Awards Categories

Entrepreneur Asia Pacific presents the Asia’s most prestigious awards in the Entrepreneur community. The awards aim to recognize and felicitate Achievers, Innovators and Suppliers, who have contributed significantly towards the development of entrepreneurship in Asia Pacific region.

Startup Awards

• Artificial Intelligence & DeepTech Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that leverages Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Blockchain, or other DeepTech innovations to create groundbreaking solutions that address complex industry or societal challenges. This award celebrates ventures that combine scientific rigor with commercial application, demonstrating scalable technology, data-driven insights, and measurable impact on operational efficiency, decision-making, or problem-solving across sectors such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, or logistics.
• Digital Commerce & eRetail Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is redefining the digital commerce landscape through innovative online business models, customer engagement strategies, or advanced technology platforms. This award honors ventures that deliver seamless shopping experiences, optimize supply chains, and drive significant customer adoption, while demonstrating creativity in areas such as D2C brands, marketplaces, social commerce, or personalized digital marketing solutions.
• Fashion & Lifestyle Startup Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up in the fashion, lifestyle, or design space that has introduced original products, sustainable practices, or digitally enabled experiences to set new trends in the market. This award celebrates ventures that blend creativity, consumer insight, and business acumen to create distinctive brands, compelling customer experiences, and measurable influence in areas such as apparel, accessories, home décor, or lifestyle services.
• Beauty, Health & Wellness Startup Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that has innovated in beauty, personal care, fitness, nutrition, or holistic wellness by developing novel products, technology-driven solutions, or sustainable practices. This award highlights ventures that prioritize consumer well-being, promote healthy lifestyles, and create measurable impact in the wellness ecosystem through enhanced accessibility, quality, and engagement.
• Food & Beverage Startup Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that has transformed the food and beverage industry through unique culinary innovation, product excellence, or tech-enabled distribution and delivery. This award honors ventures that bring creativity, operational efficiency, and sustainability into their offerings, while enhancing customer experience, introducing new consumption trends, or building scalable and profitable food or beverage businesses.
• Clean Energy & Sustainability Startup Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is driving meaningful environmental and social impact through renewable energy, waste reduction, water conservation, or climate-focused innovation. This award celebrates ventures that demonstrate measurable contributions to sustainability, introduce scalable eco-friendly solutions, and balance environmental stewardship with commercial viability to create a greener future.
• Digital Transformation Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that empowers businesses and organizations to operate smarter, faster, and more efficiently through technology, automation, and innovative digital tools. This award honors ventures that drive operational optimization, facilitate data-driven decision-making, and deliver transformative solutions across industries, including SaaS platforms, enterprise technology, and cloud-enabled digital systems.
• Customer Impact Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that has excelled in placing the customer at the center of its business, delivering innovative solutions that enhance satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement. This award highlights ventures that leverage technology, service excellence, and thoughtful design to create superior user experiences, measurable retention, and meaningful interactions that set them apart in competitive markets.
• Mobility & Transport Innovation Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is transforming the future of mobility and logistics through innovation in electric vehicles, shared mobility, intelligent transportation systems, or last-mile delivery solutions. This award celebrates ventures that optimize efficiency, reduce environmental impact, enhance accessibility, and demonstrate scalable and sustainable solutions in urban or intercity transport.
• Spacetech & Aerospace Technology Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is pushing the boundaries of aerospace and satellite technology through innovations in communication, navigation, space logistics, or earth observation. This award honors ventures that combine cutting-edge research, commercial applicability, and strategic vision to advance the aerospace ecosystem, supporting exploration, connectivity, and technological progress in space.
• On-Demand & Delivery Tech Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is revolutionizing the on-demand economy through technology-enabled platforms for instant delivery, hyperlocal services, or real-time logistics solutions. This award celebrates ventures that improve convenience, operational efficiency, and scalability in sectors such as food, groceries, healthcare, or home services, creating measurable impact and enhanced consumer satisfaction.
• FinTech Innovation Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is transforming financial services through innovative technology solutions, including digital payments, lending platforms, personal finance management, insurtech, or blockchain-based solutions. This award celebrates ventures that enhance financial inclusion, security, efficiency, and accessibility, creating measurable impact for consumers, businesses, and the financial ecosystem.
• EdTech Innovation Excellence
  Recognizes a start-up that is redefining education through technology-enabled platforms for learning, skill development, tutoring, or online courses. This award celebrates ventures that improve accessibility, engagement, and learning outcomes for students or professionals, leveraging innovation to make education more personalized, scalable, and impactful.

