British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith, launched the 2017-18 TECH Rocketship Awards before an audience of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, start-ups and a judging panel including Saurabh Srivastava and Mohandas Pai here yesterday evening.
The 2017-18 TECH Rocketship Awards, targeting India's top tech entrepreneurs and scale-up businesses, is offering seven prize packages to the UK. Lucky winners will receive tailored packages in the UK to help them achieve international their ambitions of growth with a fully paid-for business development and partnership programme.
The awards, an initiative by the UK's Department for International Trade (DIT) in India, have been running for three years and have seen endorsement from The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, British Prime Minister Theresa May and some of biggest names in Indian business
High Commissioner Asquith said: "The UK's position as a home-from-home for Indian tech companies is as strong as ever. Nearly a third of all Indian investment into the UK is in tech and telecommunications and we are fully-committed to supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his vision for 'Startup India'. The UK is open for business and through TECH Rocketship Awards we are looking to help the next batch of leading young Indian entrepreneurs scale-up and go global via the UK."
The awards provide an excellent platform for Indian SMEs to grow their business overseas by using the UK as a springboard. We wish the competitors the very best!"
This year's six award categories - Fin-tech, Med-tech, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing and Data Analytics, Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence - reflect some of the areas of greatest potential in terms of opportunity and demand in the UK and India.
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These are the UK's fastest growing tech sectors and are aligned with the UK Government's technology investment priorities. There is an additional spot under the 'Judges award for Creativity'.
This year the awards will be judged by significant Indian entrepreneurs and thought-leaders like Indian Angel Network(IAN)'s founder Saurabh Srivastava, Kiran Muzamdar Shaw, Digital India Foundation Head Arvind Gupta, NASSCOM Chairman Raman Roy, Fin-tech entrepreneur Alok Vajpeyi, Shradha Sharma founder of YourStory along with Investors like IDG Ventures and SIDBI Ventures.
Saurabh Srivastava, Founder IAN, said, "The UK government's vision to support Indian tech SMEs and start-ups is completely aligned with ours. I am delighted to be a part of this program which helps create wealth for entrepreneurs and investors, drives economic growth in the region and builds another track of early stage ventures between India and UK. This platform not only provides an opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs to network and identify trade opportunities, but also gives UK based investors an access to the pool of India's most innovative businesses."
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson and MD of Biocon Limited, said, "The Tech Rocketship Awards are forerunners in supporting Indian start-ups to go global. The Department for International Trade, is the UK Government's commercial organisation which supports global companies to set up in the UK. It is great for me to be associated with the Awards and I am looking forward to being introduced to the start-ups in the life sciences sector who apply for the competition."
T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education, said, "Tech Rocketship Awards have supported India's high growth tech companies year on year to get access to the UK's world-class tech ecosystem. The awards give a platform to young Indian entrepreneurs and businesses to springboard their business internationally. The programme for the winners is awesome as they get an opportunity to pitch before Indian and British VCs. Winners from previous years have already landed great offers in the UK. I am excited to be associated with the awards and I wish the applications the very best."
The awards are being delivered with assistance from Indian Angel Network, alongside number of other delivery partners Including Startupbootcamp, T-Hub, TiE Delhi, Deloitte and a range of potential funders
The competition winners' trip to the UK will include opportunities to pitch to UK Venture Capitalits, a programme at London Tech Week, curated partnerships with established UK companies like Harper Adams University and Sensor City and exposure to the UK's thriving tech ecosystem, financial services and R&D opportunities. They will also get a chance to spend quality time with companies across the UK.
Applications are open to Indian tech entrepreneurs under 40 in India who have been operating a company created from the year 2000 onwards. The competition is open now and will close on Midnight of December 9, 2017.