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Zone Startups India, a Mumbai-based accelerator, has entered its fifth year with its Next BIG Idea annual contest that helps startups to get access into international markets, especially the $19 trillion North American market.
Started in 2013, the contest is a joint-initiative with the Government of Ontario, Canada and Zone Startups. It also has other industry partners such as IBM, Amazon Web Services, HDFC Bank, Google and TCS.
Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director, Zone Startups India said this year about five startups have been selected through an application-based process and these startups will get access to local mentors, corporate connects and investor connects in Canada to start with.
The competition was launched in July 2017, with roadshows across 16 Indian cities where over 1,100 entrepreneurs participated in the roadshows even in tier-2 cities such as Jaipur, Vizag, Goa, Pune, Ahmedabad, Indore, Chandigarh, Coimbatore and Hubballi.
The panel of jury for selection of top startups this year included industry leaders representing TCS, Capgemini, Accenture, Applyifi.com, Jubilant Life Sciences, Fullerton India, Mphasis and Nudge Foundation.
The Next BIG Idea 2017 contest winners are Sequretek IT Solutions, Element42 Management Solutions, Gray Routes Technology, Cooey Technologies and Fingpay - Tapits Technologies.
This year's contest also is being sponsored through the "The Aditya Jha India Entrepreneur Award", where in for the next eight years one impact making Indian startup will be selected for a grant of Rs 5 Lakhs and a 1-year access to the accelerator program at Zone Startups India. The award is sponsored and instituted earlier this year by Aditya Jha, well-known Indo-Canadian Entrepreneur and Philanthropist.
Ramasubramaniam said, “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 16-cities and got 689 applications. It was all the more special that last year, our first-ever winner, CitrusPay (Winner - 2013), got acquired by Naspers-backed PayU & Konotor (Winner – 2014) got acquired by FreshDesk."
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