Hyderabad, March 02: HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association) today announced the 33rd edition of its Annual Summit & Awards 2026, scheduled for March 5, 2026 at HICC, Hyderabad (Hall 1, 2 & 3).
The Summit will feature a Conference, Startup & Product Expo, and Annual Industry Awards.
Centred around the theme Intelligence Everywhere: Leading the New Era of Transformation, this year’s Summit will examine how intelligent systems, AI-led software, and deep technologies are changing enterprises, products, and talent models.
Leaders from global capability centres, product companies, services firms, startups, research institutions, and Analysts will come together to discuss what it takes for Hyderabad to move from being a strong delivery base to becoming a creator of globally relevant technology.
The programme will feature keynote sessions, practitioner discussions, and focused conversations on enterprise transformation through AI, the evolution of software, the rise of agent-driven systems, and the growing role of India-based teams in building global products.
HYSEA Annual Summit & Awards is one of the city’s most respected industry events and has, for over three decades, reflected Hyderabad’s innovation ecosystem, startup growth, and strong business environment. More than 1,200+ delegates, including over 100 IT industry leaders, are expected to attend.
As part of the evening ceremony, awards will be presented to IT/ITES companies and startups for achievements in Exports, Productivity, and Product Development. Sri Anumula Revanth Reddy , Hon’ble Chief Minister of Telangana, Sri D. Sridhar Babu, Hon’ble ITE&C, I&C Minister, Govt of Telangana have been invited to grace the occasion. Other eminent guests for the evening will include Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder Chairman, Cyient; Mr. Srinivasa Raju Chintalapudi (Srini Raju), Founder Chairman, iLabs Group, and Mr. Arvind Kumar, Director General, STPI.
Mr. Prashanth Nandella, President, HYSEA, addressing the media at the curtain raiser event said: “Hyderabad’s technology journey has been defined by its ability to adapt and lead through each wave of change. Today, we are entering a phase where intelligence is becoming embedded across systems, products, and enterprise operations.
This year’s Summit brings together leaders who are not just responding to this shift but actively shaping it across enterprises, GCCs, product companies, and startups. The conversations will focus on how we move from deploying technology at scale to creating globally relevant innovation from India.
The strong participation in our Startup & Innovation Awards reflects the growing maturity of our ecosystem. As an industry, our next opportunity lies in combining execution strength with innovation depth and positioning Hyderabad as a global hub for next-generation technology.”
He added that HYSEA will be unveiling its Coffee Table Book, Making IT Happen, which captures the story of Hyderabad’s IT journey.
Ahead of the Summit, HYSEA will also host a CXO Research Roundtable on Lab to Market: Making Hyderabad India’s Deeptech Capital, aimed at strengthening industry–academia collaboration.
This year’s Summit will also feature hands-on AI Masterclasses designed to help developers and practitioners build practical solutions.
In a message on the occasion, Ms. C. Kavitha, Director, STPI Hyderabad said: “STPI is pleased to partner with HYSEA for the Annual Summit & Awards, a platform that continues to recognise the achievements of Telangana’s IT companies and emerging startups. Over the years, the Summit has brought together industry and ecosystem stakeholders to discuss the evolving technology landscape and its implications for growth and competitiveness and this year’s theme “Intelligence Everywhere: Leading the new Era of Transformation” reflects this.
I am happy to share that the exports for FY25 from Telangana is around 13% of the national exports and the percentage growth of the IT exports of Telangana is higher than that of national percentage growth of IT exports. There has been significant growth in direct employment in this sector during last FY.”
Mr. Isaac Rajkumar, Treasurer, HYSEA, announced that the refreshed second edition of the HYSEA Scale@Hyderabad: Global Technology Destination report will be released at the Summit in partnership with the Government of Telangana, KPMG, CBRE, and Aon.
The report tracks Hyderabad’s rise as a leading global technology hub and presents updated insights into the city’s growth and global role.
We are also collaborating with PwC on an upcoming report titled Building the AI Edge for IT & GCCs in Telangana – CXO Reflections, which will capture leadership perspectives on how enterprises are adopting AI to drive competitiveness and long term growth from the state.
Mr. Bipin Pendyala, Vice President, HYSEA, shared details of this year’s HYSEA 10x Product Awards.
Following two rounds of evaluation at ServiceNow, a 50-member jury shortlisted 40 finalists from 294 nominations (272 startups and 32 established companies).
These finalists will showcase their solutions at the Expo on March 5 at HICC.
The startup cohort reflects growing maturity:
• 36% have raised funding, including Series A and Series B ventures
• 12% have crossed USD 1 million in ARR
• Strong presence of B2B and enterprise technology startups
• Predominantly growth-stage companies
As each year, HYSEA will present its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for stellar contributions to society, industry, and academia.
We would like to make a special mention of our Patron members and sponsors whose help is pivotal in organising events of this magnitude.
Event Title Sponsor: Cognizant Technology Solutions
Industry Patrons: RealPage, DBS Tech, ServiceNow, Broadridge and Vanguard
Eco System Patrons: Q City, Raheja Mindspace, ICICI Bank
Event Gold Sponsors: TAO Digital
Featured Partners: TechnoGen, and QAPilot
Other Eminent Speakers at the Summit include:
Kashyap Kompella, Founder & CEO, RPA2AI Research, Amith Singhee, Director, IBM Research India, Bhargavi Sunkara, CIO & CTO, Barclays India, Prasanna Arikala, CTO & Head of Product, Kore.ai, Anand Kabra, Chief People and Transformation Officer, Apexon, Somnath Chatterjee, Founder & CEO, Prismforce, Sandhya Ramesh, Chief People Officer, Mastech Digital, Nitin Sethi, CEO – AON Consulting India & South Asia, Viraj Malhan, Management Director, Deloitte US India,
Vishal Salvi, Global Head-Cyber Security Service Line, Cognizant, Krishna Sastry Pendyala, Partner-Cyber Security, EY India, Sridhar Sidhu, CVP – Cybersecurity, AT&T, Lekshmi Nair, Global Capability Head – Security, NTT Data, Akshay Khanna, Managing Partner, Avasant, Prashant Kashyap, Senior Director – Data & Analytics, KPMG, Valli Bollavaram, CTO, Swiss Re, Smita Mohanty, Director – Data Science, Novartis, Madhuri Raya, VP-Software Engineering, Optum, Krishna Srinivasan, Founder Chairman, PALGenie Technologies, Dr. Subba Rao Pavuluri, Chairman & Founder, Ananth Technologies, Ashutosh Sharma, Research Director, Forrester, Venkatesh Natarajan, Head-Vanguard India, Mohit Dhingra, MD, Bristol Myers Squibb, V. Laxmikanth, Founder & Managing Partner, Pavestone, Rajkumar Velagapudi, Founder & CEO, TAO Digital Solutions, and many more.
We look forward to a wide participation in this important event!