Clerwell Ignite 2026

25 November 2026, 10:00 (Asia/Kolkata) · Electronic City, Bengaluru

A founder showcase and competition for AI products and ideas. 25 shortlisted solo founders and teams pitch, demo and take reviewer questions in Bengaluru, competing for ₹1,00,000 in cash prizes. Four winners go on to showcase at Clerwell's Agent & Developer Conference on 3 December. Free to apply; applications close 19 November.

Clerwell Ignite 2026 is a founder showcase and competition for people building with AI. With an ambition to help build towards the world's first solo-founded business reaching US$1 billion in annual recurring revenue, Ignite invites founders to show how their AI products could solve meaningful problems and grow into substantial businesses.

25 shortlisted products and ideas get a day of founder pitches, product demonstrations, reviewer questions and networking. Solo founders and teams of up to three are welcome, building AI tools, local AI, agents or proactive agents, from idea stage to prototypes, live products and products with paying customers.

₹1,00,000 in cash prizes

• Overall Winner: ₹50,000
• Most Unique Product: ₹20,000
• Technical Excellence in Agent Products: ₹20,000
• Most Useful Product: ₹10,000

For all four winning teams

• Six months of access to four Clerwell AI Workers, subject to defined usage limits.
• Scheduled access to Clerwell's DGX computing infrastructure over three months, with compute allocations, supported workloads and availability defined in advance.
• Introductions to relevant customers, where there is a fit.
• A showcase at Clerwell's Agent & Developer Conference on 3 December 2026.

The overall winner also receives US$1,000 worth of AI compute, on top of the three-month DGX access. One selected team will receive support to scope and test a focused pilot.

From Ignite to the conference stage

The four winning teams present their products at Clerwell's Agent & Developer Conference on 3 December, to an audience of founders, developers, businesses and invited media, with further visibility through Clerwell's event coverage.

How entries are assessed

• Usefulness
• Originality
• Technical difficulty and execution
• Overall product potential

Who can apply

• Anyone building an AI product, on their own or in a team of up to three.
• Every participant must be over 18.
• Shortlisted participants must attend in person in Bengaluru.
• Applying and taking part are free. Food and refreshments are included.

Tell us about your product, who it's for, how it uses AI and what you plan to present. You can also share a founder LinkedIn profile, product website, repository, pitch deck or demo video. Submitting an application doesn't confirm a place: the team reviews every application and emails you with the result.

Key dates

• Applications close: 19 November 2026, 11:59 PM IST
• Selection results: before 12:00 PM IST on 21 November 2026
• Clerwell Ignite: Wednesday 25 November 2026, 10:00 AM–5:00 PM IST
• Winners' showcase at ADC: 3 December 2026

Media and event enquiries: hello@clerwell.com