|In: EduTech|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

India’s vision to be a world leader in the 21st century can only be realized with a robust education system. Vikas Kakwani, an IIT-IIM Graduate launched AAS Vidyalaya – Anytime Anywhere School, a platform that brings an entire school on the phone.

AAS Vidyalaya is a virtual school – a mobile app, built for millions of students who cannot go to school, in order to bring the school to them. The Social School operates exactly like a regular school with a dedicated class-teacher, timetables, subject periods and regular assessments.

According to Census Data, 8.4 crore Indian children don’t attend school. Poverty, lack of availability and accessibility are the major reasons why children drop out of school. On the other hand, India currently has a smartphone use base of over 300 million which is expected to cross 650 million by 2019. Harnessing the power of mobile technology and its reach, AAS Vidyalaya is a comprehensive user friendly app, built to fortify education – the backbone of the country’s growth and development. The app has been designed on Android platform and is easily available on Google Playstore.

Instead of bringing children to the school AAS gets the school to the children – Students can attend school from anywhere and teachers can work from home, while parents can seamlessly monitor day-to-day progress of the students. One can attend classes, interact with subject teachers; class teacher, take tests, and monitor their progress with this app. AAS has been launched for secondary education with CBSE curriculum, while the plan is to add other boards soon. AAS holistically brings in flexibility and cost benefits for students, teachers, as well as parents, thereby strengthening the educational system at the grass root level.

A revolutionary idea to bring continuing education to people who need it, AAS Vidyalaya has been recognized as a Change-maker by Global Action on Poverty [GAP] for 2017. To download the app and find an entire school in your hand, click here.

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

JetSynthesys, a leading digital entertainment and gaming company launched its much-awaited game Sachin Saga Cricket Champions featuring the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. At a high decibel event today, Sachin Tendulkar unveiled the game along with Kris Gopalakrishnan, Non-Executive Chairman, JetSynthesys and Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, JetSynthesys.

Sachin Saga Cricket Champions is the official mobile gaming app of the cricketing God himself. The game aims to bring to life, the Legends’ cricketing style and iconic matches to every Indian. Through this game, the player gets a chance to step into the shoes of Sachin Tendulkar and relive his innings from some of the most memorable matches he has played for the country.

Sachin Saga Cricket Champions creates a larger than life virtual cricketing experience on a mobile device. Through the technology embedded in the game, the players for the first time can experience real-time shadows and motion captures in a mobile game without hampering the game’s performance.

Commenting on the launch of his game, Sachin Tendulkar said

With Sachin Saga, the aim is to bring cricket fans together and enable each one of them to experience my journey through this game.  Sachin Saga Cricket Champions is a game that also has a lot of trivia and fun in addition to being competitive and challenging.

I wanted to ensure that everyone got a chance to play this game, no matter what phone they had, hence our team has really worked hard to bring this game to every mobile device. I really hope the game helps cricket enthusiasts to become champions in the digital games arena with their talent and my experience.

Talking about this notable milestone Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman & MD, JetSynthesys said

It is delightful to see the response we have received through the pre-registration from cricket lovers across the country. Our vision through this game, is to give mobile gaming players the opportunity to re-live the magnificent career of a superstar sportsman like Sachin Tendulkar. We are upbeat about our proposition and are hoping that the cricketing universe enjoys the effort we have put in to bring dream to reality on a virtual platform.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, Non-Executive Chairman, JetSynthesys said

Our global game development team at JetSynthesys has leveraged state of the art technology to create an engaging experience for gamers around the world, in a sport that is a religion in India, brought to life with the iconic Sachin Tendulkar.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, Non-Executive Chairman, JetSynthesys ; Sachin Tendulkar; Rajan Navani, Managing Director and Vice Chairman, JetSynthesys

Unique aspects of Sachin Saga Cricket Champions

A one of its kind game, Sachin Saga Cricket Champions is bound to delight Sachin and cricket fans with its intense and authentic cricket action. With realistic motion capture and cricketing stance of the Little Master, this futuristic game with console quality visuals of the international cricketer, puts the player to face every challenge that the legend overcame to become the God of cricket.

The game brings in real time shadow movements, authentic stadium environments and swift motion quality of fielders plucking the ball out from thin-air. This game ensures that the followers of the sport experience intense excitement in the middle of the pitch!

