Cure.Fit, the health-tech and fitness start-up promoted by Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, today announced the launch of its centres in Hyderabad along with its plans to expand in the city over the next one year.
The company plans to roll out 12 Cult.Fit Centres, 4 Mind.Fit Centres and four Outdoor Centres along with three Eat.Fit Kitchens by the end of the year in Hyderabad as they set sight to double this number in a year.
Commenting on their entry in Hyderabad, Ankit Nagori, Cofounder of Cure.fit said, “We are pleased to launch and expand into the Hyderabad market which has tremendous potential for a holistic fitness and healthcare approach such as ours. Over the next one year, we aim at taking the number of fitness centres to 60 and close to 50,000 active members to be a part of our fitness journey by end of December 2018.”
After Bengaluru, Delhi and NCR regions, this is Cure.Fit’s fourth market and with the recent acquisition of Fitness First, the company plans to scale pan-India. Cure.Fit is also aiming at expanding its services in the wellness space with its primary healthcare services product Care.fit, a subscription-based service for primary care, including health checks-ups with general physicians and chronic disease management.
Earlier in 2017, Cure.fit signed a 100-cr deal with Hrithik Roshan. As part of the collaboration, Hrithik Roshan’s signature workout - ‘HRX Workout’, designed by him along with his personal trainer under his brand HRX, is available exclusively at all CULT centres and the Cure.fit mobile app. CULT is also promoted by star cricketer K L Rahul who signed up as its brand ambassador in November 2017. Milind Soman is another celebrity who actively promotes the brand and has customised a unique program for runners called ‘Runners Strength’ which is available on the Cure.fit app.
Headquartered in Bangalore, Cure.fit was established in 2016 by co-founders Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori. The young company’s new age and scientific approach to healthy living, that combines mind and body well being, has already attracted a diverse set of prominent investors and health specialists who believe in its potential to offer customised and integrated professional wellness solutions on a single platform.
TECNO Mobile, the premium offline smartphone brand from TRANSSION Holdings betting big on its “CAMON” series in India announces the addition of yet another marvel in order to strengthen its portfolio. Focused on camera-centric smartphones with full view display, “CAMON” series aims at offering its users a holistic, better and more powerful mobile camera experience. The new CAMON iTWIN is the first dual-rear camera smartphone from TECNO in India. It features a main 13MP camera for extraordinary clarity, and a 2MP secondary camera that captures depth-of-field information.
Commenting on the launch, Gaurav Tikoo, CMO, TRANSSION India said, “At TECNO, we are constantly pushing norms to make cutting-edge mobile camera technology available to everyone at a competitive price. CAMON portfolio is the result of our understanding of Indian consumer's need for their mobile camera to deliver best picture in any challenging environment. We noticed that ambience holds the power to destroy a photograph, if not treated properly. That is where our latest offering, CAMON iTWIN with its AI powered Bokeh Mode allows its users to apply enhancements and blurs the background to make the subject stand out.
“The ‘blur makes beautiful’ positioning of CAMON iTWIN resonates with this consumer requirement. It shows how important blur can be in bringing out the beauty of a photograph. We are a consumer-centric company and with this latest launch of CAMON iTWIN, we are bringing the best camera features in a new avatar for our young consumers. It will certainly help TECNO growth trajectory in becoming a preferred ‘camera-centric’ smartphone brand of India.”
Some of the key features include:
Get artistic with the twin rear cameras
TECNO CAMON iTWIN is packed with a premium twin camera setup which is an integration of a 13MP wide-angle FoV 80-degree f/2.0 aperture and 2MP depth-sensing lens along with quad flash. The device is also supported with 4x digital zoom that enables users to capture clear, high quality close-up shots event at distance and hence enables clear photography. CAMON iTWIN delivers real portraits feature through blurring effect onto your portrait shot by using refocus mode.
