|In: Accelerator|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Citrix announced the successful culmination of its Innovators Program, where nine graduating teams completed its Startup Accelerator’s intensive three-month business model validation program guided by Citrix executives and industry experts. The program ended with a Demo Day, where each of the startup teams presented to a panel of industry veterans and potential investors.

The first group included five internal teams & four external companies. Citrix awarded a $10,000USD fellowship seed funding to the four external companies.

citrix-logo

Launched in August last year, the Innovators Program attracted hundreds of company entries of which nine teams were chosen by an Executive Council, to become part of the Innovators Program. Designed with the objective of blending leading-edge leadership, team building, design thinking and lean startup approaches, teams were trained to validate their business models around customers’ needs. Additionally, participants also received mentoring & guidance from seasoned business executives, industry leaders & venture capital investors.

Commenting on the program’s culmination, John McIntyre, Managing Director, Citrix Startup Accelerator said

The core focus of the Startup accelerator program is to enable entrepreneurs create the next wave of disruptive technologies and great new products that will pave the way for the future of the workspace. India is a gold mine of talented startups, and these nine teams are a testament to this very fact.

We are excited for what these teams will achieve & eagerly awaiting the next cohort of the Innovator’s program, what we plan to launch later in 2015.

Rakesh Singh, Vice President and General Manager, Citrix India added

We extend our warmest congratulations to the path-breaking and first ever graduating batch of the Innovators Program. Our aim had been to handpick startups that showcased innovation and potential, and subsequently help them to accelerate their growth manifold through a series of workshops and mentoring. I can safely say that each of the nine teams graduating from the first edition of the Innovator’s Program in India are better prepared to bring great products to the market, and have attracted tremendous investor interest, making us extremely proud of the outcome.

Graduating Batch of the Citrix Startup Accelerator Innovators Program

  1. Maxerience
  2. Karmasnap
  3. Parablu
  4. Instasafe
  5. Sharecard
  6. Oppcee
  7. Buzzybee
  8. Zipzapdata
  9. 140 Bytes

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

CommonFloor, India’s leading online real estate platform introduced the CommonFloor Retina, world’s first virtual reality innovation in real estate that is available to the masses. This technological breakthrough offers ‘real’ property experience for the seekers allowing them to view/review/assess multiple properties from anywhere at any point of time.

commonfloor
Commenting on the launch of the biggest technological innovations witnessed by the real estate world, Sumit Jain, Co-founder & CEO, CommonFloor.com said

As a new-age online realty player, technology and innovation are part of our core DNA. Property buying demands huge time & financial investment by the buyer and it is our constant endeavor to create tools and technology that makes property search easy for the consumer and gives them a wow experience. CommonFloor Retina is a result of one such quest that adapts technology smartly to the consumer’s advantage.

Lalit Mangal, Co-founder and CTO, CommonFloor.com said

We believe in making strategic investments in building cutting edge technology. This product is pegged to be a game changer in the real estate industry in India and globally. We will work closely with the builder community to scale-up the number of projects listed, thereby helping property buyers to choose from as many projects that may want to visit.

JC Sharma, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Sobha Limited said

CommonFloor has been instrumental in transforming the way we view properties. Their latest introduction, CommonFloor Retina is indeed commendable. This state-of-the-art technology product will enable our customers to take a virtual tour of the property they wish to see in the comfort of their home. It allows them to experience both the interiors and exteriors of the property in an interesting manner and saves a lot of time, especially if one need to choose between several properties.

Speaking at the occasion Vyoma Pandit, Senior DGM, Marketing, Brigade Group said

It is an interesting product that can help a home buyer visualize the building and apartment under consideration in greater depth. It should be useful to customers who cannot be physically present at the property location before buying, and also to people who have already purchased a property and want to share it with their family & friends.

Details on CommonFloor Retina

To use CommonFloor Retina, a user simply needs to sport the headgear to experience virtual tour of the property of his/her choice. This offers buyers an unforgettable experience & insights about the property from the perspective of space and ambience among other features.

The simple magnet on the headgear acts as a navigation tool. The App also saves the builders the cost and space to construct a model apartment.

The app works on the Android platform with the following phones

  1. Nexus 4 & above
  2. MotoG 2nd Gen
  3. Samsung Galaxy 4 & above
  4. MotoX
  5. Mi3

About CommonFloor.com

CommonFloor.com has the largest number of property listings with more than 1 lakh residential projects listed on their platform from over 200 cities. The platform has already mapped 10M homes and is committed to map every property in India on its platform. The Company has a team of 1000+ employees and their constant endeavor is to get the best talent to work with them.

