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|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: Infographic|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Internet of Things [IoT] has become one of the most popular technologies, especially when the discussion is about creating an overall connected eco-system. Be it homes, offices, vehicles, etc. most of them are now becoming ‘smart & connected’ and are able to generate data on which actionable steps can be performed.

Image Source – IoT

Most of this is possible due to the wide range of Sensors that are very important part of the IoT setup. Some of these sensors are Temperature Sensor, Pressure Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Accelerometers, Gyroscopes, etc.

As per a report by Gartner on IoT, there might be around 20 billion connected things by 2020. Things in IoT would not only be limited to smartphones, PC’s, etc. but also extend to other appliances. The meteoric rise of IoT and IIoT has resulted in evolution of new business models, thereby resulting in number of startups trying to solve ‘customer centric’ problems via IoT.

We take a look at ‘11 Internet of Thing Startups to Watch‘, a useful compilation created by Wrike, a company that specialises in project management software and has interesting set of tools with which you can manage projects online.

11 “Internet of Things” Startups to Watch
Infographic brought to you by Wrike manage projects online

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Uber announced UberEXCHANGE finalists at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017. As a part of this program, ten startups won an-all-expense-paid trip to San Francisco, where they will visit Uber’s headquarters to meet the executive leadership team and be introduced to potential investors.

Image Source – UberExchange

UberEXCHANGE was launched in 2016 as a part of Uber’s mission to create a startup ecosystem in partnership with Invest India. Since then, over 150 startups have been mentored by Uber’s senior leadership team. The finalists have been chosen through a rigorous selection process anchored by T-Hub, Telangana’s flagship startup incubator and accelerator. Among the winning startups, 5 startups are based in Hyderabad – Anytimeloan, Docturnal, Imaginate, Ekincare and Carengrow.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri. K.T.Ramarao, IT Minister, Government of Telangana said

Many compliments and congratulations to Uber and the startups that have been selected for the trip to San Francisco. T-Hub will continue to guide the startups and Uber is an exceptional partner who can really take them places. I hope the startups do extremely well going forward.

Amit Jain, President, Uber India & SA said

We are very excited to announce UberEXCHANGE finalists at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2017. We launched this program in partnership with T-hub last year  to support the Prime Minister’s Startup India vision. Since then, we have had the opportunity to mentor over 150 starups and be a part of their entrepreneurial journey. We thank the Government of Telangana and T-hub for their continued support in helping us bring this initiative to life.

Srinivas Kollipara, COO, T-Hub said

We aim to create opportunities for the startups in India to benefit from the global ecosystem through exchange of knowledge, access to mentors and investors. Through UberEXCHANGE, several startups  in India have benefited from hands-on mentorship sessions by Uber’s global leadership team. We are looking forward to continuing this partnership to provide a platform that will help many more Indian startup succeed in their entrepreneurial journey.

Gayam Raja, Founder, Gayam Motor Works said

We signed up UberEATS as our first customer for limitless e-bike in Singapore, Hongkong and San Francisco through UberEXCHANGE. Thanks to UberEXCHANGE and T-Hub for the kickstart.

UberEXCHANGE Delegation to San Francisco include:

  • Anytimeloan.in is a P2P platform for anyone who is in need of an instant loan or for people looking to leverage their savings by lending in a proven and scientific ecosystem, in a paperless and contactless environment.
  • carenGrow monitors complete physical, psychological and behavioural health profile of children in school through objective and non-invasive decision based intelligent monitoring system.
  • Docturnal, a non-Invasive point of care screening and diagnostics for tuberculosis & diabetes related ailments leveraging real time machine learning results.
  • Preva Systems offers end-to-end solutions in the area of real time identification, location and mobility of things/assets using its IoT platform enriched with analytics for superior business results.
  • eKincare is a patent pending wellness platform that integrates medical records, healthcare services and leverages predictive analytics to design wellness initiatives & reduce healthcare costs
  • AlgoSurg is a cloud-based software platform  for ‘X-ray based 3D surgery planning and patient specific instrument (PSI) design’ for deformity correction and replacement surgeries.
  • Imaginate Software Labs is a renowned augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) based technology enterprise, that offers innovative visualization products and services. Through its strong and proven technology expertise, it offers experiential solutions in the fields of retail, defense, enterprise, finance, entertainment and healthcare sectors.
  • JioVio HealthCare aims to provide home based predictive maternal care ecosystem in both urban and rural areas. Inspired by beauty, JioVio helps create a better, healthier lifestyle by bringing IOT base medical devices to pregnant women, encouraging them to take care of their health and to be informed.
  • Gayam Motor Works manufactures electric bikes and smart autos – the first EV in India with automatic battery swapping system.
  • Gray Routes Technology Pvt. Ltd is a leading provider of location analytics and field automation software. They aim to transforms the way the world’s leading brands use data to solve their toughest distribution problems.

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Nuvepro, a managed cloud environment solutions provider has raised $400K investment led by 1Crowd and its investor community. The investment will be used to deepen their R&D efforts and continue to expand into the worldwide market.

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on early stage ventures. It has more than 500 investors, 50 mentors and has made over 12 investments since March 2016. With the funds, the company will be able to leverage 1Crowd’s ecosystem of mentors, industry connects and investor community to benefit from strategic to operational support.

As part of the managed cloud environment solution, Nuvepro delivers ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on a single or multiple clouds, automates the resource provisioning, manages cloud resources & spend, ensures governance and compliance of cloud usage, integrates with your existing tools. All of this is done through a single-source self-service portal. The platform ensures that CIOs have complete control over resources, hierarchy, and subscription management. The embedded analytics provides insights that will help CIOs to track the cloud usage, optimize the resources and cut costs by over 50%.

Giridhar LV, CEO, Nuvepro said

80% of enterprises are using the cloud. However, the CIOs are still finding it challenging to increase the cloud adoption and utilization. The returns on their cloud investments are far from realized. Nuvepro was founded with a singular vision to make the cloud work, help CIOs make the most of their cloud investments and enable them to take the competitive-edge. We do it by taking complete ownership through managed cloud environment so that CIOs don’t need to worry about provisioning, governance, security, skill building, shadow IT and managing multiple clouds.

Anup Kuruvilla, Co-Founder of 1Crowd, said

Along with a well-respected, experienced and dedicated team, Nuvepro addresses key modern day challenge of cloud adoption. Microsoft Azure and Amazon web services have made strong strides in moving resources to the cloud and making the value proposition for enterprises attractive. We believe Nuvepro would be able to form a crucial bridge between enterprises and cloud providers by driving faster adoption. The underlying business model of providing ready to use cloud infrastructure available on a subscription or pay per go basis is also a strong pull for enterprises.

Janakiraman, Chairman, Nuvepro said

The debate on cloud is over. The focus now is to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. 1Crowd’s trust and investment in this vision gives us extra push to enable more CIOs to realize the true benefits of the cloud.

The startup was founded in 2014 by Janakiraman S, Giridhar LV, Umesh Bhatt, Moyukh Goswami and Rajesh Vasudevan, all having significant years of professional experience.

About Nuvepro

Nuvepro enables organizations to improve the cloud adoption and utilization. They do it through ‘managed cloud environment solution’ where we take complete ownership in providing ready-to-use infrastructure and applications on any cloud, automating the resource provisioning, managing cloud resources & spend, and ensuring governance and compliance of cloud usage. For more information, please visit Nuvepro

About 1Crowd

1Crowd is a unique angel investment platform focused on investing in early stage ventures. 1Crowd and its investor community has made 12 investments since last year. 1Crowd has close to 500 investors on board and over 50 eminent people as mentors. For more information, please visit 1Crowd

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

3M signed a MoU with the Government of Karnataka at the ongoing three-day Bengaluru Technology Summit.

