Mindtree may spin off two company-incubated start-ups

The idea is to support those who may want to be entrepreneurs

 

Two entrepreneurial ventures, started in and incubated at Mindtree Ltd., are now not only catering to over 10 clients each and making revenues for the mid-sized software services exporter but also on the brink of being viable market-ready products.

 

Mindtree will, in the “coming three to six months”, consider opening up, spinning them as independent ventures and getting aboard external investors for the two promising projects that are currently in the field deployment stage.

 

The company has so far invested $4-5 million in the two ventures — one cloud management and security offering called VMUnify and a digital surveillance and video analytics product.

 

Tech event

These projects have been incubated in the products and platforms vertical, under a programme called ‘5 by 50’.

 

“The idea is that the company supports any idea that we think can be a $50 million dollar business in five years,’’ according to Janakiraman S, CTO at Mindtree, who was speaking on the sidelines of the company’s annual tech event Osmosis.

 

The second phase of ‘5 by 50’ is now on, with Mindtree choosing three of 260-odd entries.

“The idea was to support those in our company who may want to be entrepreneurs and create business opportunity but want to minimise risk,” Mr. Janakiraman said.

 

Mr. Janakiraman believes that projects like these will help differentiate Mindtree, a company that is “nimble and agile enough to take risks”, and that this will pay off well in the long-term.

“Mindtree has been growing organically in a very linear way. That is the nature of services—here we are trying to break away from it and create non-linearity, which needs the company to take risks. We feel we have reached a level of maturity to be able to take such risks.”

Smaat India: providing safe and affordable water solutions

Even as a child, Karunakara M Reddy understood the travails of rural India in getting safe drinking water.

 

He would see womenfolk in his village in Andhra Pradesh’s Mehbubnagar district trudge miles to fetch a pot of drinking water.

 

He also saw how people in his village frequently fell ill because of water-borne diseases.

He knew then that availability of safe drinking water would be a major problem in India for decades to come.

 

Biz opportunity

Many years later, in 1998, armed with an MBA and in his first job, he realised how drinking water offered a business opportunity.

 

Reddy, who had joined a soft-drink MNC in Hyderabad, had been asked to help launch the company’s first mineral-water plant.

 

That same year, the 23-year-old executive quit the job, which was paying him about ₹60,000 a month.

 

With an investment of ₹37,000, he set up an office to provide safe drinking water at an affordable price. “We started off with importing and later assembling water purifying units, which then cost ₹27,000 each. We sold 27 units in the first six months and ended the first year with ₹6 lakh revenue,” he recalls.

 

Today, the company, Smaat India, has annual sales of ₹120 crore, with about 900 employees and a factory that produces 300 water purifying units a month.

“For me, it is not business alone. Somehow the urge to provide safe and affordable drinking water to rural India has been there in me from my childhood,” the 39-year-old Chairman and Managing Director says.

 

Smaat sells water solutions to 33 countries, covering 18 innovative technologies developed in-house.

“These include reverse osmosis, ozone filtration, solar ozone evaporation and demineralisation.

“The objective of the innovation is to reduce filtration cost to ensure safe drinking water at affordable costs,” he says.

 

Innovative products

One of its innovative products is a mobile treatment unit to provide drinking water to the masses during floods or natural calamities.

The ₹1.3-crore unit is mounted on a specially designed truck that can be moved around to deliver 2,000 litres per hour.

“What is unique is that it packs the water in small pouches automatically. It can produce 5,000 pouches an hour.

“The pouches come out seamlessly. These units are doing well in West Bengal and Jharkhand,” says Reddy.

Govt plans billion-dollar fund to seed desi tech firms

 If the Government has its way, the next Apple or Ericsson could be from India. In a bid to encourage local technology in the manufacture of telecom equipment and devices, the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) has floated a plan to set up a venture capital fund with a billion-dollar war chest.

 

It proposes to rope in prominent Indian venture capitalists such as Vinod Khosla, Sam Pitroda and Gururaj Deshpande to be part of the investment committee of the fund.