Some exclusive features of Sachin Saga Cricket Champions

Legendary Mode

  • Play as the master blaster himself in his most iconic matches from his past in the same conditions and stadiums as he did. Start the journey of a young 16-year-old Sachin that made him a legend and play his glorious career of 24 years.

Gameplay

  • All new revolutionary real-world batting system that emulates real-world playing conditions which result in authentic batting experiences.
  • Play the game in its truest form [zone based bat connections] i.e. well-timed connection of the bat with the ball defines the outcome of the shot and a miss timed connection could result in a catch.
  • Motion captured batting shots of Sachin himself that allows you to play all his legendary shots the way he does.
  • Dynamic camera angles that allow you to relive your shots from the best angles.
  • Replay camera – Experience the beauty of the shot in slow motion as you knock one out all the way.
  • Watch fielders pull out the ball from thin air to take stunning catches.
  • Fielders slide and dive to reach the ball just like in actual games.

JetSynthesys aims to leverage its core capabilities of gaming, video and music to digitally connect celebrities, brands and consumers, to drive user engagement and monetization through personalization. With innovation in patented platforms, AI & Machine Learning, it is tapping into the exciting and fast-growing space of mobile gaming in India.

Additional updates on the game are available here

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

GOQii, the preventive healthcare platform, is expanding its healthcare services to GOQii health 3.0 ecosystem. As part of the new services offerings, GOQii is introducing Smart Preventive Health Care plans and a new fitness tracker. GOQii Health 3.0 consists of a suite of new offerings that will be available to all existing GOQii users in the beginning of 2018. These services will be available in India and will roll out to other countries through 2018.

The new offerings are

Smart Preventive Family Healthcare Plan – GOQii Family Care is a one-stop solution for all health concerns of your family. This is in keeping with GOQii’s commitment to encouraging players as well as their family to make a permanent shift towards a healthier lifestyle. GOQii Family care connects, tracks and takes care of the family’s health with consultations by GOQii care team consisting of GOQii Coach, GOQii Doctors and GOQii health experts.

Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO, GOQii said

As our platform expands we are trying to fulfil the health care needs of an entire family instead of just an individual. There are number of active players who have already enrolled their families on the platform for over two years. Based on this learning and experiences, we were prompted to introduce family care plans. We found that families who adopt healthy lifestyle together develop stronger family bonds and are more likely to accomplish their health goals.

Games4Good – Cognitive abilities can be maintained or improved by exercising the brain, the same way physical fitness is improved by exercising the body. GOQii Games4Good is a series of puzzle-based cognitive games built into the GOQii app that helps players exercise their mind and prevent brain disorders and improve their memory, cognitive powers and overall mental health.

Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO, GOQii added

Gaming has proven as an effective tool for behaviour modification. With the addition of Cognitive Gaming, your health experience will become more fun, engaging and good for your brain and help prevent conditions like Alzheimer and Dementia.

GOQii Health Store – Is a GOQii curated health marketplace with a suit of wide variety of products and services catering to individual’s needs and preferences. GOQii has entered into one of the most comprehensive strategic partnerships with various companies in the health and fitness categories such as healthy snacks, health food delivery brands, health supplements, online pharmacy, diagnostics, genetic testing, gym, and accessories.

[TABLE]

With these collaborations, GOQii is looking to provide its players the convenience of getting customised products and services delivered to their home or office.

Vishal Gondal of GOQii added

There is loads of information on health and health services and products online. An individual is in dilemma about what is right and what to choose. We decided to ease the confusion by curating and offering your players a suit of health products and services based on his/her needs and preferences thus, helping them to move to a healthier lifestyle. All our partners have been carefully chosen after a detailed study. In the case of food services, we will also be able to customize the menus as per GOQii expert’s recommendations.

GOQii Cash: Rewards Program – Health is Wealth. To motivate its players to live a healthy lifestyle, GOQii will reward them with GOQii Cash- a virtual currency system for indulging in different activities such as completing daily targets, taking a doctor or expert consultation, uploading medical records, taking HRA [Health Risk Assessment], etc. GOQii is encouraging its players to be healthy and in return get wealthy. GOQii Cash can be used for redeeming various health products listed in GOQii store. Lastly, players can also use GOQii Cash to purchase various services and product in the GOQii Health marketplace.

