8 Indian startups among 37 global startups participating in JETRO Global Connection event in Japan
The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is organizing JETRO Global Connection, to enable international startups and Japanese companies in the fields of mobility, health tech and smart homes to network and meet up on a common platform.
The four-day event from October 15-18 is being held as part of the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) 2019, Japan's largest CPS/IoT-related trade fair. This is the 20th edition of CEATEC which began in 2000. Over 750 companies are slated to participate in the event this year being held at Makuhari Messe near Tokyo.
From 180 promising startups working in mobility, health tech, and smart homes from around the world, 37 companies from 15 countries have been shortlisted to participate in JETRO Global Connection. The startups are from Israel, India the UK, Estonia, Canada, Colombia, Singapore, Switzerland, China, Finland, France, the US, Portugal, Luxembourg and Taiwan.
These include ride-sharing solutions provider Via (US), powered exoskeleton developers FREE Bionics (Taiwan) and ExoAtlet (Luxembourg) and smart-home device provider Swidget (Canada). The eight startups from India that are part of the event include:
AlphaICs: AlphaICs provides real AI processors that enable AI-based automatic learning solutions. Their products can be applied to data centers (HPC), automated driving, drones, robots, factory automation, AR, VR, MR, etc.
Intellicar: Intellicar provides a vehicle tracking system. Through it, such functions are capable as location determination by GPS, drive scoring, real-time capturing of gasoline consumption, remote engine operation, and more.
KiteMaps AMS (Redwing Labs): Redwing Labs offers a drone-based delivery system that enables last-mile transportation. With the support of Techstars and others, they also developed a hybrid VTOL (vertical take-off and landing aircraft).
SenseGiz Technologies: SenseGiz Technologies provides state monitoring solutions using small sensor nodes. Their product builds a large-scale ultra-low power mesh network of sensor nodes. They have motion sensing, pressure, vibration, temperature and humidity sensors in very small coin-sized devices. Their products can be customized to meet customer needs.
Jetsons Robotics: Jetsons Robotics has developed an automatic cleaning machine that can remove dust adhering to the surface of solar panels for photovoltaic power generation. Power generation efficiency can be improved by cleaning. It can be cleaned every day using very little electricity and water. Since remote control is possible, it has the effect of reducing the number of people cleaning a large power plant.
ToneTag: Tonetag provides a payment device that detects sound waves and allows payment without touch. It is highly secure and can be used for shopping and parking payments from inside a vehicle through mobile devices such as smartphones. They are partnering with Amazon and MasterCard.
Ushva Clean Technology: Ushva Clean Technology provides next-generation interactive solar inverters (beacons, signal transmitters) and IIOT edge devices. Alumni from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITBombay) have developed solutions to improve the efficiency of, and save labor for, solar power generation, as well as to realize Industry 4.0 and smart grids.
Veda Labs: Veda Labs is a retail tech company that uses AI to analyse consumer behaviour and facial expressions through deep learning. Using existing store cameras (CCTV), it analyses the routes and attributes of consumers and identifies repeaters customers.
In April this year, JETRO established an Innovation Promotion Division to strengthen business connections between Japanese companies working on open innovation and startups from overseas and JETRO Global Connection is a significant step in this direction.
