India Energy Storage Alliance [IESA], India’s leading alliance on energy storage, announced start up pitch competition and innovation pavilion for Energy Storage India [ESI] 2018 during Jan 10th to 12th in New Delhi. This is India’s first start-up competition focused on energy storage, electric vehicles & charging infrastructure and micro-grids.
The competition is supported by Startup India, Mumbai Angels, TiE-Delhi-NCR, Sangam Ventures & Global Energy Storage Alliance [GESA]. ESI is the leading international conference and expo addressing the need for energy storage, micro-grids & EV solutions in India. It provides first-class networking event to drive energy storage market expansion in profitable applications – highlighting the synergies, inter relationships & new business opportunities for transmission, distribution, customer-sited, micro-grids/campuses and e-mobility applications.
ESI 2018 will also feature Innovation pavilion to showcase next- gen products and solutions from startup companies. To enter the competition, start-up companies having annual revenue < Rs 3.25 crore [$ 0.5 million] and operations of < 5 years can submit the start-up details in 500 words by 30th December 2017. Shortlisted companies have to submit 5 slide presentation by 8th January 2018 and the top 3 winners will get complimentary IESA membership for a year.
Process of the competition
Application form submission by 30th December 2017
Shortlisted companies will be informed by 2nd January 2018
Up to 10 shortlisted companies will present their concept at the Investors Forum on 11th January
2018 at ESI2018
Top 3 companies will receive IESA awards with cash prize and expression of interest from
investors
Dr. Rahul Walawalkar, Executive Director, Indian Energy Storage Alliance [IESA], said
We are excited to announce first of its kind startup competition for the Indian startups in energy storage space. Today, India has more startups than before and is on the cusp of transformation. Certain challenges are faced by them due to limited direction and access. With this competition, we want to bridge the gap using IESA network and I invite the Indian entrepreneurs to take advantage of this opportunity.
We are thankful to Startup India and other partners for their support to us. India is anticipated to become one of the best markets for the adoption of energy storage technologies due to several drivers like the fastest growing economy, increasing the share of renewables, transmission constraints, need for providing 24*7 quality power and electric mobility mission. IESA has set a mission to also make India a global hub for innovation and manufacturing of advanced energy storage, micro-grids sand EV technologies by 2022.
The Government of India has clearly decided to prioritize electric vehicles with a goal of having 100% Electric Vehicles by 2030. Energy Storage is a key component of this and there are number of ways in which EV adoption could be transformative for the grid. With better tariff structures and use of right storage technologies in EVs, one could also use EVs as distributed storage and provide grid balancing services. This transformation will not only help in greening the transportation fleet by reducing diesel/petrol consumption and associated emissions but will also help in greening the grid if EVs are used for better integration of renewable resources in the grid. Many Indian automobiles companies have plans to adopt EVs.
The 5th International Conference & Expo on Energy Storage and Microgrids is scheduled from January 11 ~ 12, 2018 along with Pre – Conference Workshops on January 10, 2018 2018 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India. Shri Suresh Prabhu, Honourable Minister for Industry and Commerce will be inaugurating the conference & exhibition. Mr. RV Deshpande, Minister of Large and Medium Scale Industries and Infrastructure Development, Govt. of Karnataka [First state to release electric vehicle and energy storage policy in India] will be the keynote speaker for electric vehicle session. This year, it is poised to get 2000+ industry experts, 100+ speakers from over 25 countries and 50+ exhibitors.
IESA was launched in 2012 to assess the market potential of Energy Storage Technologies in India, through an active dialogue and subsequent analysis among the various stakeholders to make the Indian industry and power sector aware of the tremendous need for Energy Storage in the very near future. It aims to make India a global hub for research and manufacturing of advanced energy storage technologies by 2022. For more information, please visit IESA
The realty industry faces trust issues owing to market conditions and other factors. Despite having the financial means, a lot of home buyers are reluctant to invest in property as they are suspicious whether they would get back the returns, if they will be able to rent out the property to the right tenant who will keep it in good conditions and many such fears. Such mindsets have further deteriorated the market conditions for the property sector.
Technology is also evolving at a very rapid pace, with technologies like Machine Learning, AR/VR, Artificial Intelligence [AI], etc. acting as change-agents for the real-estate industry. However, technology can only act as a catalyst to ease the buying-selling process and the industry earnestly waits for a solution for the rental and property management problems.
