As calendar year 2016 draws to a close, it’s time to declare your intent to apply for the 18th annual TechPoint Mira Awards! The Mira Awards honor Indiana’s best companies, entrepreneurs, educators, and other leaders for their achievements and innovation during calendar year 2016.

The Mira Awards is a six-month season of events and announcements that bring awareness and focus on Indiana’s tech, innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Combined, these activities drive venture investment, customer acquisition and heightened exposure worth millions of dollars to Indiana’s economy.

The gala where the winners are announced will be at The Westin in downtown Indianapolis on Saturday, April 29, 2017. Applications for the 18 individual, company and new “people’s choice” public voting categories are now live at techpoint.org/mira.

“In just over a decade, Indiana has seen more than $6.5 billion in acquisitions and IPOs from our tech community. More recently, in 2015, 71 percent of venture capital raised in Indiana went to tech companies,” said Mike Langellier, President and CEO of TechPoint. “The Mira Awards exist to celebrate our state’s tremendous tech success stories and amplify them to media, investors and technology buyers nationwide.”

The application deadline for TechPoint’s 18th Annual Mira Awards is Friday, January 20, 2017.

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Companies, startups, scale-ups, schools, teams or individuals should visit techpoint.org/mira and declare their intention to apply by Friday, December 30, 2016.

More than 40 independent subject matter experts, who serve as judges, evaluate and rank the applications. The rankings determine which applicants become nominees. Next, nominees deliver presentations and answer questions in-person with one of the independent judging panels, and the judges deliberate and select the winners.

TechPoint created the awards program in 1999 to recognize tech-related achievements and innovation statewide, and ultimately to stimulate future tech growth and entrepreneurship. Among recent Mira Award winners, many have increased sales, venture capital and talent attraction.

Mira Award nominee and recipient highlights:

  • 2016 Mira Awards nominees employed 25,000 people and represented $6.7 billion in 2015 sales revenue.
  • Indianapolis-based Appirio won the Mira Award for Tech Company of the Year in 2016 and is currently in the process of being acquired for $500 million by IT services company Wipro.
  • PERQ, a previous Mira Award Marketing Tech winner, recently announced $1.7 million in funding led by Bill Godfrey, who was introduced to PERQ during the Mira Awards live judging event.
  • Anti-bullying software makers Social Net Watcher secured more than $250,000 in venture capital from four new investors as a result of exposure from winning an Education Tech Mira Award.
  • Santiago Jaramillo won the “Rising Star” Mira Award in 2013, and his mobile engagement company Bluebridge was a runner-up for the Startup of the Year award. With media relations and marketing support from TechPoint, Jaramillo and Bluebridge (now Emplify) were profiled in numerous media outlets, including Inc. magazine’s 30 Under 30: World’s Coolest Entrepreneurs, and Jaramillo was invited to the White House by the Obama Administration to be a part of the “Champions of Change: Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovators” ceremony.
  • Press coverage of IVM, Inc.’s Innovation of the Year Mira Award win sparked 14 prospective new customer meetings and helped the vending and distribution solutions company land Hewlett Packard as a new customer.

“Winning our Mira Award resulted in an immediate publicity boost. MOBI received recognition in the form of local public relations and countless congratulations calls, emails, and texts from our collective networks,” said Scott Kraege, CEO and Co-Founder of MOBI.  “We also noticed a significant increase in the number and quality of candidates applying for our open career opportunities. Of those who visited MOBIwm.com directly from the TechPoint website, more than 80 percent were first-time visitors, increasing our brand awareness and reach.” MOBI recently announced an expansion of 500+ jobs by 2021.

Winners will be announced at a black-tie awards ceremony and gala featuring a reception and three-course seated dinner with live music on Saturday, April 29th, at The Westin Indianapolis.

The 2017 TechPoint Mira Award categories include:

  • PEOPLE
    • Investor of the Year
    • Community Champion of the Year
    • Educator of the Year
    • Rising Star Award
    • TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award
    • Trailblazer in Technology Award
  • PRODUCTS
    • Best New Tech Product
    • Tech Service of the Year
    • Innovation of the Year
  • COMPANIES
    • Corporate Innovator of the Year
    • Company Culture of the Year
    • New Tech Start-up of the Year
    • Tech Scale-up of the Year ($100K-$5 Million Revenue)
    • Tech Scale-up of the Year ($5MM-$20 Million Revenue)
    • Tech Company of the Year ($20+ Million Revenue)
  • “PEOPLE’S CHOICE” PUBLIC VOTING AWARDS (new to 2017)
    • Best Tech T-Shirt or Swag
    • Best Tech Event
    • Best Tech Space

New to 2017 is the addition of three public voting awards. Public voting will take place at techpoint.org/mira starting on February 14, 2017.

Application forms are available at techpoint.org/mira, and the submission deadline is Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Applicants should declare their intention to apply by reserving an application through the website before Friday, December 30, 2016.