Fruits & vegetable retail co Freshworld raises funding from IAN, Kris Gopalakrishnan

Retailworx Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates food and vegetable retailing startup Freshworld, has raised an undisclosed amount from IAN and Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of IT giant Infosys, the company said in a release.

The investment was led by IAN investor Nagaraja Prakasam who co-invested with Gopalakrishnan. As a part of the agreement, Prakasam joined the board of Freshworld.

Prakasam has over couple of decades experience and as an angel investor in agriculture space, he has invested in 10 startups and made three exits.

Freshworld was founded by Rajiv Rao who has over two decades of experience in the telecom industry.

“This investment will enable us in expanding the business and increasing the reach & scale of Freshworld’s retail network. We are looking to upgrade the current model of our carts, strengthen our technology piece and also plan to foray into an organised retail store format for the fresh category only. This would be based on the popular friendly neighbourhood retailer concept or what is known as a convenience store, closer to our consumer,” commented Rao.

Bangalore-based Freshworld ventured into a 'farm-to-home' concept by organising fruits and vegetables (F&V) retailing through a street vendor using battery-operated carts. Each cart uses a tablet, printer and communication technologies to provide receipt, track inventory and analyse data.

"Freshworld is in line with my vision of supporting sustainable technologies in solving problems. I feel this is the next-level disruption in the F&V industry and we expect to see a lot of growth in coming years. I hope to see more ‘green carts’ dotting Bangalore and many more cities soon," said Gopalakrishnan.

In July 2013, Freshworld received an undisclosed amount in its first round of angel funding from family and friends.

350-550 million Indians to join mobile internet in four years: McKinsey

Digital India in the next 10 years will have a $550 billion to $1 trillion impact on the GDP resulting from the use of intelligent applications of technology. This is 20-30 per cent of India’s incremental GDP growth and 3-6 times the current economic contribution of the industry itself, according to Noshir Kaka, Managing Director, India, McKinsey & Company.

In the next four years, there will be a dramatic change in technology in India with the largest migration in mankind’s history after the invention of the Internet taking place with humans attaching themselves to the internet. It is expected that 350-550 million people will join the mobile internet in the next four years.

This is a huge shift, and that’s why the Centre is putting Digital India as the centrepiece, he said at the inaugural session of the annual convention of the Madras Management Association on the theme India 2015 – The Year of Resurgence.

The scale of opportunity will come mainly from sectors like financial services, which will be the largest, followed by education, healthcare, agriculture, food, energy, infrastructure and government services.

“This is the opportunity for all of us if we use technology intelligently. It is not about using complex technology for algorithms but use of simple technology for India today,” he said.

“We cannot solve problems of India today without aggressively leveraging technology. We have the technology and the capability, and need to leverage what we do with it for the rest of the world, for India. My belief is that resurgence should never lie only with the government, which is only an enabler. We will see people will be retrained and new technology will emerge for India, and from India. We will see a huge theme around innovation that will lead to huge growth,” he said.

The impact technologies are going to have on the industries like manufacturing, financial services, government, energy and agriculture is expected to be between $16 trillion and $39 trillion in the next 10 years.

Kaka said about 30 per cent of the work done by knowledge workers today is not likely to be done by humans anymore. In other words, in the next 10 years machines will do 30 per cent of the work that humans do today, he said.

The Indian IT services in the first 20 years of its existence added one person for every dollar added. It is now down to 0.5 and for the next $100 billion that this industry is going to add, “we are going to take one-third of the people that we historically needed”, he said.

“In India, we will have an opportunity because as technology takes away jobs, it also creates new jobs of 14-28 million that did not exist in the past mainly from non-farm sectors,” he said.

IIT Delhi alumnus starts INVOXEL to innovate around smart interaction

Technological innovation is indeed important for economic growth and the enhancement of human possibilities. Driven by extremely young, diverse and inclusive entrepreneurs, the Indian startup ecosystem is rapidly evolving. One such innovation driven technological startup is Invoxel.

Who says every entrepreneur story starts with the dream of making money? Some might even start with the humble thought of making life simpler; as it did for IIT Delhi alumnus Sachidanand Swami.

It was at a tea table discussion with a friend on SCI FI products that Swami came up with the idea of smart surface, but there was still a long way to go. During his tenure at Denmark Technical University, he started connecting with various resources and made up his mind that he would come up with a prototype. He turned to India and turned up at the doorstep of an IIT Delhi professor. The professor agreed to keep him as a summer intern.

Swami’s startup Invoxel is an amalgamation of hardware and software technology to design and develop a multi user smart surface. Team Invoxel includes Chirag Gupta from the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, and Mukesh Kumar from the Department of Computer Science, IIT Delhi. The three are avid travellers and shutterbugs.

Their very first achievement was winning the first prize at the Open house at IIT Delhi and TechFest IIT Bombay. This was followed by Grant from DST and then the laurels followed. They also won the Power of Idea (Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad -2012) and the AGM Innovation Award (IIT Delhi – 2012) in India; abroad they walked away with the Innovators Award (Russian Union of Youth, Chita, Russia-July 2014) and the Top 100 Innovators Award (Open Innovation Forum, Moscow, Russia – Oct 2014). The latest feather in their cap is the Top 6 Innovators Award (Alumni Day IIT Delhi, 2014).

