Bengaluru, India | 01 July 2025 – Endiya Partners, in collaboration with the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy, successfully concluded the first edition of Game On!, a high-energy sports tournament designed to promote wellbeing, leadership, and community within India’s startup ecosystem
The tournament was held on 21 June 2025 at Lakshyan Sports Academy, Bengaluru, and brought together 250+ participants from 50+ unique early and growth-stage startups, venture capital firms, and ecosystem enablers.
Participants competed across Badminton, Table Tennis, and Box Cricket, with HSBC Bank as the event partner. The tournament served as a platform for founders, operators, interns, and investors to step away from the usual pace of startup life and reconnect through sport, a space where agility, resilience, and collaboration play out in real time.
The event was graced by esteemed guests of honour: Pullela Gopichand, Chief National Coach for the Indian Badminton Team; Dhanraj Pillai, Olympian and former captain of the Indian Hockey Team; and Vani Kola, Managing Director at Kalaari Capital. Their presence underscored the importance of sport not just in physical development but in shaping mental strength, leadership, and emotional endurance, values that resonate deeply with the startup community.
Sateesh Andra, Managing Partner at Endiya Partners, said, “Entrepreneurship demands clarity, endurance and emotional strength. Game On! is a platform that brings these values into focus through sport. It reflects our commitment to building a more resilient and connected startup ecosystem. We are encouraged by the overwhelming response and look forward to expanding this initiative across other startup hubs.”
Pullela Gopichand, Chief National Coach and co-host of the event, added, “Sport offers a natural framework to build leadership, discipline and trust. These are the same principles that drive successful teams and companies. It was inspiring to see such wholehearted participation from the startup community.”
The competition saw spirited participation across all three sports. In Table Tennis, Sofove ( Sudhash Natarajan, Karthik Mani) clinched the title while Omni Design Technologies (Esetty Debasis, Chandra Prakash) finished runners up. In *Badminton Men’s Doubles, Scrut Automation (Siddhant Chourasia and Prabhjeet Singh) emerged victorious, while Yana.Travels (Sanket D K and Suprit D K) finished runners-up. In Mixed Doubles, CoachBuddy.ai (Vadhiraj K R and Harshitha K K) took first place, with Trinity Life Sciences (Mandeep and Induja) in second. In the Box Cricket tournament, Tiger Analytics lifted the trophy, with DesiCrew Solutions Pvt. Ltd. finishing as runners-up.
Participants included startups across various growth stages, with teams comprising CXOs, operators, interns and investors. Matches were played in a spirit of collaboration and friendly competition, with active cheering and cross-team engagement throughout the day.
Following the success of the inaugural edition in Bengaluru, Endiya Partners and the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy plan to take Game On! to Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad in the coming months. The initiative aims to evolve into an annual community platform that fosters wellbeing, leadership and culture-building across India’s innovation economy.