Eligibility Criteria For Start-up Awards

• Registered and operational in any Asian country as defined for awards
• Initiative applying for the award has been executed, with its impact demonstrated during the period of September 01, 2023 to October 30, 2025.
• Has been in operation for no more than seven (7) years as of October 30, 2025, calculated from the date of incorporation
• Be compliant with all applicable local and regional regulatory and ethical standards."

Organizational Impact Excellence

• Sustainability & ESG Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that demonstrates exceptional commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles by integrating sustainable practices across its operations, products, and services. The award celebrates enterprises that create measurable positive environmental and societal impact while maintaining strong corporate governance, transparent reporting, and long-term business sustainability.
• CSR & Community Development Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that has made a significant and measurable difference in the community through strategic Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. This award honors organizations that actively contribute to social development, education, health, livelihoods, or other community-focused programs while aligning their CSR efforts with sustainable and scalable impact.
• Workplace & People Development Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that excels in creating an inclusive, engaging, and empowering work environment that fosters employee growth, well-being, and performance. This award celebrates companies that implement innovative talent strategies, learning & development programs, diversity and inclusion initiatives, and culture-building practices that enhance employee satisfaction and retention.
• Supply Chain & Operational Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that has achieved outstanding performance in supply chain management, operational efficiency, and process innovation. This award honors enterprises that optimize end-to-end operations, implement technology-driven solutions, reduce costs, enhance agility, and maintain reliability, while delivering superior value to stakeholders.
• Best Use of Technology
  This category is open to all technology companies offering innovative solutions to Businesses
• Brand & Communication Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that has built a strong, distinctive brand through strategic marketing, innovative campaigns, and compelling communication. This award celebrates companies that effectively engage their audiences, enhance brand perception, and demonstrate leadership in reputation management, storytelling, and market influence.
• Cross-border Business Growth
  Recognizes an organization that has successfully expanded its business across international markets, demonstrating strategic vision, operational excellence, and adaptability to global business dynamics. This award honors enterprises that drive cross-border revenue growth, establish global partnerships, and create scalable international impact.
• Digital Transformation Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that has leveraged digital technologies to fundamentally transform business models, customer experiences, or operational processes. This award celebrates companies that implement innovative tech-driven solutions, embrace data analytics, automation, or AI, and achieve measurable business performance improvements (Not applicable for start-up).
• Business Resilience & Continuity Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that has successfully navigated challenges, uncertainties, or crises while maintaining operational continuity and stakeholder confidence. This award honors companies that implement robust risk management strategies, adaptive planning, and proactive measures to ensure long-term sustainability and organizational resilience. (The initiative should showcase continuity for minimum three years as on October 30, 2025).
• Customer Experience Excellence
  Recognizes an organization that delivers outstanding customer experiences through innovation, personalized engagement, and service excellence. This award celebrates companies that consistently exceed customer expectations, build loyalty, and leverage insights to create meaningful, seamless, and impactful interactions across channels.

Eligibility Criteria For Organizational Impact Excellence

• Registered and operational in any Asian country as defined for awards
• Have minimum 2 years of operational presence in any Asian country.
• Initiative applying for the award has been executed, with its impact demonstrated during the period of September 01, 2023 to October 30, 2025.
• Be compliant with all applicable local and regional regulatory and ethical standards.