Team Invoxel receiving Top 6 Innovators Award at Alumni Day IIT Delhi, 2014

Now they have started being noticed

Invoxel brought home the prestigious grant of Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in 2013. This propelled the prototyping and shaping of as an innovating product. The first product sale worked as an investment and provided for mentoring. It then sold its first stage beta products and paved the path to various segments and clients like Oil India, Petronet LNG and Protiviti.

One of their first clients was AUDI India. The company was looking for smart surface installation for their Q3 Vendor Meet and team Invoxel made a prototype in two days and installed four units of the first stage product at a venue in Gurgaon. This gave them a burst of confidence and they took up Spark Minda Group project which is their first product installation.

Today, Invoxel is a pioneer in bridging digital communication gaps which it does by offering interactive solutions on digital multi-user smart surfaces technology. Its expertise is providing multi user interactive smart surfaces to groups of users. Invoxel Smart Surface is integration of hardware technologies and touch inputs through the smart glass surface. Multiple users can work simultaneously on smart surface table for intuitive interaction to make collaborative group communication. It has the capability to capture attention of users and they can ideate together. Invoxel’s digital landscaping is a tool for impressive corporate representation.

The team’s vision is to expand and provide technological sustenance to corporate houses, in the field of education, hospitality, the entertainment industry, tourism, infrastructure and real estate by using smart surfaces technologies.

Swami proudly shares, “It was indeed a challenging mile stone which we achieved when we completed our project with Spark Minda Group, an esteemed company in automobile component manufacturing. Team Invoxel was guided and led by Chairman Ashok Minda while support was provided by his management team to achieve the desired results. Team Invoxel took up this challenge with a lot of determination and worked towards this wonderful opportunity. This happens to be our stepping stone to such opportunities globally.”

Invoxel Product at Spark Minda, Ashok Minda Group, Gurgaon

Spark Minda Group is utilizing Invoxel’s multi user smart surface for interacting and showcasing business setups, branding and futuristic discussions with their stakeholders. Invoxel’s multi user smart surface contains Spark Minda Group’s company landscaping along with video representation of Ashok Minda, Group Chairman. Invoxel’s smart surface product is able to give the opportunity to groups of users to look into Minda Groups Company’s representation on global maps simultaneously and deep down into the information about their business with respect to customer’s base, size of operation, manufactured products, quality certificates and futuristic plans.

Swami adds, “Successful project implementation at Spark Minda Group gave strength, confidence and vision to entire team. Team Invoxel with their ‘never say die’ attitude has put up their best to take their startup ahead. Without support from team it would have been very difficult for Invoxel to achieve its first long interactive smart surface.”

Invoxel is open to technology product visionaries, advisories, investors and supporters to join the band wagon. Their belief is, “Innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect and grow into reality.

 

10 start-ups to pitch for on-spot funding at IIT-Bombay

Ten shortlisted start-up teams will get to present their entrepreneurship ideas in 10 minutes each to a panel of over 12 angel investors and get an opportunity to win on-the-spot funding up to Rs.10 lakh each at the two-day Entrepreneurship Summit organised by IIT Bombay which opened on Saturday

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The “10 Minute Million” event is one of the highlights of the summit, which each year brings together students, industry experts, business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs on the same platform. In its 10th edition now, the summit will feature this on-the-spot funding event for the first time on Sunday afternoon at the Lecture Hall Complex at IIT’s Powai campus.

The 10 selected start-up teams will get five minutes to pitch and explain their entrepreneurial idea, and five minutes to answer the questions raised by the investors on the durability of the concept, the revenue streams, the return on investment etc. “Only 10 start ups were shortlisted from over 250 applications were received,”said Sagar Sheth,

The panel of investors include Ajay Pandey, CEO and board member from the Tata Group, Ajeet Khurana, angel investor and CEO of IIT Bombay’s Society for Innovation and Entrepreurship (SINE), Bharat Banka, founder, Aditya Birla Private Equity, Ravi Gururaj, an investor who has funded five such start-ups in the past, Suneel Bandhu of Tata Teleservices among others.

An initiative by the Entrepreneurship Cell of IIT Bombay, E-Summit is a confluence of visionary students, professionals or anyone who wishes to be one of those crazy rebels who will change the world, start his own business or fund a business and become a trend-setter.

Inaugurating the summit, H.S. Pandalai, Deputy Director, Finance & External Affairs, IIT Bombay said, “E-Summit has grown bigger and better over the years and has become the one-stop destination for all budding entrepreneurs. IIT Bombay offers host of facilities to nurture entrepreneurship among students and I hope this Summit will provide an opportunity for young enthusiasts to interact with best of the minds and learn from their experiences.”

The keynote speakers at the inaugural session were Mr. Anil Gupta, Michael Dingman Chair in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and Mr. Salil Donde, Executive Vice President, NASDAQ, who spoke on Entrepreneurial Indigeneity and Globalization.

“Entrepreneurs may need to take risks, big risks but do not take fatal risks...Focus on the business model and not the business plan; Opportunity comes at most unexpected times, so grab it. Data and analytics are vital, irrespective of the field you are in. And you learn more when you fail than when you succeed,” Mr. Donde told students sharing experiences from his journey.