 

“The fund will invite proposals in a transparent manner and select a few consortia, pre-dominantly comprising Indian-origin scientists and technologists. The full cost of the start-ups, from conception to proof of concept and then manufacturing, will be met through equity infusion,” stated the NMCC note, which is now under the consideration of the Department of Telecom.

 

According to the NMCC proposal, the fund will provide 85 per cent of the equity without management control and the remaining 15 per cent can be provided by the selected entrepreneurs in the form of sweat equity. The promoter of the company will have full control of management, subject to a review by the expert committee.

 

In case the start-up does not succeed in the venture, the money given will be written off. But if the venture becomes commercially viable then the proposed fund will maintain an equity holding above 51 per cent to prevent any foreign entity from gaining control over the firm. “The fund will look at breakthrough technology, and not return on capital, as a measure of success,” the note, seen by Business Line, said.

 

The move has been initiated in a bid to make India a global technology manufacturing hub. Despite being a major consumer of telecom network and device products, almost all of its requirements are imported at present.

 

Though the Government has brought in several policies to encourage local manufacturing, including the preferential market access policy, not much investment has come in till now. The mobile devices segment has seen some investments by the likes of Nokia and Motorola but this has also declined in the last one year.

 

DoT officials, however, said that while the NMCC proposal is right in intent, it has to be seen whether it overlaps with other schemes being implemented.

IIM-A study suggests 'brick and click' model for retail growth

With the growing real estate prices hampering the penetration of large format retailing, a study at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) suggests a combination of online and kirana (mom-and-pop) stores.

Terming it as 'brick and click' model, the study suggests retailers should innovate to increase business by going in for a combination of e-commerce and small brick-and-mortar stores.

Titled 'Online Retailing Paired with Kirana - A Formidable Combination for emerging Markets', the study has been authored by IIM-A faculty member Prof. Piyush Sinha, along with Prof. Srikant Gokhale and Saurabh Rawal.

The study argues that there are four factors that advocate a combined model of e-commerce and small kirana stores including rapid penetration of technology, growing consumer preferences, growing adoption of online medium by stores and brands and growing real estate prices.

The study highlights several hurdles that the organised retailing needs to overcome, such as rise real estate prices, lack of viable store locations, overhead costs, pilferage, lack of trained manpower and many more. On the other hand internet retailing is accessible even through a smartphone, saves time and fuel for the consumers and demands no expensive real estate investment for expansion.

"The growth story will be that such a growth will not remain confined to the urban centers of any nation but will rather spread more rapidly in the rural areas, where both organized retail have found difficulty in serving this base of the pyramid.

The inability of organized retail to make a strong presence in these countries will be tapped by the growing number of internet users who will largely prefer to either shop through the internet and or shop from nearby traditional store.

A firm with an omni retail strategy that merges the two formats may prove to be formidable in service a diverse and large country like India and China," the study states.

Quoting a Mckinsey report, the study estimates that the number of internet users in India will rise to 370 million, surpassing all developed countries by 2015.

Moreover, admitting that a majority of the Indian population is not very savvy when it comes to buying from the internet., the study states that e-commerce companies have acknowledged this hurdle and therefore are innovating business models to suit the needs of the typical India consumer.

For instance, discount and other promotional offers are strongly believed to have led customers from the physical stores to virtual stores.

The study also gives examples retailers like Big Bazaar, Shoppers Stop and Tata's Croma to suggest that brick and mortar retailers are identifying the opportunities offered by electronic commerce in India.

Further, the study attributes steep rise in real estate prices as the reason for retailers being discouraged from opening more and more stores.

As per the study, real estate costs comprise upto 10, and sometime more, of sales in India and this same component is about 3-4% in the case of the developed economies.

"In 2012, the store based retailing contributed to about Rs. 20,000 billion whereas non-store retailers stood at about 175 billion. This signifies a growth of 74% in store-based and 223% growth in non-store between 2007 and 2012. There are more than 14 million physical stores, of which 12 million alone are small grocery outlets. The smaller stores are also very high value formats. The ubiquitous Kirana store provided adequate merchandise mix, home delivery credit and personalised services. Consumers do not find the prices very high as they sell at the price printed on the pack and do not give discounts unless offered by the manufacturers. Their merchandise mix is also localised, especially with regard to food and edible products," it states.

