Innopreneurs, a platform for start-up founders, entrepreneurs, and aspirants to showcase their ideas in action and reap the benefits of validation, networking, mentoring, and funding opportunities today announced the 10 winners of its 6th edition in presence of Chief Guest, His Excellency Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, Minister of Economic Affairs, Bhutan.
“Innopreneurs was organized for one year, and it our 6th edition of Innopreneurs, we have been able to give a stage to over 350 start-ups and entrepreneurs and conducted over 35+ digital rounds. In this 6th edition, we were able to take Innopreneurs to India and 5 other countries around the world and in the process sign over 150 partners. We had over 1000 start-ups registered and over 5000+ entrepreneurs as an audience,” said Deepak Menaria, Founder & CEO of Lemon Ideas.
His Excellency, Lyonpo Loknath Sharma, Minister of Economic Affairs, Bhutan, “I want to convey the greetings of his excellency the king of Bhutan. We would like to have more interaction and partnerships with the Lemon family. You have created a really good ecosystem; we want a similar ecosystem in Bhutan through you. We need mentors and people to aspire to our young entrepreneurs and I see Lemon playing a pivotal role in doing this. Entrepreneurs have to not only look for money but should focus on inner peace. Skilling is important for us. We want your support in that.”
With over thirty regional rounds in the country itself in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Telangana, etc., Innopreneurs was organized in 5+ in Maldives, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
Aurum Ventures, 100x.vc, NextGen Ventures, Ah! Ventures, Venture Catalysts, Indian Angel Network, FundVice, Faad Network, Chandigarh Angel Network, and VDOSH Capital were among the investment panels supporting the entrepreneurs. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), an international organization created for sustainable development with worldwide operations in various parts of their world supported the program.
“Good to see one more year of Innopreneurs, now spreading across South East Asia. Good work filtering the top 10, I found it worth my time listening to all of them. I am very impressed with the kind of innovations here. I want to see this forum grow into a community that is engaged continuously and has continued learning,” said Nagaraja Prakasam, Angel Impact Investor & Partner – Acumen Fund.
“I was on the Finale Jury, the ideas I witnessed were amazing they have great potential! What impressed me the most is the variety of ideas; it throws light on the effort that has gone into bringing all these ideas here. Lemon has been a very valuable partner for GIZ. We are coming out with programs to include some of the start-ups in the Indo-German connect program.,” Mr. Shankar Kumar (Special Guest), Technical Expert & Advisor at GIZ added.
Vatsal Kanakiya, 100x venture capital, said “This was a wonderful experience. Very innovative ideas for both local and global contexts. I am blown away by the quality of pitching and teams.”
“Lemon’s ecosystem is nurturing. My biggest takeaway was the collaboration spirit. I enjoyed this journey thoroughly and learned a lot from the start-up community,” said Anil Alex, Sales Leader – India & ANZ at Portescap.
“Exciting to see age is just a number (contestant’s age bracket 15 – 58), it doesn’t affect the depth of work. There were many varied fields, but one thing I found common, is the passion among all of them and resilience to achieve the ideas,” said Dr. Charvi Mehta, Technical Expert at GIZ.
As a competition that was launched by Lemon Ideas in 2014, the platform has evolved from a conventional B-plan contest to a platform capable of transforming the definition of entrepreneurship as a whole. With various partners ranging from Embassies, Incubators, Ecosystem Organizations, Co-working Spaces, Government Departments, Corporates, etc., this year Innopreneurs was able to bring many voices to the table.
LIST OF WINNERS
HVA Chemical Solution Pvt. Ltd. Paramakudi, Tamil Nadu.
Druksell Thimphu, Bhutan.
Since Green Energy Surat, Gujarat.
Hesa Rural/Last mile connect Hyderabad, Telangana.
Gowash Nagpur.
Agri Yug Kharagpur, West Bengal.
Supply.mv Male Maldives.
Chezuba Hyderabad, Telangana.
iAudit Rajkot, Gujarat
BMH Transmotion Nagpur, Maharashtra