The young and bright entrepreneurs that walked into the room with much enthusiasm, confidence and optimism were there to validate their shortlisting for BW Businessworld's eighth Young Entrepreneur Awards (YEA) 2016. The jury meeting was held in New Delhi on Wednesday.
BW Businessworld had gathered jury members comprising the finest minds tracking Indian startups to select the winners of YEA 2016. The jury members included Sanjeev Bhikchandani, founder and executive vice chairman of Info Edge which owns Naukri.com, Krishnan Ganesh, founder and Chief Executive Officer of TutorVista, Siddharth Talwar, founder and India partner at Lighthouse Management Ltd., Sudhir Variyar, MD, Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt. Ltd., and Annurag Batra, editor-in-chief of Businessworld and head of BW Accelerate.
The knowledge partner for the BW YEA 2016 is Grant Thornton, one of the world's largest professional services network of independent accounting and consulting member firms. They had shortlisted 32 candidates after vigorous checks over a period of three months emerging with six categories of winners.
YEA is an initiative driven by an impetus to recognize the achievements of young Indian entrepreneurs and their efforts to stand out and contribute to a burgeoning startup ecosystem. As per tradition, the YEA saw a host of remarkable startups make their presence felt.
BW YEA 2016 saw 132 entries this year, of which 31 were vetted by Grant Thornton and presented to the grand jury to further evaluate for the awards event which is slated to held in October.
Vikas Gambhir, director of Grant Thornton, was also present at the shortlisting event to assist the jury members with their queries to make sure most deserving startups are named the winners. But they are all winners. It is a stellar task to review all the 32 startups selected by the jury.
The startups featured had clients among the world’s top 500 companies, came from diverse range of sectors, IoT, transportation, jewellery, fashion, ecommerce, marketing, entertainment, beauty and home services, and even sports.
The founders came from across India especially to meet the jury members’ and answer questions about their startups themselves and the eligible companies had raised an impressive cumulative funding of millions of dollars from well-respected VCs like Ivy cap, Sequoia, and Angel Networks.
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka