Consumer Brand Startups Take the Lead in The Smart CEO Startup50 List 2017

Evaluated by a Jury comprising some of India’s most respected entrepreneurs & investors, the 2017 Startup50 List features some of the best companies from across diverse sectors such as Enterprise Tech, Financial Services & Fintech, Healthcare, Preventive Health & Digital Health, Consumer Brand & Consumer Tech, Agritech& Agriculture and Social Impact. Each of these 50 companies have built wonderful businesses with long-term potential, robust financials and solid VC-backing

Bengaluru, October 15, 2017: On the eve of The Smart CEO Startup50 Conference & Awards 2017, held at Taj West End, Bengaluru, the founders and core team of 50 of India’s most successful startups joined their peers, in framing into The Smart CEO Startup50 List2017. Each of these 50 startups, spanning diverse sectors and unique business models, was shortlisted from a pool of 450 nominations and evaluated by a top notch Jury comprising Ashok Soota, Chairman, Happiest Minds Technologies, Krishnan Ganesh, Partner at Growth Story, Amit Patni, Co-Founder & Chairman, Nirvana Venture Partners, Naganand Doraswamy, Managing Director & CEO of Ideaspring Capital, Ganapthy Venugopal, Co-Founder & CEO of Axilor Ventures, Shubhankar Bhattacharya, Venture Partner at Kae Capital and Shaji Kumar Devakar, Managing Partner at IIFL Investment Managers.The determining factor for making the cut was ticking the box on eight criteria; originality of idea, innovation of business model, long-term potential, revenue/ profit growth, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, brand and social impact.
For example, Vahdam Teas, an online platform which sells loose leaf teas, made it to the 2017 List because it built an innovative business model aroundsourcing,packaging and shipping homegrown teas ‘Made in India’. Working with 175 tea plantations and small growers across Sikkim, Assam Darjeeling and the like, the company is the first vertically integrated direct to conumser brand, sells 100% online and ships fresh tea leaves in India and foreign markets such as US, UK, Russia & South Asian countries, instead of ones which are typically up to three years old. Similarly, Yoga Bars made it to the 2017 List for disrupting the Indian snacks industry. Coined as the ‘honest food company’, Yoga Bars was among the first companies to innovate on healthy snacking in India. Its prodcuts are not only made using natural, healthy ingredients, but are also packaged and labeled in a way that consumers are able to read and understand what they are buying and consuming.
The Smart CEO Startup50 Awards was initiated as an annual event, in 2015, to recognise and reward entrepreneurs who have built robust businesses with long-term potential, solid VC-backing and strong financials.While the 2015& 2016 List saw companies such as Happiest Minds Technologies, Ather Energy, Mitra Biotech, Jaypore, Flutura Technologies, UrbanLadder, Freshdesk, Hippocampus, ChargeBee, Welcare Hospitals and the like form the cohort across education, enterprise tech, consumer tech and more categories, the 2017 List comprises a fresh set of promising startups such as Indus OS, Tiger Analytics, RazorPay, Credit Vidya, 1mg, Pepperfry, RAW Pressery, Milaap& Way Cool Foods.