The Campus Connect

Broccoli AI, an AI-native platform co-founded by 2016 alumni AJ Jain and Aditya Ketkar of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by globally renowned venture capital firm Khosla Ventures.

The startup demonstrated its growing industry impact by helping early customer Armstrong Plumbing scale rapidly, with its owner, Marcelle Flowers, later joining the company as Executive Industry Advisor and COO. The founders’ journey, which began during a New Venture Creation course on campus, culminated in building a successful Silicon Valley startup poised for expansion and hiring in India.

BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus welcomed Google Senior Director Ravikant Pandey, a BITS Pilani alumnus (Batch of 2000), during his visit to the campus. He interacted with Prof. Suman Kundu, Director, BITS Goa, and engaged with students, sharing insights on engineering education, deep technology, and innovation.

He also toured the campus, including the Robotics Lab, inspiring students with his industry experience and global perspective.

BGIIES – BITS Goa Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship Society partnered with Ideabaaz as an official evaluator for the Startup Goa Day 2026 Grand Finale. The event showcased promising startups across sectors including deep tech, sustainability, healthcare, tourism, education, and livelihoods, while providing a platform to identify ventures with strong growth potential.

The collaboration reinforced BITS Goa’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, supporting early stage startups, and strengthening the startup ecosystem through industry and academic partnerships.

BITS Pilani celebrated a remarkable achievement as 11 alumni were featured on the Avendus Wealth Hurun India U30 List 2026, the highest representation among undergraduate institutions.

Among them were BITS Goa alumni Awais Ahmed, Kshitij Khandelwal, Deepansh Goyal, and Siddhant D., recognized for building innovative ventures across diverse sectors. This achievement reflected the institute’s strong entrepreneurial ecosystem and the growing global impact of its alumni.

The BITSkrieg team from BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus achieved international recognition by securing the Excellence Prize at the HackTheon Sejong 2026 International Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition held in Sejong, South Korea.

Jointly organized by the Sejong City Government and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of the Republic of Korea, the prestigious competition attracted over 1,000 teams from more than 120 countries. BITSkrieg was among the 40 teams worldwide, including 20 international teams, to qualify for the onsite finals, where they delivered an exceptional performance on the global cybersecurity stage.

The Literary and Debating Club of BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus conducted ‘Inverse’, a regional slam poetry event across Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru in collaboration with local debating communities.

The event brought together talented performers and featured an accomplished panel of judges that included acclaimed literary voices, creating an inspiring platform for creativity, expression, and meaningful storytelling.

This month, the Student Alumni Relations Cell of BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus hosted the first editions of their ‘Placement Playbook’ talks, a new initiative that focuses on placement and interview related advice that alumni have to offer, based on their own experiences and journeys.

The Electronics edition featured Poorvi Rao, Pranav Balakrishnan and Gaurav Bahirvani, engineers at leading electronics companies. The consulting edition was led by Tanvi Shettigar and Gourav Gupta from BCG. The non-tech edition featured Utkarsh Mahajan and Pooja Ghatia, both holding senior roles at Amazon and Swiggy. The event equipped students with valuable insights and guidance as they prepare for the recruitment process.