The Vedanta Group has announced the launch of Vedanta Spark, an initiative wherein the company is looking to partner with early-stage, growth stage and venture stage Digital Tech start-ups in order to tap into massive innovation and growth opportunities.

Through Vedanta Spark, the company seeks young & innovative start-up companies and specialists to come forward and join hands with Vedanta thus unlocking value and growth potential at an accelerated pace. Vedanta Spark is looking at start-ups from across the globe as part of the program, working in areas such as 360 Degree Sustainability & Excellence in HSE, Operational Excellence – Volume, Recovery & Efficiency Improvement, Asset Optimization and Predictive Maintenance, Exploration, Mining & Blasting, and so forth.

Sharad Gargiya, Senior VP, Group Commercial, Vedanta Limited, said

We are focused on nurturing Innovation at Vedanta and making it a way of working across all our operations and functions to energize and encourage our passionate leaders to think and act differently. It is our firm belief that by including innovation in everything we do will transform the entire organization and will bring a fresh energy and speed.

Speaking on the launch, Anand Laxshmivarahan R, Chief Digital Officer, Vedanta, said

To foster innovative thinking for disruptive ideas, it is essential to engage with people inside as well as outside the organization who can challenge the status-quo and offer a different perspective.

The initiative will offer various advantages for the start-ups: Partnerships & Collaborations, Leverage massive capacity & resources of Vedanta group, Tech & business expertise and most importantly strategic investments opportunities for the start-ups that offer significant value to Vedanta Limited.

Vish Sahasranamam, Co-Founder & CEO, Forge, said

Easily the most comprehensive corporate open innovation program in India thus far, spanning 16 opportunity themes and over 75 innovation challenges, cutting across several core industrial functions in a globally diversified conglomerate as Vedanta Resources Limited.

Envisioned to catalyze the seeding, building and scaling up of a permanent corporate innovation function to exploit start-ups as innovation and growth partners, Vedanta Spark is an amazing opportunity for Forge to execute a global corporate start-up accelerator program.

The project will start with a discovery phase for start-ups to register on the VedantaSpark, choose the challenge area according to their expertise and then fill an application form and submit a pitch explaining their technology and benefits for Vedanta.

From an expected 1000+ registrations across the globe, top 20 start-ups will get a chance to work with the different entities of Vedanta following a thorough evaluation process by expert panels consisting of Vedanta’s professionals, domain experts and external mentors from reputed govt. ministries and industrial sectors.

The program partner for Vedanta Spark is Forge [incubator for Managed Corporate Innovation & Start-up Accelerator Services that has worked with Ministry of Defense, NITI Aayog, etc.]

Atlassian Corporation Plc, a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software and the maker of Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello products, has announced the launch of Atlassian Ventures, a new US$50 million fund that will invest into the up-and-coming startups, including established companies that are building products in the overall Atlassian ecosystem.

The company which set up its world-class R&D centre in Bengaluru last year and with plans to expand it further, is keen to interest India’s vibrant startup ecosystem and rich technical talent pool.

Atlassian Ventures, with the objective of supporting cloud-based products and services will invest in three types of companies. Firstly, the early-stage startups, who are building apps for any of Atlassian’s cloud products, whether it be – Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket or Trello.  Secondly, the larger, more established ecosystem product partners scaling their businesses.

These investments will be made in partnership with institutional investors and will generally target series A onwards. And finally, the existing sales channel partners looking to step up their cloud services and create new products that support the future of teamwork.

On the company being extremely bullish about the India market, Dinesh Ajmera, Site Lead and Head of Engineering, Bengaluru, Atlassian said

Atlassian Ventures is a global program with the objective of supporting cloud-based products and services and unleashing the potential of teams all over the world. With India’s cloud market among the largest in the Asia Pacific region, we believe this fund will be an ideal opportunity for up-and-coming startups in India to access funding when building apps for our cloud products.

India is a significant market for Atlassian, one that’s teeming with an extraordinary developer community and a vibrant startup ecosystem that we plan to tap into.

We have kept the applications open to our existing Marketplace Partners and developers, as well as new-to-Atlassian app developers who are looking for the first funding for their start-ups. As part of this program, companies that receive funding are also eligible for mentorship as well as global exposure at Atlassian events.

As more and more customers transition to Atlassian’s cloud products, the company is committed to supporting their journey by fostering a robust ecosystem of cloud-based apps that enhance their experience and satisfy all use cases. Atlassian has 4,200+ apps already available in its Marketplace and offers integrations with popular tools like Slack, Zendesk, and GitHub.

To further consolidate its offerings and capabilities, the company has recently acquired a slew of companies in the ecosystem, which include Code Barrel [the company behind Automation for Jira], Mindville and Halp – the creator of Slack. Atlassian serves more than 174,000 customers worldwide and has been named a ‘Best Place to Work’ by Great Place to Work Institute in every market where they have a staff presence.

