Dubai's Careem Acquires Hyderabad-based Transportation App Commut

Dubai, UAE-based ride-hailing app Careem has acquired Commut, a Hyderabad-based mass transportation app, marking its entry into India, announced the company on Monday.

Careem did not disclose the size of the deal, which it said would accelerate Careem's expansion into mass transportation through the addition of bus services across the 100 cities it operates in.

Post acquisition, Commut’s talent and technology will be taken by Careem while Commut's local operations – including its customers and driver-partners – will be taken over by Shuttl, a shuttle service provider based out of Gurgaon, India. This is part of Shuttl's deal with Careem, when the Gurgaon-based firm had raised US$11 million in a series B round led by Amazon and Dentsu Ventures in July.

Backed by Chinas Didi Chuxing, Careem is itself reported to be the subject of a potential takeover bid by US ride-hailing giant Uber in a deal that could value it at $2 billion or more.

Founded in 2015, by six IIIT Hyderabad graduates, Commut has been funded by UK-Based Shell-Foundation and 50K Ventures and its bus shuttle service has been operating in Hyderabad since November 2015. To date, they’ve made over 750,000 trips within more than 100 existing routes and are the third-largest transportation app in India. The six co-founders of Commut are -- Charan Thota, Hemanth Reddy Jonnalagadda, Prasanth Garapati, Sandeep Kachavarapu and Srujai Varikuti.

Prasanth Garapati, CEO of Commut, said: “We built Commut with the mission to touch and improve people’s lives by offering an economical, comfortable, safe and tech-enabled mass transit solution. Our mission is in line with Careem’s of providing users with a safe, reliable, affordable and convenient means of transportation for people. Joining Careem and building the mass transportation vertical will help us in fulfilling our mission at a much larger scale”.

To recall, Careeem had also acquired Savaree, a Lahore,Pakistan-based cab service startup, in March 2016

Meet FxKart - India's First Forex Booking App With USD 1.5 Mn Turnover Within 7 Months of Its Operations

Checking one thing off from the to-do list of international travellers traveling to and from India, is a foreign exchange trading platform called Fxkart.com.

Fxkart is a platform that facilitates foreign exchange trading and simplifies currency exchange for people travelling to and from India. Early this year, the company launched a Forex booking mobile app showcasing 1000+ forex dealer locations across India. The company claims to be India's first forex booking app.

The Dubai headquartered yet India-focussed company was started in the year 2013 with an aim of simplifying the tedious process of currency exchange for International travellers.

It's a strange fact that even in this era of technology where we can now do practically anything from our smartphones, our currency exchanging habits still reflect the older times. We still practice the age-old risky methods of going to a bank or a small currency broker in some tiny corner of the city, to exchange our currency. For those who have practiced these methods, must also be aware of the pain and disappointment that one goes through when one learns that there was someone offering better exchange rate in some other part of the city.

Fxkart.com aims to change this inefficient and non transparent behaviour of the market by offering its customers the best exchange rates available in their city by letting them compare rates across dealers who are competing for their business, thus making the rates offered very competitive and the service being completely FREE! Yes, Free!

According to the startup there are four main things that differentiates them from others in the market and has helped them achieve 1.5 million dollars in turnover within 7 months of operations. The four things are as follows:

1. Best Deals through live bidding


2. Dynamic customer support


3. Complete transparency in the whole exchange process


4. All RBI licensed money changers on one single platform.

Though founded in 2013, the startup launched its services only in January this year. Headquartered in Dubai, the startup has its R&D Center in Bangalore along with Regional Teams in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Goa, Chandigarh and Bhopal.

According to the RBI guidelines, up to Rs 50,000 can be exchanged in cash. If the amount is more, it can be directly credited in one’s account. Fxkart.com also assists you in issuing the travel card in case of exchange of a larger amount and enables you to exchange the foreign currency and transfer into your account online via a credible money exchanger. One also need not walk into a bank and pay higher exchange rates.

