Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s most active angel platforms, invested an undisclosed amount in Eden Smart Homes marking it’s 11th investment since March this year.

Eden Smart Homes is an IoT startup that has a range of smart home solutions. The funds raised will be used for launching new product lines and scaling up sales and marketing operations to acquire more customers.

Inflection Point Ventures is an initiative of accomplished CXOs & Angel Investors with a belief that ‘Everyone can Grow with Startups’. Since its inception, IPV has invested more than Rs 100 crore across 35+ startups. With a current investor base at 2500+, IPV is seeing a massive influx of highly accomplished CXOs and HNIs, looking to invest in startups with rational valuation and sustainable business models.

Vinay Bansal, Founder & CEO, Inflection Point Ventures said, “We are known to back great founders with great business models with a sustainable growth path. With the ease with which all of us are embracing technology and the Smart City projects currently underway, there is a demand for IoT enabled homes. Eden has been able to position itself as an aspirational product for Indian households as the disposable income rises. We believe that their fast and seamless technology coupled with a promise of power savings will wow their customer segment.”

Eden Homes was launched in 2018 with an aim to develop an indigenous and cost-effective smart home automation system. Eden’s solution includes monitoring power consumption, the ability to view the real-time status of appliances, scheduling on and off times for appliances, and creating custom scenarios. Also, one-button control of the entire smart home makes them an attractive smart home solution in the market where there is currently no clear leader.

Pranjal Kacholia, Co-Founder of Eden Smart Homes stated, “We aim to become India’s leading IoT company in the next 3 years. In India, the smart home market is expected to be $8 billion by 2023 and we aim to be one of the well-known brands in this segment. Our product helps save power significantly in both the residential and commercial segments. To have investors like IPV, which can leverage their huge network strength to not only sign cheques but also help us scale up our business quickly makes this a win-win partnership.”

Eden Smart Homes is currently present across 5 cities in India. Eden Smart Homes will be using the funds raised to set up its distribution channel across 30 major cities for driving more business in the Home segment. The Company is also in talks with large brands and SMEs to license a part of their technology for bundle up sales and even listing it online on targeted platforms for better visibility to the customers.

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In cities world over, air pollution is posing huge threat not just to the human beings but also to other living creatures on this earth. Thousands of people are killed by inhaling polluted air and millions develop serious ailments. As per a research, about 92 per cent of the population are breathing in unhealthy air and 17,280 people die from air pollution every day.

Kaiterra Global, a Beijing-headquartered startup co-founded by Swiss entrepreneur Liam Bates, intends to bring in a change. The company — which has developed IoT-powered air quality monitors that measure a variety of air pollutants for consumer, business and industrial use — recently entered India.

Startagist.com recently interacted with Bates over email to know more about its products and its India business.

Edited excerpts are below:

What is Kaiterra and who are the people behind this venture?

Kaiterra is a global startup trying to fix one of the world’s biggest and most important problems, air pollution – an issue that causes more deaths than malaria, HIV/AIDS, and road accidents, combined! Kaiterra creates highly-accurate monitors that measure a variety of air pollutants, for consumers, businesses and industrial use. These devices allow users to better understand their own air quality, while simultaneously sending a constant stream of pollutant data to the cloud, which is processed, then combined with data from official monitoring stations, satellites and other sources, to create maps of outdoor air quality.

The company was founded in 2014, and in 2016 became the smallest company to ever enter the Apple stores (6 people at the time!)

What opportunities are they seeing in India?

Kaiterra opened an Indian office in 2017. India has a severe air pollution problem, which makes it a high priority for us. Our goal is to improve outdoor air quality worldwide and so India is a logical place to be.

Over the past few years, India has been a big market for Kaiterra, so for a while, we’ve wanted to be able to have a local office to provide better service to our customers there, as well as carry out local research. We’re confident that the new office will provide our Indian users with swift and high-quality service. It’s also a great opportunity to help with air quality education in India.

What are your different products?

