From 1,500 Startups, S4S Technologies Wins TVS Capital Funds C.K. Prahalad Award

Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Capital Funds, said the finalists reflected Prof. C.K. Prahalad’s belief in turning ideas into action, as Dr. Vaibhav Tidke, Co-Founder and CEO of S4S Technologies, received the 2026 honour and Pocket FM earned an Honourable Mention.

S4S Technologies was selected from more than 1,500 startups for the C.K. Prahalad Next Practice Emerging Entrepreneur Award 2026, following a multi-stage evaluation centred on founder quality, disruption, national impact and long-term sustainability.
Pocket FM received the Honourable Mention at the second Next Practice Oration and Next Practice Entrepreneur Award, held in Chennai on August 5 by the C.K. Prahalad Foundation, the CSR arm of TVS Capital Funds.
The programme brought together entrepreneurs, founders, investors and business leaders around the ideas of the late Prof. C.K. Prahalad and their relevance to businesses being built in India today.

The jury initially reviewed more than 1,500 startups before developing a longlist of 15 companies. Five finalists were subsequently shortlisted, followed by more than 90 minutes of jury deliberations before S4S Technologies was unanimously selected as the winner.
The evaluation considered four principles associated with Prof. Prahalad’s thinking: founder quality, disruption of the status quo, positive impact on the country and long-term sustainability.
The five finalists were S4S Technologies, Pocket FM, Exponent Energy, ConveGenius AI and Dhruva Space.
Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of TVS Capital Funds, said, “Prof. C.K. Prahalad always believed that ideas have no meaning unless they are translated into action.”

He said the five finalists demonstrated how next practice thinking could translate into businesses capable of creating meaningful impact.
Srinivasan added that Prof. Prahalad’s ideas remained closely connected with India and its future despite much of his academic career being spent in the United States.
Receiving the award, Dr. Vaibhav Tidke, Co-Founder and CEO of S4S Technologies, said the company’s work was rooted in using science to address challenges faced by farming communities.

“At S4S Technologies, which stands for Science for Society, we have always believed that technology must solve real problems for the communities it serves,” Dr. Tidke said.
He said the company had worked to use scientific innovation to reduce post-harvest losses and create sustainable livelihoods at the farm gate, including through its work with women farmers and farming communities across India.
The programme also included the second Next Practice Memorial Oration, delivered by Prof. M.S. Krishnan, Accenture Professor of Information Systems and Professor of Technology and Operations at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.
Prof. Krishnan was a colleague and co-author of Prof. Prahalad. The two worked together on The New Age of Innovation, and Prof. Krishnan was also part of the inaugural jury of the C.K. Prahalad Award in 2023.

Reflecting on their work together, Prof. Krishnan said Prof. Prahalad consistently encouraged conventional assumptions to be questioned as technology changed the way businesses approached quality, innovation and value creation.
He said several ideas discussed nearly two decades ago had become visible in contemporary businesses, particularly around creating individualised value while drawing on globally connected resources.
The award jury comprised KRS Jamwal, Former Executive Director of Tata Industries; Lakshmi Narayanan, Former Vice Chairman and CEO of Cognizant, Chancellor of Krea University and Managing Trustee of Chennai Mathematical Institute; Narayan Ramachandran, Chairman of TeamLease Services and Co-founder of The Takshashila Institution; and Aakrit Vaish, Founder of Activate and Co-founder and Former CEO of Haptik.

An additional technology based evaluation was conducted independently using the jury deliberations. According to the organisers, this assessment also arrived at S4S Technologies as the winner.
Naveen Unni, Managing Partner of TVS Capital Funds, said the C.K. Prahalad Memorial Oration was intended to keep Prof. Prahalad’s ideas connected with founders and entrepreneurs building new businesses.
He noted that concepts such as N=1 and R=G had acquired renewed relevance as personalised experiences and globally connected business ecosystems became more prominent.

An afternoon workshop was also organised for startup founders and CXOs, with 10 future leaders participating in discussions on building enduring companies.
TVS Capital Funds manages approximately Rs 5,500 crore across Fund 3 and Fund 4 and focuses primarily on financial services and technology. It has completed more than 35 partnerships and 28 exits during its nearly two decades of operations.

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