PayPal to Incubate 2 New Tech Startups in Chennai

PayPal India has announced that it has selected two new tech startups for its ‘Start Tank’ Incubation Center in Chennai. The winners — Clockwork Interviews Private Limited and Demach Software India Private Limited — were chosen from among 11 other startups that presented their business pitch at the Start Tank Incubation Challenge final on October 31, 2014. The selection was organized as part of PitchFest in partnership with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Chennai.

The unique Incubation Challenge was launched in September 2014 across four cities in Tamil Nadu to identify and nurture some of the country’s next generation technology-centric startups. More than 60 applications were received for incubation at PayPal’s Start Tank Chennai.

Anupam Pahuja, General Manager, Technology – Asia-Pacific, PayPal, said, “PayPal is proud to announce the selection of Demach Software and Clockwork Interviews for incubation at Start Tank, Chennai. As a company that was started by young entrepreneurs, PayPal recognizes the importance of encouraging the growth of tech startups and the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem. We truly believe that the new incubatees will benefit from our technology mentorship and the obligation-free environment we provide at Start Tank.”

“TiE Chennai welcomes the two new tech startups for the Incubation Center at PayPal facility. I am excited to see their promising business ideas, and I am sure that the mentorship that will be provided by TiE Charter members and PayPal technologists will help them become recognizable brands,” Lakshmi Narayanan, President, TiE Chennai, said.

Jayadev Mahalingam, co-founder of PiQube, a product of Clockwork Interviews, a Hiring Analytics company, said, “We are eagerly looking forward to the technology and business mentorship support from PayPal and TiE, and we hope to make the most of this opportunity to fuel our business.” Srikrishnan Ganesan, co-founder of Demach Software, makers of Konotor, a user-engagement solution for mobile apps, said, “The Start Tank Incubation Challenge gave us an opportunity to meet some very promising startups. The incubation, along with the world-class support from brand names like PayPal and TiE, will certainly enable us to take our company to the next level. The timing is perfect for us as we expand our team and bring in new people into a dynamic environment.”

PayPal’s Start Tank provides an obligation-free environment for select startups to evolve. The exclusive facility in PayPal’s Chennai development center has an office area of more than 11,000 square feet with a world-class incubation space, state-of-the-art conference rooms and other amenities.

Start Tank runs globally across PayPal offices in Boston, London and Chennai, and provides access to global mentors, angel investors and venture capitalists. PayPal formally launched its Chennai startup incubator in association with TiE Chennai in November 2013 and currently hosts four startups: DoPartTime, Fantain, Hey Feedback, and Kobster.com.

$62 Million for 16 New Investments at Intel Capital Global Summit

Intel Corporation’s global investment organization, today announced at the Intel Capital Global Summit investments in 16 technology companies. Totaling approximately $62 million, the investments cover a broad spectrum of innovative technologies.

“Intel Capital invests in the technology continuum that runs from wearables and the Internet of Things to big data analytics – and everything in between, including silicon, smart devices, PCs, the cloud and datacenters,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “We are focused on helping innovative companies develop across this technology ecosystem, and we expect to invest a total of $355 million this year.”

 Sodhani’s announcement came at the opening of the 15^th annual Intel Capital Global Summit. The venture capital industry’s premier networking event convenes more than 1,000 founders and CEOs from Intel Capital’s global portfolio, Global 2000 business executives, and industry influencers for two days of company building. This year, the invite-only event featured distinguished speakers including former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Stanford President John L. Hennessy, record-setting polar explorer Ben Saunders and former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt.

The founders of the newest portfolio companies run the gamut from 13-year-old Shubham Banerjee, who has invented low-cost Braille printers for the blind using Legos and Intel Edison chips; to Sundari Mitra, a 25-year semiconductor industry veteran who is now running her second startup; to Earnest Earon, a rocket scientist whose new company uses unmanned aircraft and cloud-based software to perform data analytics for agricultural, emergency response and other uses.

More on the new investments, grouped by technology sector:

New Devices/Wearable Computing

Avegant (Redwood City, California), developing the next generation of wearable devices, is bringing to market the Glyph, a mobile personal theater that uses a micromirror display with built-in premium audio. Glyph raised more than $1 million in its Kickstarter campaign earlier this year.

