Entrepreneurs who have made a mark and new ones who are making a mark and inspiring more to follow were recognised at TiECON Chennai 2017 Awards on Friday. The winners spanned diverse fields including food, education, e-commerce and apparel.

The glittering function to mark the 10th edition of the entrepreneurship awards was a a blend of repertoire and recognition.

With well-known singers such as P Unnikrishnan, his daughter Uthara and Saindhavi enthralling the audience with their music, the awards acknowledged the efforts and challenges entrepreneurs overcame to be successful.

Addressing the event, Chandu Nair, Chairperson, TiECON Chennai 2017, organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), said: “We live in the age of growing complexity, increasing uncertainty and dynamic changes.

Dynamic times

“But there are more opportunities and support for entrepreneurs. I think this is a good time to be one (entrepreneur),” he said.

This year’s theme ‘DREAM. DARE. DO’ reflects just that. “We dare entrepreneurs to try, dream big and then support them in doing it.”

Nair said the objective of the awards is to keep the focus on entrepreneurs and seek people to emulate them and their achievements. The whole process was made transparent right from the selection stage. The award saw close to 400 nominees, who were selected based on voting.

V Shankar, President, TiE Chennai, said that to recognise the changing dynamics in the start-up community, the process of selecting winners underwent a change and was made democratic. The awards were given in four different categories — start-ups, scale-up, sustainability and lifetime achievement.

Winners

The TiECON Chennai 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Soundararajan Bangarusamy, Director, and GB Sundararajan, Managing Director, Suguna Foods.

The best start-up award went to Flintobox, which produces educational activity boxes for children in their early learning stages.

Inthree Access, a rural, assisted-commerce platform, was awarded the best scale-up award that looked at start-ups that have built capabilities to scale up.

The best sustainability award was given to Chennai-based clothing company Indian Terrain.