15 small businesses recognised for innovation, entrepreneurship

Recognising the role of small and medium businesses in the growth of India’s economy, Amazon announced the winners for the Amazon Smbhav 2022 awards on the second day of the two-day virtual event. The awards were facilitated by Zeba Khan, Director and Category Manager – Beauty, Personal Care and Luxuty Beauty at Amazon, and Sumit Sahay, Director, Selling Partner Services at Amazon India.

In total, Amazon received 400 nominations this year of businesses, innovators, and individuals who excelled across sectors. The winners were picked by knowledge partners comprising ecosystem experts after a thorough evaluation of all the nominations.

The ecommerce giant says that categories for nominations reflect key growth pillars for small business like digitisation, startup enablement, innovation, skilling and job creation, and exports that will support a self-reliant India.

The winners of the Amazon Smbhav Awards 2022 across 15 categories are:

Digitally-enabled global shop of the year: Bitsware 

Global SMB of the year: UUO Innovation Pvt Ltd 

Entrepreneur of the year: Oben Electric Dinkar Electric

Emerging brand of the year: Homes Elite

Product innovator of the year: Neeman’s Private Limited

Tech Innovator of the year: Sellerapp

Fintech small business of the year: Align Infosolutions Pvt Ltd 

Job creator of the year: Filo Edtech Pvt Ltd

Women entrepreneur of the year: InventIndia Innovations Pvt Ltd

Most diverse business of the year: Freshokartz Agri Products Pvt Ltd

Sustainable SMB of the year: Eco Clothing India

Kaarigar small business of the year: Prime Choice

Social entrepreneur of the year: Sirona Hygiene Pvt Ltd

Digital small business of the year: Boldfit

Smbhav Award: Arcatron Mobility Pvt Ltd

Zeba and Sumit also announced the awards for Amazon Smbhav Entrepreneurship Challenge and Amazon Hackathon, which are set up to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. ‘

These competitions started in March 2022 and saw thousands of participants presenting startup ideas and innovative solutions. Amazon received 2,000 nominations for the entrepreneurship challenge, shortlisting 250 startups that were invited to a curated mentoring programme where an elite panel of jury selected five startups out of 30 shortlisted for the mentoring panel. There were 30,000 entries for the hackathon. 

The winners of the Amazon Entrepreneurship Challenge Awards along with special mentions will get $10,000 in Freshworks credits, along with an opportunity to discuss funding with leading investors in India. The awards are also categorised into second runner-up, first runner-up, and ‘Amazon Smbhav of the Year 2022 (Entrepreneurship Challenge)’, where the winners received cash prizes of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 15 lakh, and Rs 40 lakh respectively. 

Special mentions:

Most promising sustainable ecosystem startup: Eco Right

Most promising women-led startup: Skyfire Applied Intelligence

Most promising consumer-product startup: Dipitr Technologies 

Most promising grassroot innovation startup: Notion Technorats

Second runner up: Tea Box

First Runner up: Ecoware

Amazon Smbhav of the year 2022 (Entrepreneurship Challenge): Genious Energy Critical Innovation

The Amazon Hackathon awards were facilitated to passionate developers and innovators who used cutting-edge technology to solve some of the most complex challenges. The second runner-up and first runner-up winners of Amazon Hackathon will get a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively. 

Special mention:

Team Ripple

Team Visionx

Second runner-up

Team Boolean Pandits

Team Contrato

First runner-up

Team Habilelabs_iot

Team Devesh

Last year, the Amazon Smbhav Awards 2021 were given out in 11 different categories.

This year, the awards aimed to celebrate the spirit of businesses and individuals who excelled across sectors. The ecommerce giant says that the summit focused on two key attributes this year—innovation and entrepreneurship. It also sought to recognise the efforts of those who have contributed towards empowering small businesses and thereby contributed towards the “Pragati” of India.