A pulse oximeter is a device that measures blood oxygen levels non-invasively. Not many people have a pulse oximeter at home, and while having things delivered during a lockdown can be challenging, your health can’t take a back seat. To ease monitoring oxygen levels, MFine, India’s top-rated healthcare app, has introduced an app-based SpO2 tracker. 

The MFine SpO2 tracker tool gives the same results with medical-grade accuracy by simply using your smartphone’s camera. This brings healthcare literally to your fingertips. Beyond Covid-19, regular monitoring of SpO2 levels is also recommended for those suffering from Anemia, Asthma, COPD, and other respiratory illnesses. 

To generate awareness about this AI-powered feature that MFine launched recently, it has rolled out an influencer campaign #CareComesHome with Do Your Thng, a branded content marketplace.

The campaign roped in influencers from all segments and any profession, irrespective of their number of followers. Using the power of video content, the campaign talks about keeping the MFine app handy for monitoring SpO2 levels regularly, staying home and consulting with doctors online if any health need arises. They also share their own life experiences where healthcare services from MFine can be helpful to other users as well, such as ordering lab tests at home, medicine delivery, X-rays and scans.

Highlighting the concept of the campaign, Ankit Agarwal, Founder, Do Your Thng said, “The campaign is meant for the masses, and the best way to reach the masses is to be one of them. So, we incorporated the idea of using a crowd of influencers known for their impactful content to spread the message and do so in order of magnitude.”

He further added that “This campaign which highlights the usage of MFine’s app-based pulse oximeter, could be of use to anybody sitting at any place. The intention is to keep track of the oxygen levels, being inside your homes and not stepping out of your houses and facing the havoc of COVID.”

According to Jyoti Sinha, Angel Mummy 91, Influencer, “This second wave of COVID-19 is tricky, and it is our responsibility to be aware and take extra precautions. If you or members of your family have breathing difficulties or have an active covid infection, you should regularly monitor your oxygen saturation levels. And now you can do so by just using your smartphone on the #MFine app! This is a very useful tool to have this time.”

Campaign Links

• https://www.instagram.com/p/COIZ1E3HqUV/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/p/COIdp6bHmrx/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/p/COrpcBClllN/
• https://www.instagram.com/p/COunakNpP1M/ 

About Do Your Thng (DYT) 

DYT is a branded content marketplace that acts as the bridge between marketers and brand advocates – creators who are also authentic product users and genuinely want to recommend a brand to their community.

To learn more, please visit https://doyourthng.com/.

About MFine:

MFine is an AI-driven, on-demand healthcare platform that provides its users access to virtual consultations and connected care programmes from the country’s top hospitals. It partners with leading and trusted hospitals instead of aggregating individual doctors. MFine users can consult doctors from their preferred hospitals via chat or video to get prescriptions and/or routine care. Users can also book routine lab tests, medicine delivery and access comprehensive health packages. MFine was launched in December 2017 by Ashutosh Lawania and Prasad Kompalli, who were later joined by Ajit Narayanan and Arjun Choudhary.

To learn more, please visit https://www.mfine.co/.

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BodyGuard by Sirona has launched Anti-pollution Disposable FFP2 Face Mask in line with providing the best general wellness solutions to its customers. The mask offers everyday reliable respiratory protection from dust, odors, pollen, toxins, and germs. It is skin-friendly and thus is fit for everyday use.

The mask offers 95% filtration efficiency and has five layers of fabric- nonwoven, hot air cotton, and meltblown. It has SmartValve, which provides an outlet for exhalation, while its nose clip makes it a comfortable fit. Anti-pollution Disposable FFP2 Face Mask can be used for up to 30-50 hours.

Deep Bajaj, Founder, and CEO of Sirona Hygiene said, “With an aim to improve the customer experience, BodyGuard has launched an FFP2 mask in compliance with European standards of filtration. It offers the best solution for people moving out of their homes on a daily basis by providing effective and comfortable respiratory protection.”