With regard to hardware products, the Laser Egg line is our consumer line – a series of products to help users better understand the air quality in their home. A series of new products are also in the works and will soon be released to provide complete monitoring solutions. Finally, a portion of the work done at Kaiterra is research related, to better understand and ultimately improve air quality.

Can you further talk about Laser Egg? And what are its unique features? How is it different from other air quality monitors?

The Laser Egg is the world’s most popular smart air quality monitor with high accuracy particulate matter (PM2.5) detection. What we can’t see can still harm us. Dust, PM2.5 smoke, and other particles constantly affect the air around you and in your home. The Laser Egg tells you instantly and accurately what’s in the air so that you can make sound decisions to improve your environment.

The Laser Egg uses laser-based light scattering to individually count particles in the air as they enter the device, and calculate PM2.5 concentrations based upon these measurements. This allows for extremely fast measurements, with high accuracy readings calculated every 0.1 seconds.

We take our air seriously. The Laser Egg has been carefully tested to ensure your home is protected. It can give particulate concentrations and AQI readings that fall within +/- 10% of the readings from much more expensive government monitors.

At home or on the go, you can pair your Laser Egg with the Kaiterra app for greater convenience and more control. You can view home and local air quality readings with just a tap. The app also allows you to see historical graphs by the minute, hour or day and helps you make smarter decisions for your home that last.

One unique feature of the Laser Egg is its Smart Home capabilities. It supports Apple’s HomeKit technology that enables it to safely and seamlessly work with your home’s other smart appliances. No more worrying about when to turn on your air purifier if the air pollution spikes. Or when to turn on your humidifier if the air becomes too dry. The Laser Egg enables a connected ecosystem for a protected home and peace of mind.

What tech has been used in Laser Egg?

The amazing technology behind the Laser Egg’s superior ability to detect extremely small particulate matter in the air is laser-based light scattering. PM2.5, which the Laser Egg can measure with high accuracy, are particles suspended in the air that are 2.5 micrometers and smaller. For reference, a strand of human hair is 50 micrometers in diameter. Measuring such fine particles calls for perfecting the use of laser technology harmonized with efficient algorithms to accurately provide the user with information that they can use to take decisions about their environment.

Do you have both B2B an dB2C offerings? Who are your target customers?

Yes, B2B forms a large part of Kaiterra business, clients include schools, hospitals, office buildings and commercial spaces.

Who are your partners and clients in India?

Kaiterra India is working with several Resellers and Partners in India. The iZenica Apple Premium Reseller, Nirvana Being of Vogmask fame, BreatheEasy Labs, Oriental Marketing Company, N-Ray are some of the sales channel partners we are working with for our B2B and B2C sales. For our outdoor air quality monitoring and mapping projects, we have tie-ups with EPoD that is a research group set up by Harvard faculty. We’re constantly talking to people in the air quality community and the government to build larger networks and extend our reach.

What is your go-to-market strategy in India? Are you expanding to new markets?

Our strategy in India is to work through a wide network of distributors and resellers who represent us in the India market. The core team in India focuses on developing and maintaining this network while pushing digital reach through an in-house marketing team. Awareness of air quality in India is low, though rapidly growing year on year. Pushing awareness building campaigns is high on the list of priorities.

Our products are sold in 14 countries that helps in building credibility in a day when there are so many new players entering the market. We also now have a service and customer care team in India and this helps people be assured that there’s a team closely to help with troubleshooting or repairs.

Both our consumer grade products – the Laser Egg 2 and Laser Egg 2+ – are products that are well suited for the Indian market. The Laser Egg 2+, in particular, is currently the only air quality monitor in its category in the Indian market that gives a TVOC reading which is quite a big issue in India households.

How is India market different from China in this segment? How is the customer behavior different from each other?

The main difference between the India and China markets is with levels of awareness. Once people understand and realize how much of a health hazard the air is they quickly get on board with a lifestyle of air quality monitors, masks and purifiers. Everyone does want to keep their family safe at the end of the day.

