GES: 8 Indians among 24 semifinalists in GIST Catalyst pitch competition

Hyderabad : Eight Indian entrepreneurs are among 24 semi-finalists announced for the Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST) Catalyst pitch competition taking place at the 2017 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.

The semifinalists were chosen based on a combined score that took into account their performance during the public vote portion of the competition, their pitch video, and feedback from expert judges who reviewed each of the over 75 startups that competed.

There are six semifinalists for each of the four GES focus industries, which are Healthcare and Life Sciences, Digital Economy and Financial Technology, Energy and Infrastructure, and Media and Entertainment. One finalist will be chosen by a panel of judges for each focus industry during pitch sessions at the GES. The four finalists will compete in one final pitch session, after which a panel of judges will pick the GIST Catalyst Grand Champion.

The semifinalists are competing for over $400,000 USD in startup resources. Prizes for finalists include Amazon Web Services credits, Cognizant with a cash prize, Dell laptop computers, Google Cloud computing credits, and an interview for Inc. Magazine by Elizabeth Gore, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell and Chairman of the Board of Alice.

Competing finalists cover a wide range of topics from renewable energy to health care solutions using artificial intelligence. More than half of the semifinalists are women and semifinalists are representing 10 countries, including the United States and India.

The Indian semi-finalists are Jainesh Sinha, Arti Agrawal, Satyen Sanghavi, Borthakur Rajlakshmi, Piyush Mathur, Ajaita Shah , Vaishali Neotia and and Shivaarti Bajaj.

The GIST Initiative works to empower and strengthen science and technology entrepreneurs around the world through online and in-country programming and partnerships.