From searching for an apartment to facilitating interactions within an apartment community on the ‘CommonFloor’ platform, to connecting one to relevant service providers, the platform is dedicated to meeting all aspects of consumers’ needs around their home. With over 5 lakh active property listings from over 200 cities, it has over 1 lakh residential projects listed with it. CommonFloor.com has been funded by Accel Partners, Tiger Global and Google Capital.

|In: Bangalore|Last Updated:

Few days back, we had written about Social Media Week that kicks off on 23rd February in Bengaluru. Today, we have received some more details about the event & that creates a “Compelling” reason to attend SMW,2015.

Bangalore goes social again with the fourth edition of Social Media Week [SMW] in India with the theme being Upwardly Mobile: The Rise of The Connected Class. For more details, please refer this earlier article.

SocialMediaWeek_2015

Monday [23rd February] & Friday [27th February] will see the event being hosted at The Leela Palace while the mid-week sessions will be held at venues including News Cafe, Big Pitcher, Total Yoga Oneness Centre, Loft 38, Take 5, and WeSchool Bengaluru.

SMW’15 February edition is scheduled simultaneously across the world in seven cities– Bangalore, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Jakarta, Lagos, Milan & New York.

SMW,15 Highlights

Some of the highlight topics & sessions that will be covered at SMW, Bengaluru are as follows:

  1. Panel discussion on Brand Reputation & Crisis
  2. Weathering Twitter Storm
  3. Internet Of Things [IOT] in India
  4. Big data & Big Brands
  5. Insightful workshops on Social Media for Travel Marketing
  6. Cracking Social Media content strategy
  7. Masterclass on Viral Campaigns
  8. Integrated social media marketing
  9. Inspirational talk on Growth Hacking for Startups
  10. Brand Identity in Digital
  11. Career in Social Media & many more

SMW, Bengaluru highlight speakers include

  1. Mahesh Murthy, Founder Pinstorm
  2. Suhel Seth, CEO Counselage
  3. B. Dayananda, I.P.S, Additional Commissioner of Police
  4. P. Krishna Kumar, Executive Director & General Manager Dell India
  5. Harish Bijoor, Brand-Expert
  6. Sandeep Aurora,Director – Marketing & Market Development
  7. Prem Panicker, Sr. Journalist
  8. Vasantha Kumar, Director Of Marketing & Communications

Alliances & Partnerships

Social Media Week [SMW] has partnered with the Bengaluru City Traffic Police [BCTP] & kick-started an online campaign titled #ImTheChange encouraging citizens to click pictures, shoot videos & share their pledges towards road safety on SMW page. The campaign has already received 3000+ pledges and has created social buzz reaching to more than 1M Bangaloreans.

Speaking about the event, Rohit Varma, Founder R SQUARE Consulting & Director, SMW Bengaluru said

Social Media Week is a platform to share ideas, gain insights & collaborate to innovate. Involvement of the whole industry has made this property unique and that has been the success factor. We have more than 70+ sessions, 150+ speakers sharing their knowledge across 5 hubs. We are very excited to witness the social festival going live in the coming week

SMW Sponsors

Dell, a pioneer in integrating social media into the fabric of its business and engagement with customers, is the title sponsor for SMW Bangalore 2015. Additional partners include Intel [City Support], Wrangler [Style Sponsor], IBM [Event sponsor], Genesis Burson-Marsteller [Integrated Communications], Contract Advertising [Event Partner], BlogAdda [Blogging partner], YourStory [Knowledge], 10,000 Startups by Nasscom, Social Samosa [Partner in Thought], Let’s Venture [Event Partner], Yellow Seed Content Solution [Content Partner], Web Marketing Academy [Event Partner], Culture Machine [Event Partner], Lonely Planet [Event Partner], Digital Vidya [Event Partner] & Uber [Logistics] among others.

Complete Schedule, Registration details

Registration Page

Registrations for SMW Bangalore has started and to register for the event, please visit http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/choose-pass/

Schedule Page

For complete schedule of the event, please visit http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/schedule/ & to download the schedule, please visit http://socialmediaweek.org/bangalore/download-schedule

|In: Analytics|Last Updated:

To showcase how organizations are creating value by leveraging analytics across industries, NASSCOM & Hansa Customer Equity Pvt. Ltd. announced the commencement of a case study on Analytics and its Attributes. As part of the study, companies across sectors can participate and showcase the business impact by leveraging analytics in the four application areas of Customer Experience & Lifecycle Management, Revenue Maximization, Operational Efficiency, and Compliance & Risk Management.