Meanwhile, the study also argues the difficulty in funding as one of the reason for opting for a combination of e-commerce and small mom-and-pop store.

"More than 50 e-commerce companies having received over $700 million in funding since 2010 establishing that e-commerce happens to be one of the most sought after investment sectors in the industry today. On the other hand the physical retailers are finding it difficult to raise money. Only large corporations find it a little easy," the study states.

Transforming young lives

Bhagwan Sahay Khatik from Amaranar village in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district is 50 but looks 60. Years of grazing his goats in the rocky terrain have left his face deeply wrinkled. “But now that my son Vikky has got a good job, I will retire,” he smiles. Vikky, all of 19, completed a 12-week course at the ICICI Academy of Skills in Jaipur last month, and has got a job that pays ₹7,000 a month.

For his mother, more important was the fact that for the 12 weeks Vikky “never slept on a hungry stomach”. At home the staple diet was roti and chillies.

 

Wholesome food

The 150-odd youngsters get much more than food at the Academy which aims to find sustainable livelihood for the youth. After opening in 2013 in Jaipur, the Academy has six branches in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Pune, Kolhapur while two more, at Patna and Guwahati, will be ready by March. Together they will train about 5,000 youth every year.

The curriculum has been designed with NIIT, Blue Star, Schneider Electrical, Tally and Crompton Greaves, which have also helped set up classrooms and labs. The technical stream students get hostel facility. The 12-week course offers six skills — electrical, motor and pump repair; refrigeration and AC (RAC) maintenance; selling/marketing skills; web designing, and office administration (this covers basics of accounting, banking, filing papers, etc). The last is in great demand in the SME sector.

 

Focus on grooming, discipline

Along with the training in their chosen vocation, there is also focus on teaching them discipline and grooming. “In the first two weeks, we train them in good behaviour, how to talk to the customer and respect what he/she says. Because you come from deprivation, it does not give you the right to talk rudely to anybody, we tell them,” says a teacher. The resident children have to get up by 6 am, bathe, shave, dress neatly, go for breakfast by 7 and report to class at 8.

The wholesome vegetarian food served in the hostel provides youngsters from poorer families the much required nutrition. Within a week they look healthier, and the grooming brings about a metamorphosis. Some elementary English is taught too.

Nobody is refused admission; the mantra is that given the right environment and opportunity, everybody can be an achiever. The poorer students seek technical skills, the better off office administration and web designing. The latter, day scholars from Jaipur, have degree which have failed to get them jobs.

 

Gender divide

The gender divide is along expected lines; the boys prefer technical courses, the girls opt for web designing, office administration. But in Coimbatore, six girls have broken the gender barrier. R Kavya, from nearby Pollachi, loved changing bulbs and doing small electrical repairs from childhood and “wanted to do electrical engineering, but my family couldn’t afford the fees.” Now she is a budding electrician.

Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO, ICICI Bank, says she was heartened by the fact that the girls from the first batch have all taken up jobs and are “participating in the economic process.” Training youth and making them employable “is the only way to take advantage of our demographic dividend,” she says.

For ICICI Bank, this venture is that of being a responsible corporate citizen and ensuring that “opportunities and an enabling environment are created for our youth; that is the only way to take advantage of our demographic dividend.”

 

Placement

All 146 from the first batch in Jaipur have been placed. Both ICICI Bank and its partners leverage their goodwill and dealer networks to find jobs for them. The minimum wage is ₹6,000; those with technical skills get ₹8,000-10,000. RK Sharma, a Blue Star consultant and an RAC instructor, says his distributors have employed seven “and are asking for more. RAC is in demand, and will explode as the cold chains for fruits and vegetables expand. I see these boys earning around Rs 20-25,000 in a few years. Hotels and restaurants also need AC mechanics; an AC restaurant is the norm today."

Manoj Sharma from Shyam Aircon Services, a dealer of Blue Star in Jaipur, confirms this. “We have employed six trainees, and though they have more theoretical than practical knowledge, we don’t have to train them from scratch. Also, they know how to talk politely to customers, which is bonus for us.”

