Seven Mumbai startups that are disrupting diverse sectors with their tech solutions

While Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR are spearheading the startup ecosystem, metro cities like Mumbai aren’t far behind. The ‘Powai-Valley’ near the IIT Bombay campus has seen its fair share of successful startups and shutdowns. 

For every failed startup like Tinyowl, Doormint, or Housing, there are successful ones too - online ticketing platform BookMyShow, edtech startup Toppr, e-pharma startup Pharmaeasy, RevFin and AI-chatbot startup Haptik, in which Reliance Industries recently picked up a majority stake.

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Apart from these, there are several upcoming startups in the city. A few of the startups in Mumbai to watch out for are:

1. Board Infinity 

Founded in 2017 by Abhay Gupta and Sumesh Nair, Board Infinity uses funds in improving technology platforms and expanding its current learner base in Tier II and III cities. The startup recently raised a seed funding of Rs 2.2 crore from a clutch of angel investors. The Mumbai-based startup is reported to have said that it will use the funds in improving the technology platform. 

Board Infinity provides short skilling courses delivered by industry experts in live class formats across emerging technologies and management roles. 

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2. Skillmatics 

Skillmatics develops educational products and games that are designed to help children build core skills, through systematic play. According to Founder Dhvanil Sheth, its innovative offerings range from math and language to science and logic. 

Within six months of its launch, its product was ranked the number one educational game on Amazon. And last month, the company was chosen as one of the 17 startups for Surge, Sequoia’s accelerator programme for early-stage startups in India and Southeast Asia. 

As part of Surge 01 cohort, each company receives mentoring and $1.5 million in funding. At present, the company sells to more than 15 countries through its own website, various ecommerce marketplaces, and an international network of more than 3,000 retail stores. Its primary focus is on the North American market.

3. Transport Hub 

The Transport Hub (TTH) is a startup which uses IoT in logistics. Bootstrapped with the founder’s investment of about Rs 2 crore, The Transport Hub (TTH) claims to be the country’s first fully automated transport aggregator. Its Founder-CEO Rohit Chaturvedi is a technology and logistics expert with over 18 years of experience at companies, including KPMG, AF Ferguson, and Deloitte and CRISIL. An alumnus of IIM Bengaluru, this engineering graduate was also a part of the startup team at Jasper Infotech, promoters of Snapdeal. 

For its innovations, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) (earlier DIPP) selected TTH to represent India at the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year. There, the company was recognised as one of the “New Champions 2018,” and is now a member of the WEF Global Growth Companies’ community.

4. Oto Capital 

Mumbai-based Oto Capital is showing Indians that leasing cars is cheaper than owning them. Oto enables vehicle ownership in a new way with flexible usage terms. The user pays for a car with a low, all-in, month-to-month payment, only for the number of years they use the car.  

Founded in October 2018, the K Ganesh-funded startup has raised Rs 5 crore from a clutch of angel investors and is aiming to increase its network of car leasing dealerships from 25 to 150 this year. It has currently disbursed loans worth Rs 7 crore and is gearing up to disburse $500,000 or Rs 3.5 crore a month.

The startup was founded by Sumit Chazzed and Harsh Saruparia, 29, his friend from IIT-Mumbai. The company now has a presence in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, and Bengaluru. It has also tied up with 15 corporate clients who help their employees lease cars. 

5. Toch

Founded in 2016 by Vinayak Shrivastav, Alok Patil, and Saket Dandotia, Toch is an ecommerce and social media platform. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technology to detect objects, people, emotion, location, and activity seen in the video content in real-time. 

Primarily, Toch facilitates technology that creates content to engage an audience, building it for several apps through meta tagging. Toch enables the algorithm to learn about the kind of data that needs to be presented to the customer, thereby increasing engagement with an audience. 

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6. Infratech - (Bhonga)

Founded by Radhika Agarwal in March this year, Bhonga (it translates into “loudspeaker” in Marathi) is an app that aims to be a loudspeaker that “takes your voice to the people around you.” Run and owned by Linkus Infratech, Bhonga employs retired soldiers from the Army, Air Force, and Navy to guide citizens through emergencies of any kind. 

Bhonga connects people present within an area of one km seamlessly after they download the app and register. It is important to keep your GPS on (the app only shares location coordinates for security reasons) to be able to send a message in case of any need. The app also supports voice notes and photos. 

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7. Unfound News 

Founded in 2017 by husband-and-wife duo, Ankur Pandey and Anushree Bishnoi, Unfound News is an intelligent news insights app that aims to provide diverse perspectives to news and offer appropriate context. It helps users understand and consume relevant content and news stories. 

The algorithms help remove biases in any news piece by providing them with diverse sides to a story, and also offers contextual background information where needed. Currently in its pre-revenue phase, Unfound News has over 40,000 total installs as of now. 

Their daily active users are over 3,000, the average number of opinions read per user per day is over 4.5, and the average session time is close to 13 minutes. 

(Edited by Suruchi Kapur Gomes)

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