In response to the current pandemic, the company has ramped up its approach towards preventive hygiene by targeting your micro, yet critical germ and hygiene concerns proactively.

Among its recent launches, some are multi-purpose disinfectant sprays, mosquito repellent cream, fruits, and vegetable disinfectant tablets, etc. With its promise to protect, BodyGuard has been spreading awareness about the importance of hygiene since 2015.

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sense.bio, a Mumbai-based health-tech startup has launched an e-store selling COVID-19 essentials and personal protective gear to meet growing demand during the outbreak of the global coronavirus crisis.

The IoT-based sense.bio launched the e-store with an idea to reduce the risk of viral transmission and the store makes it convenient for the customers to order the products while staying indoors. It also ensures availability and safety while delivering it to their doorstep.

Talking about the launch, Mr.Atul Kapoor, Founder, sense.bio commented “Now since the unlock is happening across the nation and people are resuming work now it’s the time to take extra safety measures with protecting themselves and boosting their immunity. We have made sure of the quality of products and are made in India.”

The e-store witnesses the need for modern personal protective gear. It features a wide range of products including Oximeter, Masks, Gloves, Coverall suits, Surgical gowns, Hand- sanitizers, Air spray, Automatic sanitizer disposer, Electrolysis spray, Face shield, PPE kit, Immunity booster, etc. To make it extremely easy for the customers, the store promises to deliver the order at their doorstep even during the COVID crisis.

There is a huge supply and demand gap due to movement restrictions in containment areas and the COVID-19 essentials are significantly high in demand. sense.bio strives to reduce the gap and boosts the implementation of safety measures.

The data-driven app is backed by innovative technology and it works on a freemium model while its premium gives access to personalized and customized diet plans, nutritionists, and coaches to improve the overall healthcare experience of its users.

The products can be ordered from its user-friendly mobile app and website. The application endeavors to enhance the user- experience with more convenient, innovative, and useful products along with the expansion of their business to Southeast Asia, Asia Pacific, and other regions.

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A training systems-focussed augmented and virtual reality firm, Cusmat Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised seed funding for an undisclosed amount in a round led by startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts. The fundraising round saw other participants which include Vaibhav Domkundwar, founder of early-stage venture firm Better Inc.; Pratap Atwal, director at Coronation Mining & Infra; and MapmyIndia chairman Rakesh Verma.

Hyderabad-based Cusmat was founded by Abhinav Ayan, Anirban Jyoti Chakravorty, and Soumyaranjan Harichandan. It uses AR, VR, and artificial intelligence to train and assess people working in enterprises.

Abhinav Ayan said that the company offers a cloud-linked, learning management system-integrated platform. This enables enterprises to standardize training processes across locations. It also helps them track, compare, and visualize skill-specific workforce competency levels, he said.

Venture Catalysts co-founder and president Apoorv Ranjan Sharma said Cusmat’s products have already garnered traction, adding that the company was well-positioned to take a lead in its market segment.

At present, Cusmat offers five training products that cater to at least 15 industries, including logistics, electronics, manufacturing, mining, steel, and pharmaceuticals.

Venture Catalysts has made several investments this year, despite the nationwide disruption caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The startup incubator and accelerator was set up in 2015 by Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain, and Gaurav Jain. It invests between $250,000 and $1.5 million in early-stage startups, and provides networking and mentoring to its portfolio companies.

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Do you know that 200 million households in the developing world, including India, live in slums? Do you know that 60 million households today in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia are financially stretched by housing costs?

Estimates show that 330 million urban households today, around the world, live in substandard housing or are financially stretched by housing costs. If the current trends in urban migration and income growth are any indicator, then 1.6 billion people — that is 440 million families by 2025 — will occupy crowded, inadequate and unsafe housing, or will be financially stretched based on current trends in urban migration and income growth.

When feel envious about our neighbour’s palatial building, just look at the above stats and be grateful to God for the blessings we have.

