Startup news and updates: Daily roundup (September 17, 2024)
YourStory presents the daily news roundup from the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond. Here's the roundup for Tuesday, September 17, 2024.
Venture Catalysts participates in $1M seed round for Llumo AI
Venture Catalysts, an integrated incubator and accelerator platformme, said it is participating in a $1 million seed funding round for Llumo AI, an innovative company transforming the landscape of Large Language Model (LLM) deployment and optimisation.
This investment marks a significant milestone in Llumo AI's journey to democratise access to generative AI and help businesses unlock their true potential.
The funding round was led by Rahul Agrawalla, General Partner at Sense AI, with participation from India Quotient, Aum Ventures, Venture Catalysts, IIM Indore Alumni Angel fund, and a host of US-based angel investors. This diverse group of investors brings a wealth of experience and resources to support Llumo AI's growth trajectory.
Founded by Shivam Gupta, an IIT Roorkee alumnus, and Akshat Anand, an IIT Kanpur alumnus, Llumo AI has quickly established itself as a frontrunner in the enterprise SaaS space. The platform helps businesses refine their AI performance at 10 times the speed, enabling them to consistently deliver high-quality, AI-driven customer experiences. This results in enhanced revenue streams and greater profitability for Llumo AI's clients.
PVV Srinivasa Rao joins Atria Convergence Technologies as CEO
ACT Fibernet (Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd.), a fiber-focused wired broadband ISP (Internet Service Provider), has appointed PVV Srinivasa Rao (Srini) as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
In this role, Srini will guide ACT Fibernet into its next phase of growth, continuing to build on the strategic focus areas of delivering incredibly fast speeds, superior customer experience, innovation and category expansion.
Srini brings over three decades of diverse experience across multiple categories and industries, with a proven track record in consumer goods, FMCG, and telecom sectors. Prior to joining ACT Fibernet, he was the Regional President of Asia for Mars.
Yellow.ai launches LLM-powered VoiceX
Yellow.ai, an AI-first customer service automation player, has launched VoiceX, bringing voice conversations a step closer to human-like interactions. With LLM-powered intuitive voice technology and reduced latency, VoiceX-enabled AI agents can handle high volumes of customer queries while maintaining quality and delivering natural, context-aware responses.
Traditional voice bots often sound robotic and struggle with limited conversational depth and context understanding, worsened by rigid menu navigation. Key challenges include slow response times and a lack of real-time conversational intelligence.
VoiceX addresses these inefficiencies by delivering a more human-like intelligent conversational experience. It also achieves latencies of ~1.3 second with a proprietary algorithm. As a result, VoiceX-powered AI agents can enhance customer satisfaction by 40%, reduce operational costs by 60%, and boost customer engagement by 60%.
WeWork India and Heads Up For Tails join forces to drive pet adoption with ‘Adopt Don’t Shop’
WeWork India, a workspace provider, is teaming up with Heads Up For Tails, to champion pet welfare and responsible ownership with an adoption drive called ‘Adopt Don't Shop’. Scheduled on September 20, 2024, the adoption drive will be hosted across three cities in WeWork Galaxy (Bengaluru), WeWork Raheja Platinum (Mumbai), and WeWork Forum (NCR).
The initiative aims to raise awareness and inspire action towards improved pet care, with a strong focus on advocating for responsible pet adoption.
Adopt Don’t Shop is dedicated to animals and animal lovers, and pet parents can join the event along with their furry friends. Attendees can meet cats and dogs--each with their own unique personality, and ready to be adopted.
PayU unlocks climate finance potential in India
Financial services provider PayU has announced the extension of its strategic partnership with Footprint Lab, an Australian Cleantech startup. Together, PayU and Footprint Lab are bringing climate finance directly to the Indian consumers by providing them with an option to offset carbon impact of their daily purchases at payment checkout.
As part of this first-of-its-kind partnership with an Indian payment aggregator, PayU will integrate Footprint Lab’s advanced carbon measurement data into its payment checkout infrastructure. As consumers complete their purchases on PayU’s checkout page, they will be informed of the carbon emissions associated with their transactions.
For the first time, Indian consumers will have an option to offset their carbon impact by making a minuscule additional payment. These additional funds will be directed to a trusted entity, who will purchase carbon credits to execute various sustainable projects across India.
Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya announces scholarship exam SCORE Online
Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya has launched a scholarship exam, the SCORE Online 2024, to reward and recognise meritorious learners who aim high in their careers.
With up to 100% scholarships on Infinity Learn courses amounting to Rs 1 crore, this initiative empowers learners from classes 3 to 12 by strengthening their fundamentals through CBSE school academics, foundation courses, and test preparation for exams like JEE Main, JEE Advanced, and NEET.
