Minister of International Trade has announced the 5 tech startups selected as winners of the 2nd Annual Next BIG Idea Contest, during a visit to Zone Startups India.
The contest had brought in over 200 applications from across India, and the 5 selected startups are AdSparx (Pune), Flip Technologies (Kochi), Konotor (Chennai), Shield Square (Bangalore),Vidooly (Noida). The winners will be traveling to Toronto in early November.
Zone Startups / India, a joint venture of Toronto-based Ryerson Futures Inc. and the Bombay Stock Exchange Institute, in collaboration with the Government of Ontario, Canada and IBM Global Entrepreneurship Program recently concluded the 2nd Edition of the Next BIG Idea Contest. The competition is a platform to discover India’s 5 most innovative technology companies who are looking to leverage a presence in Ontario, Canada, as a vehicle to expand to North America.
The winners will be incubated for two weeks in the globally ranked #5 University Business Incubator in the world, the Digital Media Zone (DMZ) at Ryerson University, in Toronto, including flights and hotels. Using the DMZ as a landing pad, the entrepreneurs will receive mentorship, business development advice and valuable international experience.
“We are thrilled with the quality of technology startups that applied to be part of the Next Big Idea contest, and it was difficult to select less than 2% of the companies that applied as there were many excellent teams and solutions. Following on the success of last year’s program we expect these companies to quickly get connected into the North American market via our network, which will help accelerate their growth. We look forward to hosting this year’s winners in Toronto.”, says Matt Saunders, President of Ryerson Futures and Zone Startups.
“This contest is an opportunity for best-in-class Indian start-ups to get an introduction to the North American market, and valuable new business connections. Ontario is a leader in innovation on the global stage, and we welcome pioneering companies and ideas to add to our innovation ecosystem.”, says Jens-Michael Schaal, Senior Economic Officer, Ontario International Marketing Centre.