The AI Auto Scene Recognition of smartphone automatically detects the current scene, resulting from its deep learning capabilities of 100,000 Indian profile scenes that’s already been fed to the phone and intelligently recognises the environment and light conditions in real time and matches the best camera parameters to the current scene, producing a perfect photo.
Shun limits, beat low lighting with selfie camera
And if selfies tickle your fancy, this is surely your gadget to go by. The 13MP selfie camera of CAMON iTWIN uses f/2.0 aperture & 5P lens with flashlight that allows users to capture the perfect selfies even in the low light condition. It also comes with AI beautification algorithm which is designed and optimised on Indian skin tone and user can adjust the features of skin softening, brightening and eye brightening as per their respective requirement. Additionally, the AI bokeh lets the user click clear selfie by accurately identifying the subject in the photos, and blurring the background.
Enjoy an unmatched, full view display
Owning the full view display trend like a boss, the CAMON iTWIN flaunts a 6” HD+ IPS full view display giving it a screen-to-body ratio of 87.48% offering more immersive viewing experience of watching movies and playing games on the smartphone. Its 85% NTSC colour gamut helps in vising the natural colour reproduction and 500nits ensure better viewing in bright lighting condition. And well, besides that with a thickness of only 8.5mm and 161g weight, the device feels light in hand.
The art of performance and storage
Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon™ 425 64 bit Quad-Core processor and coupled with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, this exclusive device is indeed a friend in need to fulfill user expectations of multitasking, gaming, video watching and browsing. Use up all that storage you think you need because the phone also comes with a further expandable memory by up to 128GB via 3-in-1 multi card slot where you can put Dual Nano SIM along with a SD card.
Binge in on unplugged photography; don’t worry battery back-up & charge
The CAMON iTWIN is packed with 4000mAh battery so as to ensure your handset does not quite run out of charge while you indulge in some unplugged photographic experiences.
Own it at a price that’s absolute value for your money
CAMON iTWIN will retail at an MOP of Rs 11,499 and will be available from July 23, 2018 onwards. The devices will be available across 30,000 retail outlets in black and gold colours. With the introduction of CAMON iTWIN, TECNO is now 5 SKU strong consisting of CAMON i, CAMON iAIR, CAMON iSKY, CAMON iCLICK and CAMON iTWIN in the price range of Rs 7,490-13,999.
Service brand promise
CAMON iTWIN comes with a “111” brand promise of TECNO. Any consumer who buys TECNO smartphones gets an advantage of 1-time screen replacement in one year, 100 days’ free replacement, and 1-month extended warranty.
Partner Offer:
Further adding to the delight of CAMON iTWIN customers, TECNO has partnered with Reliance Jio, the world’s largest mobile data network for its ‘Rs 2200 Cashback Offer’. Under This offer the users will get 44 cashback vouchers of INR50 each, which will be disbursed to the customer at the very first recharge of Rs198 or Rs299. These vouchers will be available inside the MyJio app. The validity of the plan is for 28 days and users can enjoy 2GB data per day in Rs198 plan and 3GB data per day in Rs 299 plan. (T&C apply)
For consumers who do not want to avail the JIO offer CAMON iTWIN will be available at an MOP of 11,499.
The fourth edition of Women Changemakers Career Fair and Confluence made waves at The Lalit Ashok, Bengaluru. An initiative of Stockroom.io, the event was an exciting opportunity for women to identify better job opportunities and understand some diversity initiatives of well-known brands. The excited participants of the Fair had opportunities to network and interact with women corporate leaders as well.
Funded by Mancer Consulting Services, one of India's leading recruitment consultancy firms, Stockroom.io helps companies hire curated technology talent. Women Changemakers is an exclusive career fair and confluence for women, which is the diversity vertical ofstockroom.io.
At the venue, about 650 women with work experience ranging from freshers to more than 15 years’ experience, and about 100 re-starters listened to the focused discussions and used networking opportunities. The high-level speaker line up and influencers at the Fair was also a huge attraction for most participants who were looking to learn, grow and take wing in their chosen professions.