GOQii 3.0, a slimmer and sleeker design tracker – GOQii will ring in the New Year with the launch of GOQii 3.0 tracker. The new tracker will be sleeker, slimmer with a multi-touch colour display with themes to suit one’s style and attire. The V3 tracker will also come with a new sensor with Heart Rate Variability [HRV] and Presence Plus, a networking feature that GOQii launched at the recently concluded GES conference in Hyderabad. The new tracker will be available from January 2018. Existing GOQii players can upgrade to GOQii 3.0 tracker for an additional fee.

Pricing – GOQii Family health plans will start at Rs.1999 onwards and portion of this will also be eligible for Tax Savings under Section 80D.

About GOQii

GOQii, the world’s leading preventive Healthcare and Wellness Company holds the No.1 position in the Indian wearable market as per latest IDC report. It also won the best fitness band of the year award at Device World Leadership Awards 2017. Headquartered in California with offices in Mumbai and Shenzhen, the company is dedicated to enabling a permanent shift to a healthier lifestyle with the combination of advanced wearable technology, the world’s leading experts, coaches, doctors and karma. The unique GOQii proposition includes a wearable agnostic app, guidance from global experts, coaching counsel and the ability to support a cause that matters to users. For more information, please visit GOQii

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Target announced the fifth cohort of startups to graduate from the Target Accelerator Program. A technology that makes it easier for shoppers to use self-checkout with fresh produce and an in-store digital shopping assistant powered by artificial intelligence were two of the unique solutions to emerge from the latest accelerator program.

The startups in the fifth cohort – the biggest batch yet – participated in a Demo Day today at Target’s office in Bengaluru, showcasing the products and solutions they developed and refined during the four-month accelerator program. The startups focused on areas including artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, analytics and digital experiences.

The Target Accelerator Program, which was launched in December 2013, gives startups a unique platform to develop, scale and test their products in a live retail environment while also accessing Target mentors in India and the U.S. To date, 30 startups have graduated from the program and worked with Target teams across stores, marketing, finance, legal, merchandising, mobile and digital.

All eight of the startups will continue to test their products with Target beyond the program. The startups that presented at Demo Day are as follows

  1. Cogknit – A tool that automatically generates transcripts and closed-caption files enabling accessibility of online video content [Site]
  2. Cognitifai – A video analytics solution that uses computer vision for varied applications such as detecting the placement and removal of products for inventory tracking and creating ‘to-scale’ digital images for online shoppers [Site]
  3. Hyperworks – A self-checkout solution for fresh produce that uses gray-scale images [Site]
  4. Jumper.ai – Enables shopping on social media through hashtags [Site]
  5. Light Information Systems – A conversational bot that can be used to answer employee questions [Site]
  6. Moonraft Innovation Labs – An interactive, in-store digital shopping assistant powered by Artificial Intelligence [Site]
  7. Streamoid – Enables personalized product recommendations and natural-language search that suggest outfits and helps improve product discovery [Site]
  8. vPhrase – Generates automated, natural-language insights from structured data [Site]

IoT product innovation from India

In addition to the Accelerator program, Target is looking for innovative ideas from Indian startups for Target’s Open House, a connected-device concept store based in San Francisco. Open House gives consumers hands-on interactions with new IoT products and services, and provides the entrepreneur community a spot to gather and learn from one another and consumers.

For the first time, a startup from India, Lumos, was selected to be featured at Open House. The startup was selected for Garage, a platform which serves as an area for companies with products that are still in prototype or early go-to-market stages, to showcase their smart products and get real-time feedback from consumers. Successful products from the Garage may be sold at Open House and eventually at Target stores or Target.com.

Inviting startups to apply

Target is now accepting applications for the sixth batch of the accelerator program. Startups interested in applying for the accelerator program or learning more about Target Open House can write to accelerator@target.com

|In: Technology|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Deloitte announced the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the country as part of its Technology Fast50 India 2017 program. Overall average three-year growth rate of this year’s Tech Fast50 India winners aggregated to just over 209 percent [compared to 340 percent in 2016 and 356 percent in 2015].

The Deloitte Tech Fast50 India Program conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP [DTTILLP] ranks the fastest growing technology companies in India based on their percentage revenue growth over the last three financial years. 