Braigo Labs Inc. (Palo Alto, California, U.S.), founded by 13-year-old entrepreneur and middle schooler Shubham Banerjee, provides scientific and technological services by researching and developing technology-based innovations and services. Its products include Braigo v1.0, a Lego Braille printer that dramatically reduces the price of a printer from more than $2,000 to $350 for education, teaching and home-use purposes.

Eyefluence* (Reno, Nevada, U.S.) transforms intent into action through your eyes. The company's robust, low-power, eye-tracking technology, with its iUi interaction model, integrates into any augmented reality or virtual reality head-mounted display (HMD) to provide natural, intuitive eye tracking and control.

Mobility/Wireless

AnDAPT (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) brings a new genre of analog adaptive products for multifunction sensor integration and integrated system power management, enabling enterprise customers to achieve lowest power consumption, smart power management, high integration, high system reliability and lower cost.

Audyssey (Los Angeles, U.S.) is a leader in research-based audio technologies that correct acoustical problems to improve the sound quality of any device or listening environment. The company’s technologies are integrated into home theater products, automobiles, TVs, mobile phones and movie theaters from industry-leading manufacturers.

Incoming Media (Santa Clara, California, U.S. and Sydney, Australia) is a mobile video platform that uses predictive data analytics and intelligent content pre-loading to learn how a viewer consumes video on a mobile device and delivers a personalized mobile video experience with no interruption.

INRIX (Kirkland, Washington, U.S.) leverages big data analytics and predictive technology to help automakers, corporate fleets, governments and news organizations reduce the economic and environmental toll of traffic congestion.

Screenovate Technologies (Israel) offers mobile solutions that cover entertainment, productivity and education. Among other applications, its technology enables smartphone and tablet users to wirelessly beam movies, games, presentations or other content from their mobile devices to their TVs or other large displays.

Thundersoft (China and Taiwan) is a mobile OS core technology and solution provider that accelerates product development by providing leading technology and services, specifically for Android smartphone and tablet services. [Investment subject to satisfaction of closing conditions.]

Advancing Microprocessor and SoC Development

NetSpeed Systems (Mountain View, California, U.S.) offers a system-on-chip (SoC) design platform and advanced on-chip network solutions that let SoC architects create designs that are significantly smaller and more power-efficient in a fraction of the usual time.

Reno Sub-systems (Canada) designs, develops and delivers subsystems used to control process systems made by OEMs, including vacuum-based chambers to deposit and etch specialty materials needed in advanced integrated circuit fabrication.

Big Data and Cloud Infrastructure

Gigya (San Francisco, U.S.) makes a cloud-based customer identity management platform that helps customers turn unknown Web or mobile visitors into loyal and engaged customers.

PilotTV (Taiwan) is a digital signage network operator that designs, deploys and jointly operates digital signage systems for retail venues, operating over 6,000 screens in various channels including convenience stores, fast food chains, drugstores and rapid transit stations.

PrecisionHawk (Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.) is an information delivery company that uses a small, unmanned aerial vehicle and cloud-based software to collect, process and analyze aerial data. Its solution provides actionable information to clients in civilian industries.

Prelert (Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.) packages data science into downloadable applications for everyday users. It uses machine-learning predictive analytics to learn the normal behavior patterns of populations of individual users, devices and resources.

Stratoscale (Israel) develops new technology to rethink next-generation data centers. It is building the runtime software infrastructure for scalable computing to help customers use all available computing resources and unify computing and storage across the data center.

In addition, Intel Capital announced Ossia (Redmond, Washington, U.S.) has joined the Intel Capital portfolio. Cota*, Ossia’s smart antenna technology, redefines wireless power by safely delivering remote, targeted energy simultaneously to multiple devices as far away as 30 feet without line of site and regardless of whether a device is stationary or moving.

Panasonic Phablet P55 Smartphone Priced Rs 10,290

Delivering on its commitment to constantly innovate, Panasonic India today unveiled its latest smartphone- P55. The company has been introducing new & unique design elements with every new smartphone, and this time has proved new grounds with the launch of P55. Its unique tile patterned back cover gives the phablet a premium & elegant look while keeping the thickness to just 7.9mm making it a delight to use.

The P55 is the latest addition to its phablet line-up, having a 13.9cm (5.5) IPS HD display, and a Quad Core processor clocked at 1.2GHz. It runs on Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) and has an 8MP Autofocus camera capable of Full HD capture. It houses a 2500 mAh battery to power the device.

