Elevate 2018, the comprehensive one year government-sponsored startup pitch event, came to conclusion on Tuesday with 77 startups selected for funding and mentorship.
The programme, organised under the Startup Karnataka initiative of the Karnataka Ministry of IT-BT and S&T, received over 600 applications from across the State and startups in various verticals.
Interacting with DH, Department of IT-BT Principal Secretary Gaurav Gupta said the programme is running for the second year with grant success with the selection of 500 startups in a multi-city pitching.
“The selected people will be taken to the startup hubs in Silicon Valley, Sweden, London and Switzerland, and will get access to Rs 2 crore funding,” he said.
Gupta said many entrepreneurs have great ideas. “What can help them really shine is the right guidance from the right people, and we are providing them,” he said.
The 77 startups that are selected include verticals like agri-tech, audio visual and graphic, biotech, ESDM, IT/ITES, KCT and med tech/clean tech.
Even though 63 startups are selected from Bengaluru, Elevate 2018 has representation from Dharwad, Mysuru, Udupi and Uttara Kannada.
The government has earmarked a sum of Rs 24 crore towards funding of these innovative startups, of which a special Rs 2 crores has been set aside for startups from the Hyderabad and Karnataka region.
After a very successful launch, Ather Energy begins deliveries of their scooters today in Bengaluru. Select few customers were invited to the company’s Final Assembly Unit today to take their Ather 450’s home. Prior to delivering the intelligent, electric scooters, the company set up private charging stations at their residences. With the multiple fast public chargers set up by Ather, the owners will have free charging available both at home and across the city.
Quote from Tarun Mehta, Co-founder & CEO: “The past few weeks have been incredible for everyone at Ather Energy. Today, marks the real launch of the company as consumers take their first scooters home and begin to ride them. We will continue to deliver more Ather 450s in batches to the rest of our pre-orders in the coming months. We still have a lot to learn about the final ownership and day to day usage of our vehicles and are looking forward to the next phase of our growth.”
Taking an innovative go-to-market route, customers had the option of placing orders through the company website along with booking their test ride slots; nearly 60% of consumers choosing to place orders online. Ather is also offering a first of its kind, subscription plan, Ather One. The comprehensive plan, makes owning and riding the Ather scooters a hassle-free experience. The plan covers data costs, charging costs both at home and in public and it includes periodic doorstep service of the vehicles and cost of common spare parts.
The automotive startup announced its expansion plans starting with Chennai and rolling on to more markets in the new year. Ather has already started working on the charging network, AtherGrid in Chennai and expect to set up their experience centre, AtherSpace by Q2 2019 which will be followed by other cities.
Ather Energy opened pre-orders in early June, 2018, and has sold out its inventory for the rest of the year. The company has completed nearly 3500 test rides at its experience centre, AtherSpace in Indiranagar, Bengaluru and has been consistently adding more charging locations to AtherGrid, its electric vehicle charging network. Electric vehicle owners can now find 22 charging Points across the city on their AtherGrid app.
About Ather 450: The Ather 450 is designed for city riding conditions, it comes with a top speed of 80 km/hr, a range of 75 km and one of the quickest accelerations of 3.9 seconds from 0-40 km/hr in the scooter category. Also for the first time in the category, Ather 450 comes with parking assist, which allows riders to reverse into tight parking spots.
The key differentiator of the Ather 450 are its intelligent features, seamless charging and ownership experience. The Ather 450 has a 7” touchscreen dashboard that allows onboard navigation with options of alternative routes and saved locations. It comes with the Ather app that enables push navigation from the phone to the vehicle dashboard, remote monitoring of the vehicle’s health and charge status. Finally, with the over-the-air (OTA) updates functionality, the vehicle is capable of improving over time with continuous upgrades and addition of new features and functionalities.