The goal is to create toppers in these competitive exams and pave the way for bright career paths.
Two Brothers Organic Farms appoints former Zivame executive Arijit Gorai as New CGO
Two Brothers Organic Farms has appointed Arijit Gorai as Chief Growth Officer (CGO) as a part of its ongoing expansion at the senior leadership level.
In his new role, Arijit will be responsible for expanding the D2C brand’s presence across multiple channels and improving its customer experience.
His responsibilities will also include innovating product offerings to meet the growing demand for organic food products and enhancing their presence in key international markets. Earlier this month, Two Brothers Organic Farms also announced the appointment of its new Chief Operating Officer (COO), and additional senior-level hiring is in progress.
The series of appointments follows the company’s successful Series-A funding round led by Rainmatter, an investment initiative by Zerodha that is expected to support future growth measures.
IndiQube unveils office interiors experience centre in Bengaluru
India’s workplace solutions provider, IndiQube, said it has launched a first-of-its-kind experience centre for office interiors in Bengaluru. Titled ‘IndiQube Canvas’, the 25,000 sq.ft. state-of-the-art facility will serves as a transformative platform where clients can immerse themselves in a comprehensive showcase of office interior solutions.
“We always wanted to empower our clients to ‘Make Your Own Office’ with IndiQube. The launch of ‘IndiQube Canvas’ is a step in that direction. It offers businesses a tangible space to walk in, explore, and craft their ideal office environment from a vast range of a-la-carte design, furniture and fixture options,” said Meghna Agarwal, Co-founder, IndiQube.
IIT Madras researchers develop indigenous portable ultrasound scanner for sports injury diagnosis
Researchers from IIT Madras have developed an indigenous portable Point-of-Care-Ultrasound Scanner (POCUS) for sports injury diagnosis and management. They have already been granted several patents for technologies that went into this device and are working towards productisation.
This research from the Center of Excellence in Sports Science and Analytics (CESSA) at IIT Madras could potentially allow for on-field diagnosis of injuries, immediate assessment of the extent of injury that will allow for medical professionals to take a call on whether to permit the sportsperson to continue playing.
A working POCUS prototype for Musculoskeletal (MSK) imaging, developed at the Biomedical Ultrasound Imaging Lab (BUSi) is currently ready. The researchers are targeting to complete the product prototype development by 2024. Subsequently, testing and collection of pilot data from the field are also being planned in coordination with Sports Authorities.
Konverz.ai and Darwinbox announce strategic partnership to revolutionise talent decisions with AI-led assessment
Konverz.ai, an AI-driven talent solution platform, has announced a strategic partnership with Darwinbox, a leading global HR technology platform.
The partnership aims to transform the talent acquisition landscape, and will integrate AI-led assessments into the hiring process, offering clients an advanced, seamless solution based on Conversational AI, Psycholinguistics, and Behavioural Science, said the company.
The primary objective of this partnership will be to empower organisations with a comprehensive recruitment solution that leverages cutting-edge AI technology. By integrating Konverz.ai’s sophisticated AI capabilities into the Darwinbox ecosystem, customers will benefit from more efficient, data-driven, and bias-free hiring processes.
Fship disrupts ecommerce shipping with AI-powered platform, achieves 200% growth in first year
Logistics tech company Fship has launched an AI-powered platform for ecommerce. Designed to streamline operations for D2C brands, drop shippers, and traders, Fship has experienced remarkable growth, with a 200% increase in monthly revenue this year compared to the previous year.
Despite starting to generate significant revenue only in July 2023, Fship closed its first year with over Rs 15 crore in revenue. This year, the company is on track to achieve Rs 50 crore in revenue, showcasing its rapid expansion and success.
Launched in January 2023, Fship is leveraging cutting-edge AI technology to automate various aspects of the shipping process. This not only reduces operational costs but also enhances customer satisfaction.
eBikeGo Group’s company GreenPioneer Mobility appoints Iftekhar Ahmed as CEO
eBikeGo, an electric vehicle rental platform, has entered into a strategic partnership with GreenPioneer Mobility, and has appointed Iftekhar Ahmed as its CEO.
The partnership between eBikeGo and GreenPioneer Mobility, which is aimed at driving growth and innovation, will position them as leaders in the evolving landscape of personal mobility in India.
As part of its growth strategy, GreenPioneer plans to establish large flagship multi-brand stores, a chain of quick stores, and over 100 franchise outlets across the country. With private-label brands such as MEXPLE and Transil already in development, the company is focusing on helping individuals regain mobility and independence.