As per the MoU, 3M will provide a ‘Booster Service Kit’ and conduct, on a ‘pro-bono’ basis, mentoring sessions to start-ups in the areas of commercialization process, stage gate discipline, building a business case and accelerating product launch, competitive and pricing analysis, and differential value and options analysis. This will be conducted as per the program and schedule mutually agreed by the parties involved.

Mr Krish Sridhar, Head R&D, 3M with Honorable Minister Priyank Kharge, ITBT & Tourism, Government of Karnataka, Gaurav Gupta, Karnataka Principal Secretary, Dept.of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology and, Salma Fahim, MD, KBITS and Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, IT & BT Department.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Priyank Kharge, the State Minister for IT, BT and Tourism, said

We are pleased to announce a partnership with global conglomerate 3M. It is our hope that start-ups in the State will benefit from the wide range of mentoring sessions by industry specialists from 3M in the areas of commercialization, stage gate discipline, building business cases, competitive pricing analysis and differential value analysis.

3M is a multinational conglomerate corporation that transforms technology into solutions. It supplies an array of innovative products across applications such as electronics, healthcare, industrial, safety and security.

|In: Entrepreneurship|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Government of Karnataka announced its partnership with the Business France India to develop and intensify mutual beneficial cooperation on 5 programmes under the umbrella of the French Tech.

This MoU sees promise in the dynamic start-up ecosystem which has emerged in France over the last few years as well as the strength of Karnataka as a start-up hub. .

Five areas of collaboration have been identified for the MoU, which include:

  1. French Tech Tour to India – For participation in the BengaluruITE.biz
  2. French Tech Ticket – Promotion of French Tech Ticket & NAIN and other incubators/accelerators in Karnataka
  3. French Tech Hub – 22 French Tech Hubs have been setup in the world and the first in India will be established in Bengaluru
  4. International collaboration
  5. Learning and commercial expedition

Honorable Minister Priyank Kharge, ITBT & Tourism, Government of Karnataka, said

Bengaluru has been the innovation and start-up hub of the country and has proven to be a preferred location for start-ups. We intend to provide best in class exposure to our start-ups for cross learning, incubation and partnerships. In this regard, the partnership with Business France India will enable Karnataka start-ups to leverage the inherent strength of France in education and R&D. The establishing of the French Tech Hub in Bengaluru will provide a single point access to innovations in France.

Mr Jean Francois AMBROSIO, Head of Tech & Services Dept. Director Business France South India with Honorable Minister Priyank Kharge, ITBT & Tourism, Government of Karnataka, Gaurav Gupta, Karnataka Principal Secretary, Dept.of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology and, Salma Fahim, MD, KBITS and Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, IT & BT Department.

About Business France India

Business France is the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy. Its three key responsibilities are to:

  • Support French or foreign companies with their international development
  • Facilitate job-creating foreign investment in France
  • Promote France’s attractiveness to business

|In: startups|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Sattviko, one of the fastest growing food companies in India, has been awarded as the most prominent food startup in the Agri, Food, & Forestry Products segment at The National Entrepreneurship Awards. The National Entrepreneurship Awards have been instituted by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship [MSDE] to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship across the country.

The award ceremony was presided over by Arun Jaitley Minister of Fiinance & Corporate Affairs, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan Honourable Minister of Petroleum & Natural gas & skill development & Entrepreneurship, Anantkumar Hegde Honourable minister of skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO ICICI Bank.

Started in the year 2013 with quick service restaurants, Sattviko has grown exceptionally to becoming a healthy lifestyle brand offering packaged food products that combines the goodness of age old wisdom of Ayurveda with the unique taste and flavor of contemporary cuisines. Sattviko has a range of ethnic product categories including Roasted Makhana, Khakhra Chips, Ajwaini Flax Seeds, Dry Mango, Khakhra Chips, Gur Chana, Salsa Almonds, etc. Sattviko fosters wellness and shares Indianness by incorporating modern flavors on traditional ethnic snacks.

