ACADEMIA

Inaugural awards for enterprise tech startups offer prizes worth thousands of dollars and exclusive VC/CTO mentoring to Emerging Markets Trailblazers

The inaugural Tech Trailblazers Awards announces TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Silicon Valley as its latest industry supporters and joins the likes of global industry associations such as the Cloud Security Alliance, Storage networking Industry Association and MIT/Stanford Venture Labs. The awards invite tech startups from emerging markets such as the BRICS region to enter the Emerging Markets Trailblazers category. Eligible entrants already entering any other categories may also enter the emerging markets category free of charge - hence increasing their chances of winning part of the $1 million dollar prize fund equivalent. The awards are open to entries until September 12th at 11:59pm PT. Download an entry form today at www.techtrailblazers.com.

The Tech Trailblazers Awards represent the first independent initiative to recognize and reward enterprise technology startups from emerging markets in a global arena. In addition to emerging markets category, the Tech Trailblazers technology categories include: big data, cloud, infosecurity, mobile, networking, storage and virtualization.

All entrants will win a "goodie bag" of prizes worth over $3,000 from an estimated $1 million prize fund. Winners will also get expert advice in the form of mentoring from VCs and major vendors' CTO offices.

The Tech Trailblazers Awards judging panel includes judges from the emerging markets including Mohit Agrawal, Founder and Editor of Telecom Circle (India); Elise Huang, Partner at WestSummit Capital (China); Mark Hillary, CEO at IT Decisions and Huffington Post blogger (Brazil); Andrew Seldon, Editor of Hi-Tech Security Solutions, TechNews (South Africa); and Monica Zlotogorski, Editor of Inside Latin America (originally from Uruguay but now based in the US).

Vish Mishra, Venture Director, President, TiE Silicon Valley said: "We are partnering with the Tech Trailblazers Awards as we share a passion for start-ups from around the work and the common goal of promoting entrepreneurial spirit regardless of origin. The awards represent another opportunity for our members to get the recognition and rewards they deserve both in the emerging markets category but in the technology category where their expertise lies."

The founder of the Tech Trailblazers Awards, Rose Ross, commented: "Support from global initiatives such as TiE Silicon Valley focused on entrepreneurialism from and in emerging markets is vital for Tech Trailblazers to be seen as a viable global program. Startups from emerging markets often have different and more unique perspectives on enterprise IT challenges. We wanted to ensure tech startups from emerging markets felt their voices would be heard in an arena often dominated by the bigger players. Being committed to creating a global community within the Tech Trailblazers required levelling the playing field for all comers. The best way we felt to do that was to give startups from emerging markets their own category, in addition to proactively welcoming them to enter the existing categories. "

There is a heavily subsidized entry fee of just $50 for a standalone submission to the emerging markets category. For more information, please consult the Tech Trailblazers Awards website.

All entrants will get a goodie bag of prizes worth $3,000+, and all winners will get a share of the Tech Trailblazers Awards prize fund, projected to be worth in excess of $1m. The prize fund is supported by sponsors and industry partners including MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, the Cloud Security Alliance, Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), Computing, Prezi, Startup America, RealWire, Lissted, Launchpad Europe, Mynewsdesk, Wazoku, and ExecEvent.

The judging panel includes the IT industry's leading figures from around the world, giving little-known startups the opportunity to have their products and services reviewed by eminent influencers.

Entry forms should be submitted before the final closing date of September 12th for consideration by the expert panel. For more information and to download an entry form, please visit www.techtrailblazers.com.

To join the Tech Trailblazers as a sponsor, please email innovate@techtrailblazers.com.

To be added to the mailing list to receive the latest updates, please email innovate@techtrailblazers.com.

For more information, please visit www.techtrailblazers.com or follow the Tech Trailblazers Awards on Twitter @techtrailblaze, #ttawards or on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/company/tech-trailblazers-awards.