Right Biotic won the Student Track award while Feel Good Innovation bagged the Investor Track award at the competition, Solar Powered Crop Harvesting Robot (SAGU) and SuVitas Holistic Healthcare were declared as runner-ups
The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Hyderabad, a non-profit organisation focused on fostering entrepreneurship, has announced the finalists of its Hyderabad Chapter’s TiE International Start-up Competition (TISC) – Student Track and Investor Track for 2015-16. The finalists were chosen from a total of 100 entries.
The winners were declared by Safir Adeni, President-TiE Hyderabad, in the presence of KT Rama Rao, Minister for IT & Panchayat Raj, Telangana, at an award function held in Hyderabad. The competition had a multi-stage evaluation up till the semifinals, thereafter 12 teams contested in the semifinals, of which seven teams made it to the final round.
Student Track is reportedly the world’s richest and largest student start-up competition with over $1.5 million dollar prize money. RightBiotic, the winner of the Student Track award, is an ultra-rapid test for determining antibiotic sensitivity of bacterial pathogens found in human urine in case of urinary tract infections (UTIs). This innovative technology enables faster and better treatment of UTI by reducing the urine culture testing time from 72 hours to four hours, thereby ensuring right antibiotic administration from the very start of treatment. Co-founder Shivani Gupta from BITS Pilani received the award.
The Investor Track offers mentorship as well as an opportunity to pitch ideas before successful entrepreneurs and investors at the renowned entrepreneurial conference, TiECon – Silicon Valley. The Investor Track award winner, Feel Good Innovation’s motorcycle seat add-on can prevent back pain, butt numbness and provide comfort.
Honouring the winners and congratulating TiE for their leadership, KT Rama Rao, Minister for Information Technology and Panchayat Raj said, “I am confident that this competition will add to our efforts of making Hyderabad the ‘Startup Capital’ and put our ambitious initiative, T-Hub into a global arena immediately. The Telangana Government is partnering with TiE in this international competition to ensure that we send our best start-ups to win million dollars.” He also informed that the Government of Telangana will soon unveil its start-up and innovation policy.
Declaring the results, Adeni said, “Congratulations to this year’s winners, the standard of start-ups and their products continues to impress our judges each year. Our goal is to be the catalyst for the best-in-class start-up growth in the region and offer them a unique opportunity to compete for a trip to the US with a spot in the finals at the world’s richest business plan competition at Rice University or try for a trip to the ‘Start-up Capital of the World’, Silicon Valley to get mentored by TiE investors and mentors.”
The national level competition’s top three finalists will receive a booth at TiECon – Silicon Valley where teams will be able to pitch their companies to over 5000 attendees and have access to successful serial entrepreneurs and investors from all over the world.