All Posts by Himanshu Sheth

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Code Gladiators is the annual coding extravaganza hosted by TechGig and felicitated with Guinness World record and Limca Book record for its massive participation. Code Gladiators celebrated its seventh edition this year, and the first one to have a virtual grand finale.

TechGig Code Gladiators 2020 edition was announced in March and saw swarming participation by developers – both Indian and international – despite the COVID-19 situation. Himanshu Singh won the 165-day long competition in a nail-biting coding finale. The finale rounds for coding and theme hackathons were held on August 8 and 9, respectively. From August 9 – 13, leaders from the participating companies evaluated and judged the finalists to select the winners.

Himanshu Singh – the newly crowned coding champion of the world’s biggest coding competition – TechGig Code Gladiators 2020, said

Everybody has that one significant achievement in life which he cites as his ‘biggest win’; for me winning Code Gladiators 2020 will be ‘that biggest win‘.

TechGig Code Gladiators 2020 had four theme hackathons – namely, UiPath RPA hackathon, Times Internet Multi-Label Classification, Microsoft Hack on Azure and IBM Call for Climate Change. Theme hackathons are usually centered on finding business solutions to real-world problems. This year the last two hackathons were specifically focussed at finding tech solutions to combat COVID-19.

Explaining more details about the competition, Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig, said

In March 2020, we sensed the COVID-19 situation could slip out of hands, and very quickly we decided to have a grand virtual conclusion to our mega hackathon. We were staring at a mammoth challenge to bring the grandeur of a worldwide recognized event to the virtual format and ensure that all our 2.52 lakh+ participants get a slice of this event.

I’m happy to share that we’ve been able to live up to all our expectations. We had a few international participants as well, which makes me think that maybe the virtual mode is better than the offline mode.

International participants Ahmed Makki and Yurasik Ol participated at Code Gladiators for the first time. Ahmed Makki was jubilant about making it to the finals in his maiden attempt. ‘I feel the virtual mode is better because had that event been held in its usual offline format then I would not have been able to participate owing to visa and COVID-19 restrictions‘.

Talking about the virtual aspect of grand finale event Pourab Karchaudhuri – runners up at theme hackathon Multi-Label Classification, and a theme winner at Code Gladiators 2019 said

The mood and tone of Code Gladiators don’t flicker. The experience is cool considering everything is online and extremely well managed. As for Lucknow boy Himanshu Singh, the journey has just started. He has recently joined an IT firm and hopes to do his best at his new job.

The coding champion took home Rs 3 Lakhs and the theme champions won Rs 1,50,000. Collectively, all winners took home prizes worth Rs 50 Lakhs.

All winners’ details are available at https://www.techgig.com/codegladiators

|In: EduTech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

MyCaptain, an India-based online learning platform, announced the ‘freemium’ version of its mobile application and website which will allow users to take Free Live Sessions, micro-courses and demo classes covering 40+ number of Potential careers and subjects, such as Photography, App Development, Music Production and Novel Writing, to name a few.

With over 100,000 paid users, the parent company, Climber Knowledge & Careers Pvt. Ltd. completes seven successful years of operations in online learning and mentoring in India. On this occasion, MyCaptain wanted to go an extra mile by providing a platform to each and every individual who wishes to explore their passion, which will help them evolve in their career as well as personal lives. In this endeavour, the company decided to launch an unpaid version of its Live Online Courses for the first time ever.

Commenting on this initiative, Mohammed Zeeshan, Co-founder & CEO, MyCaptain, said

From the very beginning, our motive has been to bring a societal mindset shift when it comes to Careers in India and all across the World.

With the launch of our new app which offers all such free features, we aim to reach a larger audience, penetrating through different corners of the country, to provide them a peek into the world of alternative careers and online learning. We want students to learn from the best in the Industry.

Along with the launch of free e-learning classes, MyCaptain has entered into a re-branding phase that aligns with its anniversary theme ‘Evolution’. The company has come up with a new logo which is a more modern version of the older logo, and has been designed keeping in mind the archetype of its primary user: Creator.

Ruhan Madni Naqash, Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer, MyCaptain, said

Over the past 10 years, the youth has changed, what mattered to the youth has changed as well. We have seen this need to adapt, transform, and evolve in our target market, and we want to reciprocate that need and feel through our rebranding.

In the following year, MyCaptain is looking to acquire 300,000+ more paid customers, begin international expansion and have more than 3000+ Top Educators onboard. Additionally, the company is aiming to host 2000+ Free Live Sessions for students to get a taste of each field and learn from the best minds in India.

