21 - 09 - 2026

Bengaluru Summit Pushes Privacy Beyond Compliance as DPDP Milestones Near

As India moves closer to key implementation milestones under its digital data protection framework, 350 founders, investors, enterprise executives, legal professionals, cybersecurity specialists and AI practitioners gathered in Bengaluru on Friday to examine how privacy and responsible data practices can be embedded into business strategy rather than treated as a last-minute compliance obligation.

The Privacy by Design 2026: Winning in the Era of AI, Security & Digital Trust summit, organised by DPDP Zone, brought together 250 founders and 35 investors and fund representatives at Radisson Blu Atria, Bengaluru. The event also featured an invite-only session in which 15 startups pitched directly to investors, creating a link between privacy readiness, corporate governance and access to capital.

The gathering comes eight weeks before provisions governing Consent Managers under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Rules are scheduled to take effect on November 13, 2026, while substantive provisions of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act are scheduled for enforcement from May 13, 2027, according to the organisers.

Opening the summit, Sharath Shyamasunder, Founder and CEO of DPDP Zone and The Startup Zone, argued that privacy and security are becoming integral to how companies build products, win customers and raise capital.

“Privacy, security and trust can no longer wait. Because waiting is always expensive,” Shyamasunder said.

He also challenged the commonly used analogy of data as the “new oil”, arguing that the value and responsibility associated with data ultimately centre on the people represented by that information.

“Data isn’t oil. Data is us,” he said. “Behind every data point is a person, a customer, an employee, a founder, a child, a family. Privacy is not just about protecting data. It is about protecting people.”

The investor contingent included representatives from funds ranging from pre-seed to growth stages, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, Chiratae Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, Campus Fund and Venture Catalysts. The separate Demo Session gave 15 startups an opportunity to present their businesses directly to the investor community.

For startup founders, the organisers framed privacy readiness not simply as a regulatory requirement but as a factor that can influence enterprise sales, fundraising and customer confidence.

“The security and privacy questionnaire arrives before the first meeting with your enterprise client or a VC,” Shyamasunder said, adding that DPDP could become a defining moment for organisational data practices in the same way that GST changed how businesses approached taxation and compliance.

The full-day programme featured four technical sessions and four panel discussions covering privacy-by-design practices, responsible artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, founder trust and governance in fundraising.

Ricky Jha, Founder and CEO of Zerogrey Global and Data Protection Officer at Course5i, led a session on “Design by Privacy: The Mirrored Mindset”. Archana Moturi, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Assurtiv, spoke about responsible AI as a potential competitive advantage for startups, while Shamsheer Khan, Chief Security Officer at fnCyber, addressed cybersecurity as a growth strategy. Antra Ahuja of Saga Legal examined the potential cost of inadequate privacy practices, drawing on lessons from real-world cases.

Nayaz Ahmed, CEO of JAIN Launchpad, similarly called for privacy considerations to be introduced at the earliest stages of company building.

“Too often, founders see data protection as an afterthought. We need them to consider it from day one, not as a compliance challenge, but as a way to build trust with their customers,” Ahmed said.

The summit concluded with networking among founders, investors and ecosystem partners. Privacy by Design 2026 was presented by title sponsors Assurtiv and The Startup Zone, with Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, Startup Karnataka and the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce serving as strategic partners. More than 40 organisations participated across banking, cloud, media, community and outreach sectors.

With the next major DPDP implementation milestones approaching, the discussions in Bengaluru highlighted a broader shift in how startups and enterprises are being asked to think about personal data: not merely as information to be protected, but as an operational, commercial and trust responsibility embedded across the business lifecycle.

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