Sunil Shah, Deputy CEO- Delivery, Societe Generale Global Solution Center, reiterates, “Diversity and Inclusion, is not only a set of best practices, but a mindset of viewing every person as a unique individual and celebrating the differences irrespective of culture, race, gender or origin. With a remarkably progressive history of 154 years, the Societe Generale Group, houses over 147,000 employees worldwide and 59% are women. Gender Diversity and inclusion, therefore is no longer restricted to the number of women in the organization but in empowerment, enablement and focus on merit based on an individual’s ability. These differences are what make us a thriving fraternity that focuses on functioningDifferently Together.”
Tao Li, CEO of APUS Group, who were one of the recruiters at the event said, "APUS is a strong believer of professional equality and women empowerment. In our company about 40% of employees are female, who are experts in their respective fields. We are looking forward to recruit more intelligent women who can contribute towards the growth of the company. Going with the goal of Indian government to empower women, this event is the perfect platform for us towards this big step. It is an inspiring and groundbreaking idea; we encourage the amazing talent pool in this event and wish them for their future endeavor."
The other speakers were, Ashok Pamidi, Senior Director, Diversity & Inclusion NASSCOM, Tina Vinod, Head of Diversity Inclusion, Thoughtworks, Sapna Alva Tariyal, Head – Procurement , Societe Generale, Divya Ganesh, Director, McKinsey and Nidhi Goyal, Disability and Gender Rights Activist and Comedienne, Magesh Sambasivan- Head, HR, Societe Generale .
Naren Krishna, the founder of Stockroom.ioobserving the participation, said,” While Diversity and Inclusion is not just gender diversity, it is undoubtedly the elephant in the room, which requires our immediate attention. It’s really encouraging for early stage startups like us to see some of the leading companies actively coming forward to embrace and support new platforms and initiatives to solve to problem of gender diversity. A lot of modern day workplaces have also realized that diversity and inclusion is not just a HR problem but also a business problem.”
India’s first exclusive diversity job portal launched
The women Changemakers event also saw a unique product – Equiv, a job portal that helps companies connect with a diversity talent pool- to help with hiring and employee branding.
Speaking during the launch, Naren Krishna, the CEO of Stockroom.io said,” For organization like us it’s not just enough to come up with just enough to come with any solution to solve the problem of D&I but it’s also important to come up with a scalable solution that can create impact at a scale. Our vision at Equiv is to leverage technology and come up with a suite of enterprise products that would help companies in achieving their D&I goals. The Job portal is a first step towards that direction to help companies connect with diversity talent. We have lot of other interesting offerings, which are currently in product development stage”
One of Equiv’s unique offerings is the powerful AI tool that delivers text analysis tool powered by AI will help companies come up with right job description to ensure attracting more diversity applications..
Samsung, India’s most trusted consumer electronics and mobile phone brand organised ‘Samsung Mobility Conclave 2018’, an exclusive meet featuring cutting edge mobility solutions in Bengaluru. The day-long exhibition showcased Samsung’s latest next-generation mobility solutions that Samsung has to offer to the enterprises.
The conclave demonstrated new age technologies and industry specific innovative enterprise solutions ranging from mobile devices morphed into business workhorses; mobile Security and Manageability; Augmented Reality; Virtual Reality; Artificial Intelligence; CXO Office of the future; Sales Force/ Field Force Automation Solutions; Unique Industry Solutions - BFSI/ Govt. /Education Solutions and Bio-metric authentication solutions.
“As organizations are taking steps towards digital transformation and adopting mobility as a means to become more efficient, Samsung offers reliable and secure enterprise mobility solutions as a crucial last mile enabling productivity, collaboration and smarter way of doing business,” said Sukesh Jain, Senior Vice President, IT and Mobile Enterprise Business, Samsung India.
At the conclave, Samsung also displayed the exemplary applications of technology which has brought a difference in the way enterprises function. Samsung’s first ever Mobility Conclave was a technological spectacle for the visitor.
