Two Indian Startups Selected by World Economic Forum for Tech Pioneers 2018 Cohort

International Organization World Economic Forum (WEF) has today announced its selection of the world’s 61 most promising Technology Pioneers 2018, which consists of early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society.

Among its 61 selected organizations, two are India-based startups -- Delhi-based SocialCops and Ahmedabad-based My Crop Technologies. While SocialCop is a Data Intelligence startup, My Crop Technologies is a machine learning-based collaborative platform to support farmers.

With this selection, both the startups have now join an elite community of companies from around the world that are poised to have a significant impact on business and society. Past winners include Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Spotify, Twitter and Wikimedia.

New Delhi-based SocialCops was founded in 2013 by Prukalpa Sankar and Varun Banka to enable leaders to use data intelligence to confront critical global challenges. Since then, their technology platform has been used in scenarios as diverse as driving rapid village development, tracking national welfare schemes, and optimizing marketing campaign locations. Their work spans different sectors with partners such as the United Nations, Government of India and Unilever.

[caption id="attachment_124838" align="aligncenter" width="995"] Team of SocialCops[/caption]

In 2017 alone, SocialCops data intelligence platform processed 11 billion data points and touched the lives of 1 of 25 people in India through their projects and partners. The startup was also the part of Google Launchpad Accelerator 2017 batch.

My Crop Technologies was founded in 2016 by Deepak Pareek. It is s a technology enabled platform that uses Artificial Intelligence to empower farmers by delivering them insights, expertise and resources at their doorsteps to increase their Productivity & Profitability hence improving their standard of living.

Using machine learning for real-time farmer decision support and recommendations across the crop life cycle, My Crop Technologies helps farmers reduce the costs of cultivation by using good agricultural practices and information customized for each farmer. The platform also brings different stakeholders in the agriculture ecosystem together to further enhance the industry.

[caption id="attachment_124837" align="aligncenter" width="955"] MyCrop Founder& CEO Deepak Pareek (extreme left) interacting with a farmer[/caption]

Also Read - Indian Plastic Recycling Startup Shortlisted for Awards at The World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers community are early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations. “We welcome SocialCops in this diverse group of technology pioneers,” says Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “SocialCops and its fellow pioneers are front and centre in shaping the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution and we believe they will be transforming society and industry in a positive way in the years to come.”

Following its selection as Technology Pioneer, Prukalpa Sankar, co-founder of SocialCops, will be participating in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions. This meeting, also dubbed “Summer Davos”, will be held in Tianjin, China, from September 18-20. Many Pioneers will also attend the Annual Meeting in Davos, in January 2019, and continue to contribute to Forum initiatives in the course of the next two years.

“We are honoured to be acknowledged as a Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and join a cohort of global game changers like Palantir & Airbnb”, said SocialCops Co-Founder, Prukalpa Sankar. “When we founded SocialCops, we wanted to democratize data and make it possible for millions of organizations in the world to derive the kind of value from data that only financial institutions and Silicon Valley giants are capable of deriving today. Organizations at different stages of their data journey can use our platform to drive decisions both big and small. We want to use this award as an opportunity to keep engaging with global stakeholders in government and society, as well as in business, to help adopt data-driven systems and increase their impact.”

The Technology Pioneers were selected by a selection committee of more than 60 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact and leadership.

This year’s cohort is the most diverse ever, both geographically and in terms of gender. Of the 61 early-stage companies recognized for their design, development and deployment of potentially world-changing innovations and technologies, a majority (54%) come from outside the United States, including many from emerging markets, and a quarter (25%) is female-led.

There is also a wide variety in the technologies the pioneers focus on — the focus technologies include artificial intelligence, big data and internet of things (IoT), biotechnology, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, cyber security, vertical farming and other agricultural advances, decentralised microgrids and robotics. The full list of Technology Pioneers can be found here.