Technologies such as Social Media, Mobility, Big Data and Analytics and Cloud [SMAC] are reshaping businesses across sectors. An increased number of companies across India, from service providers to customers, are leveraging analytics to create value. Many of them leverage Chief Data Scientists and Chief Analytics Officer to capitalize on the SMAC opportunities. The objective of this study is to promote the usage of analytics that involves business applications of Descriptive, Predictive or Prescriptive Analytics and identify the most innovative companies demonstrating excellence in analytics.

Speaking at the occasion, Mohan Krishnan, Director, NASSCOM said

Businesses are challenged by the digital revolution, changing consumer demographics who demand omni-channel experience, the reduced time-to-market and stringent regulations. This is creating huge amount of data. This explosion of data in enterprises is fuelling the rise of analytics, creating a sizeable business opportunity.

To leverage this opportunity, NASSCOM is actively engaged in promoting adoption of analytics and sustaining India’s position as the analytics hub of the world. According to NASSCOM the big data analytics industry is expected to grow to more than double to $2.5 billion by the end of 2017-18. While some sectors have taken the lead, others have realized its importance for long-term growth and surviving in a highly competitive environment. Dynamically changing customer trends will further drive the growth of analytics, compelling organizations across sectors to analyze how information can be used intelligently.

Speaking about the study, Swaminathan, Co-founder & CEO, Hansa Cequity said

At Hansa Cequity, we believe that Data is the new fuel and competitive advantage for the enterprise and Data-driven marketing will become the new normal in companies. Hansa Cequity’s pole position of analytics expertise and a unique status as a service provider will help companies improve their marketing maturity using analytics as a great platform for launching this initiative.

While sharing his views on the initiative, Ajay Kelkar, Co-founder & COO, Hansa Cequity, said

This case study is a great platform for companies in India to showcase how analytics has positively impacted their business. In this changing world, business leaders and marketers need to transform their approach to connecting and engaging with these customers.

The vast proliferation of data and the pressing need to stay one step ahead of the competition has sharpened focus on using analytics within organizations. Analytics today has proven to be the crucial ingredient of success for organizations across industries, rehashing the key business dimensions which form the basis of competition -Customer, Risk & Operations.

 

Milestone Milestone Date
Submission of Abstract 30th Mar 2015
Notification of acceptance for final Case Study submission 15th Apr 2015
Case study Submission 14th May 2015
Notification of winners 12thJune 2015
Presentation by winners at NASSCOM Conference To be Announced

Application Process

  • All interested parties should send an abstract by 30th March 2015.
  • Abstracts will be reviewed by an expert panel and will comprise of an eminent panel of analytics experts, both academicians as well as practitioners.
  • Short-listed abstract applicants will be requested for submission for case studies.

Criteria for Evaluation

  • Innovation – Innovative use of any analytical technique
  • Methodology – Robustness of the methodology and the rigour involved
  • Business Impact – Impact of the analysis

About Hansa Cequity

Hansa Cequity is a customer marketing company where they bring the power of Data, Analytics & Insights & marketing action together for enhancing customer relationships & customer value. The company has a team of specialists with diverse skill sets who work together to deliver highly relevant digital and social media campaigns. The whole-brain approach to marketing brings together logic, driven by data and analytics, and the magic of creative thinking to deliver enriching customer experiences. Some of the renowned clients include Croma, Celio, Hypercity, Westside, Axis Bank, Birla Sun Life, Tata Sky, Zee TV & many more.

|In: Accelerator|Last Updated:

Tata Consultancy Services [TCS] , India’s leading IT services, consulting & business solutions organization, has partnered with Startupbootcamp FinTech, the leading accelerator focused on financial innovation, to host the Pitch Days in India.

The Pitch days will be held in the TCS campuses on February 24 in Mumbai & February 26 in Bangalore.

TCS_Fintech_Collabration

Focused purely on FinTech startups in these regions, the one-day event is open to innovative early stage startups in the financial technology sector to help participants gain exposure and recognition.

Ten startups will be chosen and shortlisted for their cutting-edge and innovative solutions. These firms will be offered an opportunity to participate in the 13-week long Startupbootcamp FinTech accelerator program in London or Singapore.