The illustration zones displayed at the conclave were:
Defense Grade Security
Samsung’s KNOX consists of a highly secure platform built into Samsung devices and a set of solutions that leverage this platform. The conclave exhibited live demo of KNOX suites of solutions ranging from KNOX Manage for remote device management; KNOX Workspace segregating your device into personal and work container; KNOX Configure for customizing the device with personalized boot animation and KNOX Guard for managing the leased phones.
Biometric Authentication Solutions
The Revolutionary Samsung Galaxy Tab IRIS - India's first tablet with integrated IRIS technology - was on display. Galaxy Tab IRIS can scan both the eyes of the person at same time using the contact less method to access financial and citizen services. Samsung smartphones and Tabs could be connected with third party biometric and peripheral devices like Finger Print Sensors, Thermal/Bluetooth Printers, Card Readers, etc. Integrating Samsung Smart Devices along with third party biometric and other peripherals into a single device is also possible to avoid carrying multiple devices. The integrated devices can be used for attendance system, micro ATMs, eKYC, direct benefit transfers, account openings, credit card payment collection, etc.
Industry Solutions
This zone showcased how mobile solutions are rapidly replacing the traditional systems used in workspaces cutting across verticals and are convenient, efficient and economical. The customers could experience how VR and AR solutions are put to use for virtual trainings, design/preview of designs, education, simulations, tourism, multimedia, healthcare, automobile, retail, etc.
Smart Education Solutions
Samsung devices are set to transform the education landscape by addressing technology needs and expansion of digital business. The solutions on display ranged from K12, higher education, test preparation content and requirements, and highlighted collaborative power of digital learning.
CXO Office Solutions and Device Plaza
Samsung Device Plaza offers a wide range of mobile device portfolio of entry level, mid-level, premium and flagship mobile phones along with wide tablets range. The list also includes wearables, DeX and Gear VR. The visitors could actually use Samsung DeX and turn their phone into a PC-like experience. It also exhibited the remotely access virtual windows machine via VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) solutions such as Citrix Receiver, VMware Horizon Client and Amazon WorkSpaces.
Futuristic Solutions
Integrating multiple things together, the IoT offers many ways to create more compelling experiences across digital and physical worlds. The visitors could experience the solution that connects to sensor-equipped products and solutions like Bixby Vision built into the camera, Vision icon in the viewfinder to translate a sign, count the calories in your meal, etc.
Apart from the illustration zones, Samsung also hosted industry specific sessions for the visitors to showcase customized technological solutions.
CSS Corp, a new-age IT services and technology support company has announced that it has been recognized in the “Winner’s Circle” in HfS Research’s Blueprint 2018 report on telecom operations services. The report assessed 18 service providers in execution and innovation, covering aspects including strategic vision, investments in future capabilities, robust services delivery, and driving new insights and models.
The report positioned CSS Corp as a leader in telecom operations services, that excels both at execution and innovation. CSS Corp has been enabling telecom organizations improve customer experience, create new revenue streams, and enhance operational efficiency, strategically aligned to their business goals. The company has been investing heavily on the Triple-A Trifecta (AI, Automation, and Analytics) to improve Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and enable differentiated growth opportunities for the telecom and networking industry.
According to Elena Christopher, Vice President - Industry Research at HfS Research, "Telecommunication firms and their ecosystem partners are working diligently to modernize their core businesses while simultaneously investing in and developing new offerings. CSS Corp has quietly emerged as a strong service partner for these firms helping to enable digital transformation of network services and customer experience, enabling both optimization and new revenue potential. These timely skills coupled with industry-leading relationship management and flexible business models have elevated CSS Corp to the HfS Winner's Circle."
Speaking on the occasion, Manish Tandon, CEO, CSS Corp, said, “Telecom companies are shifting gears towards an ecosystem-based business model partnering synergistically with digital content service providers. With seismic changes in the market environment and increased executive push towards digitization, telcos are forging new business models to create and capture value. Our vision to drive growth for telecom and networking companies is driven by a clear appreciation of these disruptive forces and deep understanding of the telecom industry.
