Five startups ranging from a chatbot to a software-as-a-service platform have been selected for the summer 2017 batch of the Pitney Bowes Accelerator programme.
In May this year, US-based technology firm Pitney Bowes Inc. had invited startups in India to apply for the summer session of its accelerator programme.
The six-month programme focuses on startups that leverage software for customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, e-commerce management and machine learning.
As part of the programme, startups will have free but limited access to Pitney Bowes’ software application programming interfaces (APIs) and data. They can also avail of training and mentoring from engineers and industry experts from Pitney Bowes. The company, which has partnered with Microsoft, will provide selected startups with various services from the global tech firm, including credits worth $9,000 on the Microsoft Azure Cloud for over 12 months.
Over the last three years, Pitney Bowes has incubated 18 startups in India. Participants for its past programmes include WedoSky, a drone-based startup with a mapping and analytics platform; Niki.ai, an artificial intelligence-powered chat interface; MediMojo, a digital health platform; and Sponsifyme, a real-time geo-location-based marketing platform for offline businesses.
The company from now on has decided to take up startups as and when they come for its acceleration programme in the country.
While talking to VCCircle, Manish Choudhary, managing director at Pitney Bowes India, said, "Instead of the batch approach, we will be making it a rolling thing, which means if we come across any other startup next month, we will bring them in. We have now decided that whenever we find a good startup, we will bring them in to our accelerator programme."
Choudhary also added that the company has started doing more revenue generating activities for startups to ensure their early success.
Below are the five shortlisted startups:
Planetworx Technologies Pvt Ltd: Bangalore-based Internet of Things (IoT) startup provides real-time location and context intelligence to enterprises in the retail, aviation and hospitality sectors. Trapyz from Planetworx is a platform that provides last-mile indoor location intelligence on a ‘data-as-a-service’ model that can be leveraged to build various location-based services. Planetworx was founded by Anil Kumar N S, C Girish Vishwanath, and Ranganathan Srinivasan in 2016.
Advanced Risk Analytics Pvt Ltd: This Pune-based startup, which has an office in the US, provides data management, analytics and technology services to the reinsurance industry. Its solutions provide real-time loss estimates of property insurance portfolios and accounts arising from global catastrophic events like earthquakes, hurricanes/cyclones, and floods. Ashish Belambe, an executive with over 20 years of experience in the reinsurance industry, founded the firm in September 2014.
AceBot.ai: Founded in 2015, San Jose-based AceBot, operated by Collatebox In, is an enterprise chatbot solution that uses conversations to enable collaboration, team productivity and data collation within any enterprise. The startup last year raised $650,000 in seed funding from Accel Partners. Earlier this year in March, it was also selected for Microsoft’s 10th accelerator batch. Ravindra Krishnappa, an angel investor and startup incubator specialist, Ralph Vaz, a software developer, and Sameera Vanekar, a marketing professional are co-founders at AceBot.
Eunimart Multichannel Pvt. Ltd: Hyderabad-based Eunimart is a cross-border e-commerce platform, which enables sellers to sell globally, manage inventory and orders centrally, handle logistics, track customs clearance, and receive payments in Indian currency. Eunimart was founded by entrepreneur Shayak Mazumder and marketing professional Saikat Roy in 2016.
Artivatic.ai: Artivatic Data Labs Pvt Ltd is an artificial intelligence-powered enterprise tech platform which helps businesses create a human brain-like system based on genomics and neuroscience capabilities to scale efficiency. In April this year, the firm raised its seed round from Singapore-based angel investor Rahul Sood. The startup was earlier selected for Europe-based ‘Spark10 Accelerator’ from where it raised its initial angel funding. The Bangalore-based startup was founded by entrepreneurs Layak Singh and Puneet Tandon in 2016.
