GUSEC Rewards Startups at its Fifth Anniversary Celebration
It was a trifecta of celebrations at the Gujarat University Startup & Entrepreneurship Council last Friday, February 26, 2021; when we celebrated the Fifth Foundation Day of the organisation, hosted the Third Annual GUSEC Awards, and launched the second edition of herSTART, our special platform that recognises, promotes and encourages women entrepreneurs, innovators and aspiring women-led startups.
GUSEC also took the occasion to felicitate its startups that had achieved notable milestones in the past year. Following is a list of awards bestowed and the startups that were felicitated with the same:
- GUSEC Community Award
Awarded to startup founders with indelible efforts in the startup community, this year’s Community Award was given to Minakshi Kotwani, founder, Growing People; and Raj Shah, founder of Royal Gabat Science & Technology LLP.
- GUSEC Rise Award
This year’s GUSEC Rise Award was bestowed upon Shubham Mishra, founder, E-Vega Mobility Labs; Vikram Parekh, founder, Multplyr; and Priyam Sameer, founder, UrbanKHET. The award is given to the best performing and emerging startups of the year.
- GUSEC Social Impact award
Awarded to startup founders with the strongest impact in the social sphere, this year’s GUSEC Social Impact Award was given to Rohit Chopra, founder, Zifcare; Sarika Chitrodiya, founder, Lymbedge LLP; and Devan Chheda, founder, Arion Techsol.
- GUSEC Traction Award
This year’s winners of the GUSEC Traction Award were Umang Shah, founder, Aparam Edutech and Piyush Yadav, founder, iDoor. The award is given to startups that generated the best traction in the past year.
- GUSEC Impact Award
Awarded to startups with the most impact in their respective sphere of influence, this year’s recipients of the GUSEC Impact Award were Chetan Kanani, founder, Alpino and Bindi Patel, founder, ECOrrect Pvt. Ltd.
- GUSEC Innovation Prize
This year’s winner of the GUSEC Innovation Prize was Shashank Nimkar, founder of Earth Tatva, a startup that recycles ceramic waste. The Innovation Prize is awarded to recognise the best efforts of a startup or an innovator towards developing a patentable innovation.
- GUSEC Fellows 2021
Amish Thakar, founder of easilyDone Technologies, Bhavini Mehta, founder of Outliers Publishing Pvt. Ltd. and Shikha Shah, founder of AltMat emerged as GUSEC Fellows of 2021. The honour is bestowed upon the most successful and outstanding startup founders of the year.
- GUSEC Emerging Technology Startup of the Year
Plutomen, founded by Keyur Bhalavat was awarded the GUSEC Emerging Technology Startup of the Year, an honour awarded to the startup with best efforts and breakthroughs towards developing and implementing an advanced and emerging technology
- GUSEC Technology of the Year
GeoSafe, founded by Mihir Pandya, was felicitated with the GUSEC Technology of the year Award for its vision of providing tailor-made GPS solutions.
- GUSEC Student Innovator of the Year
Siddhi Vora, founder of DBreath and Aabhas Senapati, founder of Thing Finder were awarded the Student Innovator of the Year Award to reward them for taking the plunge into entrepreneurship while still pursuing their education.
- GUSEC Startup of the Year
Aagam Shah, the founder of Plushvie, won the Startup of the Year Award for outstanding progress and for emerging as the best-incubated startup of the year.
To congratulate the startups on their accolades, Principal Secretary to Gujarat government, Anju Sharma, IAS; UNICEF State Chief for Gujarat, Dr Laxmi Bhawani; Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University, Prof Himanshu Pandya; Founder of Humans with Humanity and 2019 Raksha Mantri Padak Awardee Ms Bhargsetu Sharma; Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University, Dr Jagdish Bhavsar; and other officials of GUSEC and Gujarat University were also present in the virtual ceremony.