Dr. Viveka Kalidasan’s visit to Hangzhou fostered cross-border partnerships, exploring new avenues for Singapore startups in China and strengthening global tech collaborations in Industry 5.0
Dr. Viveka Kalidasan presented at Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2024, discussing the human-centered vision of Industry 5.0 and the future of sustainable, inclusive manufacturing
River Ventures led impactful Industry 5.0 sessions at Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2024.The event highlighted the role of inclusivity, open innovation, and startup-corporate collaboration in shaping a sustainable Industry 5.0 future
Announcing our partnership with Hangzhou International Talents Entrepreneurship & Innovation Park (HITEIP). This program empowers startups in Industry 5.0, precision engineering, and life sciences with funding, office spaces, and support for APAC expansion
River Ventures hosted the first Singapore edition of the Startup World Cup in collaboration with SGInnovate and Pegasus Tech Ventures. The event celebrated groundbreaking Industry 5.0 technologies, fostering connections within Singapore’s dynamic startup ecosystem
Dr. Viveka joined an impactful panel discussion at Singapore Management University on climate tech that brought together policymakers, deeptech innovators, and investors highlighting the importance of a unified approach to drive meaningful change. European climate tech startups, supported by the European Innovation Council, showcased their innovations, setting an inspiring global standard for profitability and sustainability
Personal branding is about authentic actions and values that resonate, not superficial jargon~INWED2024 celebration at Dyson
48th INSEAD Venture Competition Finals, witnessing a historic first-place tie and celebrating outstanding innovation
Lunch with National University of Singapore leaders as an Outstanding Young Alumni, discussing strategies to support current students with alumni engagement
Conversations over lunch with Violette Chng and Suchitra Narayan from SGInnovate, reinforcing the power of women uplifting women.
Successful Industry 5.0 event organized with Huawei Singapore, IMDA, Asia Innovate Hub, and Schnell LiFi GmbH, fostering new partnerships and collaborations, and launching River LiFi Labs, the world's first LiFi accelerator
Proud to be part of I-care Group, where women excel in diverse roles, driving innovation and inclusivity
Touring A*STAR’s model factory confirmed that Singapore’s infrastructure supports the vision of supporting support women-led deeptech ventures in Industry 5.0
Great discussions with Speedcargo Technologies highlighted their innovative platform transforming the cargo industry. Dr. Suraj Nair and Krishna Kumar are leading a deeptech revolution in airfreight.
Thrilled to support KitOSys, set to revolutionize the food industry with their visionary leadership and inclusive culture.
River Ventures first Demo Day was a full house hit! Highlights: insightful talks, engaging panels, and pitches from 19 startups.
Our Founder-CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan and Technical Advisor Mr. Hemanand met with Carolyn Mak and Ng Wee Kok at Singapore Manufacturing Federation to explore synergies in bridging startups, SMEs, and corporates. River Ventures aligns with SMF's SHIP goals—sustainability, human capital, internationalization, and productivity—supporting Industry 5.0 startups and contributing to Manufacturing 2030 and Green Plan 2030.
River Ventures officially launched at TamilNadu Global Investors Meet 2024 Founder-CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan unveiled the world's first Industry 5.0 accelerator and Deep tech venture studio, focusing on inclusivity and global startups. Reach out if you're in robotics, automation, AI, or related fields
Dr. Viveka Kalidasan met with NZTE Trader Commissioner Maggie Christie to explore collaboration opportunities for inclusively empowering NZ Industry 5.0 startups and scaling them into Singapore.
Dr. Viveka moderated a HubSpot webinar on leveraging AI for startups, highlighting its role in marketing, investor interests, and early integration.
Shout-out to Sketchcore Labs and co-founders Leon Lee and Bruce Leong! At River Ventures, we're thrilled to support their AI-assisted 3D modeling technology set to disrupt advanced manufacturing.
Our CEO Dr. Viveka shared her journey and the inspiration behind River Venture Studio at Women's Forum for the Economy & Society.
Dr. Viveka moderated a discussion with Professor David Gann CBE and Tim Cruttenden at SGInnovate. We explored #Industry5.0 and #Inclusivity, delving into topics from tech transfer to funding impact-driven startups. Grateful for the insightful exchange and kind words from David and Tim.
Dr Viveka moderated a panel on Inclusive Industry5.0 with e27 (Optimatic) for EchelonX and was a panelist discussing AI in the workforce.