Reference - WEFforum.org

Meet 4 Indian Startups Selected for Google Launchpad Accelerator Programme in San Francisco

Google today announced the four shortlisted Indian startups for its hands-on mentorship programme 'Launchpad Accelerator'. With this batch, a total of 30 Indian startups have so far joined the Google's Launchpad programme since its launch.

Launchpad Accelerator is Google's six-month programme that includes an intensive two-week boot camp in San Francisco and mentoring from over 30 teams across Google and expert mentors from top technology companies in Silicon Valley and globally.

The four shortlisted Indian startups will join a group of startups shortlisted from all over the world at the Google Developers' Launchpad Space in San Francisco in the US.

The four shortlisted Indian startups are:

BabyChakra is a Mumbai based startup which is essentially an online marketplace for maternity and childcare products. It claims to be a trusted care companion to Indian parents, from pregnancy to parenting.

m.Paani is also Mumbai based startup which is founded in 2013 by Akanksha Hazari and backed by IDG Ventures. It powers real-time, direct to consumer engagement, marketing, loyalty and insights for mass market consumers and retailers.

NIRAMAI is a Bengaluru based healthtech startup which was founded in 2016 by Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi Mathur. The startup has developed a novel software to detect breast cancer at a much earlier stage than traditional methods or self-examination.

SocialCops is a Delhi based startup founded in 2013 by Prukalpa Sankar and Varun Banka. It is essentially a data intelligence company that empowers organizations to make better decisions through data. Their platform aims to bring the entire decision-making process to one place — collecting primary data, accessing secondary data, layering internal data, transforming and merging all the data, and visualizing relevant insights through dashboards.

"These startups have been shortlisted based on their unique value proposition and use of latest technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence," Roy Glasberg, Global Lead, Google Developers Launchpad, said in a statement.

Class 5 of the mentorship will kick off on January 29 and will include two weeks of all-expenses paid training, as part of the the full six-month programme.

UpGrad & IIIT-B Partner to Bring Onboard SocialCops for Their Data Analytics Program

UpGrad, the online education platform for working professionals and IIIT-B have tied up with SocialCops for their Data Analytics program. SocialCops is a data intelligence company that leverages data and technology to bring the entire decision making process to one place — from collecting and merging to visualizing data. As a part of this tie up, UpGrad will leverage their knowledge and case studies to train students to be able to use the power of technology, mobile and community to improve decision making using data sourced from grassroots.

One of the case studies shared will include SocialCops’s study on small and marginal farmers' data where they identified areas in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha where farmers needed support in training and nutrition.

Speaking about the partnership, Prukalpa Sankar, Co-Founder SocialCops said, "At SocialCops, we are big believers in the power of data in driving critical decisions. We are constantly looking for ways to educate people on how to make data work for them. Our partnership with UpGrad is a significant step in this direction. We are excited to share learnings from some of the most complex problems we have worked on with UpGrad's community of professionals looking to accelerate their career in data analytics. We hope to build many more such meaningful conversations with UpGrad."

Adding on Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder & MD, UpGrad said, “SocialCops is playing an instrumental role in revolutionizing decision-making and governance at all levels — right from the national to village-level — by leveraging data and its technology-based platform. We are excited to collaborate with them and will add another aspect to our program.”

The 12 month academically rigorous and industry relevant Data Analytics program, co-developed by IIIT-Bangalore and UpGrad also features mentors, case studies and guest lecturers from Uber, Genpact, Cognizant Technologies, Gramener among others. According to experts, Data Analytics industry in India alone is expected to face a shortage of at least 2 lac data scientists. This program, which was curated for working professionals to acquire industry know-how, grow their professional network, and accelerate their career in data analytics, now aims at bridging this gap by readying professionals for this foreseen demand of the industry. As a part of this partnership, SocialCops will also look at recruiting quality analytics talent from this program for their Data Analytics teams.

The program will have industry leaders such as Sameer Dhanrajani (Business Leader, Analytics & Data Sciences, Cognizant Technology Solutions), Ujjyaini Mitra (Associate Director, Analytics, Flipkart), Kalpana Subbaramappa (Ex-AVP, Genpact), Vinit Vishal (Head-Analytics, Arvind Brands) among many others as individual contributors for the program.

