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Tech Startup Awards launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launched the Tech Rocketship Awards 2016-17, held in Mumbai.

With the intent to identify and support some of India’s best and brightest start-ups, the initiative will assist them to scale globally.

techieThe Tech Rocketship Awards – an initiative by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in India – provides top Indian startups with expert business advice and support from leading professional services companies in the UK. This year the competition gets bigger and better: the ten most promising start-ups from the competition will win a week-long business trip to the UK; where they will get access to venture capitalists, experienced industry leaders and entrepreneurs that can help and guide them to set a firm business footing in the UK.

Kumar Iyer, British Deputy High Commissioner Mumbai and Director General of UK Trade and Investment in India said:

“We are delighted to have The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launch the Tech Rocketship Awards today. We’re looking for the next batch of leading Indian entrepreneurs that will probably change the world through their technology. Some of the young entrepreneurs Their Royal Highnesses met today already have some truly amazing innovations.”

Four innovative and young entrepreneurs showcased their products to a panel of business leaders and iconic figures in the entrepreneurial world – Anand Mahindra; T.V. Mohandas Pai, of Aarin Capital; Saurabh Srivastava of the Indian Angel Network and young entrepreneur Shradha Sharma of YourStory a leading tech media platform.

Mr. Anand Mahindra said: “The UK is a hotbed of technology and we need to deploy that know-how in India. The Tech Rocketship Awards is exactly the platform that can give young Indian entrepreneurs access to the UK’s prowess in this sphere. Mahindra group drives various initiatives to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship both within and outside Mahindra and we are creating a start-up ecosystem that allows it to leverage its strengths and create value for entrepreneurs. I am looking forward to judging the entries for the competition this year”.

Applications are open to entrepreneurs under 40 in India who have been operating a company created from the year 2000 onwards. One winner will be selected from each of five categories – Cleantech, EdTech, Fintech, Medtech and smart manufacturing – and a further five winners will be selected in the ‘Judges Awards’ section, from any sector. The winners will be announced at the UK-India Technology Summit in New Delhi, in November 2016.

The UK provides an excellent platform for Indian companies to grow their businesses overseas, with world leading financial and professional services and a burgeoning technology sector.

Further information

  • Tech Rocketships website
  • GREAT for Collaboration: Launched by Prime Ministers Modi and Cameron, the campaign celebrates and drives trade and investment partnerships between India and the UK, and showcase the great things the UK and India can do together. The two PMs and ten of the countries’ most senior business leaders appeared on a video to launch the campaign.
  • UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) is the government department that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy and offers professional, authoritative and personalised assistance to help companies in India locate and expand in the UK.
    • the UK has been a popular destination for Indian investments for over 100 years.
    • with low tax and a talented workforce, Britain is one of the easiest places to grow your business.
    • it takes only 13 days to set up a business in the UK, compared with the world average of 35 days.
    • the UK is ranked 6th globally for Ease of Doing Business. According to World Bank’s report (Oct 2015), the UK has become an easier place to do business in the past year after reforms to red tape and corporate tax
    • in 2014-15, the UK won a record number of inward investment projects and maintains position as top investment destination in Europe.
    • India emerged as Britain’s third biggest job creator in 2014 as the country saw a 65% increase in foreign direct investments (FDI) from India. In 2014-2015 Indian investments in 122 FDI projects created 7,730 new jobs and safeguarded 1,620 jobs in the UK. (Source UKTI)
    • the total number of people in the UK employed by Indian companies has increased by 10%: from 1,00,000 in 2014 to nearly 1,10,000. (Grant Thornton)
    • ICT, advanced engineering and life sciences are among key sectors for investment from India.
    • the UK offers the lowest corporation tax rate in G20, and is a gateway to Europe and the world

 

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Tech Startups: Here Is A Chance To Take Your Rocketships To The UK

The Great Tech Rocketships Initiative (GTRS) 2016 is back again – only bigger and better. It is all set to introduce high-potential tech companies from India to the best in the UK.

The initiative was started last year with the intent to provide a platform to startups with innovative and disruptive ideas that have the potential to scale up globally.

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If you think you have the potential to grow overseas, or are looking to expand globally, the GTRS initiative may just be the platform to help you explore global markets.

RocketShips to the UK – an initiative by UK-India Tech Bridge, with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), and iSPIRT – is tailor made for startups with impressive and unique ideas that can be transformed into fast-moving and hyper-growth ‘rocketships’ globally.

UK is an excellent platform for Indian companies to get access to the right exposure and a wide gamut of resources that can assist them to go global. It is the number one destination for FDI in Europe, having attracted a record number of FDI projects, bringing in the largest financial value and associated jobs over the past year. It has a vast pool of experienced industry leaders, veterans, venture capitalists and mentors that can provide the right direction to startups to establish a firm footing abroad.

Networking plays a pivotal role in fast-tracking the growth of a startup. Platforms like GTRS can provide startups global connections that are otherwise not easy to develop. Good mentoring and access to vital resources can be a great help for early-growth stage companies, and this is exactly what the GTRS initiative aims to help accomplish.

The winners of this program will get a fully paid (flights + accommodation) week-long trip to UK where they will get a chance to interact with world class investors, local entrepreneurs, policy makers, accelerators and incubators. There will be a guided tour of Tech City, Europe’s most vibrant innovation hub and science tech-park, where they can network with like-minded entrepreneurs, start-ups, research scholars and pioneering companies, explore the local entrepreneurship eco-system in the country and identify opportunities to scale up their business in the global level.

All participants shortlisted in round two will get a detailed feedback and assessment report from Applyifi. Moreover, the Top 10 finalists will be invited to join a mentoring program, where they will get advice and inputs from experienced entrepreneurs and investors.