 

Surprisingly, 13 from the first batch of 146 refused to take up jobs; they had experience in their fields and came to the ICICI Academy to hone their skills. The Bank may fund their own ventures.

Hanuman Sahib Bhairwan from Ramjipura village, 40 km from Jaipur, is 19, but on his shoulders rest the responsibility of paying his father’s debts. A marginal farmer with two acres of land, the father doubles up as a daily wage labourer to feed his large family. “The income from land is meagre; there is always water shortage. And I have two brothers and five sisters,” says Hanuman who is training to be an electrician. Four of his sisters are married; the dowry for each was ₹2-3 lakh. “Pitaji ke sar par bahut karz hai (father is heavily in debt). I came here thinking karza utrega toh Pitaji khush hoge.(He will be happy),” he says and wants to help clear the debts.

 

Ashok, 19, is the son of a potter from a village 20 km from Jaipur. Unlike other happy faces, his eyes are sad. He tells his story only after much coaxing. His father makes pots that his mother tries to sell in the nearby villages. The daily income is uncertain, and so is the meal. The story is related dispassionately in a resigned monotone.

 

Divesh Kumar, 20, hails from a Haryana village. His father is a barber and earns less than ₹5,000 a month. Divesh has three siblings and made it to Class 12 with great difficulty. “Khana badiya hai,” he beams, reflecting his circumstances.

 

Most have completed Class 12, but many are in third year of college. Others surprise me by saying they are in third year of college. Captain Amar Singh, who has retired from the Army Aviation wing and trains students on electrical skills, explains: “After their Plus Two, these students enrol for correspondence courses by paying Rs 300. they somehow get a degree, but no education and are hence unemployable.”

 

He also doubles as the hostel warden; sari zindagi machine ke saath guzari, (my whole life was spend with machines), I now love training these children."

But teaching them about circuits is a challenge. “They may pass Class 12, but the standard is much lower. Many can’t even write their names. But hailing from this region, I know how to put things in their heads”.

 

So when explaining resistance, Singh gives the example of the world’s fastest runner Usain Bolt. “I tell them, if we give him a proper track he will run superbly. But if we bring him to the sand dunes of Bikaner, his speed will reduce dramatically because of the uneven surface. So they understand!”

I love most the body language of Gaurav Sharma, seated with his father Hemraj, a carpenter. He has got a job as electrician at a salary of Rs 10,000. “The job is great, but this is only the beginning; I know I will earn much more in the future," he beams.

How 3 Indians turned SAP into a cloud computing major

Six years ago, $23-billion (Rs 1.42 lakh crore) German software major SAP, best known for its business software products (enterprise resource planning or ERP in geekspeak), faced a problem: it was still king in ERP but didn’t have a strong presence on the cloud, which was seen as the future of computing.

Cloud computing is a system of “renting” software over the internet instead of buying it on license. It is cheaper than buying software and, so, is preferred by many firms.

After several brainstorming sessions among senior SAP executives, the company’s chairman H. Plattner and its chief technology officer Vishal Sikka (46), who grew up in Vadodara, decided to venture into the cloud with a database management system (which tracks and analyses massive volumes of data), where SAP had little presence, but with a small twist that proved to be a masterstroke.

The new product was called HANA or high performance analytic appliance, which for a variety of technical innovations, speeded up real-time data analysis by up to 100 times.

Analysts, rivals and even some insiders predicted failure. As recently as September 30, 2012, Oracle CEO and co-founder Larry Ellisson took a dig at HANA, calling it a “small thing.” He had earlier dismissed SAP’s innovation as “wacko”.

But Sikka, who is now being called the father of HANA, had the last laugh. At the end of 2013, the product had about 3,000 customers worldwide, making it the bestseller in its class. Oracle, too, has now adopted this new technology. According to company grapevine, Sikka is now a frontrunner for the post of SAP CEO.

“HANA was the right product, at the right time, at the right price,” said Milan Sheth, an analyst at consultancy firm EY.

Several SAP executives around the world contributed to HANA but the ones who stand out are IIT-Kharagpur alumnus Anirban Dey (41), MD of SAP Labs India and a golf enthusiast, whose team developed the system that programs the database that is to be analysed. And his colleague, Ganapathy Subramanian (36), VP, SAP Labs India, builds applications to make the HANA and other tech platforms more versatile and user-friendly.

