Swiggy, Razorpay, Rivigo & Flipkart take top honours at TechCircle Awards

Food-tech startup Swiggy, online payment gateway Razorpay, venture capital firm Accel Partners and angel investor Kris Gopalakrishnan are among the winners of the TechCircle Awards 2018.

The awards recognised and celebrated pioneering startups and technological innovations of the year.

The winners, awarded on Thursday as part of the TechCircle LIVE Summit held at Hotel Taj Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru, were chosen based on the recommendations of an eminent three-member jury.

The jury comprised Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel Partners; Saurabh Srivastava; chairman and co-founder of Indian Angel Network; and serial entrepreneur K Ganesh, partner at GrowthStory and promoter at Portea Medical. The jury members recused themselves from categories where there was a potential conflict of interest.

The panel independently evaluated the nominees on a variety of qualitative and quantitative parameters such as financial performance, business models, social impact, and market share. The nominations for the awards were screened and shortlisted by VCCEdge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.

Apart from Swiggy and Razorpay, Sachin Tendulkar-backed celebrity fashion company Universal Sportsbiz Pvt. Ltd which runs online platform Collectabillia, online skill assessment and testing platform Mettl, and tech-enabled logistics services provider Rivigo, bagged industry excellence awards in their respective sectors for robust revenue and growth. 

Mobile repair startup Gadgetwood and home healthcare services provider Portea also bagged industry excellence prizes.

Flipkart, India's most valuable startup, won the Unicorn of the Year award for consistently providing high returns to its investors.

One of Flipkart's earliest backers, Accel Partners, won the VC of the Year award. Accel was the among the most prolific venture capital firms last year, striking 21 deals including 13 follow-on investments. 

Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, who runs seed fund and accelerator Axilor Ventures, was adjudged as Iconic Angel of the Year. Gopalakrishnan invested in 12 startups last year.

In the Public Choice category, crowdfunding platform Impact Guru Technology Ventures won the award for the Best Social Impact Startup for its efforts to raise funds for nonprofits, social enterprises and personal causes.

The best advisory companies were honoured as well, with investment bank Unitus Capital, which specialises in startup deals, and law firm Induslaw, which facilitated 28 deals, winning prizes in their respective categories. 

Here is the full list of winners: 

Industry Excellence Awards 

E-commerce Company of the Year: Universal SportsBiz Pvt. Ltd. (Collectabillia)

Ed-tech Company of the Year: Induslynk Training Services Pvt. Ltd. (Mettl)

Fin-tech Company of the Year: Razorpay Software Pvt. Ltd. (Razorpay)

Food-tech Company of the Year: Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Swiggy)

Health-tech Company of the Year: Healthvista India Pvt. Ltd. (Portea)

Logistics Company of the Year: Rivigo Services Pvt. Ltd. (Rivigo)

Consumer-tech Company of the Year: Gadgetwood eServices Pvt. Ltd. (Gadgetwood)

Advisory Awards

Investment Firm of the Year: Unitus Capital

Law Firm of the Year: Induslaw

Growth Investor Awards

Iconic Angel of the Year: Senapathy Kris Gopalakrishnan

VC of the Year: Accel India Management Co. Pvt. Ltd.

Public Choice Award

Best Social Impact Startup: Impact Guru Technology Ventures Pvt. Ltd

Front Runner Award

Unicorn of the Year: Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd

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