Hyperloop India Pacts With Bengaluru Startup To Build First Pod Prototype; To Raise Funds Via Ketto

Six months after the first proposal of building a modern transportation system in India gained ground, Hyperloop India has taken its first step.

Founded in 2015 by a small group of students from BITS Pilani, Team Hyperloop India is a unique multi-disciplinary multi-university think tank consisting of 60+ motivated student volunteers in the fields of engineering and business, interested in reinventing transportation in India. As a primarily student collaboration, our plan is to leverage our performance in global incentive prize competitions to leapfrog transportation in India.

Hyperloop India, which has got backing from Elon Musk, has partnered with Workbench Projects, a Bengaluru-based start-up, which will build the first pod prototype that hypothetically claims to be immune from weather conditions, collision free, travels twice the speed a airplane's speed, consumes low power and comes with energy storage for a whole day.

“We have signed the partnership with Hyperloop India for building a 4x2 metre pod", said Workbench Projects Founder and CEO Pavan Kumar. Engineers from Tesla and SpaceX are working on this transportation pod, which can be used anywhere in the world.

Hyperloop India consists of 80 students from BITS Pilani, Indian School of Business (ISB), IIM-Ahmedabad, National Institute of Design, RV College of Engineering, Xavier’s Institute of Management, amongst others. Their pod prototype 'OrcaPod' has been selected for the final stage of SpaceX’s Hyperloop Pod Design competition, which will be held in California. While the pod is still in the making, the design will be inspired by Orca, the whale.

Hyperlooop India along with Workbench Projects is looking to raise the funds through crowdfunding platform Ketto, to build this pod in India. The amount that they are looking to raise is around Rs. 75 lakh, which, according to Sibesh Kar, Team Lead and Founder, Hyperloop India, would be used to build a most frugal pod in the world.

“The average cost of building (pod) would be Rs. 3 crore,” he said.

Ketto will start an online campaign from late evening under the title 'Join the Loop’ to invite contributions from all over the world, he said. “The campaign will run for the next 45 days, and aims to raise Rs 30 lakh or more to build the – OrcaPod prototype

So far, Hyperlooop and Workbench have managed to raise Rs. 30 lakh from a few corporates and both the Central and Karnataka governments have lent their support for this project.

Further, most of the materials such as high-grade aluminum or FRC will be sourced from India but the magnet, will be sourced from China.

Kar explained that the electrical components, electronics, which would include software programming will all be done locally.

When asked about Intellectual Property, Kar said that as it is still being built and the technology of hyperloop is itself in a nascent stage, the company wants to focus on building the pod first.

Around 80 people, across different disciplines such as engineering, economics and software programmers are collaborating to build this pod.

Crowdfunding Platform Ketto Wins $30,000 Top Prize In Wharton India Startup Competition

Ketto, Asia's largest crowdfunding platform backed by bollywood actor Kunal Kapoor, has won the Wharton India Startup Competition and took home $30,000 as prize money. In addition to the cash prize and 150 hrs of legal advice from Khaitan and Co., Ketto will get an opportunity to present and pitch to a significantly larger international audience in Philadelphia, USA planned for March 25, 2016.

[caption id="attachment_102989" align="alignleft" width="380"] Zaheer Adenwala, Co-Founder, Ketto and Rajiv Sobhani, Vice President, take home $30,000[/caption]Ketto, which stands for Key To Tomorrow, was founded in 2012 by Varun Sheth, Kunal Kapoor and Zaheer Adenwala. It helps non-profit organizations to raise funds for supported and listed causes by connecting them to companies and individuals.

"With this award, we hope to get a marketing push," said Kunal Kapoor, Co-Founder. Added an excited and beaming Zaheer Adenwala, Co-Founder, "It feels gratifying to win the grand prize award. We look forward to going to Philadelphia which will give us a great platform to reach out to investors in America."

The winner of People choice went to Kheyti, an agri-tech startup, which got $5000. Kheyti provides greenhouses services to farmers. The only dhoti-clad entrepreneur to make a pitch at the finals of the Wharton India Startup Competition, Satya Raghu, Co-Founder was passionate as he talked about the start-up. "We have designed a technology - low-cost modular and a hi tech greenhouse - which uses just 10 percent water and increases farmers’ yield by seven times and incomes by 12 times."

Ranjeet Pratap Singh, Pratilipi, was muted about his victory. Pratilipi, Amazon’s kindle Direct Publishing for Indian languages, won the powerhouse award of $25,000. “We haven’t participated in a competition in a long time. It is nice to be recognized. We are happy with the inputs we got from several experts at the event,” said Singh.

