Zone Startups India’s annual Next BIG Idea (NBI) contest, which gives tech startups from India an opportunity to tap into the North American market through a soft landing in Canada, has announced 13 startups for this year’s edition.
Through a structured program, the contest winners get to validate their business model, get access to local mentors, corporates, investors and Government Representatives in Canada. This year, 13 technology startups from a pool of over 1100 applications have been chosen for the Indo-Canada Bilateral Entrepreneurship exchange program and the winners will travel to Canada in November for the 2-week market access program.
Established as a joint-initiative with the Government of Ontario, Canada, the contest has gone onto attract industry partners such as IBM, Amazon Web Services, HDFC Bank, Google and TCS.
The Indo-Canada bilateral entrepreneurship exchange program was added as a new dimension in the 6th edition of Next BIG Idea contest 2018.
“The companies will make connections that will help them build their businesses. At the same time, they will get to experience Canada’s outstanding entrepreneurial ecosystem and our openness to ideas and people,” Tara Scheurwater, Acting Consul General and Senior Trade Commissioner said in a statement.
Over the past five years, the contest has supported 27 companies gain access to Canada and has helped them make significant progress, having raised over $300 million cumulatively.
Some of the startups that were part of the program in the past are CitrusPay, Vidooly, Konotor, ShieldSquare, Flip Technologies, Sequretek, Plackal, Heckyl, AlgoEngines, and DataResolve.
Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director, Zone Startups India said, “Over the years, the Next BIG Idea contest has become an ecosystem development initiative for us, and leveraging our presence in Canada and India, we are able to provide a great market entry for India startups aspiring to tap into the North American economy. Being able to get the Next BIG Idea Contest to become a part of a larger cross-border initiative, supported by 2 Governments, is a major validation for us, with respect to building an international startup bridge.
The 13 startups to win this year are:
Appmaker.xyz, a Cochin-based startup nominated by Kerala Startup Mission, is shopify for mobile. Create native app maker for Android, iOS and Windows Phone for free. No coding required and get your app within seconds.
Bitryt Solutions an Ernakulam-based startup, also nominated by Kerala Startup Mission, developed ‘Zero One Media suite’, an integrated media platform which helps to automate the processes of video acquisition, processing, scheduling, distribution, monetization and analytics.
PerfectFit Systems is also an Ernakulam based startup nominated by Kerala Startup Mission, which builds 3D scanners and fully automated smart apparel production system for the fashion industry.
Bengaluru based Trendlyne is a Retail Bloomberg platform for analysts, retail investors and advisors across geographies. Trendlyne makes every stock market data point query-able, and backtest-able. It also turns unstructured data (for example, factory closures, auditor resignations) into structured data that can be used in strategies and analyzed.
Chennai based company DeTect Technologies develops the innovative and efficient solutions for the industrial asset monitoring and inspection. Founded by a team of IITM alumni, students and faculty, DeTect has already achieved market penetration of 80% in Oil & Gas sector in terms of companies in India and predominantly present in many other sectors such as Steel , Power, Chemical and Fertilizer and is growing exponentially.
Ahmedabad based Oizom delivers Environmental Impact Solutions using IoT Technology. The solution acquires Environmental data and further analyses it for actionable insights. These insights empower authorities, communities and industries to take data-driven decisions.
IBSFINtech India is a Bengaluru-based Treasury and Trade Finance solutions provider in India, specializing in innovative, integrated and comprehensive solution for Risk, Treasury and Trade Finance Management.
Bitonic Technology Labs (Yellow messenger) a Bengaluru based company has developed conversational artificial intelligence channel powering enterprises to Market,Acquire , Service and Support customers on Voice and Messaging.
Lendfoundry is a Bengaluru based company, which has developed a full stack technology platform for lenders to run lending products digitally.
Mumbai-based Pingal Technologies has developed Finalytx, an analytics platform that enables simplified and scalable adoption of Data Analytics by decision makers for deriving business insights from enterprise data.
Relatas, based out of Bengaluru, has developed a Sales AI platform that B2B sales teams use for Sales Forecasting, Account Management and Sales Execution, using Relationship Intelligence
SIBIA Analytics is a Kolkata based company that has developed Retail inventory optimization through accurate demand forecasting - using advanced machine learning, offered as SaaS.
Delhi-based Wobot Intelligence helps Organisations automate surveillance using Artificial Intelligence.
Canada and India have been expanding their ties with various programs for startups through partnerships. Zone startups also launched a Bilateral Entrepreneurship Program with Canada with a focus on Women Entrepreneurs earlier this year.
This was part of the various MoUs that India and Canada signed promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
At the time, an Indo-Canada Innovation Bridge was also formed through an MoU signed between Canada-based public-private innovation hub Communitech and Hyderabad-based startup incubator T-Hub. The program will provide entrepreneurs, startups, and scale-ups from Canada, a gateway to the Indian market.