Commenting on the recognition, Prasoon Gupta, Co-Founder of Sattviko, said

We are elated to be awarded as the most prominent food startup in the country. Since our inception, our focus has been on delivering an exceptional experience to our customers who are looking to adopt healthy lifestyle and its practices. Today’s customers are experimental in trying new cuisines yet the familiarity of certain flavours remains the requirement. Sattviko brings the benefit of both with its age-old recipes and exotic preparation methods.

Sattviko products are currently available at modern retailers such as Metro Cash & Carry, More, Hypercity and in general trade across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Surat.

The National Entrepreneurship Awards seek to recognise the efforts and achievements of exceptional entrepreneurs and those individuals and organisations who are working in the field of entrepreneurship development. The Awards also seek to highlight models of excellence for others to emulate and improve upon. The winners were selected through a three stage rigorous selection process. Winning individuals/ enterprises were given a prize amount of Rs. 5 lakhs.

About Sattviko

Sattviko started in the year 2013, and has been on an epic ride ever since. From launching the quick service restaurants and fine dine chains to becoming synonymous as a healthy lifestyle brand, it has stayed true to its core beliefs of delivering an exceptional experience to customers who are looking to adopt a healthier lifestyle but don’t want to compromise on the taste. Sattviko ethnic Indian snacks while being roasted & baked without any preservatives or artificial flavours provides a very healthy alternative to the current fried options available in the market. For more information, please visit Sattviko

|In: Funding|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Noida based startup, AHA Taxis [a division of WAAH Taxis Pvt Ltd], India’s leading online aggregator for outstation travel, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A funding from ah! Ventures and Lead Angels Network. The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach to newer geographies, and further strengthen the operations and service offering to customers.

The  IIT-IIM team led venture, AHA Taxis is set out to make inter-city travel easy, convenient and enable a user to save 40~50% on outstation taxis in over 350 cities across India, with 24*7 availability on mobile and web.

Amit Grover, Founder of AHA Taxis said

Three years back, we set out to solve a uniquely Indian problem of affordable and available outstation taxis. I am proud to have built a solution which caters to thousands of customers and drivers every day. Our investors’ show of confidence in our approach, despite the presence of biggies like Ola/Uber, is a big positive.

Traditionally, inter-city taxi operators charge a return fare from customers even for one-way trips, as they are not assured of passengers on the return journey. AHA Taxis addresses the issue of double fare charges for outstation taxi travel by integrating technology, marketing and operational efficiency, leading to a highly viable alternative to trains and buses.

Giving an investors’ perspective, Harshad Lahoti, Founding Partner & CEO of ah! Ventures, said

Since ah! Ventures’ seed round investment in AHA Taxi, the company has grown over 10X to 1,000 cities and 10,000 routes. Besides, despite the immense competition through applications such as Ola and Uber, AHA Taxi has created their own space and doing consistently well in maintaining the set standards and providing satisfaction to their customers. The positive reactions from their customers is a clear indication that AHA Taxi is on the right track and will create their own niche space in the near future. We are positive of their service offering & technology and also of their ability to create significant shareholder value.

In 2015, AHA Taxi had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from ah! Ventures platform. Besides ah! Ventures now backing them again in the current Pre Series-A round, more new investors from Lead Angels Network have also participated.

Sushanto Mitra, Founder – Lead Angels Network, said

The estimated $12B market of inter-city taxi services market has seen many causalities, however, with their focus on unit economics and frugal operations AHA Taxi has ensured its place in this high potential market.

Post it’s seed funding round in 2015, AHA Taxis has grown 10X on key metrics and already achieved operational break-even on monthly basis. Its taxi network today covers far-flung areas including Haldwani, Kasol, Kharagpur, Rameswaram, Somnath apart from all metros. AHA Taxis has developed key technologies for automatic driver allocation, auto-pricing, vehicle tracking, number masking and all of this has been done by its in-house technology team.