Being recognized in the Winner’s Circle by HfS Research is an important milestone that validates our innovation and execution capabilities in telecom. We continue to seek out new opportunities for co-innovation and collaboration with our clients, laying a clear vision for the industry as a whole,” he added further.
Sunil Mittal - EVP, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, said, “Leveraging our deep industry know-how, we have continuously endeavored to digitally enable telcos to transform from traditional service models to new age service models. This recognition by HfS Research is another testimony to our capabilities and reinforces the faith that our customers and stakeholders have shown in us over the years.”
Atos and Syntel have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Atos will acquire Syntel for cash consideration of c. $ 3.4 billion i.e. $ 41.0 per share, representing c. 14% premium over the last 30 trading days volume weighted average share price of Syntel.
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation has announced its agreement with Syntel, a leading global provider of integrated information technology and knowledge process services, with respect to the acquisition by Atos of Syntel, for aggregate consideration of c.$3.4 billion or $41.0 per Syntel share.
The transaction represents c. 14% premium over the 30 trading days volume weighted average share price. The transaction is structured as a one-step cash merger between Syntel and Atos requiring above 50% of Syntel outstanding share capital to execute the merger. On July 20, 2018, the Board of Directors of Syntel uninamously approved the transaction based on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of the Syntel Board. Written voting agreements with Syntel shareholders, including founders, to vote in favor of the transaction represent 51% of the outstanding shares.
The Board of Directors of Atos meeting held on July 20, 2018 also expressed its full and unanimous support for the transaction.
Thierry Breton, Chairman and CEO of Atos said: ”I am very proud to announce such an important milestone in Atos’ leadership development with the acquisition of Syntel, a leading digital company, established 38 years ago, that perfectly fits our strategic priorities. It represents a transformational step for our Business & Platform Solutions Division as it will significantly enhance its growth and profitability profile through an extended digital services offering, cutting-edge India-based delivery platforms, as well as revenue and cost synergies.
In particular, the highly complementary portfolio, customer base, and geographic footprint of the combination between Atos and Syntel will significantly enhance our presence in North America and accelerate the digital transformation of Atos’s customers worldwide.
I am looking forward to welcoming the 23,000 Syntel engineers and their very strong management to continue delivering together the highest value to our clients and shareholders.”
Bharat Desai, Co-Chairman and Co-founder of Syntel, said: "This is a very exciting development for Syntel. The Syntel board is committed to maximizing shareholder value and believes that the agreement with Atos achieves that objective and delivers a win-win proposition to our customers and employees.
Our focus at Syntel is to help customers transform and succeed in the digital economy. Since its founding, our “Customer for Life” ethos has guided our investments in high-impact, domain-led services and intellectual property.
I am grateful for the trust and confidence of our customers and the passion, commitment and innovative spirit of our employees. Together they have enabled Syntel to achieve great heights. I am confident that this combination will deliver significant value to all stakeholders.”
A perfect match with Atos to enhance its digital transformation factory
With its innovative business model aligned to its client’s business challenges, Syntel generated $924 million revenue in 2017, of which 89% was in North America, with 25% operating margin. The Group employs 23,000 engineers in 30 countries, with over 18,000 staff based in India. All of Syntel’s management team is expected to join Atos.
To strengthen Atos’ digital capabilities and existing Business & Platform Solutions and accelerate its Digital strategy
This transaction is a major step in the strategy of Atos to reach a global scale and significantly expand in both Digital services and Business & Platform Solutions. The two organizations are fully complementary in their customer base, geographies, and services. Syntel will enhance Atos’s Digital Transformation Factory thanks to a powerful suite of digital and proprietary solutions recognized by leading industry analysts as being the most advanced in Cloud, Social Network, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and IoT.
