Pioneering Spirit 2 Grand Prize Winner to be decided tonight at 6.30pm only on ET Now

Mumbai, October 17th, 2011: One young entrepreneur will win the coveted sponsorship to a B-school at Cambridge in the Grand Finale of Pioneering Spirit ? A product of Lufthansa ? Season 2, airing tonight at 6.30 pm on ET NOW.

Tonight?s episode of the unique 12-part series, jointly created by ET NOW and Lufthansa along with Knowledge Partners, The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and Canaan Partners, successfully culminates an exciting Season 2 that has firmly established a new entrepreneurial dimension in reality television.

Shot on an elegant set modelled on the Lufthansa First Class Terminal Lounge, the television series featured business icons of today recollecting defining moments of their lives in an interview conducted by Shaili Chopra, Senior Editor at ET NOW. Each of these ?Pioneers of Today? then selected the ?Pioneers of Tomorrow?, who won a Lufthansa Business Class ticket to Europe and a TiE mentorship.

The most promising four among the episodic winners were short listed as finalists on the basis of their points on the Pioneering Spirit Dashboard. These points measured market opportunity, innovation, quality of solution, scalability, team and Unique Selling Proposition or differentiation.

?The show has blazed a new trail in business television, providing an unprecedented opportunity to young entrepreneurs with the right attitude and ideas to realize their dream,? said Sunil Lulla MD and CEO, Times Television Network.

?Pioneering spirit ? A product of Lufthansa reaffirms our partnership with Indian business. We are delighted that in just two seasons, it is already seen as a benchmark in television programming that supports the amazing pioneering spirit of small and medium entrepreneurs in India,? says Mr. Axel Hilgers, South Asia Director of Lufthansa.

The final four competing on the show tonight are: Milap Shah, Co-founder & Director, Hokey Pokey; Saumil Majmudar, Co-founder & CEO, EduSports; Ajay Data, Founder & CEO, BharatBerry; and Deepak Ravindran, Co-founder & CEO, Innoz.

The Grand Prize winner will be selected by a panel of experts comprising Saurabh Srivastava and Pradeep Gupta from TiE, Alok Mittal from Canaan Partners, and Axel Hilgers, representing Lufthansa.

Catch Pioneering Spirit tonight at 6:30 pm and repeat telecast on Friday, 21st October, 2011 at 10.30pm. Only on ET NOW.