Awareness and concern about volatile organic compounds is another big difference. In China, people are very concerned about VOCs in their home and are constantly monitoring it.

The post Our goal is to improve outdoor air quality in India: Liam Bates, CEO of IoT startup Kaiterra appeared first on Startagist.

Smartron India, which had recently announced a new inning with cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has launched a new smartphone. The phone was launched by Sachin himself and bears his initials. The phones have been smartly named srt.phone.

The cost of the 32GB storage variant of the smartphone is Rs 12,999. The 64GB option costs Rs 13,999. The smartphone is exclusively available on Flipkart. Smartron had been sharing the details about the launch of its phone on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. Srt.phone’s tagline is ‘Mastery at the core’. Since Sachin is the brand ambassador for the company, it has named the latest device with the legends iconic SRT initials.

Smartron is also offering an extra Rs 1500 off on exchange and free Sachin Tendulkar back covers worth Rs 599. No cost EMI for srt.phone starts at Rs 1167 per month. Additionally, users will get one-year of t.care extended warranty worth Rs 1,499, for free with srt.phone.

Smartron srt.phone packs a 13MP rear camera with phase detection auto-focus like we saw on t-phone. The front camera in srt.phone has been bumped up to 5MP. Smartron srt.phone will run Android 7.1.1 Nougat with stock Android UI and e company’s tronX suite of apps.

Also Read: MakeMyTrip is ready to raise $330 million funding

Smartron srt.phone will be backed by a 3,000mAh battery and support Quick Charge 2.0 technology. There’s no metal unibody design and back cover will be removable. The smartphone will support USB Type-C for charging.

Smartron had earlier launched the T-phones in India. Sachin Tendulkar, in July last year, became one of the first buyers of the t-phone. Sachin had gone on to call it the first world class phone to have been made in India. The phones were made available at a price of Rs. 22,999. Tendulkar, who retired from all forms of cricket in 2013 has reportedly invested an undisclosed sum in Internet of Things firm Smartron India. Earlier, Tendulkar had admitted having been fascinated by technology and seemed impressed by Smartron’s vision of growth. He had said that people need to support brands that are ‘designed and engineered in India’ and can compete on a global scale.

Smartron is headed by Mahesh Lingareddy, the co-founder and CEO of Soft Machines Inc, a US-based company with operations in US, India and Russia. Smartron’s mobile division is headed by Amit Boni. Boni, who is now Vice President, Sales and Marketing at Smartron, previously looked after Motorola’s India operations. Boni is credited as bringing the Motorola brand to India, and pushing for an online-only strategy when the brand relaunched in India.

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Applied Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) & IoT-focused early-stage venture fund pi Ventures announced the first close of their maiden fund at $13 million.

pi Ventures, a $30 million fund, is expected to make the final close within this year. Its Limited Partners (LPs) include SIDBI, India’s top lender for small businesses; prominent family offices from the US, Canada, Singapore and India; and leading entrepreneurs like Mohandas Pai, Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra, Sanjeev Bikchandani and Bhupen Shah, among others.

Co-founded by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, pi Ventures invests in early-stage startups that focus on solving problems in healthcare, logistics, retail, fintech and enterprise sectors using AI, ML and IoT. The VC fund plans to invest in 18-20 startups from this fund over the next three to four years.

Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures, said: “India is the dark horse in the AI race given it has lot of data, brilliant data science talent and early adoption environment due to broken processes and we are happy to play a part in helping India leapfrog with AI. We are thankful to our early backers, investors and founders who have chosen to work with us. We are very excited to play a role in building a strong AI based product ecosystem in India.”

pi Ventures has made three investments so far in the healthcare and energy-efficiency space, namely SigTuple, Zenatix and ten3T.

SigTuple is in the medical diagnostic space and is creating a deep learning-driven, cloud-based solution for detection of abnormalities and trends in medical data, for blood diagnosis.