Founder-CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, engaged with the H3C team in Singapore to explore a tripartite collaboration uniting startups, industry leaders, and CVCs. This strategic partnership aims to accelerate innovation in semiconductors, IoT, and advanced manufacturing through targeted support and ecosystem-building.
Founder-CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan,along with her team, visited the TANSAM Center of Excellence and their state-of-the-art Industry 4.0 lab to kick off a high-impact strategic partnership. This collaboration will bridge advanced manufacturing capabilities with River Ventures Industry 5.0 ecosystem, driving co-created programs, global startup scaling, and next-gen engineering talent development.
Founder-CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, met with Roland Peña of Opportunity Austin and Mehron P. Azarmehr to explore River Ventures strategic expansion into Austin. With its thriving semiconductor and advanced manufacturing ecosystem, Austin offers a powerful launchpad for deeptech and Industry 5.0 innovation between India and the US.
Founder-CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, met with the brilliant team at Random Walk during her visit to their Chennai office this week, engaging with some of the sharpest minds driving innovation in generative AI, enterprise automation, and LLM deployment. Led by visionary CEO Anant Mani, Random Walk is building a truly global AI company with clarity, ambition, and future-focused execution.
Founder-CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan,represented River Ventures at the FounderX Global Conference 2025, delivering a keynote on “Industry 5.0: The Inclusive Way Forward.”She emphasized cobot-powered, human-centric innovation and joined expert panels on Manufacturing 5.0 and fundraising strategies.Her insights on Tamil Nadu’s semiconductor potential and tech-driven industrial growth were key highlights.The event saw a vibrant turnout of young changemakers and founders across India.River is proud to be part of this movement shaping a resilient and inclusive future.
Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD, joined SleekFlow’s inaugural AI workshop “AI-volution: Spark, Engage, Convert” in Singapore as a panelist alongside fellow partners Derick Ng (Clickr) and SengYee Tai (ZENXIN Organic Food). She shared insights on customer-first growth strategies following a hands-on demo of SleekFlow’s new AI tool, AgentFlow. Charlene Fong was moderating the engaging session.
Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, met with key visionaries during her power-packed day in Chennai.She had a strategic discussion with our CSO, Dr. Senthil Sambandam, on River’s long-term direction. She also engaged with Mr. Anantha R. K., Founder & CEO of MOI Technology, exploring decentralization and tokenization for Industry5.0 and potential collaboration on a future-ready contextual deeptech fund.
Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan,connected with Fipchain Founders GK Tirunavukarasu and Vijay Dingari, whose mission to safeguard intellectual property resonates deeply with River’s IP-driven innovation approach
We are the venture building partner of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD). We help ventures scale from ideation to market, supported by global mentors, IP experts, and investors. Delivered in online and hybrid formats by top founders, academics, and industry leaders, the programme empowers participants to transform IP into scalable innovations across APAC, North America, and GCC. All resources and materials are provided.
Dr. Viveka with Jamuna Rani Govindaraju, Executive Director of SICCI, in a collaborative discussion, symbolising a shared vision for empowering cross-border deeptech innovation and digitalisation.
A dynamic panel featuring distinguished speakers and innovators from the Industry 5.0 ecosystem. Dr. Viveka moderates the discussion alongside Soh Lengwan Wan, Rohit Giridhar, Alvin How, Hemanand Moorthy, Rishab Patwari, and Gayathri T
An engaging panel discussion at GITEX ASIA, featuring thought leaders and experts in inclusivity and innovation. Dr. Adhvaidha Kalidasan moderates the session, with panelists including Soh Khim ONG, Gayathri T, Sagar Dubal, Nelaka Haturusinha, and Christopher Lim.
A dynamic AI in Industry 5.0 panel at GITEX ASIA 2025, featuring Dr. Viveka Kalidasan moderating a lively exchange among global AI and deeptech innovators, featuring panelists- Sarang Kamalakar, Rajat Singhania, Vishnu Saran, Jackie Tan, Wook Lee, and Jeeva Madhaiyan share cutting-edge insights on AI’s transformative role.
Dr. Viveka takes the stage to redefine the future of innovation through the lens of Industry 5.0 and Inclusivity. She shares how deeptech leadership, value-driven entrepreneurship, and inclusive systems design can catalyze a more equitable and sustainable industrial future.
At Ground Zero’s Phase Zero, Dr. Viveka delivered a high-impact session focused on how to pitch effectively, guiding aspiring entrepreneurs through the art of storytelling, investor engagement, and value articulation. Drawing from her experience leading River Ventures, she broke down the essentials of building credibility, communicating vision, and turning ideas into fundable ventures. The session empowered early-stage founders with practical tools and frameworks to navigate the startup journey from ideation to impact.
