SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024
Team Café
Awarding the best in the Goan industry
To celebrate Goa’s trailblazers in business, rising stars of Goan enterprise and the state’s growth story, the Herald Group will present the Enterprise Excellence Awards in six categories today, March 3, at 7 pm at Planet Hollywood Beach Resort, Utorda
Herald Group will present the Enterprise Excellence Awards in six categories including Business Excellence Award, Leadership Excellence Award, Start-Up of the Year Award, Community Impact Leadership Award Innovation Award and Women Entrepreneur Award. The Herald team put out a call for nominations and received a total of 50 nominations across different categories. After scrutinizing through the various nominations, the team shortlisted three nominations for each category. Different criteria and aspects were taken into consideration for shortlisting including factors like home grown company, company employee strength and turnover, innovative concept offering a solution, footprint of the company beyond Goa’s shores and cross references from the industry. Herald Group will present the Enterprise Excellence Awards today, March 3, at 7 pm at Planet Hollywood Beach Resort, Utorda.
BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARD
Frontline Managed Services India
Run by Joshua Silveira, Frontline Managed Services India provides administrative, financial and IT services to legal firms in the US. With the strength of over 300 employees in India and US, this first generation business has scaled from a two-person team to a 320-plus employee team in less than 5 years.
Ecoclean Systems and Solutions
Headed by Roy Vas, Ecoclean Systems and Solutions was founded in 1998 as Goa’s first facility management company providing housekeeping, electrical, plumbing , painting, gardening, STP/WTP, event housekeeping and garbage management services. With over 100 employees, GIM did a case study, ‘Best practices in industry and how it is Achieved’ of this first generation business. Ecoclean Systems and Solutions is also a member of International Cleaning Institute and Dry Cleaners & Launderers Association of India.
Kilowott
Kilowott is a startup by three brothers, Aaron, Judah and Caleb Fernandez, from Saligao, who have grown Kilowott to a 300+ strong company from the ground up. Founded in 2014, Kilowott is a digital strategy, design and development agency. Spanning across three continents – Asia, Europe and the US – Kilowott collaborates with various governmental and international agencies and Fortune 500 companies, while also fostering a close association with the Norwegian diplomatic mission in India. In Norway, Kilowott won the Silver award in best naming and brand strategy and Bronze award for best use of digital property at Transform Awards Nordic 2022.
LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE AWARD
Armacar Group
The Armacar Group is a large family-run business conglomerate that has been operating for over 55 years in Goa. Established in the early 1950s as LA Armacar, the group has grown and expanded from trading hardware into multiple other avenues and industries including retail, modern trade, hospitality, designer hardware, lighting and modular kitchens. Armacar Group has six brothers functioning as joint directors.
Molbio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd
Founded in 2000, Molbio Diagnostics Pvt Ltd brings to the healthcare professionals worldwide the ‘TruelabTM Real Time quantitative micro PCR system’ that makes Real Time PCR testing, simple and possible in all laboratories, in the field and in near-patient settings. The smart design of the hardware and the room temperature stable reagent microchip make the assay robust and affordable. It was Goa’s first Unicorn at the prestigious Unicorn list in 2022.
Geno Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd.
A business legacy, Geno Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd primary focus is on Research and Development in the field of drug development. The company’s R&D sector engages in analytical formulation development in the making of tablets, capsules, liquids and semi-solid dosage forms.
START-UP OF THE YEAR AWARD
Any Time Driver
Headed by CEO Aaron Dias, AnyTime Driver offers Goan drivers an opportunity to earn an income while aiding Goan citizens to travel comfortably, rendering them mobile. Services included are taking old people to hospitals and banks if their children are abroad, taking dialysis patients to hospitals for regular treatment, and picking and dropping children to school. With five employees, AnyTime Driver has completed more than 700 bookings in North Goa and opened a new outlet in South Goa.
