Founders and leaders from India’s startup ecosystem engaged in substantive conversations about AI River Cam and tech collaboration with UK Minister for AI and Online Safety Kanishka Narayan during a punting session on the River Cam in Cambridge, one of the most iconic settings in the UK.
The engagement took place on the sidelines of the Cambridge India Business Dialogue, as part of Startup Policy Forum‘s (SPF) UK Startup Safari delegation. Minister Narayan spoke of deepening the India-UK innovation corridor, while founders shared their journeys and the pulse of innovation back home.
Minister Kanishka Narayan said: “Closer collaboration between our innovation and startup ecosystems holds huge potential for new jobs and opportunities for the UK and India. Working side by side, we’re setting sail on a shared future of growth, where ideas, expertise and ambition flow freely between our countries.”
The exchange comes at a pivotal moment. Post the landmark India-UK Free Trade Agreement- the UK’s most significant bilateral deal since Brexit, bilateral trade is expected to increase by £25.5 billion each and every year in the long run.
Shweta Rajpal Kohli, President and CEO of Startup Policy Forum, said: “Few settings are more fitting for a conversation about the future of AI than the Cambridge waterways that once carried the ideas of Newton, Darwin, and Turing. This Startup Safari has reinforced our conviction that the India-UK innovation corridor is ready to move from conversation to action. SPF looks forward to deepening this partnership and building a strong bridge between India and the UK’s tech and policy ecosystems.”
SPF is India’s most influential new economy platform, representing 75+ companies with a combined valuation of $100 billion across sectors including fintech, deeptech, consumer internet, and enterprise software.
The delegation included Sambhav Jain, Fam (Founder & CEO), Bhavik Koladiya, BharatPe (Founder) & OTPLess (CEO), Satish Narayanan, SQ1 Security (Co-founder & CEO), Ritesh Jain, FlexiLoans (Founder), Akash Sinha, Cashfree Payments (Co-Founder), Nitin Thakur, PRISM (Group President), Raja Ganapathy, Spring Marketing Capital (Founding Partner), Aishwarya Malhi, Rebalance (Co-Founder), Ashumi Sanghvi, Future+ (Founder), Samridhi Shoor, Aegion (Founder & CEO), Atul Gupta, BBBS (Strategic Advisor).
The delegation’s week in the UK extended well beyond Cambridge. At the London Stock Exchange, the Forum received a formal welcome with its logos displayed on the iconic trading floor screens. Members also visited the UK Parliament for a session with Lord Karan Bilimoria, and held meetings with Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Periasamy Kumaran, and Minister (Economic) Nidhi Mani Tripathi.
The delegation also met with frontier AI companies including Graphcore, Beamery, Brahma AI, and Nothing, exploring where cutting-edge innovation is happening beyond Silicon Valley and what a genuine India-UK AI collaboration corridor could look like as the UK reshapes its tech and R&D landscape.
