Khalti wins big in the GBG Stories Contest 2017

Nepali startups have started showing tremendous sparks, both in terms of creativity and utility. Khalti.com, a promising Nepali financial tech startup has won the Google Business Group’s (GBG) 2017 ‘Story Search’ Contest. The company not only won the contest but was declared the People’s Choice Winner. Khalti is a digital wallet which allows instant, secure and hassle-free digital payment in Nepal. It envisions working to empower people in Nepal financially, by driving the nation towards a cashless digital economy. Along with Khalti, three other startups from across the globe, namely, Café Yagam form the Philippines, Riliv from Indonesia, and Virtualahan from the Philippines were announced the winners of the very competition that was held in San Francisco, California. The contestants were judged on three criteria namely, innovation quality, impact and innovative use of Google products. The entire process of winner selection happened within a time frame of six months in 2017. “The winners who stood out will get the opportunity to travel to the Google headquarters in California and will get to meet with the tech thinkers, innovators, and business leaders. They’ll also be spotted in the videos that document their stories. “- Google GBG, every year invites thousands of startups across the globe, to participate in the storytelling contest, in an attempt to tell everyone how the internet is facilitating business operations around the world. Out of nine, three startups were selected from Nepal itself, which undoubtedly is something to acknowledge. The others, apart from Khalti.com who were successful in getting themselves out there, were, Khaalisisi and Eco cell Industries Nepal. Back in 2014, Yellow Nepal, another start-up company had also added to Nepal’s pride by winning the GBG story search contest. With entrepreneurship rising so prominently in Nepal, we hope to see other startups going for opportunities as such.