Mumbai, November 20, 2022: Mr. Aman Gupta, Co-Founder & CMO at boAt Lifestyle, has been adjudicated ‘The Best D2C Entrepreneur of the Year’ by the jury of the prestigious D2C Awards, which was part of the second edition of D2C Founders’ Exclusive Residential Meet, organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in partnership with Meta from November 18 to 20, 2022, at Alila Diwa, Goa.
The three-day event enabled founders, investors, partners and the country’s leading sector entrepreneurs to come together and share their experiences to help the brands in shaping successful businesses.
Held on November 19, IAMAI’s first-of-its-kind D2C Awards recognized the efforts of founders and enablers, who are helping develop a thriving D2C ecosystem in India.
Talking about the Indian D2C sector, Mr. Aman Gupta said, “This award is really dear to me given my engagements with IAMAI. I thank the juries for the honour and congratulate all the winners of the various categories.”
Following is the list of winners for each award category:
| Sr. No. | IAMAI’s D2C Award Categories | Winners |
| 1 | Best BNPL Innovation for D2C Award | Paytm Postpaid |
| 2 | Best Payment Innovation for D2C Award | Paytm Payments Bank |
| 3 | Best Supply Chain and Logistics Partner for D2C Award | ZFW Dark Stores |
| 4 | Best Technology Innovation for D2C Award | Sirona Hygiene |
| 5 | Best Brand Building/Brand Identity Initiative Award | WickedGud |
| 6 | Best Brand Extension/Product Diversification Strategy Award | Pee Safe |
| 7 | Best Consumer Experience Strategy Award | CASHe |
| 8 | Best Content Marketing Strategy Award | Plum |
| 9 | Best Customer Relationship Marketing Award | Kaleyra |
| 10 | Best Integrated Marketing Campaign Award | Power Gummies |
| 11 | Best Omnichannel Strategy Award | Nothing Else Matters |
| 12 | Best use of Social Media – Instagram Award | WOW Life Science |
| 13 | Best use of Social Media – LinkedIn Award | Wakefit Innovations Pvt. Ltd. |
| 14 | Best D2C Entrepreneur of the year Award | Aman Gupta, boAt Lifestyle |
Industry stalwarts Mr. Dinesh Aggarwal, CEO, IndiaMart; Mr. Lloyd Mathias, Angel Investor and Business Strategist; Ms. Tarana Lalwani, Founding Partner, InnoVen Capital; Mr. Manish Vij, Co-founder, Smile Group; Mr. Ashish Agrawal, Managing Director, Chrys Capital; Mr. Atul Mehta, COO, Shiprocket; Mr. Ninad Karpe, Partner 100x VC; Mr. Hari Pulipati, Industry Head, Automotive & D2C, Meta were members of the jury for the awards.
Mr. Dinesh Agarwal said, “D2C sector is a very exciting space today and I appreciate what my fellow entrepreneurs are doing to revolutionise retail marketing. The sector is abuzz with innovative solutions and services both from the brands and the enablers. I am happy that the IAMAI D2C awards recognizes both D2C entrepreneurs and enablers for their contribution to the growth of this sector. My heartfelt best wishes for all of them.”
Mr. Lloyd Mathias said, “It was delightful to be a part of the jury for the first edition of the IAMAI D2C Awards. Some of the work that I’ve seen over the last couple of days is absolutely outstanding. The D2C landscape is buzzing with brilliant innovators and entrepreneurs defining the landscape. It was a great opportunity to know about some of the wonderful work that is been done by these brands. I congratulate the winners and wish the best to all founders and members of the ecosystem for the brilliant work that they are doing. I truly believe India’s D2C is in a great space with the kind of work that is coming up.”
Social media celebrities such as Ranveer Allahbadia, Viraj Sheth and Raj Shamani addressed the exclusive meet, which had over 20 insightful sessions, and more than 10 expert talks, that deliberated about several topics related to the rapidly evolving industry. More than 70 Founders/ Co-Founders from over 45 top Indian D2C brands including Anveya Living Pvt. Ltd., Biryani By Kilo, boAt, Campus Sutra, Clovia, Coffeeza, Freecultr, Noise, Power Gummies, Rage Coffee, Ras Luxury Oils, Neeman’s Shoes, Himalayan Organics, WOW Skin Science and Pee Safe attended the event.
Partners of the Meet were Meta, Bobble AI, Gupshup, GoKwick, Admitad, Ethinos, Exotel, Get Vantage, Liqvd Asia, Profitwheel, ZFW, Crest, Limechat, and SwopStore, and PGA Labs as the knowledge partner.
About Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)
Established in 2004, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is a not-for-profit industry body and the country’s only organization representing the digital services industry with over 400 Indian and multinational corporations as its members, which include established companies in diverse sectors of the digital ecosystem as well as start-ups. Its mandate is to expand and enhance the online and mobile value-added services sectors. It is dedicated to presenting a unified voice of the businesses it represents to the government, investors, consumers and other stakeholders. IAMAI represents varied sectors such as digital advertising, digital entertainment, TravelTech, online gaming, digital payments, fintech, digital commerce, Edtech, Healthtech, Agritech, Big data, ML, AI & IoT, AR/ VR, LogisticsTech and so on.
