BENGALURU, November 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Evaluated by a Jury comprising some of India's most respected entrepreneurs and investors including Ashok Soota of Happiest Minds, Amit Patni of RAAY Global Investments and K. Ganesh of Portea Medical, the 2016 Startup50 List features some of the best companies from across diverse sectors such as Enterprise Tech, Consumer Tech, Consumer Brand, Healthcare & Social Impact. The entrepreneurs at the helm of all these 50 companies have built wonderful businesses with long-term potential, robust financials and solid VC-backing. 

On the eve of The Smart CEO Startup50 Conference & Awards 2016, held at Taj West End, Bengaluru, the founders and first employees of 50 of India's most successful startups joined their peers in becoming a part of The Smart CEO Startup50 List of 2016 . Each of these 50 startups, spanning across diverse sectors and unique business models, was shortlisted from a pool of 450 nominations and evaluated by a top-notch Jury comprising Ashok Soota, Chairman, Happiest Minds Technologies, Amit Patni, Co-Founder & Chairman, Nirvana Venture Partners, Ganapthy Venugopal, Co-Founder & CEO of Axilor Ventures, Krishnan Ganesh, Partner at Growth Story, Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Venture Partner at Kae Capital and Naganand Doraswamy, the Managing Director & CEO of Ideaspring Capital.

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While enterprise tech startups such as ReConnect Energy, Flutura Technologies, Indix and Capital Float bagged the most awards, it was closely followed by companies in the Consumer Tech and Consumer Brand segment earning recognition for their works.

Of course, the determining factor for making the cut was ticking the box on eight criteria; originality of idea, innovation of business model, long-term potential, revenue/profit growth, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, brand and social impact.

For example, Jaypore Ecommerce, which hosts Indian crafts-based designs across apparel, jewellery, art and home accents, made it to the Startup50 List, under the Consumer Tech category, for building an e-commerce business, which turned profitable in its very first year of operations. Similarly, Triguni Foods, the makers of Magic Upma and Magic Biryani, framed in the Consumer Brand List for building a robust brand in the airline food segment. Some other categories where businesses with long-term potential, innovative business models and profitable growth were identified are; enterprise technology, social impact and healthcare.

Additionally, special Awards were also handed out to three Startup50 Alumni Companies, Happiest Minds Technologies, Mitra Biotech and Forus Health for their sustained growth and recent, path-breaking initiatives in their respective sectors.

The Smart CEO Startup50 Awards was initiated as an annual event, in 2015, to recognise and reward entrepreneurs who have built robust businesses with long-term potential, solid VC-backing and strong financials. While the 2015 List saw companies such as UrbanLadder, Freshdesk, Hippocampus, ChargeBee, TeaBox, Consure Medical and the like across education, enterprise tech, consumer tech and healthcare categories, the 2016 List comprises a fresh set of promising startups such as Uniphore Software Systems, Jaypore Ecommerce, Flutura Technologies, Niki.ai, Unacademy and Triguni Foods.

What More?  

Instead of being a mere day-long event where the winners will be honoured, The Smart CEO also created a platform where the winners of each year will become a cohort of sorts. On this front, it has launched three channels; the Startup50 Alumni Connect, where the winners of the 100 Series-A funded companies will stay connected to each other; the Startup50 Global Investor Connect Forum; where the 100 winners can network with Indian and global investors; The Startup50 YouTube Series; where the Conference & Awards Night will be featured over a series of 12 episodes; and the Startup50 Ratings; a methodology to rate and rank early-stage ventures.

In keeping with its vision of empowering entrepreneurs, wantrepreneurs, middle and senior management professionals across India, with distinctive and timeless lessons on management and entrepreneurship, The Smart CEO hopes its Conference & Awards goes a step further in inspiring and encouraging many more such like-minded people to make India, Make in India.

About The Smart CEO 

The Smart CEO is a widely read sector-agnostic digital + print platform where CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders share unique perspectives and experiences from their journey. Its primary goal is to capture for our readers the thinking process of these leaders, get a peek into the decisions they make and why they make these decisions.

In addition to The Smart CEO, it also operates and runs theThe Smart CEO Media Labs, a content services arm that specializes in creating custom, high-end content and content-driven marketing for clients. Its clients comprise Mahindra Group, Godrej & Boyce, Wealth Advisors, Veda Corporate Advisors, Altacit Global,Intellect Design Arena, Indium Software and several other growth companies in the country. Growth Mechanics also services global development agencies including IDA Ireland and Invest Maldives.

For further queries, contact Prem Kumar S at prem@growthmechanics.in or Madhumita Prabhakar at Madhumita@growthmechanics.in

SOURCE The Smart CEO