The event is open for all early stage startups in FinTech. The shortlisted FinTech startups on the Pitch Day will get an opportunity to connect with local mentors, investors and banking professionals in the community. Startups applying for Pitch Days will get access to the Startupbootcamp FinTech global community and be on the accelerator’s radar.

The participants will also be provided with feedback on how to improve their offering, business model and pitching skills.

Speaking at the occasion Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer of TCS said

As part of our Co-Innovation Network [COIN], we have been working with start-ups across the world. It’s great to bring a new initiative to India and host the Startupbootcamp Pitch Days in Mumbai & Bangalore. India has a rich history of promising start-ups and we believe that programs like this will benefit the thriving technology start-up community in India and help to showcase the country’s tremendous enterprise to the global investing community.

Speaking at the occasion Markus Gnirck, Co-founder & Global COO of Startupbootcamp FinTech, said

It is an exciting time for FinTech right now, not only in London and Singapore, but also in India, and we’re delighted to be here for the first time.  Being a part of our Pitch Days means that startups are on the Startupbootcamp FinTech watch-list for life, giving them a greater chance of being selected for one of our global programs.

We encourage startups, at whatever stage in their early development, to apply to join us for the unprecedented opportunity to connect with the Startupbootcamp FinTech global community and have access to worldwide opportunities. The work that we’re doing with partners like Tata Consultancy Services validates the need for accelerator programs to reach countries like India.

The shortlisted startups from the Pitch Day will get to be a part of   Startupbootcamp FinTech accelerator program and have the potential to be selected for the following:

  • Extensive mentorship from 100+ entrepreneurs, investors & partners
  • Access to top markets in London, US & APAC
  • 3+ months free office space
  • € 15K in cash per team
  • €450K+ in partner services
  • Exposure to 200+ Angels & VCs
  • Invitation to SBC global alumni network

For more information on the application process please visit the Fintech-Mumbai & Fintech-Bangalore links

About Startupbootcamp FinTech

Launched in 2014, Startupbootcamp FinTech is the leading FinTech accelerator and the only program of its kind to attract such wide industry support. Based in London and Singapore, its partners include DBS Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, MasterCard, Rabobank, SBT Venture Capital, Arvato Financial Services, Route 66 Ventures, Infocomm Investments & Intesa Sanpaolo, as well as an extensive mentor and alumni network from more than 30 countries across the globe.

The award-winning accelerator offers FinTech startups access to world class industry expertise during an intensive three month program. At the end of the programme, startups pitch at Demo Day to more than 250 investors.

Other Startupbootcamp programs are currently active in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Eindhoven, Israel, Istanbul and London with other cities and vertical programs would be announced soon.

For more information on Startupbootcamp, please visit the following links:

Image Credit – Link-1 & Link-2

|In: e-commerce|Last Updated:

Cleartrip, India’s leading travel portal partnered with Amazon.in, country’s leading online marketplace, to present Travel Gift Cards, an adorable and convenient way of gifting travel. Cleartrip’s Travel Gift Cards are available only and exclusively on Amazon.in

Cleartrip_Amazon

Usable to buy tickets from over 300 airlines and choose accommodation from over 3 lakh hotels, Cleartrip offers the best, most intuitive interface to make travel bookings in a jiffy with this Travel Gift Card.

Commenting on this association, Subramanya Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer at Cleartrip said

We are excited to launch our latest offering in our product suite – Gift Cards. Also what’s different in this launch is the innovation in distribution – Cleartrip gift cards are exclusively available on Amazon.in, which is doing a fabulous job of aggregating the gifting category. Cleartrip is the exclusive travel gift partner on Amazon.in and we are confident that travel gifting is a trend that will see huge uptake in the days to come.

Speaking about the launch, Srinivas Rao, General Manager Payments, Amazon India said

We are excited to be the partner of choice for Cleartrip & offer our customers an exclusive access to Cleartrip’s Travel Gift Cards. With the launch of these gift cards on Amazon.in, customers can now gift travel to their loved ones, anywhere in the country, with ease and convenience.

This is the first exclusive offering in the travel space on our platform in the Gift Cards category, which is witnessing a significant uptake since its launch in August last year. With this new offering, customers can now enjoy shopping for travel gift cards and make the most of their travel gifting needs.

Online Travel Gift Cards make special occasions memorable and are a great option that allows the freedom of choice to anyone they are presented with. You can now pamper your spouse, surprise a cousin, gift your employees, reward your business partners, thank your associates or just revel in the perfect holiday, yourself.

