Three Indian Hardware Startups Gain Funding During TechMarch Finale From Kalaari

Early this week, Nasscom 10,000 Startups hosted the finale of the TechMarch 2016 on the sidelines of National Product Conclave in Bengaluru. The final seven startups pitched to a panel of judges including Vani Kola, Founder, Kalaari Capital; Margaret Burgraff, Vice President, Intel; Aveen Asrani, Director, Microsoft; Uday Prabhu, Head, IoT- Bosch; and Manjunath Hebbar, Founder, Buoyanci.

Out of the seven startups, five were declared as the winners of TechMarch 2016 while the remaining two are still in early-stage but were successful in grabbing attention.

The big news is that three startups, viz. Velmenni, Volta Motors and Cyclops have been committed an investment of $100K each by Kalaari Capital.

Velmenni: Velmenni is providing high-speed, highly-secure wireless communication system using LiFi technology. LiFi uses visible light spectrum to facilitate high-speed data communication up to 1Gbps, which is faster than the present day WiFi.

Volta Motors Private Limited: Volta Motors’ first product ZAP, is an electric bike product. As claimed by the company, it outperforms all the currently commercially available electric vehicles in terms of design, technology, travel range per charge and cost. Till date, Volta ZAP has featured in more than 60+ top websites and the startup claims to have received 1000+ pre-bookings of ZAP. The startup also has developed an electric scooter concept with the highest range, speed, efficiency. It is presently at the concept prototype stage (riding condition).

Cyclops: Cyclops is a medtech startup working on clinical and wearable diagnostic products and solutions using eye-tracking technology. Its first product, Balance Eye, is a clinical diagnostic device for diagnosing vertigo, balance disorders, and strokes with dizziness symptoms. It is meant to be used by neurologists, ENT Specialists, audiologists and emergency medicine specialists.

Other Startups That Were Part of The Finale

Thingscloud: It is an AI-focussed startup based on clean tech. It has four products – ThingsHiFi, ThingsWiFi, ThingsCloud, and ThingsApp. ThingsHiFi is a solar grid tie inverter that connects to the traditional rooftop Solar PV and doubles as a net-metering device that supplies power back to the grid. ThingsWifi is a plug and play device that can monitor energy consumption from any device at home or workplace. ThingsCloud and ThingsApp are the cloud and mobile application on which the data is hosted and monitored, respectively.

IOT Pot India Private Limited: IOTPOT is a startup in the smart kitchen space. It makes cooking safe, smart, and simple. As a first product, it is making a smart knob to address unattended cooking to make the average kitchen safer.

NeuroTech: It is an early-stage electronics hardware startup working in the domain of Brain Computers and smart wearables for the past two years. The flagship product Neurobuds – brain wave-mapping smart earphone – analyses brain wave data of the user and seamlessly integrates them with smartphones to run real-world applications. A working prototype was built and patent procedures are being carried out for the same.

TitanObots: Another early-stage startup, the team has built a little robot ‘MOJO’ with a human-like character. The robot can react, makes sounds as a human would do when scared, surprised or startled and can also dance. The aim is to help children get an understanding of robotics technology in a fun way.

The event also marked the distribution of tangible prizes to the top five teams. While Bosch gave prototyping kits and an incubation offer to early-stage startups, Neurotech and titanobots, Plugin (a DST, Intel and Sine IIT Bombay initiative) took four startups during TechMarch roadshow. Also, Bosch, Revvx, forge selected top 40 startups to be a part of their acceleration programme.

TechMarch 2016 In A Nut Shell

In a month-long journey, the Nasscom 10,000 Startups team selected over 65 startups from seven cities i.e. Bengaluru (14), Hyderabad (7), Cochin (6), Mumbai (11), Ahmedabad (9), Delhi (10), Coimbatore (3) and Kolkata (5).
Nasscom 10,000 Startups announced TechMarch – an initiative to bring together smart hardware startups driving innovation in September 2016. The programme included an eight-city tour and several roadshows to invite applications from startups.

The inter-city tour was led by Dhruv Sehra, who handles national industry partnerships and national programmes for Nasscom 10K Startups.

As said by Dhruv,

“It was a great journey.  More than finding the startups, the idea was to understand the regional hardware ecosystem, their challenges and how key stakeholders in the country can help the hardware ecosystem. Roadshows done in all eight cities proved extremely fruitful in meeting who’s who of the industry and learning the challenges on the ground level. Moving ahead, we will make sure that the top 40 startups get nurturing from the industry to scale up.”

What’s In It For The Startups?

The five selected startups will receive mentorship, investment and partnership opportunities.

As part of the programme, startups will be provided with technical, marketing, and financial support, and leadership skills to build their applications and businesses. They will also be connected to industry leaders (CEOs, thought leaders, VCs, ecosystem evangelists, social change leaders), and funders.

Check out some more pics from the  event here:

This post is powered by Nasscom 10,000 Startups.