BANGALORE, INDIA: HeadStart & Compute 2009, an annual conference focused on technology and innovation, was organized by HeadStart Foundation & Association of Computing Machinery.

Kallol Borah Founder & Director, HeadStart Foundation announced the names of the 10 best product technology startups in India.

The selected startups are: CashNxt, Entrip, SnappyFingers, Alertpedia, Verismo, IndusGeeks, WisdomTap, TringMe, Artin Dynamics and MeshLabs.

Honeywell announced its participation in HeadStart’s Industry: Startup Collaboration Platform. It combines online and offline media to let startups and corporatism jointly identify, pursue and execute business. This collaboration platform opens a new chapter in the innovation ecosystem for the first startups to have an opportunity to directly access large corporates as it reduces sales cycles and enlarges opportunity for them.

Harsha Angeri Director Strategy and New Initiatives, Honeywell said: ”Honeywell thrives on innovation to meet its customer needs globally. In today’s world, innovation can come from various avenues & it is imperative for global companies to establish a network of sourcing mechanisms to access this. A structured platform for startups to showcase innovations and work with Honeywell on its customer’s pain points will create a new value stream for both.”

Dr Vishy Poosala, Head of Bell Labs India, Alcatel-Lucent, while speaking on entrepreneurship within corporates, said: ”Companies, big and small, have to continue to innovate year-after-year, or they will fall prey to others, most likely to the two anonymous entrepreneurs working hard in a garage somewhere in Bangalore or Sunnyvale.”

Naveen Kulkarni, Business Development Director Philips, said: “New ventures are no more restricted to start-ups alone. Philips has a strong focus on corporate venturing and innovation is the mantra.  This is so more relevant in healthcare where innovative solutions are made up of complex pieces ranging from electronics to specialised medical domain expertise and it is almost like putting pieces in a jigsaw puzzle except that there is nice gating process to ensure success be it a spin-up or spin-in.”

Giving his perspective on the venture capitalist scenario, Harish Gandhi, Executive Director Canaan Partners, added:“The start-up ecosystem has been developing rapidly in the past couple of years. While in India we are no-where near the kind of ecosystem that exists in Silicon Valley, the basic building blocks of mentors, incubators and investors are coming together just fine. 

"Companies like HeadStart  are going beyond simply bringing together start-ups and investors, and are attempting to bring about closer integration with researchers and corporates, which is crucial for the sustenance and growth of innovation.”

HeadStart &Compute event brought together all the stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem: entrepreneurs/startups, corporate adopters of new products and technology, venture capitalists and angel investors, researchers and academia, industry professionals, at one place to showcase innovation and network.