It's the end of an auspicious week. Now onto newer journeys and more brilliant innovations

Saturday October 20, 2018 , 2 min Read

An illuminated Mysuru Palace awaits the grand celebration of Vijayadashami. Image Credit: Bala Rajeeva

Phew, that was a heady week filled with pandal hopping, garba, family gatherings, temple visits and, most of all, the celebration of triumph of good over evil. We curated some gorgeous images of people celebrating Dussehra from all over the country.

While we wrap up a busy week and head into what we sincerely hope is a relaxed weekend for you, we want to remind you of the work some young startups are doing out there. Our Tech30 lineup this year was a smorgasbord of great ideas built lovingly and with great gumption.

Tech30 grads slayin' it a second time with Slang Labs

Take, Slang Labs, for example. For founders Kumar Rangarajan, Giridhar Murthy and Satish Gupta, this wasn't their first rodeo. Kumar and Giridhar were featured as a Tech30 startup in the 2012 edition of TechSparks, with Little Eye Labs. The startup, which created a performance analysis tool for developers to help measure, analyse, and optimise Android apps, went on to be acquired by Facebook in 2014.

Now, Slang is a voice-to-action platform that allows app developers to add a natural voice interface to control their apps via voice commands.

Will they have a hat-trick at a future edition of TechSparks? We certainly hope so.

Kumar Rangarajan, co-founder Slang Labs, pitching his startup at the 9th edition of TechSparks

Worxogo uses AI, behavioural science for employee productivity

When six colleagues discovered that one of the key challenges faced by large corporations was on the employee performance front, they set up Worxogo. The Tech30 startup uses persuasive technology and behavioural science to predict employee behaviour, and understand its correlation with performance and productivity. And people were taking notice. Worxogo raised Rs 16.5 crore this week in a round led Inventus India and Ideaspring Capital.

Ramesh Srinivas, CEO and co-founder, Worxogo at TechSparks 2018

Trash talk: taking on waste segregation at collection time

Ever thought what you can you do with the waste you produce? Twenty-three-year-old Nivedha RM has answers. The founder of the Tech30 startup TrashCon has taken up the challenge of waste segregation, but not at the source of generation as most often done. Her waste segregating machine can process municipal waste in bulk after it is collected, and segregate wet waste from dry.