November 25: Top five startup companies that were shortlisted for the ‘Kumari Bank NewBiz Startup Summit and Awards - Best Startup of the Year 2021’ have pitched their business ideas. 

Representatives of all top five startups pitched their business ideas before a jury and participants of the grand finale that is underway at Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu. 

The program is being organised by New Business Age Pvt Ltd, the publisher of New Business Age magazine and Aarthik Abhiyan daily. 

Aama Agro Products (P) Ltd, Admana Technology (P) Ltd, Leaf Plus (P) Ltd, Nepal Agro Inputs Marketing & Entrepreneurship Services (NAMES) (P) Ltd and Upaya City Cargo (P) Ltd are the top five finalists that pitched their ideas. Their representatives pitched the business case of their startups to the jury panel.  

Based on their presentation, the jury panel will now pick the top three winners while two remaining startups will also be felicitated as “One of the Best Five Startups”. 

Tenzin Sonam Gonsar, founder and CEO of TEAM Ventures Pvt Ltd, Sumana Shrestha, managing partner and founder of Kosi Collaborative and Niraj Khanal, co-founder/CEO of Antarprerana are the members of the jury that is led by Siddhant Raj Pandey, CEO of Business Oxygen (BO2). 

According to the organizer, the jury will pick the best startup, second best startup and third best startup shortly based on criteria like articulation of vision/mission statement, value proposition and market identification, team composition and calibre, innovation/USP/disruption, transaction-to-date, scalability and competitive strategy, IT used, creation story and judgment of jury.

The ‘Best Startup of the Year 2021’ would be provided a cash prize of  Rs 100,000 along with a trophy and a certificate while the “Second Best Startup of the Year 2021” will receive a trophy, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 50,000. The startup securing the third position, or the “Third Best Startup of the Year 2021”, will be presented with a trophy, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 25,000. 

According to the organiser, the jury had held several meetings, went through the information collected, set the judging criteria and prepared the shortlist of 40 out of more than 1700 startups throughout the country. After further in-depth information about the companies, 35 companies were shortlisted again, out of which top five companies were shortlisted for the finals. 

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Madan Lamsal, chairman of New Business Age Pvt Ltd, said that the programme aims at encouraging youths to embrace entrepreneurship that contributes to the overall economic development. The award intends to recognize and honor the best and promising startups of the country. 

“The government, financial sector, development partners and other organizations like FNCCI and NEYF are making efforts to promote startups and entrepreneurship in the country. Those efforts have been successful to a large extent. Still, the pace of growth of startups and development of entrepreneurship has not been at the desired or expected level,” said Lamsal, who is also the editor-in-chief of New Business Age and Aarthik Abhiyan. “We believe this programme will complement those efforts toward promoting startups in the country.”

Kumari Bank Limited is the title sponsor of Newbiz Startup Summit and Awards 2021 while Garima Bikas Bank Limited is the co-sponsor of the event. The Startup & Innovation Committee of the FNCCI, Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs’ Forum and Dish Home Fibernet are the associate partners. The summit and awards programme is supported by Citizens Life Insurance, IME and NLG Insurance Company Limited. The infra partner of the program is Mansiri Trading and the technical partner is Mango Tech. 

New Business Age has been organizing various events in the corporate sector including Tourism Aviation, Money Expo, Higher Secondary School Rating-Ranking-Awards, Business School Rating-Ranking-Awards, FDI in Nepal, Newbiz Conclave and Business Excellence Awards. Earlier in January, New Business Age had organized “Newbiz Business Women Summit and Awards 2021’ to honor working and entrepreneurial women of Nepal in various categories. 

Which are the top five startups that pitched their business ideas?

Aama Agro Products, a Pokhara-based private sector agriculture company in Nepal, is committed to providing healthy Nepali products. 

Admana Technology is a digital Ad network company that offers performance based solutions for advertisers i.e companies and media networks in the country. 

Another startup that made it to the top five is Leaf Plus Pvt Ltd. It is a socio-economic enterprise that aims to have an impactful contribution to the environment and society by producing and promoting areca leaf products. 

Nepal Agro Inputs Marketing & Entrepreneurship Services (NAMES) (P) Ltd is a multifaceted business company dedicated to marketing all kinds of agriculture inputs and services. 

Upaya City Cargo provides an online marketplace for various business related services that range from registration to liquidation, along with all the compliance, financial and accounting work of individuals, small and medium enterprises and business organizations.