StartAP Awards held on a grand scale in Visakhapatnam

StartAP successfully launched the first award ceremony of its kind yesterday in Visakhapatnam. The highlights of the event were:

● The event had 300+ special invitees include entrepreneurs, global leaders, international consultants, influencers, C level executives and founders of leading companies and startups in India, 500+ audience, 10 speakers, 2 power panels and 35 Awards.

● The signature awards of the event included Entrepreneur of the year, Andhrapreneur, ChangeMaker, Social Entrepreneur, Brand Excellence, Entrepreneurial Excellence and Fintech Startup.

● The jury’s includes Peter Vesterbacka, Creator , Angry Birds & Founder of Slush, Kirthiga Reddy, Former M.D Facebook India and Divyank Turakhia, Founder, Media.net amongst others.

● The event was graced by the presence of J A Chowdary Special Chief Secretary & IT Advisor to the Chief Minister of AP, J. Krishna Kishore and other dignitaries.

● The first panel’s topic is Global Startup Ecosystems to 2020 – What India can achieve. In line with our Vision StartAP 100 – to realise the dream of Andhrapreneurship by building and enabling 100 high-value startups by 2020.

● The high impact entrepreneurs at the event include Ritesh Agarwal CEO and founder of OYO Rooms, Raghu Reddy Head of Online Sales Xiaomi and Mudit Narain, Founding Manager of Atal Innovation Mission.

● Ritesh Agarwal announced a statement which aims to 3x growth in their operations in the state and 2500 jobs.

● SmartGen is an edtech startup which uses AI to make the content produced retain in the minds of students. They released a product at the event today.

● “We plan to launch our services in Vizag soon and look forward to be a part of the flourishing culinary culture in the city.” says Sriharsha Majety, CEO and Co-Founder, Swiggy.

● Xiaomi was honored with the Andhrapreneur of the year Award.

Quotes:

“Andhra Pradesh is verily known as the “Sunrise State of India” and the State welcomes and offers tremendous opportunities to enterprising entrepreneurs. The business-friendly and proactive approach of the Government has made it possible for the State to be consistently ranked number 1 among all the States of India. We, at OYO, are also bullish on Andhra Pradesh and are doubling down on our investments and stepping up on hiring. OYO is present in 5 prominent cities of Andhra Pradesh – Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Guntur and Nellore. Our Exclusive Asset rooms count as a part of the OYO Hotel chain in AP will go up from a 1000+ presently to 3000+ by the end of the year with the headcount going up to 2500 increasing employment opportunities in the state.” says Ritesh Agarwal, CEO of OYO Rooms.

“I am deeply thankful to StartAP for recognising Swiggy as the “Start-up of the year”. I believe that this is a great platform for recognising and promoting the thriving start-up ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh, and in winning this award, I feel my journey has come full circle from my origins in the state. Andhra Pradesh enjoys high internet and smartphone penetration and is an exciting market for us. I believe that the convenience and reliability that Swiggy brings will resonate with the people of the state. We plan to launch our services in Vizag soon and look forward to be a part of the flourishing culinary culture in the city. By partnering with various restaurants and creating robust employment opportunities for delivery partners, we hope to make a contribution in boosting the local economy.” says Sriharsha Majety, CEO and Co-Founder, Swiggy.

“On behalf of Xiaomi India, I would like to sincerely thank the organizers of StartAP Awards for recognizing our efforts and our undying dedication to build innovative technology of highest quality at honest pricing. Thank you for honouring Xiaomi India with the Andhrapreneur Award. I would also like to thank the Government of Andhra Pradesh for firmly supporting us in our ambitious plans to bring innovation to everyone. We are especially thankful for all the guidance and support from Honourable Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and IT Minister, Mr. Nara Lokesh who have helped Xiaomi’s Make in India journey reach new milestones.” – Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India.

Siddharth Marupeddi, The CEO of StartAP says “Out of the 250+ applications, we presented awards in 30 different categories. We are very happy to receive such immense response from across the country for the very first edition of StartAP Awards. We nowlaunch StartAP 100“ J A Chowdary says “I congratulate everyone for such a good show. I am very proud to see Andhra grow everyday into a beautiful and high impact startup ecosystem. StartAP has been the pioneer in doing so. This has been happening since 2014 from the very first edition of StartAP Fest. “

Jasthi Krishna Kishore CEO of EDB says “ I thank StartAP for enabling a growing ecosystem of startups, where young aspiring entrepreneurs meet, share, partner and collaborate on a single platform.

Andhra Pradesh is very committed to entrepreneurship because we believe entrepreneurs represent this upside of the interconnected world. Our state will constantly find more ways to augment the benefits of this interconnection to more and more people and one way is by partnering and collaborating with StartAP.”