New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- UPES Runway, the startup incubator at UPES, hosted the New Delhi leg of The Pitch 3.0, an initiative focused exclusively on AI-native and AI-driven startups. Rather than positioning itself as a conventional pitch competition, the program aims to identify founders building businesses where AI forms the core of the product and support them through funding and long-term incubation.

For India's AI startup ecosystem, raising capital is no longer the biggest challenge. The tougher question is whether founders can demonstrate that artificial intelligence is the foundation of their business rather than an added feature.

As investors become more cautious, startups are increasingly being judged on technology depth, commercial...