Dr. Viveka led a strategic visit to Hangzhou to deepen ties with TP Incubator, HITEIP and Gongshu District officials, marking River Ventures expansion into China. Highlights included the launch of an office at HITEIP and a 2M RMB grant secured for portfolio startup, WiSe—advancing cross-border growth and global scaling for deeptech startups.
Dr. Viveka and Gayathri Thyagarajan, Founder-CEO of Kynhood Technologies visited ByteDance for an engaging exchange on innovation and future collaborations. The visit highlighted River Ventures commitment to fostering impactful partnerships in deeptech and emerging technologies.
Dr. Viveka served as a judge at Vaniga Vettai, a hackathon for Tamil-speaking deeptech entrepreneurs in Singapore focused on smart city solutions. The event brought together nine diverse teams from junior colleges and universities, showcasing innovations in edtech, IoT, mental health, and more. It emphasized inclusive innovation and the importance of representation, aligning with River Ventures mission to empower minority founders in the Industry 5.0 era.
Dr. Viveka met with Peter Tensen, CEO of Globaltech IP, to discuss fostering cross-border collaboration between China and Singapore, with a focus on deeptech innovation. The meeting highlighted the importance of strategic partnerships, market access, regulatory guidance, and investment support to help startups scale globally.
Dr. Viveka, Founder-CEO of River Ventures with Abhishek Ganapathy, Director - Commercial, Exhibitions Department, Dubai World Trade Centre on River Venture Studio's partnership with GITEX ASIA 2025 debuting in Singapore
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Ventures at “Going Global: Launch and Scale Your Startup in the USA”, organised by Select USA in partnership with ACE.SG and Enterprise Singapore. It was yet another full house as we brought together Singapore’s vibrant #startup ecosystem to explore pathways to the U.S. market. As a deep tech venture studio backed by Enterprise Singapore, River continues its mission to help founders think global from day one.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Venturs in Hangzhou, sharing the success story of bringing our portfolio startup WiSe into China and securing government funding. She toured the AIoT Town, a hub for next-generation innovation, and hosted a River booth connecting Chinese startups with opportunities in Singapore. Backed by Enterprise Singapore, River continues to empower deeptech founders with venture building, cross-border growth, and global market access.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Ventures at WOTCAsia 2025, participating in the Executive Panel: Women of Purpose alongside Winnie Chan, moderated by Suguna Madhavan. She shared her journey in building an inclusive Industry 5.0 ecosystem and fostering purpose-driven innovation. Backed by Enterprise Singapore, River is proud to support initiatives that empower diverse leadership and strengthen the deeptech ecosystem.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, is thrilled to share that Zolnoi, one of our portfolio companies, has been shortlisted to bring their AI-based Energy Optimization Platform to Japan with partners like #IndiaAccelerator. Kudos to Varun Rai and Sivam Pillai (PhD) for their vision in tackling energy waste in manufacturing. Backed by Enterprise Singapore, River continues to empower startups in building impactful, innovation-driven ventures that shape the future.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Ventures as the Global Facilitation Partner at TNGSS 2025, leading the Singapore Pavilion and International Delegation. The delegation engaged with distinguished leaders and policymakers, culminating in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing with StartupTN, witnessed by Hon’ble IT Minister Thiru Dr. P Thiaga Rajan. Backed by Enterprise Singapore, River continues to strengthen cross-border collaboration and empower deeptech innovation.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Ventures as the Global Facilitation Partner at TNGSS 2025, facilitating a strategic dialogue between SICCI Executive Director Ms. Jamuna Rani Govindaraju and Hon’ble IT Minister Thiru Dr. P Thiaga Rajan. This discussion marked a key step in fostering bilateral collaboration and empowering cross-border innovation between Singapore and Tamil Nadu.
At TNGSS 2025, River Ventures, represented by our Founder and CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, had the honor of hosting Thiru T. M. Anbarasan, Hon’ble Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Thiru S. S. Sivasankar, Hon’ble Minister for Transport. These engagements strengthened cross-border collaboration and showcased River’s commitment to fostering innovation and deeptech entrepreneurship.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Ventures at TNGSS 2025, sharing insights on cross-border innovation, capital flows, and global startup growth. She delivered the keynote “Incubation to Impact: Inclusively Building Industry 5.0 Deep-Tech Ventures”, inspiring founders and ecosystem leaders to scale deeptech ventures with impact. Backed by Enterprise Singapore, River continues to drive inclusive, global innovation.
