BW Unicorn Awards 2022: Paytm Bags The Best Unicorn Title

As we celebrate India’s emergence as the third largest startup ecosystem globally, this is the time to review and acknowledge the emergence of unicorns, soonicorns and hyper-growth ventures. There is a need to shift the focus from valuations to the value organisations are creating for the better. 

The Indian startup valuations have taken a hit, yet India has still managed to create more unicorns in the first five months of 2022 compared to the year before taking the count to 105 unicorns. 

Celebrating The Spirit 

BW Businessworld brings the inaugural edition of the BW Unicorn Summit and Awards 2022 which thrives to recognise not only unicorns but well-performing startups which hold the high potential to become unicorns soon.  The summit looks at unicorn creation, from the lens of time-tested tech innovators, traditional entrepreneurs and fledgling yet promising startups, along with rich ringside narratives from policymakers, investors, academia, accelerators and incubators. BW Unicorn awards play a critical role in order to pay attention to the high-potential startups instead of running after a tag of ‘Unicorn’.

This unique initiative encourages changemakers by looking at how founders have built Unicorns, and concurrently, drawing a playbook for today’s innovators aspiring to become tomorrow’s pathbreakers. BW Unicorn Awards have received an overwhelming number of nominations from across the sectors such as enterprise tech, consumer tech, edtech, fintech, proptech and more. 

Driven By Jury

More than 300 entries were received which were then brought down to over 150 post the first screening round. Subsequently, after the second level of deliberation, a total number of 69 nominees were shortlisted and invited to present before the power-packed jury panel. Nominations received for Unicorns Award were put through a multi-tier screening and shortlisting procedure to get the list of well-deserved winners. The jury process followed a certain set of parameters to evaluate the entries and these were the uniqueness of the service/product, current market value, the potential for growth and customer attraction till date.

The esteemed jury panel included Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder, Indian Angel Network; Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners; Sudhir Sethi, Co-founder and CEO, Chiratae Ventures; Saurabh Chandra, Managing Director, BCG India; Pranav Parikh, Managing Partner and Head, Edelweiss Private Equity; Alok Mittal, Co-Founder and CEO, Indifi Technologies; Aprameya Radhakrishna, Co-Founder and CEO, Koo App; Bidyadhar Subudhi, Dean (R&D), IIT Goa; Rajat Moona, Director, IIT Bhilai; Sanjay Jain, Partner, Bharat Fund.

Glory They Deserve

The word Unicorn was coined in 2013 and India is no longer rare; creating a unicorn almost every week. Going forward the macro picture seems promising despite the market rightsizing and funding winter. The stakeholders and founders are assertive to pay more attention to create value rather than chasing valuations. Founders’ journey from the prism of innovation, originality and ingenuity to establish a long-term sustainable brand is extremely demanding and unique. 

Winners

Here is the edited table 


CategorySub-CategoryFounder Company
AcceleratorBest AcceleratorKunal Upadhyay, CEO and Managing PartnerCIIE.CO
StartupsMost Innovative Product or ServiceChiranth Patil, Co-founderRiskcovry
Ankit Prasad, Founder and CEOBobble AI
Most Likely To Become UnicornSubramanian Vishwanathan, Co-founder and CEODisprz
Most Daring Woman LeaderGarima Pande, Co-founderWandering Jane
Best Founder Saravana Kumar G, Founder and CEOMMRFIC
Jitendra Chouksey, Founder and CEOFITTR
SoonicornBest Technology Use CaseRam Kewalramani, Co-founder and CEOCredAble
Most Innovative Product or ServiceBaskar Subramanian, Co-founder and CEOAmagi   
Most Impactful Leadership TeamSanjay Sharma, Founder and MDAye Finance
Most Likely To Become UnicornRavi Kumar, Founder and CEOudChalo
Gaurav Khatri, Co-founder and CEONexxbass
Best FounderPravin Agarwala, Co-founder and CEOBetterPlace
Sanjeev Sularia, Founder and CEOIntelligence Node
Best SoonicornAbhishek Deshpande, Co-founder and COORecykal
Sachin Agrawal, Founder and CEOBizongo
UnicornMost Innovative Product or ServiceSmita Deorah, Co-founder and Co-CEOLEAD
Rahul Garg, Founder and CEOMoglix
Most Impactful Leadership TeamAkhil Gupta, Founder and Chief Tech and Product OfficerNoBroker
 Paytm
Best FounderSrikanth Velamakanni, Co-Founder, Group Chief Executive and Vice ChairmanFractal
Best Unicorn Paytm

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