Though there are many players in the market, the problem still exists. The industry needs a solution that will streamline the processes and make renting a hassle-free experience. Rentprop4u, a Bengaluru based realty start-up is trying to solve these problems by streamlining the entire rental process. Rentprop4u offers property management and rental solutions to owners and tenants. Backed by its cutting-edge technology platform and data-driven analytics, the company aims to take the worry out of owning and renting a home. Established in 2016, Rentprop4u currently has 250 plus registered properties and more than 400 users.
Today we have a chat with Nagaraju M, Co-founder & CEO of Rentprop4u about the product, problem being solved, impact of technology on real-estate sector, etc. So let’s get started with the Q&A….
Can you please walk through the idea of RentProp4u, team, etc.
During the time that I was pursuing my MBA, I came across a common but a major stress among some friends – getting an accommodation in and around the city in a limited time. It came to my knowledge that landlords too faced difficulties to rent out their properties around the city due to several tenant issues.
One of my friends from Bihar came to Bengaluru to pursue his Masters degree. He hunted for weeks together to find an accommodation but had no luck. The fact that he was a student added to his woes. Meanwhile, my uncle was a landlord of a dozen moderate 1 BHK homes which he had built just then. I got an idea – why not help my friend by convincing my uncle to rent out one of his houses to my bachelor friend. My uncle was convinced. He offered him the accommodation under my assurance about the property, its security and maintenance. My friend had a peaceful stay throughout his Masters days and my uncle too was a happy landlord.
That’s when it struck me that a landlord needs a trustee and a tenant needs a hassle-free accommodation provider, which was ‘I’ in this case. As I saw many of my other friends undergo this pain, I thought I could help a lot more people if I took it up as a business. This encouraged me to start a property management service to bridge the gap between owners and tenants. This is how I came up with Rentprop4u.
Online consumer rental market is largely dominated by Makaan, Housing, PropTiger, etc. What according to you are some of vital differentiators of RentProp4u vis-a-vis its competitors?
To be precise, we have an entirely different business model than above-mentioned players in the market. While they are property search portals, we are into end-to-end management of properties [promoting the property, property inspection, tenant screening, preparing legal documents, rent collection, property repair and maintenance, etc] while serving as a one-stop solution for all the rental needs of customers.
There are other startups that are addressing similar issue [to remove hassles like language barrier, interaction with brokers, etc.] like NoBroker, what are some of RentProp4u’s unique features that sets itself apart from such emerging startups?
RentProp4u becomes the platform ‘a click away from’ to find your desired property and good tenant for your property. More than special features, we are very specialized in making the customer happy and becoming more of the customized residential management company which is the biggest edge we have over our competitors. We believe that ‘customer is the king for us’, therefore, we more keen on keeping the customers happy and satisfied. The special features include – Zero brokerage, Assured rent for a property, property end to end management. RentProp4u’s USP seems to be attracting the NRI client base who have purchased properties in India for investments.
The Rentprop4u team – (from left to right) Nagaraju M, CEO; Asha M, Managing Director; and Ravi M, Managing Director
How does your team ensure that the bridge between the Tenant & NRI Owner is burnt with the use of emerging technologies like AI, ML, AR, VR, etc.
According to the UN reports, India has the largest diaspora in the world at 16 million. If we consider 1 per cent of 16 million NRIs as having a property in India, it is a big number and we are aiming to capture this segment on priority. Technically the property might be used either by their own relatives or locked out. The chances of these properties being rented out are slim as it is difficult for them to monitor them. In such conditions, RentProp4u will be an ideal platform for them to use to have a hassle-free renting experience. We do use automation to analyse the data we obtain from our ground staff and online transactions. The analytics help us stay up to date with the market rates and consumer behaviour. VR and AR are definitely great tools to enhance user experience. We intend to incorporate them in the future.
How has been the traction so far for RentProp4u, can you share some vital stats about properties rented, clients on-boarded and the overall response from your clients
We have on-boarded 470 plus properties and more than 650 customers.
Apart from helping the owner to rent out property, does your startup help in other aspects of property management [in order to provide valuable services in the rental eco-system]
Most of our property owners are not sure of the market rental rates for their properties and the type of tenants they can get. Our primary task is to educate the property owner about the current market rents. From finding the right tenant, performing a complete background check to offering assured rentals, managing the property and rent collection, we provide full-service rental and property management for owners. We also share property updates with property owners on a monthly basis with relevant photographs.