Zenatix is a data-driven energy efficiency company that uses advanced machine learning based models and delivers 10-30% energy efficiency to large commercial consumers of electricity along with predictive insights to prevent downtown.

ten3T is in continuous monitoring of medical data like ECG in real time through its own smart patches to enable mobile ICU for smaller hospitals.

The VC firm was started in mid2016 by Singhal and Umakant Soni, both come with rich experience in setting up, building and scaling companies. Manish was co-founder & CEO at LetsVenture and a prominent angel investor. He has rich product experience having worked with Sling Media, Ittiam Systems, and Motorola.

Soni was Director India, Science Inc & Co-founder of one of the first AI BOT company out of India, called Vimagino

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Wearable has now become a household name of sorts. You can see fitness enthusiasts  running on the streets early in the morning with an IoT device on their wrist, regularly checking the distance they covered/steps taken. Some others use wearables/smart watches to count their heart beats, or get suggestions on their food intake to maintain good health.

A few months ago, Hyderabad-based Hug Innovations launched a smartwatch that boasts of having all the above features, in addition to an SOS button that could send alerts to your phone contacts when you are in distress or in danger.

But this startup is different. This venture, called Broadcast Wearable Pvt Ltd, based out of Hyderabad, has designed what it calls the world’s first programmable and touch-enabled T-shirt that can change designs and slogans according to your choice by a simple tap on the logo.

The startup was launched in 2016 by Ayyappa Nagubandi, a serial entrepreneur with 17 years of experience. Broadcast’s T-shirt consists of tiny LEDs that connect with the accompanying app to give you complete control over what you wish to display on your wear. The T-shirt will reflect what is on your mind – from the good to the bad, from the beautiful to the ugly.

“One change the slogans whenever he/she wants. In addition, It allows you to programme a display embedded in a regular cotton T-shirt using your smartphone. The system would let you display pictures, text, and whatever’s on your mind on the T-shirt for all to see,” Ayyappa said.

In July last year, the startup raised US$117,927 via popular crowd-funding platform Indiegogo, which was almost four times its actual target figure. The company also got several orders from companies in India and the US for the T-shirts.

But Ayyappa is not ready to stop just here. In fact, the programmable T-shirt is just the beginning of Broadcast Wear’s entry into the huge world of wearables.

“Ever since our campaign went live on Indiegogo, we have been busy with not only creating prototypes and getting ready for the production of the Broadcast T-shirt, but also with creating more wearables that will disrupt the fashion and technology markets,” he said.

“After extensive research, we have now developed competencies in merging technology with textiles. In addition to touch-enabled clothing, we have created reflective clothing and interactive clothing. We are now working on creating a wearable phone,” he added.

With a team of 20 people, the startup is currently working on an illuminative/reflective clothing. “We create clothes that bring out the sparkle in your eyes. Lined with LED and ELD wires, we create light-emitting clothing for every occasion and every reason. Jaltee is our line of clothing that glows. The clothes are embedded with ELD wires that make designs glow at the press of a button. This is water proof and comfortable to wear,” Ayyappa elaborated.

Jaltee is an acronym and each alphabet represents the name of an inspiring person who brought in revolutionary changes to the world — Steve Jobs, Isaac Asimov, Linus Torvalds, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein.

The company is also working on a line of interactive clothing. “With geographical boundaries disappearing, it is not surprising to see man and machine communicating like never before. We, at Broadcast Wear, have taken interactivity to the next level, enabling your phone to communicate with your T-shirt. All you have to do is type out a slogan or create a design on the app, and the t-shirt will reflect the same.”

“Our range of interactive clothing includes a Facebook Like T-shirt, where you can display the number of Likes your Facebook page has (that updates itself in real-time), a T-shirt that displays the number of steps you have walked (encourages people to take up exercising), and a safety jacket that is paired with a sensor and a battery to take in information about daylight and switch itself on the moment it gets dark,” Ayyappa explained.