Smol Block
Smol Block is a niche toy company in Goa which manufactures eco-friendly wooden toys, styled in minimalist Scandinavian designs. The toys are made from sustainable rubberwood and coated in beeswax and food-safe mineral oil, ensuring that they are safe for children to play with. Smol Block participated in the world’s largest toy exposition, the Nuremberg International Toy Fair 2024 (Spielwarenmesse) and has its footprint in India, US and UK.
Wakao Foods
Launched in 2020 by Sairaj Dhond, Wakao Foods is India’s first brand that makes ready-to-eat products from jackfruit. This Goa-based sustainable food brand offers handpicked natural products with a vision of benefiting the planet. The company crafts products that are curated from ethically grown and sourced produce that is then hygienically processed and packaged.
COMMUNITY IMPACT LEADERSHIP AWARD
Street Providence
Street Providence is constituted solely for the purpose of caring and rehabilitating homeless street people, drug and alcohol addicts, the poor, marginalized and abandoned senior citizens. They utilise an ambulance to transport the sick to the hospital. Street Providence is supported by and works with the Goa Police, GMC, volunteers and other organisations.
Sevarat Healthcare & Nursing Pvt Ltd
Sevarat is a professionally managed senior care service providing timely, reliable and professional services to meet every single need of the older persons within their own home, identify, recruit, train and deploy youth from various locations across the country. Sevarat created a world record with the largest gathering of senior citizens performing a Goan Folk Dance in 2022.
Goa Sudharop
Goa Sudharop is a Goan diaspora volunteer non-profit organisation working to create job opportunities for school dropout girls, young widows, unemployed youth, Adivasi women, orphans and the underprivileged. The organisation also has projects in Goa like the Farming Project, Handloom Project, Carpentry Project, Pottery Project and Greener Goa, a tree planting initiative. Based in India and California (US), it received the State award for empowering women, empowering the underprivileged.
INNOVATION AWARD
Numadic
Numadic is a Goa-based supply chain tracking and coordination platform for B2B transporters and consignors in India. It builds the technology connecting vehicles to fuel and EV companies, financial institutions, tolling agencies, drive through restaurants and more. Numadic’s vehicle wallets app platform powers market leaders in the FASTag industry, with two million-plus users and over one billion dollars in transactions to date.
B:live E-Bike Tours
B:Live started in early 2018 when two friends living in remote geographies decided to come together to find an effective sustainable solution. With Sandeep’s exposure to Electric Vehicles in Europe and Samarth’s knowledge of the tourism industry in Goa, they launched ‘India’s first EV Tourism initiative’- B:Live. Since its inception as an e-bike start-up based out of Goa, B:Live has branched out into offering low and high speed e-scooters, e-motorbikes, e-bicycles, delivery scooters, E3W passenger, E3W cargo and safety accessories.
IWAS
IWAS is a Belgian-Goan platform for upcycled products and creates environmental awareness developing sustainable local businesses. IWAS is the sustainable brainchild of Dries Moens, Maurice Britto and Dale Menezes, developed with the aim of recycling 100,000 bottles every year, including into drinking glasses, candles and candle jars.
WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR AWARD
Neomis Salon & Spa
Headed by Neomi Barneto, Neomis Salon and Spa is a privately owned 26-year-old salon chain in Goa with seven locations across the state. The founder-managed salon business offers a full array of salon and spa services. The organization is also committed to training of underprivileged girls, to give them a trade and a livelihood.
Frugurt
Veeam Braganza is a member of a small family company, Dsouza Biotech that began in early 2000, as an offshoot of a family-run dairy, headed by entrepreneurs looking to enter the value added dairy product market. The company introduced India’s first natural stirred yogurt, to a niche clientele under the brand name Frugurt, which recently launched its luxury Greek yogurt variant.
Saligao Stories Ltd
Led by Anisha Hassan, Saligao Stories Limited is an organisation driven by the purpose of offering extraordinary food and drinks, and it operated under the same name as a restaurant in Saligao from 2013-2020 specialising in Hyderabadi Cuisine. Casa Lusitana, one of its offerings, is a restaurant based in Panjim, with a mix of local and Portuguese cuisines, along with an expertly crafted cocktail menu.