Currently there is no mobile app for RentProp4u, is there any timeline when you plan to launch the Android or iOS app [considering that the NRI segment would own an iPhone] since mobile has become an integral part in the buy/sell cycle
The app is on top of our list of priorities. Yes, we intend to have a separate app for owners and tenants.
RentProp4u is currently operational in how many cities and what is your future road-map w.r.t expansion [either in terms of market segment like commercial properties or expansion in other cities]
We aim to have 2,000 properties in Bengaluru in the next 2 years. At the same time we intend to replicate the model in other cities such as Hyderabad and Chennai and then take it across the country. We have plans for overseas expansion too.
What is the revenue model of RentProp4u ?
We help tenants find the home of their choice at zero brokerage. We do not charge them a single penny. As for owners, we charge them a month’s rent as a service fee for managing their property. That’s our revenue stream. However, we do not charge them for property visits, paperwork and other services. We act as a bridge between the owner and the tenant throughout the rental cycle. We help the owner find the right tenant and the tenant find the right home.
There was a big slowdown in the real-estate market first due to demonetisation,than due to GST, RERA, etc. How is the overall market situation right now & whether there are positive synergies leading to the growth in momentum.
Home rentals did not have any direct impact either by demonetisation, GST or RERA. Property selling and buying has been slowed due to these reforms. Probably 2018 will be an ideal time to assess whether home rental will have an impact because of the reforms. If the buying and selling reduces further, we will definitely have a problem.
Can you talk about the funding status of RentProp4u, whether it is bootstrapped/angel funded/seed funded/etc. and are you looking for any external/strategic investment ?
Thus far it has been self-funded and since we are planning to expand our business to other cities and building various apps for our business, we are definitely looking for funding from those who understand our business model.
What are some of the marketing strategies used by your team in order to market the core product ?
Our portal supports us in a lot of our marketing efforts. We have an in-house team for digital marketing. Our other marketing activities include branding, PR, offline promotions such as banners, pamphlets and others.
How big is the Total addressable market [TAM] of the online consumer rental segment ?
The Indian residential rental market is worth $20 billion, as per a report in Forbes. This consists of $13.5 billion in urban, $0.8 billion in rural and $5.7 billion in vacant Non-Resident Indian property brokerage.
The NRI segment is definitely our main target and they prefer to use technology to communicate with us and with the tenants as they are away. While this works in our favour, a large portion of the urban property owners are also increasingly using the Internet to manage their property needs. This is the audience we intend to capture.
There are has been lot of talks about AI, Machine Learning [ML] in the real-estate sector, how much impact will AI and ML have on the online real-estate sector ?
All those technologies are going to have a great impact on buying & selling since every transaction has been digitized and these technologies come handy to minimize the task and make it quick too. More over the data will be secure.
When it comes to residential rental management, the technologies can help not only in securing our data but also in crunching huge amounts of data and making sense of it. It will also help in minimizing human error and oversight. In the future, AI will play a great role in responding to our client queries and storing their requirements which will be help us in resolving them much better when they recur.
What are some of the measures taken by your product/tech team to provide ‘customized residential management experience and to ensure that there is a maximum conversion rate ?
Our product team has been phenomenal in maximising the technologies we have implemented. The team has taken all aspects into consideration while building our platform to ensure that it is responsive to our customer needs, allowing them to interact with us in a convenient manner and helping us in resolving their queries.
The team is working on a unique app for our clients to give them a better experience with property maintenance, repair and rent collection.
Chat bots are now becoming main stream with Fintech, Banks, etc. how can chat bots be used to enhance the overall renting experience ?
The instantaneous feature of chat bots is its greatest strength. It is definitely a big boon for companies with a huge customer base. At this point we are more focused on personalized human communication as we are still trying to understand our customer requirements and pain points. So we have not incorporated the chatbot feature. We might include it in the future when we feel the need.
With the advent of sub 1500 phones, new segment of customers have emerged that could be first-time data users. Are there any plans of RentProp4u to cater to this market [be it a light-weight app/site, etc.] ?
It is too early to comment on this segment. We want to wait and watch how this segment responds to data and then take a call.
