After the huge success of the television show Shark Tank in various countries, the franchise decided to bring the show to India and the first season had a great response from the audience and has brought a startup revolution in India.
The Shark Tank shows Sharks deciding whether to invest or not in a
business which has been showcased by entrepreneurs with the help of their business presentations. Nowadays everyone is intrigued by 'Shark Tank India', and the emerging startup culture. From a college student to a retired government employee, from a housewife to an IIT graduate, or from a 14-year-old teenager to a 70-year-old, anyone can find a way to the startup culture and become an entrepreneur.
Shark Tank India is a platform that connects entrepreneurs with Shark Investors. Shark Tank is one of the leading crowdfunding platforms in Asia, with thousands of startups on the platform. In recent years, it has directly funded over 165+ accelerators and individual investors around the world. Across media reports and word of mouth, thousands of entrepreneurs have been exposed to Shark Tank's process of screening and selection. The platform connects startups with investors who are willing to provide them with an initial fund round.
Technology is our master. In today's world where everything is
dependent on technology, technology proves to be the backbone of many of the emerging startups. It was showcased that the entrepreneurs whose ideas were solemnly based on technology proved to gain the highest amount of investments.
But before moving towards how technology proved to be eminent let's try to dig in on the growth of startups in India.
How startups are growing in India?
Startups are the ones stealing the limelight in twenty-first-century India. The growing startup ecosystem in India is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country, with 651 start-ups and a start-up density of 7.4 per million inhabitants. India has changed from a land of agricultural activities at the turn of the 18th to the 21st century, where only 5% of people had access to digitals as we know it today. Entrepreneurship has been a part of Indian culture since day 1 with collective ingenuity, cooperation, and competition being key elements in shaping the country's economy.
The Indian Startup industry is also an example of the infinite new
possibilities that are rapidly taking shape under the leadership of the youth. Investor mania in the country has been playing a role in driving the start-up ecosystem and there has been a huge rise in infrastructural development increasing infrastructure supply. This signifies that India's growth is becoming more urban and improved infrastructure will lead to more opportunities for entrepreneurs.
How is technology a primary determinant factor?
The vigorous intervention of technology has helped the startups to move beyond the conventional tactics. Technology has become vital to startups. One of the most prominent uses of technology in startup culture is that it increases the flexibility of the business as well as of the employees. Automation is vital to improving the functioning of a business. The scope of growth of a startup is solemnly based on technology.
The technology helps a startup in its scope of growth.
Whether it's any industry, technology plays a significant role.
This is just the basic role of technology in every emerging Startup, but the startups that are solemnly based on technology are the ones that proved to be more successful when it comes to solving a problem. Thus, different technologies are like a savior for many startups.
Thinkerbell (Braille) :
The students of BITS Pilani Goa came together to make a project on
Raspberry pie which later emerged as one of the solutions to visually impaired children. The co-founders made a Braille Alphabet song box on Raspberry pie, which later emerged to be a learning device for the visually impaired.
The Raspberry pi based braille hardware also uses speech recognition software through a mobile application that acts as an interface. Annie is a way to help visually impaired children learn on their own without any external help. It helps them read, write and type. Tinkerbells labs raised 1.05 crores on Shark tank India which is one of the highest raises.
What exactly is Raspberry pi?
Raspberry pi is a mini-computer that has the size of a credit card and can fit into any computer or television. It enables people to learn to program and works exactly like a desktop computer.
It has a great role in project making and automation. Raspberry Pi runs Linux which is a computer operating system. The best thing about Raspberry pie is that it's not required to learn any high-level language and Linux to operate it as its motto is to teach so one can easily learn and operate it at the same time.
Road bounce (accident prevention):
Roadbounce is a device that detects and gives information about an
errand in the road before the accident occurs. It detects obstacles on roads to prevent mishaps.
Roadbounce was founded by Ranjeet Deshmukh and got a final deal of 80 lakh for 20% equity by Shark Peyush Bansal with a valuation of 4 crores. The device works on a mobile application and is based on IoT(Internet of Things).
Now let's dig more into the technology:-
IoT using smartphones
IoT has the potential to increase capital investment into assets.
To connect with an IoT network it requires to compliment a given
physical object along with necessary hardware, communication engine software, and compliment to common protocols.
Smartphones have all the necessary IoT components and can be used as IoT enablers but usually, 5000Rs may not work as efficiently as a 150000 would so to remove these barriers some statistical methods like 'Data Regression' is used to enable smartphones as a reliable data acquisition device which can be attached with anything.
- Data Regression Basics
The technique to determine the statistical relationship among some
variables where the change in one variable ( suppose dependent variable) is associated with and depends on a change in another variable. It is utilized to evaluate acceleration and time.
- Data smoothing
It is the process that removed the noise from the data set and allowed the important patterns to stand out.
- Data filtering
An embedded system that refines the unrequired data by performing mathematical operations on a discrete-time signal to refine it by removing irrelevant and confusing data to reduce or intensify certain aspects of the signal. In this case, unwanted frequencies are removed to enhance the existing ones. This system uses electronic filters which are passive, active, analog, and digital.
Smartphone sensors are the sensing devices installed on a user\'s phone to gather data and information for various purposes, often in conjunction with a mobile app. Sensors act as converters that measure a physical quantity and convert it into a signal. Thus smartphones can be used as scientific tools. At a high-level mobile sensor are divided into
3 categories.
Motion Sensors: To measure acceleration and rotational forces along with the three axes motion sensors are used.
Position Sensors: Position sensors are used to measure the
physical orientation of the device.Environment Sensors: Environmental parameters are most important and hence can be measured using environmental sensors.
