YES SCALE Accelerator: Promoting Innovation And Helping Build Smarter Cities

In July this year, YES BANK launched YES SCALE, a multi-sector accelerator programme aimed at helping startups working in areas of Smart City, CleanTech, Agritech, Lifesciences Tech, and EduTech. Recently, on October 9, YES BANK hosted the Pitch Day for its Smart City Accelerator programme.

Under the YES SCALE initiative, the startups will undergo an intensive 15-week accelerator programme and they will receive guidance and mentorship from more than a hundred industry experts. These startups will get an opportunity to receive proof-of-concept (PoC) funding from YES BANK and $1 Mn funding through its investment partners.

The programme will provide over $1 Mn in cloud credits, legal counsel, and open API access through its industry partners. The startups will also receive commercialisation support and access to investors and corporate partners across industries.

At the event held on October 9, 17 startups, selected from over 1,000 applicants from around the world, presented their solutions to a jury including Smart CEOs, representatives of Germany-based tech giant Bosch and US-based computer data storage company Dell EMC.

YES SCALE Smart City is a dedicated accelerator programme for startups that are working in the Smart City space, focusing on urban automation and mobility, smart energy, smart water and waste management, smart public services, and smart buildings, city and data management.

YES BANK has partnered with 13 Indian Smart Cities including Dharamshala, Chandigarh, Karnal, Gurugram, Surat, Vadodara, Aurangabad,Nashik, Puducherry, Rajkot, Amravati, Warangal and Karimnagar for this programme.

V Umashankar, CEO of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), in his special address, said, “Every city has its own conception of what smart is and you cannot fit it into a standardised template across the country. Every city feels it has a set of problems to which it is looking for a solution.”

He also explained that in the case of Gurugram, they are looking at the digital payment system, where they are finding a solution for small-value transactions using city buses as a first use case.

Rahul Kapoor, director (Smart Cities), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in his special address at the event highlighted the importance of this initiative as it provides startups an opportunity to collaborate with Smart Cities and helps address urbanisation challenges. He also encouraged other cities to become a part of the ecosystem that YES BANK is trying to create with YES SCALE.

Meet The 17 Startups shortlisted for the YES SCALE Accelerator Pitch Day:

• CivilCops: Delhi-based CivilCops was founded in 2017 with an aim to make reporting of public grievances easier and faster. The platform builds voice and chat assistants to help people report grievances using their phones.
• Awiros: This is a video intelligence platform that is aimed at helping various industries like retail, security, hospitality, and smart cities. It uses video analytics technology which convert the video into data, which is transferred to the cloud server. The server then converts this data into human motion metrics to track footfall, people count, etc.
• RouteValet: Jerusalem-based RouteValet uses behavioural economics and machine learning (ML) to create personalised, integrated routes across all modes of transportation including cars, with a special focus on public transit.
• Faclon Labs: This startup provides an Internet of Things (IoT)-based, end-to-end solution with a mix of hardware and data collection, analysis, and responsiveness for water distribution and management.
• SmartHealth: SmartHealth uses artificial intelligence (AI) and ML to convert medical data into common terminology.
• PParke: This is an end-to-end platform that leverages the IoT to offer citizen engagement services such as smart parking to consumers.
• SenseGiz: SenseGiz is focused on making enterprise and industrial IoT products for sensor-based condition monitoring, security, and real-time asset/people tracking applications.
• Huviair: Huviair offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based app that enables companies to incorporate drones in their workflows to generate high-resolution and high-accuracy data.
• DIVRT: This startup helps solve the problem of parking unavailability by matching it with surplus parking available in the vicinity.
• Fluid Robotics: Fluid Robotics builds a robotic platform for mapping urban pipeline infrastructureto help reduce water loss and water pollution.
• Phoenix Robotix: This platform offers Aurassure, which helps cities and industries achieve sustainable development goals using IOT sensors nodes and data analytics.
• Ecowrap: Ecowrap is an integrated channel that aims to improve waste management. It uses technology to collect waste, recover it and convert it into useful products.
• Vassar Labs: The startup processes and analyses real-time data from sensors and satellites to run scientific/ML models.
• Mobycy: Mobycy is an IoT-based e-bike and e-scooter sharing app that is aimed at solving last-mile connectivity challenges.
• LogicLadder: This startup is aimed at providing the best possible energy and environment intelligence technology to its customers
• Sensfix: Sensfix cloud brings assets via the IoT and all stakeholders to an online collaborative platform that automates the entire workflow of the maintenance process.
• Smider: Smider’s divider solutions use technology for intelligent traffic management.

Next Steps: Scaling Up Innovative Solutions

Out of the 17 startups that pitched their ideas before the jury, six or seven will get an opportunity to become a part of the YES SCALE Accelerator programme cohort. The final shortlist is expected to be announced next week.

These startups will closely work with Bosch, Dell EMC, and PwC over a 15-week period and get an opportunity to implement their solutions in the YES SCALE partner Smart Cities.