In the midst of hundreds of clothing brands, Jaltee stands apart with its focus on creating clothing that is technology-enabled and customer-friendly, claims Ayyappa. In his view, Jaltee is not just a clothing brand but a harbinger of new trends in clothing. Trends that are soon set to storm the world of fashion. 

“Jaltee ensures that you stand majestic and be the attention grabber at every event or party. Be it the T shirt that glows in the dark or the Salwar Kameez that lights up the room or the bag which changes the design on it as per your wish and command. Jaltee fuses technology with everyday clothing and creates magic,” Ayyappa went on.

Let’s wish all the very best for Ayyappa and the team!

The post Have you heard of Facebook Likes T-shirt? If not, here it is appeared first on Startagist.

CRON is a deep-tech company that is focused on deploying cutting edge solutions for border security. Some of the solutions have also been adapted for commercial markets. The company has already bagged orders from the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indian Army to install its’ products to secure the international borders as well as perimeter of sensitive installations like army camps, airports etc. The fund infusion will help it strengthen R&D, hire talent and explore new markets across Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Started in 2015, CRON Systems develops IoT and laser-guided intrusion detection systems that can distinguish and report both human and mechanical intrusions. CRON combines deep research in lasers, data, Artificial Intelligence, encrypted communications and automation to offer an extremely accurate and seamless intruder detection and deterrence infrastructure. CRON’s current product line includes integrated intrusion detection and smart fencing solution, comprising laser walls and surveillance drones. The company has recently partnered with an Israeli company to develop automated patrolling rovers and trucks that can help save costly human lives on the borders.

The scope of perimeter security is huge globally, with nations and organisations spending billions annually to secure their borders. CRON is eyeing both defence and commercial markets for its offerings. Its first aim is to secure India’s 15,000 km long border, where its products can radically improve counter-insurgency measures. On the commercial side, the company is targeting 4,500+ warehouses across the country, followed by IT Parks, housing societies and estates, which are a massive untapped market opportunity. It has already done a pilot with a leading e-commerce company to secure one of its warehouses.

CRON has been founded by Tushar Chhabra, Saurav Agarwala and Tommy Katzenellenbogen. Tushar is an ex-Google strategist and takes care of strategy, product idealisation, sales, team building and management at CRON. Saurav has worked with companies like Reliance Jio, Qualcomm and Grey Orange and brings knowledge and experience in product development, technology implementation and system design. Tommy on the other hand is an Israeli Air Force veteran who has also has experience in venture capital. He takes care of business development and is also an expert in defence product management, valuations, sales, and business strategy, focussing on moonshot growth.

“At CRON, we have developed one of the most sophisticated and accurate perimeter security systems in the world. It has multiple elements, all of which combine to offer impenetrable surveillance to any kind of facility / border. We have seen tremendous response for our products from different quarters and will continue to innovate further. With YourNest on board and their guidance, we expect to grow at a rapid pace across both defence and commercial markets in India and abroad.” said Tushar Chhabra, CEO, CRON Systems.

“As a fund, our mandate is to invest in deep tech and innovative companies in sectors of tomorrow, investment in CRON perfectly fits our investment thesis. Their products have already been deployed in real life hostile territory and have been saving numerous lives at our international borders.  We are very confident of the team at CRON and have complete faith in their execution capabilities and are sure they will make a huge mark for themselves going ahead, in both domestic and international markets.” said Girish Shivani, co-founder, Executive Director and Fund Manager, YourNest India VC Fund. This is the first investment by YourNest from its Fund-II.