What are some of the emerging trends in the tech-space and where do you see the real-estate sector [from a tech point of view] couple of years down the line ?
As you rightly pointed out earlier, VR and AR are already making waves in the rental space globally. It might take time to see traction in India because of the price factor. By integrating VR into property platforms, tenants are able to view available places from anywhere without needing to be physically present at the property, thereby saving them a lot of time on visits. Augmented reality helps in taking this to the next level.
However, it is AI and Machine Learning that has found takers in the rental space. A lot of property search portals and property management start-ups are using these for data crunching and analyzing customer behaviour. These technologies will see more use in the future.
2016 was a tough year for startups [especially from a funding point of view], how according to you should entrepreneurs deal with such adverse situations ?
I advise them to stay patient during the initial few years as a start-up needs time to take off. There will be several ups and downs; you cannot have success without overcoming these hurdles. Continuous learning is a must since change is the only constant in today’s fast-paced world. Also be a leader and not a ruler.
Can you share some tips for building an effective team for startups [especially the initial core team] ?
The most significant part of startup success totally depends on the kind of team that you build. Therefore you must be very careful in selecting your team. Besides the core skills, it is important to focus on whether the candidate is a team player with a never-give up attitude who is able to handle stress and if he/she shares the same kind of passion as the company.
As per your entrepreneurial experience, when should an entrepreneur look out for external funding ?
According to me, it is best to seek funds after a year of existence in the market wen you have adequate knowledge about our product/business and its scalability.
Some books that you highly recommend for entrepreneurs ?
These are some titles that I mostly recommend to entrepreneurs
Zero to One
The Entrepreneur Mind
Venture Deals
Realty Check
Some closing thoughts for our readers!
If you have the vision and are passionate about your business, and you are willing to work hard, there is nothing that will stop you from reaching your dream. RentProp4u is one stop solution for all your rental problems. We are here to burn the bridge between owner ant tenant.
We thank Nagaraju M for sharing his insights with our readers. If you have any questions for him or the RentProp4u Team, please email them here or share them via a comment to this article.
India continues to be a hotbed for startups especially with the Government’s relentless focus to provide a congenial environment for them to conduct business. Initiatives like the India Stack [UPI, eKYC] by the National Payments Corporation of India, the launch of the Startup India initiative, etc. are acting as catalysts that are fuelling the growth of the startup eco-system in India.
Rising internet & smart-phone penetration, access to Digital Media/Content, etc. have opened up new avenues for tech startups where they can release products that can cater to the urban as well as the rural markets. Emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Chat bots, Block chain, Machine Learning, etc. are not only used as a medium for technology disruption by startups but are also embraced by large-sized corporations, financial institutions, etc. in order to stay ahead of the technology curve.
Talking about Financial institutions, they are using these technologies to improve their customer service/providing better personalized service/providing additional financial services, etc. Fin-tech has been one of the hottest sectors from entrepreneur as well as investor’s perspective in 2017, something that has also caught the attention of other financial institutions. Mainstream financial institutions are becoming more agile in accepting change and are inking partnerships with these players since it is a win-win situation for both the parties.
Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank has been the torch bearer in driving change where it launched Thought Factory, a startup incubator/Innovation lab in 2016 where it nurtured startups that are working on interesting ideas and experiment with emerging technologies for building breakthrough banking products and solutions. Six startups namely Perpule, Fintech Labs, S2Pay, Pally, Paymatrix, GIEOM were the first graduates from the Thought Factory in 2016.
But as it is widely known, startups cannot be built in exile and hence, ‘productive networking’ is also an important aspect of building as well as scaling a startup. Axis Bank took professional networking a notch above by launching one of its kind exclusive networking property called Axis Start-up Social, to support the burgeoning startup eco-system. Axis Start-up Social went live on 15th December in Bengaluru and the exclusive event happened at WeWork co-working space in Brigade Road. It was attended by entrepreneurs, Axis Bank team, startup enthusiasts, incubatees at WeWork and others who are connected to the startup eco-system.