Leadership & Visionary Excellence

• People & Culture Leadership Excellence
  Recognizes a leader who has created an exceptional organizational culture by fostering employee engagement, talent development, diversity and inclusion, and well-being. The award celebrates leaders who prioritize people-centric strategies, inspire teams, and implement innovative HR practices that drive organizational growth and employee satisfaction.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Technology Leadership Excellence
  Recognizes a technology leader (CIO/CTO/CISO equivalent) who has demonstrated outstanding vision and execution in leveraging IT, digital solutions, or emerging technologies to drive business transformation. The award honors leaders who implement innovative tech strategies, enhance operational efficiency, and enable measurable impact through technology adoption.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Financial Leadership Excellence
  Recognizes a financial leader (CFO/ CXO equivalent) who has delivered exceptional strategic financial management, risk mitigation, and business growth and who drive value creation, optimize capital allocation, and demonstrate excellence in financial planning, reporting, and governance.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Marketing & Brand Leadership Excellence
  Recognizes a marketing or brand leader (CMO/CXO equivalent) who has created impactful campaigns, strengthened brand positioning, and driven business growth through innovative marketing strategies. The award honors leaders who combine creativity, analytics, and strategic vision to enhance customer engagement and market influence.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Operations & Supply Chain Leadership Excellence (COO)
  Recognizes a leader (COO/CXO equivalent) who has achieved operational excellence through efficient processes, supply chain optimization, and strategic execution. The award celebrates leaders who enhance productivity, ensure business continuity, and implement innovative operational strategies that deliver measurable results.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Sustainability Leadership Excellence
  Recognizes a leader (CEO/ CXO equivalent) who champions sustainability, ESG initiatives, or environmental stewardship within their organization. The award honors leaders who implement measurable, scalable practices that benefit society, the environment, and long-term business sustainability.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Transformational Leader of the Year
  Recognizes a leader (CEO/ CXO equivalent) who has successfully driven significant transformation within their organization, redefining business models, culture, or strategy. The award celebrates visionary leaders who demonstrate courage, innovation, and measurable impact in guiding their organization through change.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Emerging Leader of the Year
  Recognizes a rising leader (CEO/CXO equivalent) who has shown exceptional potential, innovative thinking, and impactful leadership within their organization or industry. The award celebrates emerging leaders who are shaping the future with vision, drive, and measurable achievements. The applicant must have minimum of 10 years of industry experience, be employed in their current organization for at least 3 years, and be under 40 years of age as of October 31, 2025.
• Inspiring Woman Leader of the Year
  Recognizes a woman leader (CEO/CXO equivalent) who has demonstrated exceptional leadership, resilience, and impact within her organization or industry. The award honors women who inspire others, break barriers, and create positive change while driving measurable organizational or societal outcomes.
  The applicant must have at least 10 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 3 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Global Expansion Entrepreneur of the Year
  Recognizes a distinguished leader (Founder/CEO/CXO equivalent) who has successfully scaled their business from Asia to international markets through strategic expansion, localization, and innovation. The individual demonstrates exceptional capability in navigating diverse global landscapes, establishing cross-border operations, and building a strong international presence while maintaining sustainable growth and business integrity. The applicant must have at least 15 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 5 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Asia Visionary Leader of the Year
  Recognizes a leader (CEO/CXO equivalent) whose strategic vision and execution have created significant impact across the Asia region. The award celebrates leaders who demonstrate long-term foresight, innovative thinking, and influence that transcends national boundaries to shape industry or societal trends. The applicant must have at least 15 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 5 years as on October 31, 2025.
• Industry Icon Award
  Recognizes a distinguished leader (Founder/CEO/CXO equivalent) whose lifetime achievements, industry contributions, and enduring impact have set benchmarks of excellence. The award honors individuals who have consistently demonstrated visionary leadership, inspired others, and left a lasting legacy in their field or industry. The applicant must have at least 20 years of work experience in the industry and working in the current organization for minimum 10 years as on October 31, 2025.