Here Are The 10 Indian Startups In Target Accelerator’s 7th Cohort

US-based retail giant Target has announced the seventh cohort of the ‘Target Accelerator Program’ in India. The cohort is made up of startups in logistics (supply chain, inventory placement, vendor management), marketing (ad technology, merchandising, product design) and sustainability. The selected startups are Unifiz, Entropik, Blubirch, Unreal AI, SprintAI, TrashCon, Stylumia, Intello Labs, Kenscio and Flixstock.

Set up in 2005, Target in India has more than 3,000 team members engaged in work that supports Target’s global strategy across business areas such as technology, marketing, human resources, finance, merchandising, supply chain, property development, analytics and reporting.

The company introduced the Target Accelerator Program in 2013, which gives startups a platform to develop, scale and test their products in a live retail environment, while also accessing Target mentors in India and the US.

To date, 36 startups have graduated from the programme and have worked with Target teams across stores, marketing, finance, legal, merchandising, mobile and digital. Some of the startups that have graduated in the past include StylDod, Moodboard, Jumper.AI among others.

The four-month programme gives startups a chance to focus on leveraging technology to create solutions for the retail environment and enhance the shopping experiences of Target guests in stores and online.

Startups Selected For The “Target Accelerator Program”

The selected startups will have access to Target mentors, tools, resources and operational support – as well as workspace at Target’s office in Bengaluru. The startups will use emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing and analytics.

Tammy Redpath, senior vice president and president, Target in India, said,“Every new batch brings new possibilities and opportunities to develop and scale solutions in the global retail setting. This batch is diverse in their capabilities influencing multiple areas of the business.”

Here are the selected 10 startups:

Unifize 

Founders: Lakshman Thatai and Ben Merton

Founded in: 2016

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose: Unifize builds cloud-based technology that enables sales teams at manufacturing and engineering organisations to measure and reduce time and errors in their communication processes

Entropik

Founders: Bharat Singh Shekhawat and Ranjan Kumar

Founded in: 2016

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose: The company makes software that helps app developers track the emotions and context of their users on the basis of data from their smartphone or wearable’s accelerometer and pressure sensor

Blubirch

Founders: 2014

Founded in: Sapan Jain

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose: Blubirch offers end to end reverse logistics solution to maximize recovery from returned, unsold and unused technology assets for retailers, OEMs/ODMs and enterprises.

Unreal AI

Founders: Nishchal Gaba and Saurabh Singh

Founded in: 2018

Based in: Delhi

Purpose: Unreal AI’s product Vizor ID is an easy to install security device that uses face recognition to authenticate employees at locations such as offices and schools

SprintAI

Founders: Ankit Jain and Anurag Bhatt

Founded in: 2018

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose: SprintAI is an enterprise AI company building system of intelligence for the retail industry. Its products are used by leading brands and retailers to take decisions around the entire Planning & Buying, Merchandising & Inventory Management and Fulfillment functions of their businesses. 

TrashCon 

Founders: Nivedha RM

Founded in: 2017

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose: TrashCon’s product TrashBot segregates mixed municipal solid waste (MSW) (containing food waste, plastics, cardboard, meat, blood, diapers, sanitary napkins etc.) into biodegradable and non-biodegradable components upto an efficiency of 99.6% using its patented technology.

Stylumia

Founders: Ganesh Subramanian

Founded in: 2015

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose: Stylumia provides actionable intelligence from structured and unstructured consumer data sourced from the web and directly from consumers, which fashion decision makers can use to come up with styles that customers love in shorter cycle times.

Intello Labs 

Founders: Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Chandani

Founded in: 2016

Based in: Gurugram

Purpose: Intello Labs is leveraging artificial intelligence to build a platform for grading and quality monitoring of agricultural commodity. Intello’s AI uses a photo of the commodity sample to generate instantaneous quality metrics.

Flixstock

Founders: Ajay Khandelwal and Harindar Keer

Founded in: 2012

Based in: Gurugram

Purpose: Flixstock provides technology and services to streamline the process of shooting On-Model ecommerce imagery for the fashion and apparel industry

Kenscio

Founders: Manjunatha KG and Saurav Patnaik

Founded in: 2009

Based in: Bengaluru

Purpose:  Kenscio offers host of solutions to businesses, such as email marketing solutions and services, social media marketing, media services, real time email personalisation, email list cleansing, multi-channel marketing intelligence and analytics.