Indian start-up award winners take off on Rocketship-fuelled biz trip to UK

The UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) in India will be taking the 10 winners of the TECH Rocketship Awards and two winners of the Dev Tech awards to the UK from January 29 - February 3, 2017.

The TECH Rocketship Awards are aimed at fostering technology, innovation and collaboration between start-ups, universities, and industry leaders in India and in the UK.

With India being the third largest investor into the UK, these awards are all about finding the future investors, and exposing them to the benefits of globalising via the UK, the organisers said.

Amo Kalar, Deputy Director Investment said: “Our TECH Rocketship winners will now get to experience their grand prize - a trip to the UK - to experience what the world’s foremost business destination has to offer. The trip has been designed to put them right alongside pioneers within the UK technology and start-up scene, from incubators to funders."

"I know they will make the most of this chance to visit London, the world’s best place to set up a digital business, as well as to Scotland and Bristol.  I know they will make the very most of time spent with DIT’s experts and leading professional services firms who will give them the very best advice on internationalizing their business through the UK,” he said.

This is the third year of the TECH Rocketship Awards, launched by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Mumbai, in April 2016.

This is the first year of the Dev Tech Awards launched in September 2016, to recognise entrepreneurs who create innovative tech-based solutions that benefit India’s poor and create a positive impact in a number of areas, including education and agriculture.

The winners of both awards were announced at the India - UK TECH Summit, inaugurated by the British and Indian Prime Ministers in November 2016.

Indian Angel Network (IAN) has closely worked with DIT to shortlist the applications and has invested in businesses of two of the winners.

Saurabh Srivastava, Co-founder and Director of IAN said: “The Indian start-up ecosystem has witnessed a significant growth in the last few years, strengthening its position as the third largest ecosystem in the world. DIT partnered with this Indian hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship with IAN to build the start-up bridge between India and UK. This brings the best of both countries together and helps create a global footprint for companies. IAN applauds TRA to be the key platform to enable this bridge.”

India is already the third largest investor in the UK and 50 per cent of Indian investments into the UK are in the Tech sector, totalling £136 million. Indian companies have also emerged as the second largest job creators in the UK creating 7,105 through 140 projects.


List of winners

TECH Rocketship Awards

1.     BendFlex Research and Development Private Limited

2.     Cashkumar (Venture of Etyacol Technologies Pvt Ltd)

3.     Get My Parking

4.     Promethean Energy Pvt. Ltd.

5.     QuizWorks

6.     RepUp

7.     Talocity Instasolutions Private Limited

8.     Greenlit India Opto Electronics Pvt Ltd

9.     Planet Superheroes

10.  Paratus Knowledge Ventures

Dev Tech Awards

1.     Mother Diagnostic Systems

2.     JK Nanosolutions