9 Bengaluru startups gear up to be a part of UK
In March this year, Lord Bilimoria, Founder of Cobra Beer, said with complete conviction that Indian startups have the highest potential to build global brands. And five months down the line, this belief still holds true.
On Friday, nine out of the 50 startups selected across different Indian cities pitched to a panel of startup experts, industry stalwarts and UK experts. The startups bid in a need to be a part of the top 10 startups all-expense paid trip, to experience what it is like to do business in the UK. Hosted by UKTI, the Tech Rocketship Awards this year saw some truly different startups.
Bengaluru being the first city, these startups presented to a panel that comprised of Padmaja Rupel, President of Indian Angel Network; Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory; Ravi Gururaj, Mentor, Chair Product Council and Member Executive Council and now Founder and CEO QikPod.
Here is a quick look at the top nine Bengaluru startups:
Athletto
Athletto is an FICCI award-winning platform for sports, fitness facilities, coaching services and tournament information around the city. One can even book services and facilities on the go. IIM-A alumnus Ujwal Sutaria, Founder and CEO of Athletto, believes that one of the biggest advantages Athletto has is the fact that they have partnered with the likes of Decathlon. The team has also raised an angel round of funding, and have also been shortlisted for Y-Combinator 2016 batch.
Bendflex Research and Development Pvt Ltd.
Bendflex focuses and specialises in designing devices that aim to revolutionalise in-vitro fertilisation to improve the outcome and give better results. Ramnath Babu, Co-founder of Bendflex, says that the company is pioneering and transforming medical diagnostics using mechanical products. The team has already worked on two products. Currently, however, they are focussed on their patent-pending in-vitro fertilisation device. Bendflex has also won several startup awards.
Cashkumar
Bengaluru-based fintech startup Cashkumar aims to transform the way lending is done in the country. Dhiren Makhija, Co-founder of Cashkumar, believes that with time if one cannot get a loan through Cashkumar, it will be difficult to get a loan anywhere else. The company is in the process of organising every source of credit to increase one’s probability of getting a loan.
CatalanLabs Research
CatalanLabs Research’s product Portuspine aims to correct one’s posture. Jerrin Lyns John, Co-founder, believes that prolonged inactivity and bad posture causes several health problems. Jerrin aims to compete with the likes of Fitbit. Portuspine analyses one’s daily activities and sleep patterns, makes personalised recommendations and provides posture correction. It brings posture coaching and activity recommendations into a fitness device.
Linksmart Technologies
- Linksmart Technologies provides anti-counterfeit, tamper-evidence and warranty fraud management through a single-point solution - smartDNA. The only Advanced Security Label available globally today that provides instant & precise verification using a smartphone. Koushik Banerjee, Co-founder and CPO, says that smartDNA uses patented technology to generate per-piece unique label without use of over/covert feature, combined with credible tracking.
Paratus Knowledge Ventures
Paratus Knowledge Ventures has built a gamified aptitude and skill development programme ‑ Fundamentor. Ankur Vohra, Co-founder of Paratus Knowledge Ventures, says that most of the students today lack cognitive aptitude. The product provides a time effective and habit forming solution for aptitude development. Currently, the platform has close to 3,000 paid subscribers and has won several innovation in education awards.
Quizworks
Miraj Vora, Founder of Quizworks, believes that there is a need for a stronger and more powerful sales team and force. Their product Outsell is an award winning sales performance software that helps companies enhance their sales team’s product knowledge. It also helps them learn improve upselling, cross-selling and standardisation of sales content.
Tagbox
Rawdata Technologies has come up with a logistics-enabled solution that helps tackle supply chain problems with the use of IoT-enabled diagnosis and analytics. Known as Tagbox, their suite of solutions focusses on the problem faced by food and medicine delivery. Soumitra, Founder of Tagbox, believes that almost 20 percent of vaccines shipped get spoilt and one-third of food produced doesn’t reach consumers. Tagbox bring live visibility to these supply chains and help diagnose and solve the problems.
Satsure
Satsure, a data analytics and consulting firm, has tied up with the Andhra Pradesh government provide satellite data-enabled solutions for effective risk management in crop insurance sector.
Abhishek, a space technologist and Founder of Satsure, says that they integrate the sensor data from space and ground, analyse critical trends over time, use big data approach for transforming earth observation data into actionable intelligence for insurance, re-insurance, agri-futures trading companies and banks.
Being the first of the cities, after Bengaluru, the TechRocketship Awards will scout for the best entrepreneurs across New Delhi, Chennai and Pune. However, while the businesses will get an opportunity to explore business opportunities in the UK, there also are some concerns of BREXIT and its implications. However, one winner will be selected from each of five categories – cleantech, edtech, fintech, medtech and smart manufacturing.