BIGShift, Organised By Inc42 And Amazon India, 40 Startups From Tier II Cities Showcased
“It’s not just about ideas, it’s about making ideas happen. Do It!”
This was the ethos that kick-started BIGShift, a joint programme by Inc42 and Amazon India for Indian startups that strove to connect the startup ecosystem by hosting localised meetups in eight Indian cities beyond Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
The four-month event series collectively saw the participation of 700 attendees and provided 40 Indian startups with an opportunity to present their ideas to the audience, which was a mix of entrepreneurs, investors, and influencers from respective series.
Of the 40 Indian startups that showcased during BIGShift, here our top picks that we feel are the most likely to make some great buzz.
Spread across cities ranging from Chandigarh to Vizag to Bhubaneswar to Nagpur and sectors as diverse as IoT, agritech, fintech, let’s take a look at 12 of our favorite Indian startups we discovered during BIGShift.
The 12 Indian Startups That Caught Our Eyes During BIGShift 2017
Kritsnam Technologies
- Founded in: 2015
- Founders: K Sri Harsha, Sagar Setu, Prudhvi Sagar
- Headquarter: IIT Kanpur
- Category: IoT
- Business Model: B2B
Founded in November 2015 by K Sri Harsha, Sagar Setu and Prudhvi Sagar, Kritsnam Technologies is an Indian IoT startup with a key focus on water resources management. The IIT-Kanpur based startup aims at empowering the developing nations with cost-effective and data-driven water resource management techniques.
The startup is garnering support in the form of grants from different quarters of influencers such as DST, FICCI, USAID, Ericsson India Global Services, DST Nidhi Prayas, MHRD, DISR (shared with IIT Kanpur) and IUSSTF – DST, US Govt (shared with IIT Kanpur, Wood Hole Oceanographic Institute).
The market which Kritsnam is targeting is currently dominated by corporate giants like Siemens, Campbell Scientific, etc.
Pindfresh
- Founded in: 2016
- Founders: Somveer Anand, Sohila Anand and Jaspal Singh Anand
- Headquarter: Chandigarh
- Category: AgriTech
- Business Model: B2B/B2C
The Chandigarh-based startup was founded in 2016 by Somveer Anand, Sohila Anand and Jaspal Singh Anand. Pindfresh is attempting to disrupt the way food is grown and consumed in urban areas.
Pindfresh has developed a sustainable system where food production is brought directly to people’s homes, instead of the countryside, using innovative, hi-tech and inexpensive techniques making urban farming easier in homes, rooftops or balconies.
The startup aims at affecting the urban farming sector. It works on three streams of business: creating and selling systems for home and commercial usage, producing food using and selling it and lastly, holding workshops to equip the youth to reclaim their right to clean food and a green environment.
DronaMaps
- Founded in: 2016
- Founders: Utkarsh Singh
- Headquarter: Visakhapatnam
- Category: Drones and 3D Mapping
- Business Model: B2B
DronaMaps was founded in 2016 and the Indore-based startup works on recreating reality in 3D. The startup specialises in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), photogrammetry, 3D, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, machine learning, maps and IT infrastructure, among other things.
It specialises in machine vision and 3D to cause a ‘BigShift’ from inefficient workflows into parallel multi-scale and real-time utilisation of massive 3D data. The startup has received an award from MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan at the Federation of Madhya Pradesh Chamber of Commerce and Industries during the 4th Outstanding Achievement Award ceremony in 2016.
Omegaon – PhotoClickPay
- Founded in: March 21, 2016
- Founder Info: Sreekanth Eragadindla
- Headquarter: Bengaluru
- Category: Fintech
- Business Model: B2C
As India moves to become a powerhouse of the digital economy, we are still facing some major hurdles. Most of the smartphone users in India are unable to perform digital payments because they are digitally illiterate. Consequently, they are unable to enter bill details like electricity ID number, consumer number, board name, card details, etc.
Founded in 2016 by Sreekanth Eragadindla, Omegaon works on solving the aforementioned problems. The startup, which became fully operational only in 2017, created a technology called PhotoClickPay.