Zendesk, Inc. has announced it has acquired FutureSimple Inc., the company behind Base. Base is known for building modern, easy-to-use sales force automation software designed to help salespeople do their jobs more effectively. Zendesk will invest in Base’s ongoing market growth and product development, focusing on existing customers and delivering products for smaller, fast-growing sales teams, expanding to larger organizations over time.
“Base is a natural fit with Zendesk because we both share a passion for designing beautiful products built for the people who actually use them,” said Mikkel Svane, founder and CEO, Zendesk. “We want to do for sales what Zendesk has already done for customer service: give salespeople tools built around them and the customers they serve.”
Founded in 2009, Base is a modern sales solution that provides integrated tools for communication, lead scoring, reporting and more. The company is widely recognized by customers and industry analysts for its leading mobile app and a user-friendly experience. Gartner has positioned Base as a Visionary in the July 2018 Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation.
Base and Zendesk last year launched an integration between their products, bringing together support and sales information about customers. Among the companies using it is home loan education platform Mortgage Coach. Its director of IT and QA support services called the integration seamless and said it ultimately saved the team countless hours of data duplication.
While legacy sales force automation tools are designed around rigid management processes that discourage salespeople from using them, Base gives sales teams the information and context they need to be effective and successful with prospects and customers. The result is a tool that helps salespeople work and sell more easily.
“Legacy sales tools were never built for the people actually using them. Our core philosophy in building Base, was to create a world-class experience for sales professionals to help them close more deals,” said Uzi Shmilovici, founder and CEO, Base. “Just like Zendesk set out to improve the customer experience, we set out to dramatically improve the sales experience for 30 million sales professionals worldwide. We are thrilled to be joining Zendesk in building the future of customer experience software.”
Currently serving over 5,000 customers globally across industries, Base has offices in San Francisco and Krakow, Poland. All of Base’s customers will continue to receive support and services, and the Base team will all be offered roles at Zendesk. Matt Price, formerly Zendesk’s senior vice president, product portfolio, will lead a team dedicated to growing Base across product and go-to-market.
“The Base team is perfectly suited to join Zendesk in our mission to deliver helpful, easy to use, flexible and scalable products focused on the customer,” said Matt Price, senior vice president and general manager, Base. “Together we will build deeper integrations with our products so sales and service can more easily collaborate.”
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. For the year ending December 31, 2018, the acquisition is not estimated to have a significant impact on Zendesk’s revenue and is expected to be dilutive to GAAP and Non-GAAP operating margin and earnings per share. These estimates reflect a reduction relating to fair value adjustments to acquired deferred revenue. Zendesk will provide further detail on the actual and expected impact of the acquisition on its results of operations for the year ending December 31, 2018 when it releases financial results for the quarter ending September 30, 2018.
Quantta Analytics, a leading player in the Big Data and Analytics space in India, has collaborated with the NITI Aayog to develop an algorithm to predict the GDP of India.
Traditionally released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) of the Government of India, Quantta has used its extensive database on the Indian Economy to provide an advance signal to senior leaders in Government about the state of the economy.
Using data from several sectors, that drive growth, it predicted a First Quarter growth rate of 7.83% indicating that the Indian Economy is firing on all cylinders. The actual numbers released this evening by the Central Statistical Office showed a GVA growth of 8.00% very close to the prediction made by the collaborative effort between NITI Aayog and Quantta.