Last year, close to 300 startups had sent their nominations for this coveted Program, of which 61 ideas were shortlisted after thorough screening by our prestigious jury, and 5 of them were declared the winners after a round of presentations at Demo Nights held across 5 Indian cities, viz., Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. The winners (Agrima Infotech, Congruent, Frilp, ToneTag and Talview) spanned diverse sectors and got a chance to visit UK to explore expansion opportunities.

If you think you have it in you to make it to the coveted list of startups that’ll head to UK, fill up our application form and explain why you think your company is ready for the UK global adventure. The shortlisted applicants will be invited to pitch to a panel of experts at various locations – Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, and Gurgaon.

The last date for applications is JANUARY 31st 2016.

For more follow us on UKTI_India on twitter and Linked In; #GREAT4Collaboration; #ifnotnowthenwhen

 

 

 

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Calling Startups and Young Entrepreneurs to connect with leaders of the Ecosystem-YESSS

iSPIRT is happy to collaborate with and encourage YESSS – Young Entrepreneurs & Startups in Soaring Spirits.

08 to 10 December, 2015 ,The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru,

YESSS is designed in association with various Startup networks. At YESSS, select startups  – with great business ideas offering unique technologies, products or services –  will be given an opportunity to pitch to potential investors. We are on the lookout for razor sharp minds, financial hawks and techie wizards and we will be testing their talent, tenacity, and the team work!!

YESSS invites applications from 

  • Technology Entrepreneurs in the early stage of business (0-3years)
  • Innovative Business Ideas that have a wide impact on society
  • Startups requiring mentoring, incubation and investment to shape and grow their business

Who will attend 

Companies looking for innovative business ideas and technology solutions , IP firms, IT industry captains, angel investors and VCs, government funding agencies and  financial institutions.

How to Participate
If you are a tech entrepreneur with an innovative idea or a budding entrepreneur with a simple business plan, send your application/abstract on or before 3rd December , 2015.

The abstracts would be reviewed by an Expert Committee and you may be invited to make a presentation. The Expert Committee will choose 8 finalists, who would be offered an opportunity to make a presentation during the YESSS session at Bangalore ITE.biz 2015

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For Registration and Participation opportunities, kindly contact Prabha – 

Mobile: +91-9916785005 | Tel: 080-41131912 -13

Email: [email protected], [email protected]

CLICK HERE to know more…

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Announcing the 5th and final batch of 10 companies @InTech50 2015

Happy to announce the final and last batch of finalists (out of a total of 50) of InTech50 2015, a flagship event of iSPIRT and Terenne Global.

Congratulations to them all!

The first, second, third and fourth batch of finalists has already been announced in our previous blogs.

Here is the final list –

  • Crayon –  MAYA is a personal concierge, powered by Crayon’s SimplerChoices™ platform. SimplerChoices™ maps affinities based on taste (from review sites, social networks), influence (from social networks), context (from public data, location-based data), and behavior (from internal enterprise data) to build a massive cross-category taste graph.
  • Datonis – Altizon helps the industrial world create smart, connected products within a very short span of time and with minimum investment in infrastructure. Altizon’s flagship product the Datonis™ platform is offered in PaaS and on-premise models and is built to handle a Billion events a day from a million devices.
  • Druva in Sync – Druva’s inSync endpoint data protection and governance suite UNIQUELY integrates secure, scalable, high-performance endpoint backup, file sync across all user endpoints, remote file access, data loss prevention, IT-managed file sharing, and governance – including eDiscovery enablement – in a single platform.
  • Nifty Window – Nifty Window is a hyper-local marketing based new customer acquisition platform that helps offline brands and businesses attract consumers online. The platform uses content marketing and distribution to help brick & mortar businesses drive in-store sales across search, social media and mobile channels.
  • Nowfloats – NowFloats enables local businesses to get online, generate relevant content, and be highly discovered for online users to consumer this information in a meaningful way.Using the NowFloats platform, any enterprise whose channel is a small business, can bring the entire local channel online and drive local consumers towards that business.
  • RateGain – RevGain is an ultra sophisticated price recommendation engine for hotels. It continuously tracks over 11 big-data, environmental factors such as market supply, competitor prices, inventory levels and more to tell hotels how much they should price their rooms at.
  • RippleHire – RippleHire is a technology product that gamifies employee referrals and enables social recruiting. By empowering the best way you hire (Employee Referrals), we reduce your hiring costs & efforts. Game mechanics make the process fun, engaging and drives great results.
  • RobusTest – RobusTest is providing SAAS based Automation Solution for Web/Native/Hybrid applications. Its does not require any pre-configuration or setup. User can automate any mobile application from their browser without any scripting/coding knowledge.RobusTest also provides detailed Automation Test reports (including CPU, Memory, network and battery usage).
  • Vymo – Our vision is to help sales teams make a Million Smarter Decisions every minute. Our marquee product is a mobile first Lead Management System. Our operational analytics help in better lead prioritisation, smarter allocation, better pitches, quicker conversions and higher frontline productivity.
  • Zing HR – ZingHR is an End-to-End INTEGRATED Hire-to-Retire Management Cloud platform. You name any process, right from the time a potential talent is called for an interview, through the employee’s entire lifecycle with the organisation, till the employee moves on. Talent Acquisition, eRecruitment, Onboarding, Leave, Time & Attendance, Claims, Payroll, Compliance, Performance Management…more.

There will be no greater joy for us than to see our finalists leverage the associations they’ve built and emerge as truly global companies over the next few years, further validating the credibility of India as a ‘product nation’. That is exactly what we had set out to achieve in the first place.

Looking forward to meeting the ‘Fanastic Fifty’ at InTech50 in Bangalore.