Six Indian tech startups win Next Big Idea Contest 2016

Six Indian tech start-ups have been crowned winners of the 4th edition of the Next Big Idea Contest by the Government of Ontario, Canada and Zone Startups India. The selected start-ups win a two-week market incubation at Ryerson University’s DMZ - North America’s top-ranked business incubator.

The competition was launched in July 2016, to discover India's 5 most innovative technology companies who are looking to leverage a presence in Ontario, Canada, as a vehicle to expand to North America.

This year, in addition to the 5 startups selected through the competition, one winner from Zone Startups India’s empoWer program will be accompanying the group.

The five winners are Navaneethan Sundaramoorthy, Co-founder & CMO of Uncanny Vision, Mukund Mudras, Co-founder & CEO of Heckyl Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Dhruv Khanna, CEO of Data Resolve Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Satish Kashyap, Co-founder & Director of Algo Engines Pvt. Ltd. , Shridhar Marri, Co-Founder & CEO of Senseforth Technologies Pvt Ltd. The accompanying winner from empoWer is Tarusha Mittal, Co-Foudner, Cloudrino.

“These winners will be part of an innovative ecosystem comprised of advisors, influencers, successful entrepreneurs and investors dedicated to helping winners take their company to the next level. Ontario is proud to drive disruptive innovation to bring breakthrough concepts and technologies to life,” said Michael Chan, Minister of International Trade.

Using the DMZ as a landing pad, the entrepreneurs will receive mentorship, business development advice, access to investors, industry connect and valuable international experience.

“We are really excited at how the Next BIG Idea contest has shaped up, since its launch in 2013. This year, we had roadshows across 12-cities and got 389 applications. It was all the more special that during the contest, our first-ever winner, CitrusPay (Winner – 2013), got acquired by Naspers-backed PayU.

Earlier this year, Konotor (Winner – 2014) got acquired by FreshDesk. It establishes the credentials of the competition to identify hi-tech, hi-potential companies at an early stage. We now look forward to making our 5th year bigger,” said Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director, Zone Startups India.

DMZ is a part of Ryerson Futures Inc., which is a Founders First Accelerator program, focused on assisting early-stage tech companies as they grow and scale their businesses. Zone Startups India, on the other hand, is an international accelerator program, set up as a joint-venture of Toronto-based Ryerson Fututres Inc. and the BSE Institute, a subsidiary of the BSE Limited. It has recently also launched its fourth accelerator program ‘Gateway91’ to provide potential foreign startup an avenue for making investments in India.

“The DMZ is a great platform for entrepreneurs like us to learn and shape our marketing and business acumen. We are very lucky to receive global exposure, from technical expertise to mentorship, all at one place. I am very sure that this experience will catapult us to great heights and help us expand across the North American market,” said Satish Kashyapof Mumbai-based AlgoEngines, one of the winners of NBI 2016.