Not everyone, however, is impressed. “We cannot term HANA as an exceptional technology,” said an analyst requesting anonymity, as his firm has dealings with SAP.

But for now, Sikka and his team are basking in the glory of HANA’s success

Devi Shetty opens low-cost healthcare venture in Cayman Islands outside US

NEWDELHI: Devi Shetty, the Indian cardiac surgeon renowned for making cutting-edge medical care affordable to the masses, is set to begin his overseas innings this week.

Health City Cayman Islands will start receiving patients this week as the first leg of Shetty's Caribbean venture becomes  operational with a 104-bed multispecialty tertiary hospital.

It cost $70 million to set up. Abig advantage of the Cayman Islands facility is its location: near the American shore, but off the stringent US regulations. Shetty, the founder of Narayana Health (formerly Narayana Hrudayalaya) is awaiting American patients as well. And, he promises to offer top-quality services at lower costs.

The best location to build a hospital on the planet today is a ship that is parked in the US waters just outside its territory," Shetty said. "The site at the Cayman Islands is the closest approximation that fits the bill."

"The healthcare models in the US are considered the ultimate and keenly studied  by the entire world, but the regulatory restrictions in that country are so stifling that innovations in healthcare delivery are very difficult to implement," Shetty told ET.

The entire health-city plan envisages 2,000 beds, a medical university and an assisted-living centre over the next 10 years with a total investment of $2 billion. The British Caribbean territory changed some of its regulations to accommodate Shetty's vision. The most significant was recognising the Indian medical degree and doctors.

"The government of Cayman Islands is the second after the Indian government globally to recognise the Indian medical degrees.

He is already scouting for more suitable locations in the Caribbean region. Narayana Health has an ambition of growing into a 30,000-bed organisation over the next five years.

Currently, it has just over 6,300 beds. Shetty wants one-fourth of its net additions to be overseas. Shetty is in talks with authorities in some European and African countries, pressing them to recognise
Indian doctors and degrees. Until now, that has been his condition for venturing in to overseas projects. But, he believes, if not today, developed countries would have to look at Indian healthcare models in the next seven-eight years to contain costs. "Healthcare is a sticky issue for most countries, even in the developed world, and each one is looking for a solution.

Just. that they are yet to arrive on the brink of desperation and when that happens, Indian models will definitely have a few lessons to offer." Meanwhile, Shetty plans to use the time difference between Western countries and India as an advantage. "Nowhere in the world, patients even in the ICU are attended to by top doctors in the middle of the night, but that would be possible now with senior doctors in our Bangalore hospital connected to the Cayman facility."


While Narayana  Health's overseas foray may be happening only now, according to Shetty his team has been preparing for it for five to seven years. "Cost is our strength and quality is their demand and I knew that a balance would have to be struck as we venture abroad," he said. "Two of our hospitals have been JCI (Joint Commission International) accredited for a few years now. None of our patients ever asked for it but that was our way to understand the needs of the developed world and brace for our journey there," he said.

The organisation keeps a close watch on its financial health. "For instance, at the end of every month, all our top doctors and senior administrators get a detailed account of the financial parameters of
all 27 locations we operate in, and we do a post-mortem of finances," Shettysaid.

"But our investment in best-in class software also ensures that every day afternoon all of them get an SMS on revenue, expenses and other financial indicator for all the locations, which is what we call our diagnostic tool." This helps Narayana Health self-correct on a daily basis.

Forget the Internet - soon there will be the OUTERNET

Company plans to beam free Wi-fi to every person on Earth from space

• An ambitious project known as Outernet is aiming to launch hundreds of miniature satellites into low Earth orbit by June 2015
• Each satellite will broadcast the Internet to phones and computers giving billions of people across the globe free online access
• Citizens of countries like China and North Korea that have censored online activity could be given free and unrestricted cyberspace
• 'There's really nothing that is technically impossible to this'

You might think you have to pay through the nose at the moment to access the Internet.

But one ambitious organisation called the Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF) is planning to turn the age of online computing on its head by giving free web access to every person on Earth.