The primary objective of this platform was to provide an opportunity for startups to network and share knowledge. Significantly, this initiative firmly underlines Axis Bank’s unflinching commitment towards providing multiple opportunities for startups in India to thrive and scale to the next-level-of-growth. The major highlight of the event was informal sessions by Vivek Gupta, CEO of Licious and Amit Rohatgi, Founder and CEO of Divrt. They did not have any ppt and the talk was not like a normal gyaan session. Vivek Gupta of Licious has donned the hats of an investor in Helion Ventures as well as an entrepreneur. Hence, his talk was more of a double-edged sword where he shared valuable insights from his investor and entrepreneurial journeys. He spoke about scaling, food tech, maintaining a customer-focused approach and much more. Some of the tips that he shared from his topsy-turvy entrepreneurial journey are below:
Customers don’t buy products online, they buy experience.
It is very important for startups to Repeat Purchase Rate since that is an important metric for measuring customer satisfaction/customer stickiness. At Licious, they have 90% revenue from repeat customers.
Entrepreneurs should be customer obsessed and not idea obsessed since customer is the king.
Having number sensitivity at every function of the startup, be it IT, HR, Engineering, Finance, etc. is very important.
Startups should focus on creating long-term value.
Consumer businesses are now getting due attention from institutional investors; ID Fresh, Yoga Bar are some of the pioneers in this category.
The important thing that an entrepreneur needs to take care of scaling is ‘Stay focused in one area’ and learn from your own mistakes. Licious was initially operational only in Whitefield, Bengaluru and after five long months it started operations in Koramangala.
Cost of Customer Acquisition is another vital metric that entrepreneurs need to keep track of at every stage of their startup journey.
Vivek Gupta, CEO of Licious
Vivek’s insightful session was then followed by Amit Rohatgi’s talk where he focused on his past entrepreneurial failures, learning’s from them, nuances of building a hardware startup, cultural differences between India and Silicon Valley. Amit has varied experience in different countries across the world and one point that he stressed more about was ‘Startup Hiring‘. He expressed his growing concerns about the unimaginable salaries offered to engineers in a startup, something that can hamper the growth of the startup ecosystem. His talk ended on a positive note that things are bright for ‘product’ entrepreneurs in India and this is the right time to take the first step to realize the entrepreneurial dream.
Amit Rohtagi of Divrt
To make the session much more informal, fun and engaging, Vikram Poddar added a comedy flavor to the event. Vikram is an ex-investment professional and a flourishing Corporate Standup Comedian. He cracked some awesome jokes on investment banking, corporate life, funding & startups, complex relation between software developers & testers and much more. After the completion, all the pillars of the startup eco-system networked over F&B 🙂
Vikram Poddar, Corporate Standup Comedian
As mentioned earlier, Axis Bank is keeping no stone unturned to stay ‘updated’ with the latest technological trends, either via in-house product development or via M&A’s. Startup Banking Group of Axis Bank already caters to banking requirements of technology-based start-ups like Ola, Flipkart, Zomato etc. #AxisStartupSocial is an excellent platform that provides an opportunity for Start-ups to network and share knowledge over the cup of coffee and we look forward to more chapters of this interesting initiative by Axis Bank.
If you have attended the #AxisStartupSocial or require more information, please leave your experience/queries in the comments section.
Real-money online skill-based gaming startup 9stacks announced the close of more than Rs 10 Crore in angel funding [Pre-Series A]. Angel Investors include Swati Gupta [Founder, IndustryBuying], Purnima Khandelwal [Founder, INI Farms], Maheshwer Peri [Founder, Careers360], Sanjay Singh [Founder, Swas Healthcare], Anant Daga [MD, TCNS Clothing/W], Kartik Sheth [Chief Innovation Officer Airtel & CEO, Wynk], Kedar Gavane [VP, ComScore], Amit Diwan [Sr. Director, Hines], Mohit Sardana [CBO, GoFro] & Shubhajit Sen [ex-CMO, Micromax]. The round also saw participation from a number of VC and PE investors in their personal capacities.
9stacks currently offers online real-money poker to customers in 24 Indian states, who can access its modern and secure poker platform on 9stacks and on iOS, Android, MacOS & Windows native apps.
9stacks will utilize the funding to accelerate its product and technology development as well as scale to other geographies and other categories within the real money online gaming space. The company is also significantly investing in producing its own poker-specific content to help users develop their poker skills and connect with other poker players.
Our vision is to make 9stacks India’s best online poker platform With the backing of our angel investors, we want to make 9stacks the first choice for new users to play poker, with the most user-friendly interface, quickest pay-ins & pay-outs through seamless integration with payment gateways/bank accounts, and clear policies on tax deduction for a safe and hassle-free playing experience.