You can log on to the website or download the MyCaptain app to learn more.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

It has been a difficult time for businesses of all sizes due to the uncertainty of this global pandemic, but the impact on startups with shorter cash runways has been severe. Until this pandemic runs its course, survival and sustainability is the key focus for entrepreneurs. In this global economic environment, and at a time when startup founders are forced to rethink the fundamentals of their ventures, a sophisticated support system like an incubator or startup accelerator can be a blessing.

Source

There are a number of startup incubators operating in India. Some are government funded, some institutional, while many others are privately held. But all such ecosystems are united with a vision to empower entrepreneurs, and provide ample support to get startups to the best place possible.

Some of the benefits offered by such ecosystems also include access to marquee business leaders and investors – who offer valuable early stage business advice and connections. Some programs also coach the founders in fundamentals of product development, marketing strategies and fundraising. The greatest benefit is being on a journey with a network of fellow founders to lean on, learn from and grow with.

Like many incubators around the world, there are a handful of incubators in India that have gone virtual for short and mid-term needs of startups arising amid the global pandemic situation. The primary function of such virtual incubators is now to cater to startups located across the country and maintain community engagement and enthusiasm to a level experienced in a physical centre.

Supreme Incubator

Supreme Incubator has been active in the entrepreneurial ecosystem for the past 2 years – organizing regular events and mentorship meetups. With their Summer cohort, the program has transitioned to a fully digital model where the 30 selected founders now get together on regular video calls to share progress, meet mentors or join workshops.

With a virtual program, they have expanded the scope of support offered and startups incubated. The mission is to make India as the hub for entrepreneurial support, and for founders in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities  to get the same level of networking and support opportunities as their counterparts in metro cities.

The program of SI has received great reach with over 100 applications in the first cohort [Winter 2020] and 350+ applications in the second cohort [Summer 2020], currently, more than 600 entrepreneurs have applied to the program.

Catalyst by Societe Generale

Offering global exposure and mentorship, Catalyst, a 12-week innovation programme from Societe Generale’s global solution centre in India [SG GSC], is calling all enterprise-relevant fintech startups to co-create solutions along with business leaders for the future-ready and customer-focused bank.

The 12-week acceleration programme is a platform for technology startups, incubators, accelerators and academic institutions to deliver solutions for current banking challenges. Having successfully completed six editions, the seventh edition of the challenge has identified 396 challenges from across Societe Generale’s units in India, Europe and Africa.

NSRCEL by IIMB

With programs specifically catering to entrepreneurs with profit ventures and social ventures, also student and women entrepreneurs, NSRCEL offers its support to various players of the startup ecosystem.

NSRCEL brings together startups, industry mentors, eminent academicians from its parent institution Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and researchers who thrive on continuous interaction of theory and practice.

NSRCEL is also the first incubator with a program tailored for social entrepreneurs and their unique challenges.

INVENT

Innovative Ventures and Technologies for Development [INVENT] is a joint collaboration of the Technology Development Board [TDB], Government of India and the Department of International Development [DFID], Government of the United Kingdom.

INVENT aims to make a positive social impact by providing incubation support to technology-oriented start-ups. Through the INVENT program, SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre [SIIC] Kanpur aims to incubate 40 start-ups working in social enterprise.

IAMAI

Industry body IAMAI has launched the country’s first virtual incubator for short and mid-term needs of technology-related startups arising amid the global pandemic situation. The primary function of the virtual incubator is to address the needs of the start-ups located outside the major cities of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, and Kolkata, the Internet and Mobile Association of India stated.

The industry further said that the programme will be a virtually accessible that will provide state-of-the-art incubation services to every Indian startup and enable them to charter their success stories. It will entail close supervision by the dedicated mentors from the relevant industry for multiple cohorts that would be created based on the domain, sectors and the progress of the startups.

IAMAI also said that it would be providing an initial start-up kit worth 70 Lakhs to all those registered with the virtual incubator.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The 74th Indian Independence Day marked the global launch of Explurger on iOS and Android, India‘s own completely home-grown new-age social media app for the world to connect. Built on cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence, the ‘Made in India‘ app is available around the world.

Besides India, users from 26 countries have already downloaded and signed up on Explurger, including from the USA, the UK, Germany, South Africa, Australia, the UAE, France, New Zealand, among others. Registered in Delhi, Explurger resonates with Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and aims to create a safe and secure platform for all its users.

Jitin Bhatia, Founder, Explurger, on the successful launch of the app, said

Explurger is our gift to the world from India. It is a proof of India’s IT power and the spirit of innovation. I hope it puts our nation among the top app creating countries in the world. I am full of gratitude for people who have accepted Explurger.