Housing is a global problem. Forget villages, even in cities like Mumbai and Delhi, a huge chunk of people live in extremely deplorable conditions, with no access to even basic amenities like toilet. As the development takes place world over, more and more people are getting displaced and become homeless.

Perhaps, this startup founded by a Mumbai girl can be a game-changer. Rhea Silva, a 25-year-old, has built Chototel with an aim to provide a decent and clean room in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Dubai, Bristol and London — just for $2 a night.

“Access to decent affordable shelter is so fundamental to the health and wellbeing of people and the smooth functioning of economies. Yet, in developing and advanced economies alike, cities struggle with the challenge of accommodating their poorest citizens,” says Silva.

“While working in the affordable housing industry after studies, I realised that there is a huge need for housing for people living in the BoP. We at Chototel aim to provide an alternative to housing needs of people without binding them to lease agreements etc.,” adds Silva, a graduate in Law and Management Studies.

Set up in 2015, Chototel provides ‘super-budget-hotels’, with uninterrupted utilities and social infrastructure such as crèches, community kitchens etc. — all for a $2 bill.

Chototel was started in Nagothane, a city on the Mumbai-Bangalore highway.
Currently, Chototel provides US$2-a-night room in Bristol (UK), Dubai, Lagos (Nigeria), Mumbai and Pune (India).

But how does Chototel manage to provide hotel stay for a song?

“Our business model works on the fact that we have income from daily rents. We also charge customers for utility consumption and consumption of other services such as creche for children and community kitchen, where the tenant can go and eat his/her meal. More importantly, all our utilities are off-grid, so we don’t have to depend on governments for electricity, water and gas connections. This way we have managed to reduce operating costs,” Silva says.

Chototel has also created a mechanism to monitor the utility consumption on a real-time basis. Chototel rooms are outfitted with microbots, which take in several data points to report back to the hotel and the tenant.

The user can also monitor the consumption using a mobile app.

The revenues from the utility services go into running of the hotel, while the money from rental goes back to repaying the capital expenditure. Rhea says that the entire hotel is built in a way that there is zero maintenance — the beds are rexine-made and not easily destroyable. And the furniture is made of steel and is durable.

Chototel is employing the benefits of light-gauge steel framing to build cheaper, quicker and greener buildings. Steel framing technology reduces materials wastage compared to conventional construction techniques, and eliminates the need for bricks and wood as raw materials.

The buildings are manufactured off-site and then assembled onsite. This ensures the quality of the construction and reduces construction time to a 180-day cycle. The construction methodology is highly automated, reducing the time and cost required to train local labour, while creating employment opportunities for vulnerable groups.

Each Chototel will have insulated walls, reducing the need for heating and cooling devices and consequently saving energy. At peak load, the houses are designed to consume less than 100 watts.

The rooms are managed by self-help groups or SHGs, a community of non-working spouses who maintain the rooms and operate the community kitchen and creche.

Chototel is planning to add Internet of Things (IoT) features, moving forward. “IoT will become part of every aspect of Chototel’s operations. Each Chototel hotel will be managed remotely, and many tasks that have traditionally relied upon manpower will be automated, minimising our operating costs. Guests can check-in and out of their rooms remotely using our mobile App, and pay for their rental with one click. Using this smart housing solution, guests benefit from real-time data of utility usage and can make payments on a consumption basis via their smartphones,” she explains.

Headquartered in London, the startup also runs an office in Mumbai.

What is your goal?

“In the next decade, we aim to build five million budget hotel rooms worldwide. This ambition responds to the global housing shortage that is predicted to affect 1.6 billion people or one-third of the global urban population, by 2025. Our strategy is to employ the power of technology to provide quality rental housing at an unprecedented nightly rate. We are targeting highly-urbanised areas in both developed and developing regions, where people are currently struggling to find affordable accommodation,” she concludes.

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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.

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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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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).

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