Our Founder and CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, joined an inspiring panel on Trailblazing Women Driving the Global Startup Revolution at TNGSS 2025, alongside Nayani Nasa (Meta), Swathy Rohit (Health Basix), Ambika Banotra (NRW.Global Business Inc.), Mahima Jinah Kim (Unicorn Incubator), and Neeraja Rao (Austrade). The discussion highlighted women’s leadership, global innovation, and deeptech entrepreneurship, inspiring the next generation of founders to scale with impact.
Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2025 (ITAP), powered by River Ventures, brought together global industry leaders, innovators, and deeptech startups to explore the future of manufacturing and Industry 5.0. River curated the Industry 5.0 Pavilion and hosted the Disruptor pitching session, connecting visionary founders with investors, corporates, and academic experts to unlock capital, pilot opportunities, and cross-border partnerships.
At ITAP 2025, our Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan moderated a panel exploring how Industry 5.0 drives deeptech innovation. The discussion brought together investors, corporates, and academia, sharing insights on funding, research commercialization, and industrial adoption. Panelists included: Mr. Nelaka Haturusinha, Partner, Striders
Prof. Soh Khim, NUS
Mr. Hemanand Moorthy, Siemens Healthineers
Mr. Jerry Park, Infineon Technologies
Dr. Akshay Chaudhari, Lux Research
Disruptor, the flagship pitching event by River Ventures, the world’s first Industry 5.0-focused inclusive deeptech venture studio-incubator-accelerator supported by Enterprise Singapore, made its inaugural appearance at ITAP 2025. Our Founder & CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, opened the session with insights on inclusive Industry 5.0 innovation and human-centric technology in manufacturing. Five pioneering startups — Ailytics, SwitchOn, Hivebotics, 3DNA, and Tantanly — showcased solutions addressing real industrial challenges, evaluated by investors, corporates, and academic experts, creating opportunities for capital, pilots, and cross-border partnerships, empowering Industry 5.0 startups to scale, innovate, and shape the future of industries globally.
At ITAP 2025, River Ventures hosted a Fireside Chat on AI-Powered Lights-Out Manufacturing, moderated by our Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, with insights from Dr. Ng Huey Yuen (ARTC) and Hemanand Moorthy. The session explored how AI is transforming factories into fully autonomous, energy-efficient, and sustainable smart factories, covering generative design, predictive optimisation, and lights-out operations. Attendees saw firsthand how technology, sustainability, and Industry 5.0 innovation converge to create intelligent, agile, and eco-efficient manufacturing ecosystems.
Our Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD, met Minister Alvin Tan at Industrial Transformation ASIA-PACIFIC 2025, where River Venture Studio showcased its Industry 5.0 Pavilion. As the world’s first Industry 5.0 venture studio-incubator-accelerator backed by Enterprise Singapore, we remain committed to advancing human-centric manufacturing and deep tech innovation. The exchange underscored our shared focus on building inclusive, sustainable, globally competitive ventures from Singapore to the world.
We are delighted to share that our Founder & CEO Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD, signed an MoU with Naif Majdali, Co-Founder & CEO of AlJazeera Falcons, during the Saudi trade mission to Singapore—following a meeting specifically requested by their team in recognition of River’s Industry 5.0 expertise. Through this partnership, River Ventures—backed by Enterprise Singapore—will support AlJazeera Falcons in APAC expansion, global fundraising, cross-border market entry, and access to our corporate, government, and innovation networks. This collaboration strengthens our mission to build global deeptech corridors connecting the Middle East with APAC and beyond, and we look forward to supporting Naif Majdali and the AlJazeera Falcons team on their global growth journey.
River Ventures is delighted to share that our portfolio company HyLytView has been featured in The American Bazaar, marking a strong step forward in its U.S. expansion. We congratulate Rajat Singhania and the team for their continued innovation as they prepare to launch yunify.ai, a platform designed to drive smarter and more efficient business operations. This milestone reflects HyLyt’s growing global momentum, and we remain proud supporters of their journey as a Deep Tech venture studio founded by Dr. Viveka Kalidasan and backed by Enterprise Singapore.