And I request everyone to download it and spread the word, so that the world connects on Explurger. I’d love to see PM Modi, US President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg Explurging.

With its simple yet innovative AI-based features, Explurger enables users to explore beyond their geographic reach, to find, interact, and connect with fellow users. Explurger outshines others apps in the category with its unique features, such as:

Complete Travelogue – Check-ins are temporary. Explurge-Ins are forever. Every time you create a post i.e. Explurge you make, the Artificial Intelligence updates your personalized Travelogue. So every mile, city, country, pub, club, and whatnot you have been to, reflects in your travelogue.

Bucket List – So the next time you have an urge to visit a cool place, taste a drink or check out a new pub you saw in a fellow Explurger’s post, just add it to your bucket list. And while you forget about it after doing so, this feature won’t.

It will pop up a reminder whenever you are near that place and even help you with directions.

Future Travel Plans – The next time you feel like telling the world about your travel plans, well, you can do it even before you travel. All you need to do is select a destination, enter the future date of travel, and tap ‘Spread’. A ‘Live Countdown Timer’ will engage everyone. Maybe you can use a few suggestions, tips, and envy that pours in!

Explurger Levels – Gamifying travel for the very first time, now you can increase your Explurger level. How? Every single mile you travel, city you visit, post you spread or Kudos you accumulate, the excitement goes up… and so does your Explurger level!

Kudos – Share happiness and express your excitement on each post by giving 1 to 3 Kudos.

Spread – With a click of a button, now share all your exciting Explurges on other social media apps out there as you post it on Explurger!

Rate on the go – This app allows you to rate/review an experience, cafe, city or place!

Ricky Jain, User, Explurger, shares his experience on using the app

Firstly, it’s an Indian app, makes me really proud. Then, I found this app very useful, whenever I share photos and videos it adds miles, cities and places to my travelogue. We generally explore places and forget after sometime, but thanks to explurger it maintains all my moments and journey and remembers my future memories. The feature I like the most in this app is the Travelogue and Bucket List. Overall I love this app!

Users have shown their love for this dil se desi app globally. Explurger is available on both Play Store and App Store. 

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

As the first half of 2020 saw the eCommerce & retail landscapes changing profoundly due to the global crisis, Anchanto, a Singapore-based B2B Software-As-A-Service [SaaS] company specialising in eCommerce technology, managed to keep scaling and turned profitable.

Anchanto has received new C-funding as part of its ongoing Series C round, totaling $16.6 million raised till date. Taking part in the C-funding round were Asendia, a joint-venture of the French National Post La Poste and State-run Swiss Post, and MDI Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Indonesian telco firm Telkom Indonesia.

Anchanto will use the funds to strengthen its research & development portfolio to launch two new products, build data platform and expand to three more markets. The company will also invest in hiring skilled talents to enhance and accelerate the launch of its new products into markets – especially with the demand for SaaS solutions on the rise.

Vaibhav Dabhade, CEO and Founder of Anchanto, said

Achieving profitability in these times is an excellent performance; I feel this is a more significant achievement than raising $12 million in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis. We are a capital-efficient company. 100% of our revenue comes from a SaaS subscription with a high gross margin; we do not buy inventory or run services shops or warehouses.

It took strong resilience, deep understanding of product design, engineering, marketing, sales, account management, and solid teamwork across seven countries to reach here.

This round also marks the start of Anchanto’s partnership with Asendia AG, an European cross-border eCommerce shipping and mail services giant, as a new shareholder. Aligned with Anchanto’s unique approach to raise C-funding from its key customers, Asendia is the fourth customer to turn into a shareholder after MDI [Telkom Indonesia], Transcosmos Japan, and Luxasia.

MDI Ventures is a corporate venture capital initiative by Telkom Indonesia – which increased its stake further by adding to their existing investment. Marc Pontet, CEO of Asendia, and Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures will be joining Anchanto’s board.

Marc Pontet, CEO of Asendia, said

Asendia intends to continue its journey along the cross-border eCommerce value chain and support the growth of an innovative technology company serving the international growth of global brands. We have high hopes for further co-operation with Anchanto and we expect that we are going to create additional growth and synergies for the company thanks to our logistics and technology capabilities.

Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures, said

In the current digitalization era, the necessity of multiple retailers and brands to go Omni Channel path is highly critical, especially with the current pandemic where the shift to online sales is inevitable.

Anchanto’s robust platforms are well position to highly capitalize this “New Normal” to tackle massive problems that are not only faced in Indonesia but also globally. We are also excited to welcome our new partner, Asendia, who will help to bring Anchanto enterprise grade solutions beyond SEA and the world.