Fxkart. com already has more than 100 money exchangers, 500 plus locations and 2000 plus customers. It has carried out about two million dollars worth of exchanges. According to the Fxkart. com, the most common currencies exchanged are US dollar, euros, British pounds, AED, Bangkok and Singapore dollars. The currency that is very rarely exchanged is Russian currency.

With high profile brands like Lulu Exchange, Matrix Forex, Centrum Direct , Paul Merchants, Orient Exchange and Akbar Travels etc on board, Fxkart.com's dealer base is growing at a staggering rate of 25 percent month-on-month.
Having founded by Dr. Mushtaq Shah, the company is currently being run under the reigns of CEO Abdul Hadi Shaikh.

The company aims to use the $2M seed funding from its founder Dr. Shah and Dr Faraz Naqvi, who is also a Strategic Advisor in the company, to expand the dealer network and enhance the IT infrastructure of the company.

Since what they're offering is a niche service, they plan to target their customers through strategic marketing planning, partnerships and industry events that hold relevance for them as a brand.

Adding to its fleet of achievements, the company recently received the best International Business Travel Product of the year at IITM, Mumbai.

The company competes with a bunch of third-party players which are offering online forex services besides several banks and forex dealers like Thomas Cook. Players in the space also include BookMyForex and Buyforexonline, a venture associated with financial services firm Centrum Capital.

Meet FxKart - India's First Forex Booking App With USD 1.5 Mn Turnover Within 7 Months of Its Operations

Checking one thing off from the to-do list of international travellers traveling to and from India, is a foreign exchange trading platform called Fxkart.com.

Fxkart is a platform that facilitates foreign exchange trading and simplifies currency exchange for people travelling to and from India. Early this year, the company launched a Forex booking mobile app showcasing 1000+ forex dealer locations across India. The company claims to be India's first forex booking app.

The Dubai headquartered yet India-focussed company was started in the year 2013 with an aim of simplifying the tedious process of currency exchange for International travellers.

It's a strange fact that even in this era of technology where we can now do practically anything from our smartphones, our currency exchanging habits still reflect the older times. We still practice the age-old risky methods of going to a bank or a small currency broker in some tiny corner of the city, to exchange our currency. For those who have practiced these methods, must also be aware of the pain and disappointment that one goes through when one learns that there was someone offering better exchange rate in some other part of the city.

Fxkart.com aims to change this inefficient and non transparent behaviour of the market by offering its customers the best exchange rates available in their city by letting them compare rates across dealers who are competing for their business, thus making the rates offered very competitive and the service being completely FREE! Yes, Free!

According to the startup there are four main things that differentiates them from others in the market and has helped them achieve 1.5 million dollars in turnover within 7 months of operations. The four things are as follows:

1. Best Deals through live bidding


2. Dynamic customer support


3. Complete transparency in the whole exchange process


4. All RBI licensed money changers on one single platform.

Though founded in 2013, the startup launched its services only in January this year. Headquartered in Dubai, the startup has its R&D Center in Bangalore along with Regional Teams in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Goa, Chandigarh and Bhopal.

According to the RBI guidelines, up to Rs 50,000 can be exchanged in cash. If the amount is more, it can be directly credited in one’s account. Fxkart.com also assists you in issuing the travel card in case of exchange of a larger amount and enables you to exchange the foreign currency and transfer into your account online via a credible money exchanger. One also need not walk into a bank and pay higher exchange rates.

Fxkart. com already has more than 100 money exchangers, 500 plus locations and 2000 plus customers. It has carried out about two million dollars worth of exchanges. According to the Fxkart. com, the most common currencies exchanged are US dollar, euros, British pounds, AED, Bangkok and Singapore dollars. The currency that is very rarely exchanged is Russian currency.

With high profile brands like Lulu Exchange, Matrix Forex, Centrum Direct , Paul Merchants, Orient Exchange and Akbar Travels etc on board, Fxkart.com's dealer base is growing at a staggering rate of 25 percent month-on-month.
Having founded by Dr. Mushtaq Shah, the company is currently being run under the reigns of CEO Abdul Hadi Shaikh.