It leverages AI and unique IDs like Aadhaar to predict payments and future needs of an individual as well as enterprises for all their regular payment needs like rent, EMI, Fees, etc.
Currently, a total of 30,000 users are using the app and a total transaction volume of $388K (INR 2.5 Cr) has been achieved in one year. Over 20 ‘paying guests’ and 10 colleges have adopted the PhotoClickPay as a mode of payment method. Omegaon merchant app enables SME like PG, Apartments, EMI companies, etc. can collect payments with zero line of code.
O2ONow
- Founded in 2016
- Founders Manoj Gaddam, Aradhana B Kamidi, Syam V Navur
- Headquarter: Nellore, Andhra Pradesh
- Category: Hyperlocal
- Business Model: B2B/B2C
In the world with an increasing presence of ecommerce websites, local shops have gone into oblivion. Our good old kirana stores are left not to be picked up by either the GPS or by any website. This vacuum was largely left unattended until now.
O2ONow was started by Manoj Gaddam, Aradhana B Kamidi and Syam V Navur in 2016 and is an offline store aggregator platform with in-built digital marketing tools. It is aimed at building an ecosystem for retailers (with a mobile-first approach).
The startup is operational in Hyderabad and Nellore and has enabled 129 sellers from Nellore and another 154 from Hyderabad to reach their potential market.
Among its achievements, being chosen as a local startup by I&C Dept., Govt. of Telangana to provide low cost solutions that enable MSMEs to digitise their business, working in three technical workshops organised by the I&C Dept. along with other organisations like Microsoft, Nowfloats, Tigersheets, being one of the five startups selected by Amazon for BIGShift Vizag and being selected for the ScaleMinds accelerator programme in 2017 are some prominent ones that stands out.
Aurassure
- Founded in: 2015
- Founders: Amiya Kumar Samantaray
- Headquarter: Rourkela
- Category: IoT
- Business Model: B2B (solution as a service)
Aggressive urbanisation and industrialisation have resulted in a fatal level of air pollution in India. No wonder, Indian cities like Delhi are featured as some of the world’s most polluted cities in the world. Taking note of such a situation, Aurassure was founded by Amiya Kumar Samantaray on May 2015 to build end-to-end solutions for environmental monitoring.
This startup is incubated at NIT Rourkela and is working in the field of Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). The startup has so far raised $50K in Seed funding from investors Amit Gupta (ED, Narbheram Steel and Power), Manoranjan Mohapatra, Amrit Biswal.
Currently, it has a team of more than 25 members, with operating offices at Rourkela and Bhubaneswar. They are working with two different customer segments; one being medium and large scale industries, while the other one is Smart Cities.
WEPaint
- Founded In: 2015
- Founders: Jatin Patel, Suraj Patel
- Headquarter: Ahmedabad
- Category: Consumer Services
- Business Model: B2C
Ahmedabad-based WePaint, co-founded by Jatin Patel and Suraj Patel, converts any surface or background into a writable-erasable-projectable surface. Currently, it is the only manufacturer of dry erase paint in India.
WePaint currently caters to IITs, VITs, Nirma University, the US Embassy and many more institutional customers. It also boasts Godrej, Siemens, Claris, Baxter, Adani, etc. as its registered customers. Its major traction cities are in Bengaluru and Mumbai. At present, the startup is looking for a pan-India expansion and is also keen on entering the Middle East.
Accelo
- Founded in: May 2017
- Founders: Arbaz Reza, Vrunda Nimje, Aditya Unde
- Headquarter: Mumbai (Previously Nagpur now shifted to Mumbai)
- Category: Mobility Safety
- Competitors: Netradyne
- Business Model: B2B
With automobile sales reaching an all-time high, road-safety has become more of a necessity than anything else. While road-safety has been largely propagated through targeted campaigns in schools, colleges and other institutions, these days technology is doing the job for us.