Noida-based Polestar Solutions and Services India LLP was ranked No.1 with FY17 revenue coming in at more than 9x their FY15 revenue. The company was No.3 in the 2016 edition. Last year’s winner Greycampus Edutech continued its impressive growth and was ranked 13th this year. The second ranked company this year, Evolute Systems Pvt Ltd, saw their FY17 revenue jump more than 8x over their FY15 revenue, whilst the third placed Mobisy Technologies Private Ltd grew their FY17 revenue at more than 7x their FY15 revenue.

Rajiv Sundar, Partner and Program Director-Technology Fast50 India 2017, Deloitte India, said

Over the 13 years of Technology Fast50 India we have seen the composition of our winners shift from generic software services provider to diverse activities, both product oriented and niche services, inclusive of highly capable analytics offerings, digital marketing, technology enabled education products & services, etc. Whilst the overall Technology sectors are witnessing global changes and disruptions, both on the technology developments and also regulatory impacts, we continue to be positive about capabilities and eminence of Technology businesses in India. Our winners of this year with their diverse offerings is a testament to that belief.

This year, the Top 10 companies recorded an average three-year growth rate of just over 500 percent.  Impressively, seven winners in Top 10 are repeat winners, with four of them having improved on their rankings from previous years. While the Top 3 recorded an average three-year growth rate of 727 percent, the Top 5 record just over 658 percent. Three year average growth rate across Top 50 winners was just over 209 percent.

  • Bengaluru continues to dominate Top 50 winners list with 19 winners.
  • The growth rates demonstrated by a number of winners who could not enter into the Top 50 winners list were equally robust, with rank number 51 having clocked a three year average growth rate of over 55 percent.
  • 36 repeat winners and 14 new entrants, with 10 of these repeat winners having won 3 times or more now.
  • In a break from the past, product companies had a significant representation among the top 10 winners.
  • Analytics companies as well as new age businesses such as IoT, Ad-tech and cyber security were also well represented in the Top 50 winners list.

Some of the significant trends as observed from the program this year include

  • The Analytics segment has strong representation in Top 50 led by this year’s winner – Polestar Solutions. Other winners that offer niche analytics services include Bridgei2i, Tiger Analytics and LatentView.
  • Software product companies are making an impact on the Fast 50 rankings – This year’s winners include Evolute Systems, Mobisy Technologies, Stellapps Technologies, Marketxpander Services, Robotic Wares amongst others. These companies are creating global products and competing with the best in the world.
  • EdTech companies such as the very popular Byju’s and GreyCampus are repeat winners this year. The presence of these companies and a few other technology enabled education businesses, clearly indicates that innovative education solutions businesses have immense potential in years to come.
  • Cyber Security/Information Security companies – With the rapid increase in digital transactions cyber security and information safety have become immensely important. Some of the Top 50 winners such as Data Resolve and Aujas Networks have been able ride this trend and grow at a fast pace.
  • Within IT services as well, we see inclusion of a number of winners who are providing high quality niche services and have the potential to challenge more established companies in years to come.

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Google announced the launch of Files Go app that takes a mobile-first approach to freeing up space, finding files faster and easily sharing them with others, even when offline. Starting today, Files Go will be globally available on the Google Play Store for all phones running Android 5.0 [Lollipop] and higher.

Talking about the new app, Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Next Billion Users, Google, in a blogpost said

Every day, millions of smartphones run out of space. While phones with 16 GB or 32 GB of storage are becoming more popular, many phones around the world have much less storage, often as low as 4 GB. Users often struggle to keep on top of the storage space on their phones and are constantly having to choose between what to keep or delete. We have been testing Files Go for a month, and the average user is saving 1 GB of space and has shared many files with others without using data.

Files Go helps you

  • Free up space – Get personalized suggestions about which files to delete, whether it’s unused apps, large files, duplicate files or low-resolution videos and memes detected using Google’s latest mobile vision technology.
  • Find files faster – No more navigating through a maze of folders. Find exactly the stuff you want with smart filters that automatically organize your images, videos, apps, documents and more.
  • Backup files to the cloud- If you want to keep a file forever, select it from the Files menu and back it up to Google Drive or any other cloud storage app.
  • Share files offline – Transfer directly from your phone to a nearby friend’s phone without using any data. The file transfers are encrypted, fast (up to 125 Mbps) and free.

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

SharkID, a Smart Phone-book app was launched in Ahmedabad. A Bootstrapped StartUp with capital investment of USD 2 million, SharkID is a joint venture between e-Procurement Technologies and Silver Touch Technologies.

