednesday in preparation of a dinner hosted for key executives by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi is also set to deliver a keynote address on Thursday, for which all entries to the venue will remain closed until at least 11am. “We will be allowing the expo area to remain open until 8pm on Thursday and Friday in response to overwhelming footfall,” Agrawal added.
Visitor curbs could upset plans of many exhibitors, who have paid anywhere from ₹25,000 to ₹50 lakh for the five-day exhibition, where they hoped to meet a steady stream of foreign participants to collaborate with or even interested in early-stage investors.
The expo features 600 startups and over 300 exhibitors overall, spread across a 70,000 square-metre space at Bharat Mandapam, the same venue that had hosted the Startup Mahakumbh last year in April, which had drawn 3,000 startups.
At the expo, a 1 sq meter startup pod costs ₹25,000 a day, while a standard stall of around 55 sq meters comes for roughly ₹15 lakh. A country pavilion of 200 sq meter costs companies ₹50 lakh just for the floor space, excluding booth construction, audio-visuals, staffing, logistics, flights and accommodation. The total cost for exhibitors could easily double or triple their bills.
Sentiment was further dampened as a startup reported lost goods worth ₹25 lakh amid the organizational chaos on Monday. Agrawal acknowledged the incident, stating that law enforcement was “investigating the theft.”
“The event should have been ticketed, which would have led to the influx of serious attendees. This is a structural flaw, and this open-entry format dilutes the quality of attendees. The audience composition simply didn’t give us anything to return with,” said a founder of an automation startup exhibiting at the expo.
Behind the buzz, founders are chasing attention, not just capital. Many have strayed away from stalls altogether, opting to enter as general visitors rather than exhibitors, circulating through the halls in search of an impromptu pitch or a conversation that might lead somewhere. “In a room this size, sometimes the most valuable real estate isn’t a booth. It’s just being there,” said a founder from Gujarat.
Some, however, said that the event exceeded expectations. “The optics of having the country’s top leadership walk through an AI expo, cameras rolling, coverage guaranteed is worth the inconvenience,” said a fourth AI firm founder based in Delhi. “It’s a pragmatic read, being part of an event that commands national attention has value that doesn’t always show up immediately in booth footfall.”
Analysts said such large exposure optics could help.
Madhur Singhal, managing partner and chief executive at Praxis Global Alliance, a management consulting firm, said being seen in event photos could “help with fundraising and have potential ecosystem benefits”.
“But, per se, that is not a quantifiable return on investment,” Singhal added.
Amid disappointments, many exhibitors hoped for two strong days of showcases. “The chaos feels like growing pains of unprecedented scale/success rather than failure,” Mrikal’s Kaushal added.
Startups took heart from top venture capital firms announcing deals.
On 17 February, Peak XV announced investments of over ₹₹120 crore in five early-stage AI companies at the Impact AI PitchFest, held as part of the summit, underlining hope of being noticed by the right visitors, who have so far eluded the summit.