As of last year, Anchanto’s platforms have helped streamline the eCommerce operations of more than 12,000 business and sellers consisting of over 300 global enterprises. Anchanto’s customers manage over 67 million+ Stock Keeping Units [SKUs] and 115 million+ listings, and have processed a combined Gross Merchandise Value [GMV] of nearly $2.71 billion via their platforms. Sellers process over 4 million orders per week on Anchanto’s systems, averaging at 1.6 order processed every second.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Metamorphosis, an ed-tech company has announced the launch of their ambitious project – Metamorphosis School Of Entrepreneurship [MSE] – World’s First Virtual School for Entrepreneurship at middle and high school level. Students from 12+ cities from across the country have enrolled in the first cohort of Metamorphosis School of Entrepreneurship and the platform is planning to empower 1 million students by the end of year 2020.

MSE is a virtual, dynamic, practicalistic school of entrepreneurship with expertly curated content for the 6-12th grade students. It is a two-year long case-study based program and the entire curriculum comprises 3 divisions i.e Meta Core, Meta Electives, and Meta X.

On the launch of the virtual entrepreneurship school, Pavan Allena, Founder & CEO of Metamorphosis Edu said

We have always been dedicated towards our goal of creating a healthy startup ecosystem in the country. MSE is our next big step in the same direction and through the program we are trying to inculcate the nuts & bolts of Entrepreneurship among the middle and high school students.

Youth is the future of any nation and our prime focus at Metamorphosis Edu is to nourish and empower these seedlings so that they grow up into big Entrepreneurial success.

The MSE program takes students on an entrepreneurial journey [from idea generation to new venture creation] by imbibing the 21st century skill sets, idea pitching opportunities, b-plan competitions and many more.

Each and every student works up their way as an entrepreneur under the guidance of 50+ mentors [who are real-time entrepreneurs] and personal proctors. The next cohort of Metamorphosis School of Entrepreneurship will start from October 1, 2020.

Till date, Metamorphosis Edu has empowered 15000+ students across the country. The company is also responsible for 45 success stories of student entrepreneurs who have launched their ventures that have garnered accolades and market traction.

About Metamorphosis Edu

Metamorphosis is the world’s first virtual school that teaches entrepreneurship to high school students.  It strives to make students job creators instead of job seekers. The company was founded in 2017 by Pavan Allena when he felt the need to empower young minds with entrepreneur skills and guide them on a path of leadership and innovation.

The company began with a physical business model which quickly evolved into a mix between a physical and digital model. As a result of using digital technologies, the company has been growing exponentially. Between 2017 till 2019, Metamorphosis grew five-folds. For more information, please visit here.

|In: Business|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

PieceX Enterprise Solution is a one-step solution to start your online business from scratch with a 95 percent reduction on software development time and 90 percent reduced cost. The technology has created enormous ways to escalate the business creation process. Today businesses are adopting innovative ideas to give a boost to the conventional business model. PieceX, one of the players in Enterprise Solutions allows you too quickly set up and build your complete business.

If you’re creating a new business, then the benefits of building an enterprise app with PieceX are countless.  It’s faster and will save you a lot of money. And more importantly, PieceX makes you an independent because you own the complete licensed source code and you have full authority to update it the way you want.

Here’s how

Speed – You get an abundance of speed in the creation phase. You just need to have idea what business you want to build or in other words you just need to have idea about your business model. Now you don’t require to hire software developers, architecture designers, software testers and the whole software development cycle to follow.

You can simply search and buy source codes from PieceX Enterprise Catalogs with few clicks. Now you have complete source code with you, make few modifications if you wish to and just deploy the application and your business is built, up and running.

Cost – Conventionally, when you’re building an enterprise system, development costs are tremendous. Companies spend a lot of money and months of time just to see the prototype of that tool. PieceX Enterprise is extremely cost-effective.

You don’t have to spend on hiring and training developers. You get a full source code to build your business. And you’ll get it at 1/10th the cost.

Support – Needless to say, we provide you complete support after source code purchase and we help you to technically to set up the application.

PieceX helps Startups who have a business idea but do not have enough manpower in place to develop software, they can simply buy from PieceX and can run their business as quick as possible. For Example, buy food delivery source code and start Swiggy and Uber Eats like a business.

What are the biggest changes made by COVID-19 in our lives? While keeping the obvious hazardous health effects aside, it changed the way we communicate and interact with each other. Online, which was once just a part of normal life has now become a fully dependent source of

Livelihood – All because of the COVID-19 pandemic. App Industry Experts predict that many people will choose stick to their homes even after the pandemic settles and will prefer buying things online.