The real-money skill-based gaming segment includes companies offering rummy, poker and fantasy league contests, and has seen a number of investments and exits recently.
About 9stacks
Founded in April 2017, 9stacks aims to be India’s best real-money skill-gaming platform and is run by a close-knit group of founders from reputed institutions like the IITs and IIM Ahmedabad, with experience in companies like Groupon/Nearbuy, Nykaa, Zivame, McKinsey & Co & Boston Consulting Group.
9stacks is part of SparSkills Technologies Pvt Ltd, a company focused on technology development and branding/marketing in the space of real money online gaming in India. This Delhi-based start-up launched its first offering – online poker in October 2017. 9stacks is operational as a website on the URL 9stacks.com. For more information, please visit 9stacks
SMARTup is a platform for knowledge sharing and networking being organized by ah! Ventures & MeetingsAndOffices. Their endeavour is to connect the startup fraternity and create valuable business centric conversations between domain specialists and entrepreneurs. SMARTup will be holding meets in metropolitan cities such as Hyderabad, Bengaluru as well as in startup based cities such as Jaipur, Pune, Chandigarh to name a few.
The focus of these SMARTup’s is to deal with issues and problems that plague young companies and divert their focus from their core competencies and business. Issues such as business planning and strategy development, aligning immediate and long term goals, generating investor interest, scaling a business, managing cash flows, building sticky relationships & customer loyalty, getting paying customers, regulations, compliance, understanding term sheets, understanding how to go about building your tech as a non-techie without a tech co-founder, sales and marketing processes, how to focus on and enhance the logic of business, what is the role of IoT in business, when do you need AI and what does AI mean beyond chatbots for your business etc. will all be amongst the critical topics that would be covered under the series.
Abhijeet Kumar, Co-founder of SMARTup emphasized on his goal to achieve a greater startup nation in a few words
SMARTup is a platform which aims to give the country’s potential startups a boost and a platform to achieve more visibility.
Meenal Sinha, co-founder of MeetingsAndOffices stated how important it is for today’s startups to understand the know-how of smart startups.
Over the past decade, there have been more startups being established. And, they need the guidance to accelerate their young company’s growth in the right direction. That is what SMARTup is driving to achieve.
Indore is populated with startup ecosystems. Indore being the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh has many industries and startups booming into successful businesses. Indore being the industrial center in the heart of India, we are grooming the ecosystem and wanting to increase awareness about startups, funding, investments, etc. through SMARTup.
At Indore, SMARTup will be curating one on one discussions of our audience with eminent people from the ecosystem. During this meet, startups could benefit the chance to meet prominent investors from across the country, all under one roof. If you want to know more about SMARTup, please visit SMARTup Indore
About ah! Ventures
ah! Ventures is a growth catalyst that brings together promising businesses and investors by creating wealth creation opportunities for both. ah!’s unique model serves investors, entrepreneurs & enablers through a unique blend of customized services, skill, and industry & domain experience. Founded in 2010, ah! Ventures has systematically disrupted the early stage funding ecosystem of India through its innovative approach toward startup investing. First of its kind initiatives like the CLUB ah! platform, ah! Angels [India’s largest angel network], ah! Seeders and ah! VC networks [India’s first seed & VC investment networks], have brought together and integrated the previously segregated startup funding life-cycle, under one roof. For more information, please visit ah! Ventures
About MeetingsAndOffices
meetingsandoffices.com is a managed marketplace based on the ‘Service Aggregator’ model, catering to the office space, meeting space and associated needs of the business traveler. We are aggregating verified & curated Meeting & conference facilities, day Offices, Shared Workspaces, Office Space leasing, associated services like secretarial, catering etc. into an easy access application with search, comparison and total fulfillment capability. For more information, please visit MeetingsAndOffices
NetApp, the data authority for the hybrid cloud, announced the graduation of its first cohort of six startups during the NetApp Excellerator Demo Day. Located in the heart of Bengaluru’s technology neighbourhood, the NetApp Excellerator program is NetApp’s first ever startup accelerator, designed to help enterprise startups to achieve their full potential through mentorship with one of NetApp’s largest R&D teams.
NetApp mentorship helped us focus our market research, and identify the right target market and target customers we could go after. Offering us the support of its large and experienced sales machine, NetApp made the program even more compelling. Our new-found status as a NetApp Alliance Partner has given us a sure foothold in the data driven enterprise domain.