To add Business & Platform Solutions activities in North America
As part of this transaction, upon closing Atos will immediately gain a significant scale in its Business & Platform Solutions Division in North America allowing it to address its existing client base and to offer them high value-add digital services in several specific verticals such as Banking and Financial Services, Healthcare, Retail, Logistics, Manufacturing, and Insurance. Atos will also improve its margin profile in North America.
To significantly strengthen the Group’s Business & Platform Solutions Division with best-in-class delivery platform generating among the highest margins of the industry
Syntel will bring strong capabilities thanks to its best-in-class delivery platform which generates, through its state of the art delivery process, among the the highest margins in the B&PS industry. Syntel offers secure and technically advanced offshore environment with world class-campuses in India, securing access to a talent pool of over 18,000 employees.
A powerful combination with compelling value creation potential
The deal is expected to be EPS accretive immediately with double digit accretion as early as 2019 excluding the impact of PPA and implementation and transaction costs.
Significant cost synergies and cross-selling opportunities
Additionally, the Group expects to generate compelling and significant synergies both at cost and revenue levels.
Atos will benefit from tangible operational improvement by taking advantage of Syntel’s current offshore and talent supply chain to optimize its onshore/offshore headcount mix. Most of those synergies are planned by applying Syntel’s state of the art industry performance to align Atos’s existing B&PS cost model. Additional cost synergies are planned by improving operational effectiveness by reducing SG&A costs including real estate, and optimizing procurement by taking the advantage of the greater scale. The total cost benefits are estimated at $ 120 million per year on a run rate basis by the end of 2021 with a linear phasing.
Strong portfolio and complementary customer base between the two companies will generate multiple cross-selling opportunities, many of them already identified, leading to revenue synergies of c. $250 million to be achieved by the end of 2021, half of them by the end of 2020, with c. $50 million operating margin.
The combination of the two companies will allow Atos to deliver a unique portfolio for end-to-end digital transformation to customers. This will translate in already identified and actionable initiatives to generate revenue synergies in the following areas :
Leverage Syntel’s portfolio in particular digital services, intelligent automation and IT modernization into Atos Clients into North America and Europe
New Global capabilities to capture large End-to-End Digital Transformation projects
Leverage Atos’ portfolio with Syntel Base in Cybersecurity, Big data, IDM and other Atos services
Management
Atos highly appreciates the outstanding achievements of Syntel’s management team. Syntel executives and management will join Atos leadership team in order to help achieve the combined Group’s strong ambitions. The Group will apply its integration methodology as successfully rolled out in past acquisitions. The Group will deeply involve key managers in its development and in particular is glad to announce that Syntel CEO Rakesh Khanna will join Atos’ Executive Committee.
Financing
The acquisition will be financed through debt fully underwritten by BNP Paribas and J.P. Morgan Securities PLC. The debt will be used to fund the purchase cash consideration together with refinancing of outstanding debt.
This transaction is in line with Atos’financial policy with an end of June 2018 proforma net leverage ratio below c.1.6x. The combined entity will maintain a solid liquidity profile and financial flexibility and targets a strong deleveraging in the next two years thanks to anticipated free cash flow generation.
Contemplated timetable
Each of the Atos and Syntel Board of Directors has unanimously approved the transaction, in the case of Syntel, based on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of the Syntel Board. Written voting agreements with Syntel shareholders, including founders, to vote in favor of the transaction represent 51% of the outstanding shares. The transaction is subject to customary antitrust and regulatory approvals. Applicable works council procedures will be followed. The transaction is expected to close by year-end 2018.
WRI India Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and the Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) launched the 2018 edition of the Station Access and Mobility Program (STAMP) in Bengaluru today, which focuses on scaling up the impact from the first phase of the program. The second phase of STAMP (STAMP 2018) in Bengaluru will provide a significant financial grant and technical support to one promising solution that serves the last-mile requirements of the Namma Metro network. The initiative aims to provide urban commuters with improved access to the metro rail.