Known as Outernet MDIF plans to launch hundreds of satellites into orbit by 2015.

And they say the project could provide unrestricted Internet access to countries where their web access is censored, including China and North Korea.

The New York company plans to ask NASA to test their Outernet technology on the International Space Station (left) so that they can begin broadcasting Wi-Fi to web users around the world (right)

Using something known as datacasting technology, which involves sending data over wide radio waves, the New York-based company says they'll be able to broadcast the Internet around the world.

The group is hoping to raise tens of millions of dollars in donations to get the project on the road.

The Outernet team claim that only 60% of the world's population currently have access to the wealth of knowledge that can be found on the Internet.

This is because, despite a wide spread of Wi-FI devices across the globe, many countries are unable or unwilling to provide people with the infrastructure needed to access the web.

The Outernet project is aiming to raise tens of millions of dollars to launch hundreds of miniature satellites known as cubesats to make their dream a reality

The company's plan is to launch hundreds of low-cost miniature satellites, known as cubesats, into low Earth orbit.

Here, each satellite will receive data from a network of ground stations across the globe.

Using a technique known as User Datagram Protocol (UDP) multitasking, which is the sharing of data between users on a network, Outernet will beam information to users.

Much like how you receive a signal on your television and flick through channels, Outernet will broadcast the Internet to you and allow you to flick through certain websites.

THE OUTERNET PROJECT TIMELINE

By June of this year the Outernet project aims to begin deploying prototype satellites to test their technology

In September 2014 they will make a request to NASA to test their technology on the International Space Station

By early 2015 they intend to begin manufacturing and launching their satellites

And in June 2015 the company says they will begin broadcasting the Outernet from space

'We have a very solid understand of the costs involved, as well as experience working on numerous spacecraft,' said Project Lead of Outernet Syed Karim, who fielded some questions on Reddit

'There isn't a lot of raw research that is being done here; much of what is being described has already been proven by other small satellite programs and experiments.

There's really nothing that is technically impossible to this'

But at the prospect of telecoms operators trying to shut the project down before it gets off the ground, Karim said: 'We will fight... and win.'

If everything goes to plan, the Outernet project aims to ask NASA for permission to test the technology on the International Space Station.

And their ultimate goal will be to beginning deploying the Outernet satellites into Earth orbit, which they say can begin in June 201

 

Flatpebble.com: an idea that clicked

They had come to Microsoft, Hyderabad, from different paths. The job at the IT giant took them to different places and they finally ended up, together, in Kuala Lumpur. In an alien land, Venkatesh Seshadri or Venky and Pranav Mehta bonded and shared thoughts and ideas. One such session was epiphanic for the duo. They stumbled on an idea they were confident would click big, and turn them into entrepreneurs. They had zoomed in on the creative and growing field of photography.

Thus was born Flatpebble.com — an online service that connects photographers with clients. It lets the client post an assignment, which then alerts photographers within the target geography. The client gets to make his choice after reviewing work portfolios and detailed quotes from a set of photographers. Helpfully, the site also provides a rating of the work of the photographers.

 

The big jump

The young duo decided to quit their well-paying jobs and take the plunge. With their personal savings and help from friends, they invested ₹16 lakh to launch the venture. It was a leap into the unknown for the first-time entrepreneurs.

The decision was especially tough for Venky. He belongs to a conservative family that prefers an engineering degree, a higher qualification from a foreign university and an MNC job.

“My parents pushed me in that direction. I had to take the decision to become an entrepreneur when they were away in the US,” recalls Venky, co-founder of TechClove Technologies, which owns Flatpebble.com.

 

A chemical engineer with an MBA from SP Jain College, Venky joined Infosys in 2000 and then moved to Pidilite, where the exposure of talking to dealers expanded his horizon and convinced him that technology was just one aspect.

 

People with technology background have knowledge, but no hands-on experience. He then went to Sweden and worked with Volvo, and later joined Microsoft.

 

What Flatpebble does is to change the way photographers are hired especially for weddings, birthdays, portfolio shoots, fashion events and product launches.

 

“The solution we provide helps people view work samples, get detailed quotes and engage a photographer safely on the web. The photographer is also protected,” says Venky.