The first NetApp Excellerator Demo Day event commemorated the completion of the first cohort, all six participating start-ups : Lightmetrics, Adya, Vaultedge, Vitacloud, Enclouden and Scalend, demonstrated their achievements & progress to venture capitalists, NetApp executives and prominent industry leaders present. Sports icon and entrepreneur, Anil Kumble, was the guest of honor for the demo day event held at the NetApp campus in Bengaluru. The event marked the culmination of the first cohort’s technology and market acceleration journey. Now as alumni, the startups will have continued access to mentorship and go-to-market opportunities with NetApp, as well as eco-system connects. They will also share their experiences with startups in the future cohorts.
Ajeya Motaganahalli, Director and leader of the NetApp Excellerator program, said
With our rich history of innovation and expertise in data management, we have been able to provide the right mentorship, both technical and sales related, to the startups in our first cohort. We leveraged expertise from across NetApp to help the six best startups selected from the 250 applications received. In addition, we got them the best-in-class global industry experts to help them qualify the target markets better and supplement their technical capabilities.
Strong mentorship helps build credibility and confidence for the participating startups. For example, during their time in the program, one participant, Adya, raised an angel round of funding to the tune of USD 250,000.
Commenting on the program, Deepak Visweswaraiah, Senior Vice President & Managing Director, NetApp India said
Mentoring the start-ups in our very first cohort was a valuable learning experience for us. It allowed us to reconnect with the startup that we remain at heart. We will continue to support the startups through the NetApp Excellerator program and provide them with the best ecosystem to achieve success.
Applications for the second cohort are now open. Selected startups will receive technology and business mentorship as well as access to markets and investors to realize the full potential of their ideas and products in the global market place. Applications are invited from startups working in the areas related to IOT, cloud, big data and analytics, machine learning, virtualization, data security, storage and data management, and other adjacent areas. To know more please visit http://startup.netapp.in/
About NetApp Excellerator
The NetApp Excellerator Program has been designed to help start-ups create innovative world-class products and solutions that are market-ready. The program enables start-ups to use NetApp expertise and its ecosystem of partners, subject matter experts and customers to realize the maximum potential of their innovative ideas. Startups that are selected will have access to NetApp platforms and technologies, tools, co-working space, HR, marketing, legal and tech support. NetApp will provide an equity free grant of USD 15,000 to these startups upon completion of the program. The startups own their IP and NetApp would not seek a stake in the same. For more information on this program and to apply, please visit http://startup.netapp.in; follow #NetAppExcellerator
Swiggy, India’s largest food ordering and delivery platform announced that it has acqui-hired Bangalore-based gourmet Asian food startup 48East, founded by food industry veterans Joseph Cherian and Nabhojit Ghosh.
Both will join Swiggy’s New Supply business line. As COO of the New Supply business line, Cherian’s expertise in the food infrastructure space will further strengthen Swiggy’s focus on solving for gaps in consumer supply through various strategic initiatives. This includes the recently launched Swiggy Access, where the company brings a variety of food to consumers by enabling plug-and-play expansion for restaurant partners in different areas.
While the food landscape in the country rapidly expands, numerous areas and scenarios or use cases remain under-served. Over the years, Swiggy has been exploring innovative ways to address this by providing solutions for the availability, quality and convenience of food. With Cherian and Ghosh, the company will be able to take this a notch higher as it looks to serve consumers more efficiently and grow the market.
Talking about the acqui-hire, Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy said
With their deep understanding of the food space and an impressive track record of delivering a great consumer experience, the 48East team will equip Swiggy with additional capabilities. We are excited to work with them towards our vision of changing the way India eats.
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
Cogknit – A tool that automatically generates transcripts and closed-caption files enabling accessibility of online video content [Site]
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]
Hyperworks– A self-checkout solution for fresh produce that uses gray-scale images [Site]
Jumper.ai – Enables shopping on social media through hashtags [Site]
Light Information Systems – A conversational bot that can be used to answer employee questions [Site]
Moonraft Innovation Labs – An interactive, in-store digital shopping assistant powered by Artificial Intelligence [Site]
Streamoid – Enables personalized product recommendations and natural-language search that suggest outfits and helps improve product discovery [Site]
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
