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UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) India and iSPIRT has announced the winners of the Great Tech Rocketships Initiative 2016 (GTRS). The Great Tech Rocketships awards connect India’s high-potential technology companies to the business and entrepreneurship ecosystem in the UK.
The six winners are:
Founders: Umair Mohammed, Himanshu Kaushik, Shamail Tayyab and Vikrant Khushu
Founded In: 2013
Funding: The startup has raised $500K in funding led by Aarin Capital Partners and TV Mohandas Pai . Prior to that, it had raised $100K in seed funding from Nikunj Jain, Outbox ventures and Ritesh Malik.
Wigzo brings machine learning into automation and personalisation. It enables brands to understand and communicate with its customers on a one-on-one basis and create personalised real-time content, based on context and usage patterns of the user, across all customer touch points from a single, integrated digital marketing platform.
Founders: Kiran Menon, Nikhil Gurjer
Founded In: 2013
Funding: The startup has raised $25K debt financing in 2012. After that, it raised $138K in angel funding from Hareesh Ramana, Nikhil Ramanlal, Bhupen Shah, and a few others.
Tydy is an employee onboarding software that combines content modules, engagement hooks and automated steps to ensure a personalised onboarding experience.
Founders: Hitesh Chawla, Mudit Seth
Founded In: 2012
Funding: The startup has raised close to $1.2 Mn from early-stage investment firm M&S Partners. Prior to that, it had raised $1.5 Mn in funding from IDG Ventures, Unilazer Ventures, Prashant Mehta, Fabrice Grinda, Krishnan Ganesh, GSF Accelerator and 500 Startups.
Silverpush is a target advertising startup which uses its mobile app product and helps business owners who experience from post-download dormancy and abandoned transactions.
Founders: Ramsyam Missula, Steve Hoffman
Founded In: 2013
Funding: Bootstrapped
It provides voice biometric authentication solution that eliminates hardware tokens/OTPs. It is used by financial institutions for wealth management & corporate clients.
Founders: Sanskriti Dawle, Aman Srivastava
Founded In: 2014
Funding: Bootstrapped
It provides technology for Braille-based education for visually impaired people. It also offers innovative solutions for non-visual data delivery, to meet the growing accessibility needs of smart urban spaces.
Founders: Sanjeev Chandak, Deepak Kothari, Vaibhav Lodha
Founded In: 2014
Funding: The startup has raised around $148K funding from the IvyCamp platform.
FT Cash is a mobile app that allows micro-merchants to come on-board in less than 5 minutes and allows customers to make payments electronically through credit/debit cards, mobile wallets and PayPal.
The winners will win a week long fully paid trip to UK. It includes:
- Bespoke interaction with world class investors, incubation hubs and science tech parks
- A guided tour of Tech City, Europe’s most vibrant innovation hub
- Networking sessions with like-minded entrepreneurs, start-ups, research scholars and pioneering companies
Through this trip, the winners will get an opportunity to interact with the local technology ecosystems, identify funding options and build product propositions to fit those markets.
Sharad Sharma, co-founder and Governing Council Member iSPIRT, said, “A number of technology startups in India are now well-prepared for global markets. Through this initiative we provide high-potential companies with assistance and access to the UK market as a first step for them to go global.”
The nationwide initiative saw 285 applications from across India. Applyifi, the program partner for this initiative, curated 40 startups for a jury across 4 Indian cities (Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and New Delhi). 11 startups were shortlisted in the regional rounds and were reviewed by an international jury comprising Julie Lake (co-founder of The FinTech50, and Director of FinTechCity), Sharad Sharma (co-founder of iSPIRT), Baz Saidieh (CEO of TrueStart), Ian Fordham (CEO of Edtech UK), Satyam Bansal (Director, strategic alliances and gift cards, Flipkart), Alpesh Patel (UK government dealmaker, private equity fund manager, fintech entrepreneur) and Prajakt Raut (co-founder Applyifi).
UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) is the government department that helps UK-based companies succeed in the global economy. It works with UK-based businesses to ensure their success in international markets, through exports. Its trade and investment experts are based in the British High Commission in New Delhi and in our Deputy High Commissions in Mumbai, Bengalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Pune and Ahmedabad.
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