Finding the Gems

The Business Today Coolest Start Ups Awards process began with around 100 companies from across the country sending in their nominations. The difference this time is that we restricted start ups to those that were incorporated on or after January 1, 2013. We have two categories of Start Ups this time round: those between 0-2 years and those between 2-4 years. After vetting the 100-odd applications by the senior editorial team, we ended up with 39 start ups from which the jury would select the winners.

It is these start ups that the jury comprising of Shekhar Kirani, Partner at Accel India; Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Partner at Unitus Seed Fund; Sharad Sharma, iSpirt founder and angel investor, Bala Girisaballa, CEO, Microsoft Accelerator and Sreedhar Prasad, who is the start ups lead at KPMG India, analysed to identify the BT Coolest Start Ups. These people are well aware of the early stage investing process.

In an over two-hour long debate in Bengaluru, the team identified 12 winners -- six Start-Ups each from both categories. They picked start-ups with strong business traction, good teams and those that have showed resilience in a tough business environment.