At IndiaJoy 2025, our Founder & CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, met the inspiring team at Mast Studios, whose humility and industry achievements made a strong impression. Their AI-driven children’s platform Funzo, powered by their proprietary Story-lab engine, is redefining intelligent and meaningful storytelling for young audiences. This human-centric use of AI aligns closely with our mission as the world’s first Industry 5.0 venture studio-incubator-accelerator, backed by Enterprise Singapore. We look forward to seeing Mast Studios’ journey grow and exploring future opportunities together.
At IndiaJoy 2025, our Founder & CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD, joined two insightful panels on MediaTech funding and women in entertainment, sharing perspectives on de-risking innovation through the venture studio model and the realities of leadership as a woman founder. The discussions brought together leading investors and creators to address opportunities and challenges shaping the future of MediaTech. River Ventures—the world’s first Industry 5.0 venture studio-incubator-accelerator, backed by Enterprise Singapore—was proud to be part of this year’s edition in Hyderabad, with gratitude to IndiaJoy and its partners for hosting the dialogue.
Our Founder & CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD, hosted Mr. Jerry Park, Director at Infineon Technologies, at our River Venture Studio office for a productive discussion on collaboration between Infineon’s CO-Innovation Space (COINS) and River Ventures. They explored pathways to jointly support COINS startups entering India and enable River’s portfolio startups to access opportunities in South Korea through Infineon’s global network. River Venture Studio, founded by Dr. Viveka and backed by Enterprise Singapore, continues to drive deep-tech innovation through impactful partnerships. More updates are coming soon!
River Ventures is proud to share that our portfolio startup Hivebotics has been awarded the “Most Promising Start-Up” at the 2025 Emerging Enterprise Awards by The Business Times & OCBC Bank! Huge congratulations to Rishab Patwari and the entire Hivebotics team for leading the future of autonomous facility management—built in Singapore and scaling globally. River Venture Studio, founded by Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, PhD and backed by Enterprise Singapore, remains committed to supporting deeptech founders who are building bold innovations for the world.
River Ventures is proud to share that we have entered into a strategic partnership with Sirius Impact Venture, united in our mission to accelerate sustainable and impactful venture growth. Together, we will support high-potential startups with purpose-driven scaling, global market access, stronger commercial pathways, and deeper ecosystem connections across capital, mentors, and industry. We look forward to empowering founders who are shaping a more sustainable and resilient future.
Founder-CEO, Dr. Viveka Kalidasan, represented River Ventures at #EchelonSG2025 by e27 (Optimatic), immersing in a dynamic showcase of Southeast Asia’s most disruptive startups. The energy was electric, with groundbreaking innovations and inspiring founder stories shaping the future of tech. A true highlight was reconnecting with Soh Lengwan, Assistant MD at Enterprise Singapore, whose early support has been pivotal to many ventures. Dr. Viveka also engaged in strategic discussions with ecosystem leaders, reinforcing River’s regional impact. Events like these reaffirm our mission—backing deeptech founders building meaningful, scalable change.
Dr. Viveka, Founder-CEO about River Ventures at AI Pathways: Leveraging AI to grow business
Dr. Viveka with stakeholders of GITP ASIA
Dr. Viveka with Gayathri Thyagarajan, Founder and CEO of Kynhood.
Dr. Viveka, exhibiting at AI Everything Summit in Dubai representing River Ventures and her own invention, WiSe
Dr. Viveka with Kash Hasan, Group Commercial Director at GITEX ASIA, and Sharmin Reehman, Founder of Elev8.vc, at GITEX's executive briefing in Singapore, where she discussed scaling opportunities for startups in Singapore's dynamic ecosystem and explored potential collaborations to drive startup growth.
Dr. Viveka speaking at the session "Innovation Centres: Accelerating Tamil Nadu’s Tech Startup Growth" at Umagine TN 2025.
Dr. Viveka with Dr. Palanivel Thiagarajan, Minister for Information Technology & Digital Services, Tamil Nadu, and Gayathri Thyagarajan, Founder and CEO of Kynhood.
Dr. Viveka speaking at the session "The State of Deep Tech Investments: Today and Tomorrow" at Umagine TN 2025, where she highlighted deep tech investments and the evolving opportunities shaping the future of innovation.
Dr. Viveka participated in KYNNOVATE 2025, organized by ICT Academy in collaboration with Kynhood, where she witnessed the incredible talent of over 400 student teams from across the nation. The competition culminated in the top 25 teams reaching the finals, with the top 5 winners being awarded at Umagine TN 2025.
Panel Discussion on Industry 5.0 Landscape for B2B based Automation Tools
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