Bushera Bashir -- the only lady entrepreneur finalist at the event, runs an ethnic label, Trebene (Kashmiri word for three sisters). She won the Powerhouse award of $15,000. Bashir termed the award as a `good financial support, adding, “We are at the next level of growth and it is a good forum to network.”

The judges for the competition were Kirthiga Reddy - Managing Director, Facebook India, Sasha Mirchandani - Founder and Managing Director, KAE Capital, Ravi Gururaj from Nasscom, Sandeep Murthy - Partner, Lightbox Ventures, Pravan Malhotra - venture capital investor, International Finance Corporation, Rajan Mehra - Co-Founder and Managing Director, Nirvana Venture Advisors and Sri Peddu - Founder and Managing Director, Powerhouse Ventures.

Commenting on the contest, Reddy said, ‘the diversity of start-ups presented was phenomenal. We had a lengthy debate on the start-ups and the beautiful thing that happened was that eventually we converged on a single set of winners that had both a strong business and social impact. This happened organically in our judge discussions.’

The competition was held for the first time in India as part of the 20th Wharton India Economic Forum (WIFE). With more than 3,000 tech start-ups, India is the fourth largest base for young businesses in the world. It is expected that by 2020, the base will increase to 11,500 tech start-ups.

The WIEF is an annual student-run India-focused conference hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Crowdfunding Platform Ketto Wins $30,000 Top Prize In Wharton India Startup Competition

Ketto, Asia's largest crowdfunding platform backed by bollywood actor Kunal Kapoor, has won the Wharton India Startup Competition and took home $30,000 as prize money. In addition to the cash prize and 150 hrs of legal advice from Khaitan and Co., Ketto will get an opportunity to present and pitch to a significantly larger international audience in Philadelphia, USA planned for March 25, 2016.

[caption id="attachment_102989" align="alignleft" width="380"] Zaheer Adenwala, Co-Founder, Ketto and Rajiv Sobhani, Vice President, take home $30,000[/caption]Ketto, which stands for Key To Tomorrow, was founded in 2012 by Varun Sheth, Kunal Kapoor and Zaheer Adenwala. It helps non-profit organizations to raise funds for supported and listed causes by connecting them to companies and individuals.

"With this award, we hope to get a marketing push," said Kunal Kapoor, Co-Founder. Added an excited and beaming Zaheer Adenwala, Co-Founder, "It feels gratifying to win the grand prize award. We look forward to going to Philadelphia which will give us a great platform to reach out to investors in America."

The winner of People choice went to Kheyti, an agri-tech startup, which got $5000. Kheyti provides greenhouses services to farmers. The only dhoti-clad entrepreneur to make a pitch at the finals of the Wharton India Startup Competition, Satya Raghu, Co-Founder was passionate as he talked about the start-up. "We have designed a technology - low-cost modular and a hi tech greenhouse - which uses just 10 percent water and increases farmers’ yield by seven times and incomes by 12 times."

Ranjeet Pratap Singh, Pratilipi, was muted about his victory. Pratilipi, Amazon’s kindle Direct Publishing for Indian languages, won the powerhouse award of $25,000. “We haven’t participated in a competition in a long time. It is nice to be recognized. We are happy with the inputs we got from several experts at the event,” said Singh.

Bushera Bashir -- the only lady entrepreneur finalist at the event, runs an ethnic label, Trebene (Kashmiri word for three sisters). She won the Powerhouse award of $15,000. Bashir termed the award as a `good financial support, adding, “We are at the next level of growth and it is a good forum to network.”

The judges for the competition were Kirthiga Reddy - Managing Director, Facebook India, Sasha Mirchandani - Founder and Managing Director, KAE Capital, Ravi Gururaj from Nasscom, Sandeep Murthy - Partner, Lightbox Ventures, Pravan Malhotra - venture capital investor, International Finance Corporation, Rajan Mehra - Co-Founder and Managing Director, Nirvana Venture Advisors and Sri Peddu - Founder and Managing Director, Powerhouse Ventures.

Commenting on the contest, Reddy said, ‘the diversity of start-ups presented was phenomenal. We had a lengthy debate on the start-ups and the beautiful thing that happened was that eventually we converged on a single set of winners that had both a strong business and social impact. This happened organically in our judge discussions.’

The competition was held for the first time in India as part of the 20th Wharton India Economic Forum (WIFE). With more than 3,000 tech start-ups, India is the fourth largest base for young businesses in the world. It is expected that by 2020, the base will increase to 11,500 tech start-ups.

The WIEF is an annual student-run India-focused conference hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.