The company aims to use the $2M seed funding from its founder Dr. Shah and Dr Faraz Naqvi, who is also a Strategic Advisor in the company, to expand the dealer network and enhance the IT infrastructure of the company.

Since what they're offering is a niche service, they plan to target their customers through strategic marketing planning, partnerships and industry events that hold relevance for them as a brand.

Adding to its fleet of achievements, the company recently received the best International Business Travel Product of the year at IITM, Mumbai.

The company competes with a bunch of third-party players which are offering online forex services besides several banks and forex dealers like Thomas Cook. Players in the space also include BookMyForex and Buyforexonline, a venture associated with financial services firm Centrum Capital.

KinTrans Translates Sign Language Into Voice & Text In Real time; To Help Hearing Impaired

KinTrans is a state-of-the-art system that allows hearing impaired to communicate with others by translating sign language into voice and text in real time, naturally without any sensors or electronics on the hands, unlike other systems in the same field that record and then translate. It was founded in Sep'13 with initial seed funding of $24,000 from Dubai based accelerator TURN8 (DP World initiative).

KinTrans Logo and slogan 'Hands Can Talk' represents the core of their vision in the product. The logo has the shape of Clover Flower or the luck flower according to the Arabic culture. "Here it represents the communication, which is the gift we are trying to give to the hearing impaired back," says the CEO.

It provides an integrated device (hardware and software) that allows the translation of sign language into voice & text. Service providers can install KinTrans at information desks and other appropriate locations to facilitate communication between the hearing impaired and the service provider. The next stage of KinTrans will be a mobile based application targeting the hearing impaired people themselves, to enable them to communicate anywhere and during phone calls as well.

"We believe in KinTrans that the good vision attracts talents. We are partnering with organizations like Intel and Microsoft who believe in what we are doing right now, KinTrans is Microsoft BizSpark member, Intel Development Partner, Egyptian Council of Deafness," says Mohamed Elwazer, the founder.

KinTrans is currently in the process of securing seed funding of approximately $550,000 from a strategic investor in the UAE and seeks to raise between $2 million and $3m in its second round of funding in the future. This will help KinTrans achieve their vision of helping the hearing impaired people with a set of solutions that will enable them to communicate again with the community. The sign language translator is the first step along the way. They envision to create the first Global digital library for different sign languages, which will help in sign language analytics and reporting to have a unified sign language across the world.

Kin Trans has been the Dubai Regional winner in SeedStars World . It has also been nominated as one of the best accessibility project from Egyptian ministry of communication, has been chosen among 400 international projects to be accelerated in Dubai at TURN8 accelerator.

As a message for future Entrepreneurs, the CEO says, "The vision draws the future of your start-up, choose a vision that you truly believe in and other will believe in you & support you. And choose an investor that truly believe in what you are doing."

This team is led by people with a cumulative experience of 40 years in the field of Entrepreneurship, Image Process, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering and R&D.

Mohamed Elwazer, KinTrans Founder & CEO, computer system engineer. He is young and passionate engineer who lead a lot of successful Events, e.g. Program Manager of 'Egyptian Engineering Day' held by IEEE.
 

Ayman Taha, KinTrans Co-founder & COO. An IT manager at 'Egyptian Ministry of Communication'. He holds a MBA degree & specialized in the field of finance & business development.

 

Dr. Hazem Said, KinTrans CTO. He is Instructor of Image processing & Data Structure. He got his PhD in ‘Building sophisticated Algorithms’ that forms the core of KinTrans system.


Dr. Mahmoud Elfouly, KinTrans CBDO. A full time Business Development Director & Professional Life/career Coach accredited with more than 5000 Hours of coaching & consultation for individual/ Executives/Business Owners.

 

Dr. Thanos Mitrelias, KinTrans Business Mentor & Director. He has been in the forefront of entrepreneurial and scientific activities in Cambridge for over 14 years; Founding CEO "Cavendish Nano Therapeutics" & Director 'Cambridge Bio Magnetics'.

Pixelbug, KinTrans Technical Mentor. A leading Augmented Reality & Gestures Control Company in the MENA Region.