More details about Atlassian Ventures is available here.

In its continued endeavour to enable startups to achieve more, Western Digital concluded its flagship startup challenge – Data Innovation Bazaar 2020. Data Innovation Bazaar 2020 was hosted in partnership with Startup India and Invest India, and Ecosystem partners – Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology [MeitY], Department of Science & Technology – Ministry of Science & Technology [DST] and The Indus Entrepreneurs [TiE Delhi-NCR].

The annual startup challenge delivered a platform to promote data-driven solutions for industries including healthcare, education, agriculture, energy & environment, smart transportation and smart cities.

India has the world’s third largest startup ecosystem. Today, startups are gaining more momentum and entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to collaborate with partners, get more exposure and expand their business. The corporate sector has been engaging with startups to get a fresh perspective in addition to making corporations more agile.

Western Digital’s initiative – Data Innovation Bazaar has been architected in India under the leadership of Supria Dhanda, and has helped in enabling entrepreneurs showcase their data-led ideas and also build a network with key stakeholders.

Winners of Data Innovation Bazaar 2020 were announced in a virtual event led by the office of the India Country Manager and Vice President – Supria Dhanda and in the presence of Chief Guest – Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO of Invest India, members from Western Digital’s executive leadership, the government and leading academia.

The top five startups who were awarded a total grand prize of Rs. 25 lakhs are:

• The first place was awarded to AarogyaAI Innovations Private Limited and earned a prize of Rs. 10 lakhs for their genomics and AI-driven rapid diagnostic solution for drug-resistant tuberculosis
• Anukai Solutions Private Limited was awarded the second-place prize of Rs. 6 lakhs, for their innovative traffic management solutions with the help of AI.
• Agua Wireless Systems Private Limited was awarded the third-place prize of Rs. 4 lakhs for their IoT-based solutions that enable smart water management by automating water distribution, billing and leakage detection in buildings, layouts and cities.
• The fourth-place prize of Rs. 3 lakhs was awarded to Paraclete Image Labs Private Limited for their assistive device for the visually impaired which acts as a reader as well as exam writer.
• ShilpMIS Technologies was awarded the fifth-place prize of INR 2 lakhs for their platform that simplifies Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality content creation and discovery for immersive & interactive learning.

Additionally, Aarogya AI was awarded a special women entrepreneur prize of Rs. 2 lakhs.

Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India, said

Invest India has long been at the forefront to enable startups to achieve more, and with the help of corporate partners we are able to build a strong startup network and make them enterprise ready. Frugal innovations, which form the core of the Indian startup ecosystem, provide a plethora of solutions to combat the socio-economic issues in the country and across the globe.

As one of the largest forums promoting entrepreneurship in India, our wide community of stakeholders has helped talented entrepreneurs succeed and take their innovations from labs to land.

Siva Sivaram, President, Technology & Strategy, Western Digital, said

To define the success of a startup, one needs to build blocks of vision and strategy, leverage the ecosystem along with new-age innovation; and these are few of the traits which we saw in our finalists. Technology has played an elevated role during challenging times by transforming our lives and creating a greater positive impact on business.

With data growing at an exponential rate and the rise in startup innovation, we are hoping to foster more breakthrough solutions with Data Innovation Bazaar by bringing together the entrepreneurial ecosystem, investors, corporates, academia and the government.

Supria Dhanda, Vice President and India Country Manager, Western Digital, said

Western Digital believes in strengthening its relationship with the Indian startup ecosystem to empower the local talent. The zeal to solve the challenges India faces was seen across all the solutions. Nearly 50% of the applications were ideas for the healthcare and education sector, and about one-third of the short-listed applications are directly relevant to the areas of smart cities, smart video, connected homes and transportation.

Data Innovation Bazaar has received an overwhelming response this year and we saw an 85% rise in the number of applicants. We are invested to play a role in igniting engineering minds and catalyzing the startup ecosystem of India.

The top 40 shortlisted teams of Data Innovation Bazaar 2020 will be given TiE membership and will also be invited for a three-day innovation bootcamp offered by Western Digital. All the women-led entrepreneurs in the top 40 will get an exclusive three-month accelerator opportunity offered by WE Hub, a government of Telangana initiative.

The 40 finalists will also get to participate in Khoj Incubator program offered by Atal Incubation Centre-BIMTECH with 15 of them getting an opportunity to be a part of the Incubation Program.

The 2020 edition of Data Innovation Bazaar received a total of 963 applications and saw entries across various industries. Western Digital along with its partners have curated an exclusive platform which offers an opportunity for students and budding entrepreneurs to have direct access to key stakeholders across the startup ecosystem.

Data Innovation Bazaar is a platform to harness technology to inspire paradigm shift in data-driven innovation.

Learn more about Data Innovation Bazaar here

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.

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.

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.