In 3 simple steps, the purchase is done and your Travel Gift Card is delivered to the recipient’s email id. What’s more, get 10% extra on Amazon.in as a launch offer, for Gift Cards worth Rs 1000, 2000 or 3000. After selecting the denomination, enter recipient’s email id and your personalized message and complete the payment process. The Travel Gift Card is delivered to the email provided by you and is available for redemption instantly !!!

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated:

Bengaluru goes social again with the fourth edition of Social Media Week [SMW] with the theme being Upwardly Mobile: The Rise of The Connected Class. Multiple sessions through the week will explore the dynamic ways of how social media strategy is converging in multicultural market & how mobility devices like laptops, tablets and smartphones along with social technology have transformed the way we work. This international festival is hosted twice a year, in India by R SQUARE Consulting, an integrated marketing services firm.

SocialMediaWeek_2015

About Social Media Week

The five-day event hosted at various venues in the city such as The Leela Palace, News Cafe & Big Pitcher among others; will bring together brands, agencies, influencers, practitioners, academic thinkers, entrepreneurs, public officials, celebrities & international experts, who will provide a blend of information and ideas through panel discussions, debates, master classes & more.

The event is scheduled from Feb,23rd ~ Feb,27th 2015. Registrations are already open & you can register for SMW, Bengaluru here

Key Highlights

Some interesting events in this edition of SMW include the following:

  1. Social Media Strategy Challenge
  2. ‘App’athon
  3. Tweetathon
  4. Blogging Challenge

SMW’15 February edition is scheduled simultaneously across the world in seven cities– Bangalore, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Jakarta, Lagos, Milan & New York.

Speaking on the initiative, P. Krishnakumar, Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India said

The marketplace today constitutes of a dynamic set of consumers who are constantly evolving the manner in which they engage with brands and with each other. Social media has been one of the pillars of this evolution and Dell has embraced it as a key medium for outreach to keep in step with them. A consumer brand must recognize the value in being able to reach out to its audience in the manner that they prefer to connect.

We believe that SMW is a platform which explores the dynamic nature of social media. We also see it as the right platform to demonstrate that technological innovation is imperative in this context; and that a successful experience comprises of both the right technology as well as the right medium.

Rohit Varma, Founder R SQUARE Consulting & Director – Social Media Week Bangalore said

The aim of SMW 2015 is to understand how technology will impact the way we Live, Work and Create in a connected world and also how new ideas, innovations and technology will change our lives. The change is happening quite fast and platform like Social Media Week becomes very important to discuss, understand and implement social strategies for the connected class.

SMW mobile App can be downloaded from here

About R SQUARE Consulting

R SQUARE Consulting is one of the fastest growing marketing firms focusing on building Communities through Brand Properties and executing Marketing Communication strategies for Clients through Events & Activations, Digital Marketing & Technology and Creative Services. For more visit their website

|In: Events|Last Updated:

Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association [HYSEA]’s Annual Summit is back. This edition of it’s “Software Product Competition & Showcase 2015” is scheduled on 11th & 12th March 2015 at Hyderabad International Convention Centre [HICC] Novotel, Hyderabad. The mantra of the awards is “Promoting Entrepreneurship & Innovation to Fuel Growth”.

Key Focus Areas of the summit

  1. Software Products / Startups Conclave
  2. Software Product Competition
  3. Design Summit
  4. SME Conclave
  5. Annual awards

What’s in it for startups

If you are a Hyderabad-based startup, than there is lot’s in store at the summit !!! There would be a jury of several investors & successful entrepreneurs who would judge the best startups in various categories. All finalists [early stage startups] will be recognized through the new category titled HY-10: Hyderabad’s hot 10 startups award.

Shortlisted award finalists will be invited to the Expo to showcase their products, with an opportunity to interact with CIOs, VCs, Angel investors and other industry/e-government decision makers.

Award Categories

  1. HY10 – Hyderabad’s hot 10 startups
  2. Consumer Startup [Early Stage, Late Stage]
  3. Enterprise Startup [Early Stage, Late Stage]
  4. Established Products [MNC/Indian]
  5. Best Technology Innovation [Non Product]
  6. Social Impact

How to nominate your startup ?

Nominations are now open & last date for nominating your startup is 15th February,2015. For nominating your startup, please visit the following link.

For further information please shoot a mail to Mrs. Aruna Joshi at infohysea@gmail.com / info@hysea.in or visit the HYSEA website