Panasonic P55 comes with an innovative “Tap Play” feature where the smartphone has an in-built capability to recognize touch while in sleep mode, i.e. users can double tap to wake-up the phablet instead of reaching the power button every time.

 Likewise, it can be returned to sleep mode with the same gesture. P55 also features “Gesture Play”, a gesture based feature to launch apps directly from home screen; “Pop-i Player” which lets you multi-task while playing videos & a single hand operable music player named “Music café”.

Expressing his pleasure on the launch, Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India said “With technology constantly changing it allows our brand to push boundaries and create new and exciting products that are customized according to the needs and requirements of the Indian market. With continuous innovation as our baseline strategy, the new P55 gives our consumers the ability to operate their smartphone seamlessly while meeting the easily accessibility aspect.”

Keysight Technology Signs MoU with IEEE India

Keysight Technologies, Inc. has announced that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with IEEE India to develop tools, programs and activities to help increase technical engineering capabilities In India. Their mutual interest is focused on workforce development, technical advocacy, and creating technical communities to assist the industry at-large.

The work will include private and government sector involvement to setup technical labs with state-of-the-art equipment, hosting seminars and creating certification programs to benefit engineering students across India.  Among the various programs offered will be the IEEE Labs Initiative and Wireless Certification and Electronic Test Program.

“We understand that knowledge, skills and resources are critical to advance economic and industrial development in India,” said Sudhir Tangri, country general manager, Keysight India. “As the need for knowledge workers with high levels of technical and soft skills increases, we will require intensive focus on advancing the technical know-how and growth of individuals in test and measurement.”

“IEEE carries lot of respect and brand value in the engineering community, especially among our academic customers. We are pleased to work with IEEE India in activities that benefit this community,” added Tangri.

“Keysight’s technical competence and their wide portfolio of solutions for academia in the field of basic electronics, RF/microwave, communications, nanotechnology and optics complements IEEEs core objectives of enabling standards and education in engineering,” said Harish Mysore, director of IEEE India.

“This work further enhances Keysight’s engagement with academia. Our academic customers stand to gain with these activities between Keysight and IEEE,” said V.V. Pathy, head of business development, Keysight Technologies India. “In addition, Keysight intends to be an active part of the IEEE Bangalore chapter driving other valuable engineering community activities.”

Ezetap & Microsoft Partner For POS Payment Solution

Ezetap has launched Point of Sale (POS) payment solution on Windows devices.  Ezetap’s solution integrates with Windows mobile devices to give the full functionality and security of a POS system with more flexibility and significantly lower cost than normal POS devices provided to retailers by banks. This will allow more retailers and users of POS devices to use Ezetap across 20 different verticals including PSU, insurance and banking.  The Ezetap solution turns a merchant’s mobile device into an intelligent point of sale that is able to complete any type of financial transaction from a credit card sale to a real-time bill payment, to an ATM cash withdrawal or deposit.

“Ezetap on Windows allows us to address increasing demand from our existing and prospective customers for Windows-based POS,” said Abhijit Bose, CEO & Co-Founder of Ezetap.  “Intelligent and mobile POS solutions will not only redefine how businesses work, but they will also have a huge impact on consumers and society in general.  We expect our solution to be deployed on 100,000 Windows devices over the next 12 months. By leveraging the power of cloud and mobility, we are simplifying transactions and this partnership brings us closer to achieving our vision.”

Vineet Durani, Director – Windows, Microsoft India said, “The deployment by Ezetap on Windows devices addresses a key market demand for integrated and intelligent mobile POS system. Payments are a high-risk operation and partners like Ezetap building POS solutions need a stringent level of authentication, security and manageability. Windows devices now start at Rs. 8,000 and therefore organizations can deploy large number of fully-featured and highly-secure mobile POS on these devices at significantly lower capital outlay.”

Windows supports industry standards in high security areas and continues to work with security groups to further strengthen the platform. With 1.5 billion users across the world, Windows is a familiar global platform for most organizations.

The Ezetap solution is comprised of a secure and lightweight card reader, a configurable mobile application, and a flexible platform that allows Ezetap to provide customized value-added services and integrate to a merchant’s existing systems.   The solution is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) and the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PADSS) global security standards.