The Indian Economy has shrugged off the effects of macro-economic factors such as the implementation of GST on the road to growth to zoom ahead with GDP predicted to grow 7.85% in FY 18-19 by economists in Quantta & Niti-Aayog. The Services and Construction sectors have shown strong growth and growth in the energy demand indicates a robust commercial and industrial sector.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog said “The Leading Economic Indicator Index being developed by Quantta Index in collaboration with NITI Aayog was put up on the website of Quantta at www.quantta.com/quantta-index on the 29th of August 2018. Their analytically designed and empirically validated estimate of 7.83% Q1 GDP growth are a shade below the GVA of 8.00%. Congratulations to the entire team for being proven right”
Ritesh Bawri, founder Quantta Analytics said “it is a proud moment for Quantta to work with the highest echelons of Government to provide an advance warning system so that the Government can take proactive action to drive growth in the Indian Economy”
The GDP growth comes on the back of several headwinds, including a hardening of oil prices. India imports approximately 220 million tons of crude oil each year pegged at approximately US $87.725 billion according to the Ministry of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Also, in the past year the Indian Rupee has depreciated from ~ Rs. 64 to the US Dollar to over Rs. 71 to the US Dollar. Despite this, “we expect the Indian economy to do well in the first half of Financial Year 2018-19”
The proprietary algorithm uses machine learning, that uses data from several sectors such as aviation, railways and cement to predict the state of the Indian economy. The algorithm was tested using ten-year historical data. The model showed over 80% confidence level in predicting the historical GDP figures.
Also, the model was able to accurately predict the directionality of the economy. The outcome would be the ability to provide early warning signals to the Government of India for course corrections if any. Quantta worked with a small team at NITI Aayog which provided help and support to develop the algorithm. Quantta is a full stack technology platform focused on the Indian Economy. We have built cutting edge tools to collate, aggregate, and organize behavioural insights into customer behaviour.
Tata Motors launched a new state-of-the-art full-range passenger vehicle showroom and workshop, M/s Kropex Auto Pvt Ltd, in Bengaluru today. Expanding its class leading automotive experience, the inauguration of this showroom and workshop is a step towards Tata Motors’ aggressive network expansion plans, in line with its Turnaround 2.0 strategy.
Inaugurated by Mayank Pareek – President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors and SN Barman - Vice President, Sales, Marketing & Customer Support, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, the Company has a total of 11 showrooms in Bengaluru and boasts of 44 showrooms in Karnataka overall. Spanning across 4500 sq. ft. of area, this newly inaugurated showroom is strategically located at the Main Hosur Road in Electronic City, and will cater to the aspiring customers of the city with a stunning range of new generation passenger cars from Tata Motors.
According to Mayank Pareek – President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors - “With ‘Connecting Aspirations’ at the center of our brand promise, we at Tata Motors are working with our network partners to offer our customers a solid product mix and a delightful showroom experience. As part of our Turnaround 2.0 journey, we are concentrating on optimizing various business levers and focus on strengthening its sales network and customer experience, in order to enhance performance and profitability. Hence, the current focus for the fiscal is on winning sustainably as part of this transformation journey. We continue to enhance and expand our network to cater to our evolving customers, with high expectations.”
According to Vanik Sachadeva, Dealer Principal, M/s Kropex Auto Pvt Ltd, “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Tata Motors and are extremely happy to launch this showroom today in Bengaluru. With a commitment to provide best in class purchase experience during sales to all our customers, we look forward to working with Tata Motors and strengthen our relationship in the years to come.”
Equipped with the latest technology, this new showroom will retail Tata Motors’ next gen PV line up. The company also offers a workshop to its customers which is equipped with latest equipment and advanced mechanization and automation. Tata Motors aims to increase its reach aggressively and through these showrooms it will continue to offer best value and experience to customers. Tata Motors’ Turnaround 2.0 journey will focus on ‘Winning sustainably in PVs’ with an objective to increase market presence and drive volumes in PVs.
NXP Semiconductors N.V. has changes to the senior leadership team designed to better align with the company’s renewed focus and growth strategy.
Effective immediately, Kurt Sievers, executive vice president & general manager of NXP’s automotive business, has been promoted to president of NXP Semiconductors. Under the new structure, Kurt Sievers will oversee all of NXP’s business lines.
