The Innovation At Play In Tier 2: BIGShift Discovers 10 Startups From India’s Emerging Startup Hubs

Inc42 announced the BIGShift initiative with DigitalOcean in June, with the aim of uplifting the startup ecosystem in Tier 2 cities in India. BIGShift toured six such cities over three months to celebrate the efforts of each city to promote its startups.

Starting in Chandigarh, BIGShift travelled to all corners of India, stopping by at Nagpur, Kochi, Indore and Ahmedabad before the culmination in Vizag last week. With over 400 early-stage startups, founders and entrepreneurs coming together, BIGShift gave a platform to over 30 startups to pitch their ideas to stalwarts from their local startup ecosystem.

And through BIGShift, Inc42 discovered some unique new startups that are lighting up the innovation map in India’s Tier 2 cities. Here’s a look:

BIGShift Chandigarh

Zadd Bikes

Founded in: 2017
Founders: Aniket Bharadwaj and Shubham Goyal
Sector: Transport tech

With Jugnoo CEO Samar Singla as an investor and advisor, Zadd Bikes aims to counter issues such as congestion, pollution, time spent on the daily commute and more. With its eco-friendly and smart two-wheelers, it provides functionality such as real-time tracking, crash detection, connected riding experience and others. Additionally, it has focussed on urban mobility with features such as infotainment modules, anti-theft systems, onboard diagnosis and navigation among others.

BIGShift Nagpur

Minocular

Founded in: 2016
Founders: Mohit Sahu and Puru Agrawal
Sector: Deeptech

An AI-based platform for the mining industry, Minoculars offers a suite of applications that work seamlessly in mining management. These applications include hardware, mobile applications and more. With its tools that help mines manage, monitor and control the entire operation, it claims to ensure low fuel cost, easy supervision of the mining operation and quality analysis.

BIGShift Kochi

Yuva Pay

Founded in: 2016
Founders: Prashanth B and Shankar B
Sector: Fintech

With the aim of increasing the penetration of digital transactions in rural India, Yuva Pay has designed a platform that allows consumers to make digital payments without the internet. Taking into consideration the low bandwidth or patchy internet connectivity in rural areas, Yuva Pay encrypts and compresses the payments data and shares it similar to how SMS messages are exchanged on phones. To help with the setting up of the application in a feature phone, it has an agent in each location that helps customers with sign-ups and other steps along the way.

The Humble Shit

Founded in: 2018
Founders: Ujjwal Kumar and Samir Dayal Singh
Sector: Healthtech

Starting its operations in February 2018, this social impact and healthtech startup works towards solving the problem of dirty public toilets. It has developed a toilet monitoring system, which rates the hygiene and usability of public toilets. It allows the users to rate their experience once they have used the toilets and the supervisors can later evaluate the work of the janitorial staff based on this feedback.

EVR Innovations

Founded in: 2019
Founders: Parvathy H Kurup, Jijo Paul and Tito Joseph
Sector: Cleantech

This startup counters issues in shrimp shell waste processing, which is a major problem in aquaculture. Shrimp processing and exports generate over 50 tonnes of waste per day, disposal of which requires a lot of chemicals. This becomes a cause for a number of environmental issues. This is what EVR (Engineered Vermiculture) Innovations aims to counter, it uses the larvae of black soldier flies, which consumes large quantities of organic waste efficiently without harming the environment in any way.

BIGShift Indore

ClassMonitor

Founded in: 2016
Founders: Vikas Kumar and Vijeet Pandey
Sector: Edtech

This edtech startup provides a three-year curriculum for young learners, blending traditional teaching with modern methods of learning. It comes in the form of an activity kit that combines real-life learning experiences with activities. This kit is in the form of a physical box that has all the digital worksheets and study material.

BIGShift Ahmedabad

Torchit

Founded in: 2016
Founders: Hunny Bhagchandani and Mohit Chelani
Sector: Deeptech ( Hardware & IoT)

This healthtech startup has launched an assistive mobility device, which claims to have 99.7% obstacle detection accuracy at a range of two to eight feet. With this device, this startup aims to empower the differently-abled people across the world and help them lead a more independent, meaningful and connected life.

Reelo

Founded in: 2017
Founders: Parin and Prit Sanghvi
Sector: Consumer Services

Reelo is a loyalty programme that helps local stores and shop owners grow their business by helping acquire customers at a lower cost, and retaining them for longer by offering rewards. Starting its operations in Ahmedabad in 2017, today, Reelo operates in 24 cities and claims to have over 1500 clients.

BIGShift Vizag

Botclub

Founded in: 2016
Founders: K Harsha Vardhan, Sai Verma, Vignesh and Arun Kumar
Sector: Edtech

Botclub aims to revolution science education for students through practical demonstration kits named Scikits. Grade VI to Grade IX science topics are selected, strategically grouped together and dynamic unique products are developed. Scikits are installed in school campuses and Botclub’s instructors help and guide the schools in delivering the content to students.

Teacherr

Founded in: 2019
Founders: Varun Beluguppa, Harsha Teja and Sonu Sharma
Sector: Edtech

Teacherr, which won BIGShift Pitch at Vizag, provides edtech solutions for teachers and institutions through a community for professional educators. This community connects educators with each other and enables them to share knowledge, attend professional development sessions and find local jobs and opportunities among others.

Catch up on all that you missed, read all the BIGShift stories here.