Fashion Brand Esprit Opts for Mindtree as IT Partner

 Mindtree, a global technology services company, today announced that it is working with international fashion brand Esprit to deliver IT solutions that will make Esprit more competitive. In the first phase of this relationship, Mindtree will monitor and support Esprit’s SAP applications suite for more than 300 directly managed retail stores and over 7,500 wholesale points of sale in Europe.

As part of this multi-year contract, Mindtree will ensure the stability of Esprit’s SAP systems through early detection and resolution of system, functional and process issues. In addition, Mindtree will maintain on-time availability of Esprit’s data and provide flexibility to IT management to meet their business needs.  Most importantly, Mindtree will improve the processes service quality, allowing Esprit’s IT team to focus on their strategic business needs without having to worry about the reliability of their SAP systems. 

Dr. Thomas Pirlein, Group CIO, Esprit said, “We sought a long-term managed services partner to bring efficiencies and technology leadership. Mindtree’s SAP managed services expertise, agility, collaborative culture and team leadership made them the ideal choice. Mindtree will play a key role in our efforts to gain long-term competitiveness with its technology leadership and deep understanding of trends shaping the future of retail.” 

Radha R, Executive Vice President - Retail, CPG, MFG and Travel, Transportation & Hospitality, Mindtree said, “We took a business process view rather than a system centric view to provide Esprit the flexibility to achieve their goals in the highly competitive fashion retail space. We see this program as an important first step among many to come as part of Esprit's commitment to drive sustainable growth using technology.”

SRL Diagnostics Tranforms Customer Experience With Oracle Service Cloud

Wipro, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company today announced that it has assisted SRL Diagnostics transform its customer care operations by providing  successful customer experiences across multiple communication channels leveraging Oracle Service Cloud.

SRL Diagnostics, one of India's largest pathology lab networks with 12 reference labs, 4 Centers of Excellence and 281 network laboratories, explored several solutions to improve their existing customer service experience and eventually decided to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application for its customer care department. SRL partnered with Wipro considering Wipro’s ability to provide full spectrum of services around Oracle Service Cloud which include system integration, change management, and application support. Wipro successfully deployed the Oracle Service Cloud , delivering an enhanced and virtually seamless experience across various touch-points for SRL’s customers.

Wipro’s CRM team aided SRL in streamlining their call center operations by leveraging the core benefits of the Oracle Service Cloud and providing an incident tracking mechanism. Wipro also created a unique experience for all call center agents by developing a custom built toolbar for call management, integrated to SRL’s existing customer care infrastructure.

Oracle Service Cloud combines Web, Social and Contact Center experiences for a unified, cross-channel service solution in the Cloud, enabling organizations to increase sales and adoption, build trust and strengthen relationships, and reduce costs and effort. The enterprise platform provides transparent reliability, unmatched security, and total Cloud freedom for mission critical customer experience delivery.

G Radhakrishna Pillai, CIO, SRL said, "At SRL, customers form the heart of the organization. We use our proprietary Lab Information System CLIMS for Lab process from sample registration till delivering the report to patient. In our bid to provide a better and well-rounded customer experience, we needed a scalable future proof customer experience solution which could help us keep track of the customer service history and make the information accessible to our call center staff. Wipro’s ability in standardizing processes as well as their expertise in implementing Cloud technology and adding new dimensions to reach our customers has helped us move beyond the status quo. We have now gone live with Oracle Service Cloud.”

“We are living in an era, where aligning customer experience with brands has become a prerequisite. Consumers expect a virtually seamless experience when they interact with brands; be it on social media, mobile, website, in-store, through the call center and even while making a purchase online,” said Niraj Kaushik, Vice President, Applications Business, Oracle India. “Oracle’s comprehensive and integrated CX Portfolio  will enable SRL Diagnostics to deliver a coherent customer experience Wipro’s CRM team is proficient in implementing Cloud technology and will add further value to our products,” he added.

Biplab Adhya, vice president, oracle applications, Wipro Ltd. said, “We partnered with SRL to help them scale up their customer service management operations, and enable an improved user experience for its staff and customers. We used Oracle Service Cloud to help automate the daily tasks of SRL customer care users and provided them with a tool that helped them realize better call handling times, thereby delivering a consistent service across different channels like voice, email, web, chat and social media.”