Wicked Ride (solution known as “Metro Bikes”), from the first cohort of STAMP Challenge winners, has been chosen to work with WRI India and TMF to deploy two and four-wheeler rental solutions for last mile connectivity at six metro stations. Each of the six metro stations will be characterized under distinct typologies based on the land-use and development around the station area. Using data from these six use case stations, the company will refine their operations at similar stations across the Namma Metro network. Learnings from the deployment will be shared with Government for improving operational integration.
“Different metro stations require different types of first and last mile solutions. The future of mobility is to have an integrated public-private transportation landscape. If we are able to provide end-to-end solutions for commuters, they will be more inclined to integrate Metro into their commute, thus reducing the exclusive usage of private vehicles in our cities,” explained Pawan Mulukutla, Head of Integrated Transport at WRI India.
STAMP in 2018 builds upon the success of the STAMP Challenge Bengaluru in 2017, in which four winning teams developed and demonstrated their solutions for last-mile connectivity at the Baiyappanahalli metro station. The pilot demonstrations took place from October 2017 to December 2017, comprising operations by Metro Bikes, Quick Ride, a carpooling platform that is operational in several cities, and Constapark, a parking aggregation and management solution that has since been acquired by GetmyParking. The three service solutions facilitated over 17,000 first-and last-mile connections during the pilot period, with users reporting significant convenience and time savings from the presence of the services. The fourth winner, Citizens for Sustainability (CiFoS), developed a multimodal integration index and information dissemination index that rated the quality of commuter experience at the metro station, and provided recommendations for improvement.
The budding impact demonstrated through the STAMP pilots will now be extended city-wide. Reflecting on the STAMP Challenge experience and the upcoming STAMP 2018 engagement, Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO and Co-founder at Metro Bikes, observed “STAMP provided us with the opportunity to demonstrate our one-way two-wheeler rentals, which are a perfect last-mile solution from the metro station. In 2018, with support from TMF, we will be expanding to six stations and testing different modes, and electric and keyless technology in the fleet.”
Led by WRI India and TMF, the Station Access and Mobility Program is a multi-year, multi-city initiative that facilitates high-quality first and last mile connectivity to urban mass transit networks, through a challenge platform that identifies innovative technologies and business models for mobility. In addition to providing access to data and mentor networks, STAMP provides innovation grants for testing promising solutions through pilot demonstrations, and provides scale-up support to proven solutions with strong market growth and high potential impact. In addition to the Bengaluru engagement with Metro Bikes, STAMP 2018 also includes the STAMP Challenge launched in Hyderabad in June, in which innovation grants totaling USD 50,000 will be awarded to the two best solutions for last-mile connectivity to Hyderabad Metro.
Highlighting the unique value proposition of the STAMP initiative, Pras Ganesh, Director of Toyota Mobility Foundation and Vice-President of Toyota Daihatsu Engineering and Manufacturing observed, “We designed STAMP for India with a long-term approach by investing in the ecosystem to catalyze innovation for mobility while also supporting proven solutions through their critical growth period to ensure success and sustainability. We encourage innovation and an integrated and seamless mobility experience for the customers by building upon the initiatives of the government. ”
Commenting on the occasion, Shekar Viswanathan, Vice Chairman & Whole-time Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “Last year, with the launch of the project, we witnessed an overwhelming response for the STAMP Challenge in Bengaluru, and it is extremely important to keep the momentum and assess the work in progress of such innovative ideas. Further, scaling-up the efforts to next level with reliable, low-cost technology for effective access to Namma Metro becomes critical. The success of such mass projects is to look at the situation on-ground and offer customised solutions that are best suited to ensure a safer and more secure mass transit mobility solutions. Taking this opportunity, I congratulate Wicked Ride (solution known as “Metro Bikes”) from the first cohort of STAMP Challenge winners for their efficient implementation of pilot solution towards the last-mile connectivity at six metro stations. The success of this project in Namma Metro will further enable and instill confidence in us to take it to other metro cities in the country”.