Founded by Ramesh Sinha, a technocrat and serial entrepreneur, SharkID is a smart phonebook app that auto updates itself and focuses on creating digital card format of contacts distinguished as a personal card and digital business card. The user registers with mobile number [verified through OTP] and fills in multiple contact fields that creates his/her Personal Card which is private by default.

Backed by a highly scalable Service-oriented architecture with full stack technology, SharkID deploys a Big data Database Mongo and Redis for storage and Encrypted streaming for data security.

The advantages include

  • Next time you call/receive a call from unknown number SharkID will tell you who is calling & how many of your friends know him/her.
  • Know who all have saved your number & remove your number from a stranger’s smart phonebook. Currently you decide whose number you can have, now you have the power to control who can have your number.
  • Next time you want to share your contact coordinates i.e. mobile, phone, fax, IP phone, skype, email, website, social handles, biz card, emergency numbers, address just share your universal SharkID.
  • No more dead contacts or duplicate contacts, as SharkID is an auto updating phone-book. It is like your phone-book but a lot smarter. The more you call, the more you discover.
  • You can publish personal card & biz cards on SharkID and share one/both with select users.

Speaking at the launch, Ramesh Sinha, Founder – SharkID, said

At the outset, we had decided to design a product that is disruptive and accelerates the pace of change. SharkID meshes technologies to actually Smarten the smartphone and puts choice in the user’s hands, for once. We all have multiple digital coordinates today – mobile number, email, instagram, Twitter, FB, LinkedIn, etc.

Which makes for an increasingly cluttered digital profile, making it almost impossible to recall or store. SharkID enables convergence – share your single-point contact and the recipient will get all your coordinates. Moreover, Digital Business Cards that can be shared easily – no hassle of carrying actual visiting cards. Because you can control who has access to your card, you choose who can contact you.

Elaborating further, he added

Due to our technology DNA, we have access to a good talent pool. Backed by a robust technology backbone, today we have 80,000 downloads with 75,000 cards exchanged and 100,000 calls made. SharkID boasts best-of-breed features and the user can do a Single click call, email, SMS, WhatsApp etc…directly. There are additional features such as searching by hashtag and grouping, enabled by Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

Currently the company plans to deepen the user experience and expand the user-pool across India to 10 million by March 2019

About Shark Identity Private Ltd

Shark Identity Private Ltd is a JV between Silvertouch Technologies and eProcurement technologies. A bootstrapped startup founded by Ramesh Sinha and Mr Jignesh Patel, SharkID aims to replace physical visiting cards with digital cards over the next few years. For more information, please visit SharkID

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

PAYBACK, India’s largest multi-brand loyalty program announced its partnership with Goomo, India’s leading omni-channel travel tech company to expand its offerings into online travel category. Both companies have a customer first approach and this strategic tie-up strengthens it even further.

Under this partnership, PAYBACK’s 100 million members will be able to use their PAYBACK Points when making flight, hotel and holiday bookings on Goomo. In addition, they will also be able to earn PAYBACK Points for their travel bookings on Goomo.

Speaking on the partnership, Varun Gupta, CEO – Goomo said

Online travel continues to see a very strong growth among PAYBACK’s customer base with a majority of consumers earning and redeeming their Points on travel. With this partnership, Goomo will ensure that PAYBACK members on our platform continue to not only get great deals on travel bookings but also get rewarded for their purchases in other categories as well.

Commenting on this association, Gautam Kaushik, CEO – PAYBACK India said

We are excited to announce this new partnership and look forward to a long-term association with Goomo. Travel is an important category for our customers and Goomo is the young new challenger brand that is well poised to provide great deals and products in this category. This association will help PAYBACK strengthen its travel portfolio and allow its members to enjoy a seamless travel experience.

With the holiday season approaching and several long weekends lined up for 2018, customers can now enjoy a good number of discounts and rewards due to this alliance.

About Goomo

Goomo is an omni-channel, travel-tech company that distributes products & services through online channels, 15 company-owned branches & a B2B partner network. Goomo is headquartered in Mumbai and operates across three business segments of travel – Consumer, Corporate, and B2B. The consumer business, Goomo was launched in March 2017, with an intent to focus on the fast-growing B2C travel segment. For more information, please visit Goomo