Pre-series A Funding will bolster R&D and hiring,

CRON has already won BSF and Army contracts,

Company eyes European and Middle East markets,

YourNest’s first investment from Fund 2

About YourNest

Founded in April 2011 by Sunil K Goyal, Sanjay Pande and Girish Shivani, YourNest is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in the new connected economy represented by the Internet of Things, Electronic System Design, Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Robotics, Enterprise Software and the Mobile Internet. In 2016, the company brought Dr. Vivek Mansingh on board as a General Partner. YourNest is among the top quartile of pre-series A stage venture funds. Acting as a lead investor in investment rounds of upto USD 1 million, YourNest co-creates successful companies by mentoring and closely working with start-ups. The portfolio consists of 16 companies, including Uniphore Software, mycity4kids, Rubique, Arya.ai, Smart Software Testing Solutions Inc, Simpli5d, SmartQ, seeDoc, Fashalot, aahaa stores, MoMark, and GolfLAN. The first fund launched in 2012 saw subscription from 144 individual investors as well as 3 institutional investors – SIDBI’s India Opportunity Fund, IIFL Seed Ventures and Northgate Capital (a Silicon Valley based USD 5 billion Fund of Funds) with a corpus of INR 90 crore. In October 2016, YourNest announced its second fund called ‘YourNest India VC Fund II’ for Rs. 300 crore targeted at investing in 25-30 start-ups over the next 4 years.

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Last week, Asian telecom major Telenor Group surveyed technology buffs to better understand key startup trends for 2017 and the challenges and views of entrepreneurs in Asia.

The survey was conducted over Facebook and LinkedIn with 215 respondents aged 15 to over 55 years old from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and other Asian countries.

Here are the highlights of the survey:

Robotics to take centre-stage in 2017

Respondents were asked to share their views on the development of the 2017 Asia startup landscape and which sectors would be the most ready for disruption in 2017. Nearly half of all respondents chose robotics as the sector most ready for disruption in 2017.

With the number of industrial robots deployed worldwide to increase to around 2.6 million units by 2019 and automation becoming increasingly important across industries, robotics would indeed be a priority focus for businesses in 2017.

A distant second, 20 per cent of respondents chose consumer banking, 14 per cent believe that healthcare will experience the most disruption in 2017, 12 per cent see real estate as ripe for disruption, while 9 per cent predict that the air travel industry will experience disruption in 2017.

Will 2017 be the year of the self-driving car?

On the technology front, autonomous vehicles were crowned as the most disruptive technology of 2016 by about 40 per cent of respondents, with nearly the same amount (37 per cent) picking it as 2017’s most likely disruptive tech trend. With Asia leading the world in the race towards fully autonomous vehicles by setting milestones like the launch of the world’s first self-driving taxis in Singapore this August, 2017 might just be the year we see self-driving cars becoming the norm.

Understanding how Asian entrepreneurs think

To gauge the interests and personalities of the survey respondents, each person was assigned the type of startup they were most likely to create in 2017, based on pattern of their responses. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents were found to be the most likely to create an IoT startup in 2017, significantly outnumbering the number who would establish medtech startups (22 per cent), on-demand startups (14 per cent), enterprise startups (11 per cent) and fintech startups (10 per cent).

With a potential market of 34 billion devices expected to be connected to the internet by 2020, and nearly $6 trillion to be spent over the next five years, it appears Asia’s entrepreneurs are well aware of the potential opportunities offered by the Internet-of-Things.

In addition to these 2017 startup trend insights, the survey findings also hint at what Asian entrepreneurs think it takes to succeed in the tough startup world. More than a third of respondents (36 per cent) believe that cybersecurity and data privacy is their number one priority, and keeping their customers’ data safe and secure is the biggest challenge facing Asian startups.

One in four also admitted that the lack of business management skills and experience is another major obstacle, and having access to expert guidance would be an important growth factor. Another 16 per cent say they are hampered by public policy frameworks and environments that are not conducive to startups, while 14 per cent say that sustained funding across all stages of startup development would be important.

Fewer than one in 10 were seen as were concerned with the challenge of expanding into other markets in the region.

The survey also found that business growth and profit are not the only primary motivators, with 29.3 per cent of respondents stating that helping others gives them a sense of worth and purpose. From a personal perspective, 35 per cent said that they are most interested in augmented and virtual reality, followed closely by artificial intelligence (33 per cent).

The post 38% Asians want to build IoT startups in 2017: Survey appeared first on Startagist.