PNT Robotics And Automatic Solution (robotics):
This Mumbai-based robotics start-up PNT creates technical products with automation and robotics.
Their working areas are various industrial control systems along with microcontrollers.
They manage both hardware and software integration and serve industrial automation to market according to the requirements using AI, ML, ROS, and IoT along with customized robotics solutions. One of the company's popular robots is ADO. This AI-powered robot performs humanoid actions like navigation, facial recognition, human gestures, and many more. They bagged ₹25 lakhs investment for 25% equity and ₹25 lakhs debt from the shark Peyush Bansal founder of Lenskart.
One of the company's popular products ADO which is a fully automated humanoid robot with human-like emotions and gestures which is powered by Artificial intelligence and uses ROS as their robot operating system which is a free and open-source that defines the components, interfaces, and tools for building advanced robots.
Most robots are made up of actuators: things that move, sensors and control systems, or the robot's brain. ROS helps developers quickly build these components and then easily connect them using ROS tools called topic and messages.
These messages can be recorded using ROS bag files or logs for easy testing, training, and quality assurance. Messages can be easily sent to a variety of visualization and teleportation tools. With ROS you can work with a simulated robot instead of a real thing which some call a "digital twin". This also makes testing and training easier and more effective.
ROS supports hardware interfaces for many common robot components like cameras, LIDARs, and motor controllers. ROS's modular architecture allows developers to build robots free from vendor lock-in or licensing fees.
Proxgy(VR):
Proxy was launched during the pandemic era and works as a global service for users to pick a real-world avatar. People can navigate physical spaces through the Avatar and can experience a live experience indoors. It has a 360-degree rotation camera on the proxy smart helmets with 3D viewing and broadcasting services for its tech stack. Proxy has marketed this tool for various experiences including shopping, traveling, viewing real estate. The startup received an investment of 1 crore with 10% equity.
Virtual Reality and IIoT (Industrial IoT) are the dominating
technologies in the development of Proxgy. VR framework enables us to experience virtual presence in a collaborative and intelligent way.
Virtual Reality (VR) is typically a computer-generated environment with scenes and objects that appear to be really making the user feel immersed. The device which is used to perceive the environment is known as VR headset or helmet.
While wearing the headset we can experience a real world at our
fingertips by using the Proxgy app. The IIot is a network of intelligent devices connected to form systems to monitor, gather and analyze the data. Every industrial IoT system consists of:-
Devices that have the ability to sense, collect and store
informationInfrastructure based on public and private data communications.
Generation of storage by IIot devices.
The app can be integrated with existing tech to bring revolution in teaching, business and to bring solutions.
Loka:
Loka is India's first Metaverse gamified app based on real locations, populated by real players & experiences powered by hundreds of 3rd Party Apps. Loka's primary factor of usage is in Social Engagement, Gaming, E-commerce, Content consumption, and Entertainment purposes.
In the game world, you can explore the streets, lanes of Delhi\'s iconic Connaught Place area or the famous Sarojini Nagar including bustling parks. It is a platform on which you can do things like having conversations with the players, watching a movie in the theatre, shopping and ordering food, or having fun with your friends. This Bangalore-based start-up, founded by Krishnan Sundararajan, has created a metaverse gaming app for Android and iOS users and received ₹14 lakh investment for a 24% equity stake on Shark Tank. The app uses the most talked about metaverse which is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. Metaverse is a virtual reality world, where users can interact, game, and experience things as they do in the real world.
Metaverse is a combination of multiple elements of technology, which includes virtual reality, augmented reality, and video where users 'live' virtually. As discussed above, AR(Augmented Reality) and VR are the cornerstones for metaverse projects. AR technology holds the edge over VR tech as it can be used in any camera-enabled device. AR acts as an informational enhancer.
VR is an entirely simulated experience in a digital world. VR delivers sensory experiences. Loka adds another layer over this which consists of small elements like Ambient Sounds, Background Noises, NPCs, Culture-Specific Virtual Goods, etc. to retain the feel & relevance of the location.
Altor(smart headgears):
Altor is a 2018-established VC and Government of India-backed
startup based out of Kolkata, India. Altor is a new-age tech company dealing in IoT and ML applications for two-wheeler automotive industries. Altor Smart Helmet is India's first software-enabled helmet module to make bike rides easier, safer, and more efficient, specifically targeted towards increasing the fleet efficiency of two-wheeler-driven economies helping the delivery, logistics, and bike-sharing sectors. The device detects any accidents with the user and sends an emergency message with the last location of the user to all ICE contacts. In case of a false alarm, the user gets a time limit to cancel the process.
Altor received an investment of ₹50 lakh for 7% equity by Aman Gupta & Namita Thapar combined.
Altor uses IoT and ML technologies for developing its smart headgears. Machine Learning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence that comprises programming software in such a way that it could make decisions on and are trained to predict outcomes through statistical predictions and classifications. The Internet of Things (IoT) describes physical objects embedded with sensors, processing ability, software, and technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks. The device itself includes an integrated CPU, network adapter, and firmware, which is built on an open-source platform. A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server connects to IoT devices and acquires an IP address to help the device function on the network. Machine Learning plays a very important role in Altor's development.
Note of Closure:
These are some tech startups among many which were featured on Shark Tank. They show us how people with vast knowledge of numerous technologies can become successful entrepreneurs.
Shark Tank India has put a light on some of the leading tech startups of our country. The aim of these startups revolves around revolution for mankind with the help of leading technologies like AI, ML, IoT. They have got the recognition they needed which makes us believe that India is leading towards becoming a digital nation.
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