This will shape the online app industry, paving the way for a large number of mobile and web apps.

It’s a perfect time to create an online business like Grocery Selling Business or online Food Delivery Business. PieceX Enterprise provides you ready to use solution, you just need to add your branding design and theme of your choice and your business is up and running.

Click here to buy Taxi Booking App for setting-up ride-hailing business like Uber. Click here to create your e-learning business with PieceX.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Conquest, BITS Pilani [earlier coverage here], in association with Accel and Canbank VC recently concluded its Top 50 Online Mentoring Sessions, despite the challenges faced by them during today’s extraordinary situation caused by COVID-19.

The sessions, that were initially supposed to be held in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, were conducted online due to the unprecedented circumstances and yielded great results. For the 1st time in 16 years, Conquest also decided to kickstart BITSian Track, a special program tailored exclusively for BITSian startups.

The sessions were held over two days on the 6th and 7th of June. The sessions were interactive and had the participation of eminent personalities like Saptarshi Prakash [Design – Swiggy], Vedanarayanan Vedantham [SME Business Head – Razorpay], Raghu Ramanujam [Director of Products (Payments) – Flipkart], Mitesh Shah [Head of Finance – BookMyShow], Suhas Khuller [Strategy Head & CFO – Shuttl]. Based on their feedback, fifteen startups from diverse fields qualified for the next stage.

The startups were mentored individually by mentors in the categories of Strategy, Technology, Fundraising, UI/UX Design, Growth and Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Acquisition and Product. 

Top fifteen Startups Shortlisted from Pan India Track

  • Autointelli Inc – An AIOps company that provides modern solutions that handle modern IT Operations [IT Ops] with a duo of automation and machine learning.
  • Community farm – An online marketplace for farmers and Agri/food startups solving the problem of traceability and transparency in the food sector.
  • Credlo – Provides a payment method that allows its partnered retail merchant to offer their end-customers the ability to buy goods and services on a ‘Buy now, pay later’ basis.
  • DARWYN – A B2B Electric vehicle company, helping businesses electrify their last and first-mile fleet.
  • EasyKrishi – A technology startup working in the field of agriculture, allowing Indian farmers to directly communicate with the buyers.
  • Elear Solutions Tech Pvt. Ltd. – Provide an edge intelligence-enabled Smart Home Platform as a service to Telecom and Internet Service Providers.
  • Emote Electric – Designs, engineers and develops smart electric vehicles to compete with and displace petrol counterparts by surpassing them in price and convenience.
  • HiPER Automotive – Building embedded hardware [IoT device] for vehicles to analyze, personalize, and improve the engine performance to cut fuel usage by 15% and reduce emissions by 10%.
  • Kashware – Links all cards, wallets, banks, etc. into one single payment card that works on all card machines and websites
  • Lincode – Uses 2D camera built-in IoT and artificial intelligence to identify visual defects in manufacturing lines and use robotics to eliminate defective products from the lines.
  • OroPocket – A universal investment platform on the blockchain, enabling users to be able to invest in digital assets and be able to use them as real money in real-time.
  • Sonant Technologies Pvt. Ltd. – Vision to empower specially-abled people through sustainable and affordable technology.
  • Sova Health – A precision nutrition platform that uses science and technology to simplify healthy eating.
  • Spathion Labs – Building an e-invoicing network platform based on blockchain technology for automating indirect tax reporting, auditing and building financial applications.
  • Vadoo – A Peer to Peer enabling users to simultaneously consume and deliver the stream.

Top four startups shortlisted from BITSian Track

  • ATHVed Innovation Labs – Provides a physical and virtual card that will handle all cards in a single card.
  • BiteSpeed – Helps e-commerce brands build their own Facebook Messenger Chatbots to engage website visitors and recover lost revenue.
  • Dataxi – A B2B Data Marketplace to facilitate end-to-end data exchange between organizations.
  • SolarGridX – Provides a crowd investing platform that lets people invest in Solar Panels and earn returns from users who use their funding to put up Solar Panels.

The shortlisted startups will now be having online coaching sessions starting from the second week of July till the first week of September. Design, Pitching, Sales, Product, Hiring, and Legal are some of the domains that are going to be covered in these sessions. There will also be frequent networking sessions for the startups, with the Conquest finalists of previous years joining in as well to share their wonderful experiences. 

The program ends with the Grand Finale, with the Startups getting an opportunity to pitch in front of India’s leading investment firms. Prominent entrepreneurs, top investors, policymakers and various other stakeholders of the startup ecosystem will be attending the Finale.