Accelo was founded by Arbaz Reza, Vrunda Nimje and Aditya Unde in 2017 and is developing products that would improve human and vehicle safety on roads in India. Accelo Innovation is envisioned to disrupt the automobile sector with its driver assistive savvy technology.
Its revenue streams range from the sale of products to insurance companies, fleet owners, logistics companies, packers and movers; licensing to OEMs; tie-ups for data exchange with insurance companies, OEMS and governments.
ShoppingPost
- Founded in: May 2016
- Founders: Manas Usharia, Shantanu Gaur
- Headquarter: Indore
- Category: Shopping and Social Network
ShoppingPost, founded by Manas Usharia and Shantanu Gaur, is a social shopping network and product discovery platform. Founded in 2016, it enables users to share what they buy with their friends and their network, discovers what others are buying, explores trends, provides user feedback. It enables a community where shoppers meet other shoppers.
ShoppingPost is targeting to empower a billion shoppers to make the right shopping decision. The startup claims to have 170K installs (Android) so far. It has raised $140K (INR 90 Lakh) from angel investors.
Fleetferry Logistics
- Founded in: 2017
- Founders: Avik Das, Deepto Choudhury
- Headquarter: Kolkata
- Category: B2B
- Business Model: B2B
Fleetferry Logistics is a tech-based freight service provider founded in 2017 by Avik Das and Deepto Choudhury, which enables smooth and hassle-free cargo movement for SMEs and large corporates in manufacturing, infra development, FMCG and related segments.
Intercity logistics is an industry which is extremely fragmented and dominated by multiple brokerage layers. Fleetferry Logistics aims at helping the industry by consolidating the multiple brokerage layers by becoming a single aggregator.
HappyDNA
- Founded in: November 2016
- Founders: Abhik Mallik, Sudipta Pal
- Headquarter: Kolkata
- Business Model: B2B
The healthcare industry in India is undergoing a transformative phase, evolving from mere medical treatments to rolling out health plans. Health insurance is one segment that is now on the verge of covering OPD checkups with the doctors.
With all the innovations taking place, healthtech startups are coming up in India that not only help patients get the right treatment from the best-recommended doctors but also work on the preventive measures of disseminating information and conducting activities to check any early symptoms. HappyDNA is one such startup that is solely focussed on preventive healthcare for children.
Launched in October 2017, HappyDNA is an initiative by two school friends who became co-founders. Sudipta Pal and Abhik Mallick bootstrapped the startup to help the next generation of Indians keep their nutritional and psychological health in order. It works in the domains of preventive health, psychology and developmental care for children.
This Kolkata-based startup has identified three major risks regarding children’s health – physical health, mental health and developmental needs. HappyDNA operates through an innovative ‘Educate-Detect-Intervene’ model. It claims to have touched 5K+ lives, 14 institutional partners and 50+ experts on the platform.
Carrymates
- Founded in: July 2017
- Founders: Youmit Singh, Pushpendra Sijariya, Navneet Kumar, Hitesh Kumar
- Headquarter: Mumbai
- Category: P2P Delivery
The world recently has seen some great initiatives on sharing economy ranging from cab sharing to home sharing to workplace sharing. A new world order is on the horizon. Arising out of ‘sharing Economy’ is a noble approach towards a better world with consumption shifting from individual basis to collective basis, thereby saving significant energy or resources and controlling pollution.
CarryMates’ which was founded by Youmit Singh, Pushpendra Sijariya, Navneet Kumar and Hitesh Kumar in 2017, is one such initiative in the courier and logistics space that is striving to maximise utilisation of the unutilised carrying capacity of millions of travellers commuting daily using various modes of transportation. The Mumbai-based startup is bringing a unique and innovative platform to connect these travellers with the people who want to parcel their items.
CarryMates is creating a social community platform where people will be connected with other building trust factors and informed about others travelling plans. This unique community will create ample opportunities for people to earn and save money as carriers and senders.
Over the next two weeks we will be covering these startups in detail, stay tuned! To read more stories about BIGShift, click here.