With this program, IIIT-Bangalore and UpGrad aim to train over 10,000 professionals in the field of data analytics. The curriculum covers the depth and breadth of the subject in the form of interactive lectures, live sessions and a 3-month capstone project mentored by industry professionals.

FrndiNeed Is An App For Taxi/Cab Passengers' Safety

The recent Uber-Delhi rape case has brought the issue of women safety back into the public domain. It has also made travelling in the night for women tougher and scarier. But, all is not lost yet; there is an app in town which is adamant to win back the lost trust and security of the daily commuters. The app is called FrndiNeed and it has repackaged itself after the recent Uber case. It is here to fix the damage done by Uber.

FrndiNeed is a socially enabled application, which makes use of the user’s geographic location and connects him/her with friends in the vicinity and then requests them for a lift. The app is a variant of all those hundreds of apps available in the market that poke friends for instant meet-ups. It also comes with an SOS(Save our Souls)tab for emergency.

The app is a multipurpose app that makes everyday travel safer, smoother and economically viable. The app allows to poke a friend and request him/her to accept a request for a weekend trip. It even allows the user to plan a carpool. This feature is currently not available in beta.

According to Kunal Kishore, the co-founder of the app, the application was initially meant to help friends within 2-5 km radius to catch up with each other. But, when they developed the app in August, the company thought of incorporating women’s security also.

More and more applications are coming in the market which are not just looking to help the women at the times of crisis but also preventing such crisis situations altogether.  An example of this is Socialcops, an app that collects data from authorities and civilians in order to find the fastest and safest routes for users. The app even tells the police the areas and routes which need urgent attention.

According to Jasmeen Patheja, founder of the Blank Noise Project, such apps should be part of a larger system connecting the woman with neighborhood, the police and family, and not something that creates panic. Jasmeen said this in a statement to Economic Times.

The police is also making changes to its app in order to connect women in trouble directly to the police. The ‘DCP SahAya’ app will now incorporate a facility that will alert the police control room or the local police station directly. The app was launched six months ago.

FrndiNeed Is An App For Taxi/Cab Passengers' Safety

The recent Uber-Delhi rape case has brought the issue of women safety back into the public domain. It has also made travelling in the night for women tougher and scarier. But, all is not lost yet; there is an app in town which is adamant to win back the lost trust and security of the daily commuters. The app is called FrndiNeed and it has repackaged itself after the recent Uber case. It is here to fix the damage done by Uber.

FrndiNeed is a socially enabled application, which makes use of the user’s geographic location and connects him/her with friends in the vicinity and then requests them for a lift. The app is a variant of all those hundreds of apps available in the market that poke friends for instant meet-ups. It also comes with an SOS(Save our Souls)tab for emergency.

The app is a multipurpose app that makes everyday travel safer, smoother and economically viable. The app allows to poke a friend and request him/her to accept a request for a weekend trip. It even allows the user to plan a carpool. This feature is currently not available in beta.

According to Kunal Kishore, the co-founder of the app, the application was initially meant to help friends within 2-5 km radius to catch up with each other. But, when they developed the app in August, the company thought of incorporating women’s security also.

More and more applications are coming in the market which are not just looking to help the women at the times of crisis but also preventing such crisis situations altogether.  An example of this is Socialcops, an app that collects data from authorities and civilians in order to find the fastest and safest routes for users. The app even tells the police the areas and routes which need urgent attention.

According to Jasmeen Patheja, founder of the Blank Noise Project, such apps should be part of a larger system connecting the woman with neighborhood, the police and family, and not something that creates panic. Jasmeen said this in a statement to Economic Times.

The police is also making changes to its app in order to connect women in trouble directly to the police. The ‘DCP SahAya’ app will now incorporate a facility that will alert the police control room or the local police station directly. The app was launched six months ago.