“This new structure follows the natural evolution of our strategy, as we strengthen our focus on secure connected devices through the automotive and industrial & IoT businesses while also participating in the mobile and communications infrastructure markets,” said Rick Clemmer, chief executive officer of NXP. “As technological change accelerates, all our focus verticals require edge to node platforms and solutions that facilitate data analytics, machine learning and advanced services. By simplifying our organization, we will be better able to fully leverage our scale, facilitate cross-company collaboration and reduce overhead, all of which will help us unlock the full profitable growth potential of our business.”
“Kurt is an exceptional leader who inspires others to reach their full potential working across organization boundaries and delivers great results,” said Rick Clemmer. “Under his guidance, our automotive business has grown to be the #1 semiconductor supplier to that industry, architecting the most complete solution portfolio and establishing the deepest strategic partnerships across the autonomous driving and safer driving mobility ecosystem. By continuously raising the bar, Kurt has helped us to evolve from product leadership positions to be a recognized thought leader. I am excited about the prospect of working with Kurt over the coming years to extend these results across the entire business. We have a great team that I am confident will be able to keep NXP evolving and growing.”
“This is an exciting time to lead our business to broader leadership for Secure Connections for the Smarter World,” said Kurt Sievers. “Our scalable embedded & analog solutions make it easy for our customers to innovate, while we master the underlying complexity and ensure scalability, functional safety and security,” he added. “I am energized by our positive customer feedback and employee engagement and I look forward to make NXP the benchmark of value creation for all our stakeholders.”
Ruediger (Rudy) Stroh has decided to pursue his next chapter outside the company, effective September 30, 2018, after a successful nine-year career during which he served as executive vice-president and general manager of NXP’s security & connectivity business.
“On behalf NXP’s board of directors, I want to thank Rudy for the passion, energy and vision he brought to the company, and wish him all the best in the future,” said Rick Clemmer, chief executive officer of NXP Semiconductors. “Under his talented leadership, NXP brought mobile wallets into the hands of billions of consumers, created security solutions for billions of payment and identity credentials and developed the broadest portfolio of fit-for-purpose IoT & security solutions that pave the way for revolutionary machine learning inferencing in edge computing. I believe the company is well positioned to build on Rudy’s record of success and continue to deliver solid results. To ensure the success of this change, Rudy will be working closely with Kurt and me during a transition period.”
Jennifer Wuamett, deputy general counsel and chief IP officer, will succeed Guido Dierick as executive vice president and general counsel of NXP Semiconductors, effective immediately. Guido Dierick retires as general counsel but remains country manager of NXP Semiconductors Netherlands.
“Jennifer’s unique mix of understanding technology and expertise in intellectual property, corporate governance and legal matters make her ideally suited to lead NXP’s legal & IP teams, as she did for Freescale Semiconductor,” said Rick Clemmer. “Jennifer is an industry-recognized intellectual property expert and an outstanding leader; in an expanded role, her talent will continue to be a great asset for our company.”
Guido Dierick retires from his general counsel position after an exceptional 36-year career in the electronics industry.
“Guido’s achievements are too many to recount and he has been my trusted partner throughout NXP’s history,” said Rick Clemmer. “I sincerely thank Guido for his outstanding guidance, insights and leadership across all these years; wish him well in his personal pursuits of charitable causes and am glad he continues to contribute to our success as country manager of NXP Netherlands.”
Infosys, India’s second largest software services firm recently signed a three-year partnership with the Australian Open as its official digital innovation partner.
In a BSE filing, Infosys said the company will leverage its expertise in emerging technologies like big data and analytics, AI as well as virtual and augmented reality, to provide unique, innovative and engaging experiences for fans.
Commenting on the development, Australian Open Tournament Director Craig Tiley said partnering with Infosys is an exciting next step.
“It is a right step in our ongoing quest to innovate the Australian Open and engage new audiences across the world,” he said. Infosys and nor the Australian Open didn’t reveal the financial details of the deal.
Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh said the partnership is about creating new ways of experiencing the Australian Open. “We are really excited about the opportunity to showcase how digital technologies can enhance the boundaries of this tournament,” he said.
