National Start-up Awards 2021

Government of India announced the winners of “National Start-up Awards 2021” and felicitated 46 start-ups for their contribution in their respective sectors.

Key Facts

• Government also conferred an incubator and an accelerator with the award during this ceremony.
• This marked the second edition of National Start-up Awards.
• Applications were invited from 15 sectors and 49 sub-sectors, ranging from agriculture to animal husbandry and from enterprise technology to fintech.

National Start-up Awards 2021

National Start-up awards seek to recognise start-ups contributing towards economic dynamism by encouraging innovation and injecting competition. It focuses on following start-ups:

1. That build innovative products or solutions
2. That are scalable enterprises, with high potential of wealth creation or employment generation
3. That demonstrates measurable social impact.

Number of applications

Ministry received 2,177 applications from start-ups across 49 sub-sectors. There were applications from 53 incubators and 6 accelerators as well, for the ecosystem enablers categories. Out of these, 863 were women-led start-ups and 253 were start-ups, which were working in rural areas of India.

What parameters were used to decide winners?

Six parameters were used to decide the winners:

1. Innovation
2. Scalability
3. Economic impact
4. Social impact
5. Environmental impact, and
6. inclusiveness and diversity.

Who are the winners?

• In fintech category’s financial inclusion sub-sector, Bengaluru-based Naffa Innovations Private Limited was declared the winner. The start-up, also called ToneTag, was founded in 2013. It provides for mobile payments using sound and near-field communication (NFC), without using internet.