In the last four months, 185 assignments for photographers estimated at ₹90 lakh have been processed through Flatpebble. “Our photographer base now covers 175 cities in India with over 1,000 portfolios and we are adding new profiles at an accelerated pace,” says Pranav Mehta, Co-Founder and CTO.

 

The creative person

There are a number of products and companies that focus on photos, but Flatpebble decided to focus on the creative person behind the photo/image/visual or the photographer, says Venky. It is trying the ‘lean start up methodology,’ the latest Silicon Valley concept. Here, the idea is a hypothesis. You take it to the target audience and talk to select people and see if they buy it. Based on the feedback, keep improving. Flatpebble started with the ‘stock image product,’ created its platform, kept talking to its target audience — photographers.

 

“We thought photographers were more online — work with computers and are comfortable with the internet and know enough about the digital world. The result is Flatpebble.com,” explained Venky. An estimate reveals that there are nearly 2.5 lakh photographers for doing marriage photo shoots. Over 30 per cent are freelancers (a majority of IT professionals doing part time).

Flatpebble uses photography as an umbrella name for a bunch of services that include still, video, streaming and albums.

 

Flatpebble connects all these dots and its platform is built on the Cloud, says Pranav, who with a Masters Degree in Computer Applications, focuses on the technology aspects of the venture.

 

Golden memories

The professional photography landscape in India is fast changing, as consumers are willing to spend more to capture their special memories. With half a dozen staff, the company earns revenue through subscriptions from photographers and commissions. It recently raised funds through investors.

“Flatpebble is solving an important problem and bringing order to a disorganised market,” says Raghu Bathina, serial entrepreneur and investor.

 

“The candid photography space alone is a $500-million market in India and it is growing at 25 per cent year-on-year.”

Healthcare tech is hot for venture capitalists

From wearables like wristbands that keep track of your physical activity to wireless weighing machines that help you track your weight fluctuations, technology is getting into healthcare with an eye firmly on the consumer.

 

The trend in far greater in the US, but healthcare influenced by information technology (HIT) is a niche that’s seeing increased activity in India, too.

This is indicated by the large number of deals in this segment, observed Raj Prabhu, co-founder of Mercom Capital Group, a global consulting and communications firm.

In the US, venture capital (VC) funding in HIT nearly doubled from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $2 billion in 2013.

 

Back home, though the total deal size is small at $12 million, the number of deals has increased to seven from one last year, he told Business Line over the phone from Texas.

India stands fourth, after the US, the UK and Canada, he pointed out.

 

And, despite the funding fatigue and recessionary trends that worry other sectors, “in terms of VC funding, this is the hottest sector”, he added.

 

Wearable technology is a huge trend in the US and the big push is on consumer-centric, focused technology, Prabhu said.

 

In India, the projects are mainly focused on helping people to connect remotely through computers, telephones and Skype.

 

Last year’s key transactions include VC funding from Burrill & Company for Strand Life Sciences, a Bangalore-based company providing products and solutions for data integration and analysis.

Bangalore’s Doctree Health Infoservices, which connects doctor and patient, raised $500,000. iKure Techsoft, a Kolkata-based developer of technology solutions for the delivery of healthcare services in rural areas, received an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I-cube-N).

 

It also raised funding from IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), along with US-based investor Village Capital. Chennai’s Xcode, a preventive wellness programme provider, raised about $170,000 in angel funding from Shead Holdings, a micro-venture capital fund from the US, and an individual investor.

Bangalore’s InterpretOmics, a cloud-based software system for next generation genomics data analysis and interpretation, raised about $1.7 million in angel funding from Amarante and two undisclosed local investors.

 

MeraDoctor, a Mumbai-based provider of health-plus-finance — it combines medical advice with health insurance and discounts on tests and medicines — received funding from Accion through its Venture Lab.

 

In the mergers and acquisition space, Virinchi Technologies, a Secunderabad-based financial IT products, solutions and services company, acquired a majority stake in Asclepius Consulting & Technologies, a software solutions provider for mid-size hospitals and nursing homes in India, says Mercom in its list of local transactions.