At the recent TiE-ISB Connect 2008 event jointly organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and the Indian School of Business (ISB), Dubai-based Content Syndicate (CS) emerged as the winner in the ‘Cool Start-ups‘ category.
The event took place at ISB Hyderabad from 5 to 7 November. Sponsors included Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Times of India Group Satyam, Totem Infrastructure and the Indu Group.
This is the third year for TiE-ISB Connect and it is also one of Asia’s largest investor-entrepreneurial events. Tie-ISB Connect 2008 featured over 700 delegates, 30 venture capital firms and various media companies.
The event attracted over 200 business plans of which 149 executive summaries were short-listed for the next round. 30 of the short-listed firms were invited for a final presentation before a judging panel comprising of senior partners and management from Accel Ventures, Google, Canaan Partners, Helion Ventures, Venture East, Clearstone, PA, Virtusa, IDG Ventures, Nexus Capital, Sun Microsystems, Ojas Ventures, Totem and Kuruvindam.
The criteria for selecting the winners were based on the strength of business model, innovation, the team, maturity of business, track record, financials, long-term plans and scalability.
Commenting on the award, Content Syndicate’s Founder & CEO, Maddy Reddy, said: “We are honoured to be a part of this prestigious event. It was a great experience and provided us with a strong validation of our business. I would like to extend my gratitude to our clients, team, investors and partners for playing a vital role in making this happen.”
Content Syndicate’s Words on Demand service helps agencies, corporates, small and medium sized businesses and publishers globally to commission, distribute, buy and sell customised content in more than 200 languages. Currently in beta, CS has serviced more than 300 corporate clients and over 80 publishers for a range of content services. CS has positioned itself as one of the world’s fastest growing and innovative content services firm.
Because of its unique patent pending web-based business model, the firm can scale up to create and
facilitate buy-sell transactions of content in any major language, regardless of the client’s location, need or time with minimal costs.
Last September Content Syndicate was a finalist at Seedcamp, Europe’s premier launch pad in London and was selected from 260 start-ups in 42 countries for its unique business model.
In February 2008, CS was selected in the top three of 150 start-ups by the Arab Business Angels Network, a subsidiary of Dubai International Capital (DIC) at DIFC.
Content Syndicate also won the ‘Best New SME’ and the ‘Best SME in the GCC’ award at the recent Visa SME Awards in October 2008. The firm is also a finalist at the forthcoming Lloyds TSB Business Awards in December 2008.