Final-year DU students develop machine that allows residents to drop waste and pick up rewards

One day, on their way to the metro station, Ashutosh Srivastava and Pranav Manocha, students of Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences (Delhi University), stumbled upon an important facet of human nature. They had been wanting to put their engineering skills to good use, when they realised people are usually goaded to do something when they are aptly rewarded.

They then noticed a bunch of vending machines, and Ashutosh (22) wondered how a machine can be made to collect waste automatically. Pranav (22) quipped that creating a machine would not be difficult, but only by rewarding people would it get used at all.

We-Convert Team

So, last August, the duo launched their venture We-Convert and introduced a machine called E-Collector. The idea was to accept the user’s waste material and in return generate some rewards by giving offers on waste materials. The price of each E-collector is Rs 1,90,000.

New Delhi-based We-Convert allows users to discharge PET/plastic, glass scrap or aluminum cans by following instructions on the machines. Then the machine will generate a five-digit code that can be redeemed by dialing a simple USSD number. And users can share their mobile number details with We-Convert and get their rewards.

The duo tied up with ‘favcy’, a third-party organisation and a standard of social connectivity coin creation for individuals, and for brands to simplify the reward system of E-Collector.

We conducted a case study at 30 locations in Delhi where we plan to place the first set of 30 machines. Our next machine placement is within the DMRC premises for which we’ve been granted the permission at eight different metro stations,” says Ashutosh.

Novices at waste management

With no knowledge of the waste management domain, the duo was unfamiliar about the capital required and the operation involved to build this product. Workplace was also another issue and therefore they developed the model at Delhi Technical University campus.

The challenge was to arrange a minimum fund of Rs 20,000 to develop a proof of concept. So they started attending multiple business plans and events in colleges of Delhi Universityand won 12 B-Plan events with a total prize money of Rs 36,000. In total, they invested nearly Rs 1.2 lakh. After four months of operation, the roped in four more technical people to develop a proof of concept.

Even after getting the right team, the technical aspects were a challenge for us. Interactions with many government agencies were not generating positive results,” adds Pranav.

The testing of the detecting unit and the electronic parts was completed within a month and the machine got ready in March this year.

E-Collector

Monetisation phase

We-Convert sells the PET scrap at Rs 35/kg and the aluminium scrap at Rs 95/kg to the recycling industries, including The Guardian, Parth Das Sharma’s recycling portal, The Kabaddiwala.com, Synergy Sourcing, Rajasthan and HK industries. In total, it collects 20kg of PET scrap and 5kg of aluminium scrap per day.

The E-Collector machine acts as a platform of advertising for different brands and its 15-inch digital display aids digital advertising as well. Going forward, the other source of revenue would be through brand promotion, which is likely to generate 7-10 percent. By fiscal year 2017-18, the startup is eyeing a revenue of Rs 67 lakh and is also looking to raise funds soon.

Future ahead

We-Convert has a team of seven members and has a base of 1,400 users from four different locations in Delhi. It is currently working on a project to develop 100 machines for Indian Super league, which will be placed at eight different States in eight different stadiums. In the next three years, they are planning to expand to Mumbai, Pune, Kochi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu.

Waste management market

According to business research organisation NOVONOUS, the waste management market is expected to be worth $13.62 billion by 2025. Indian municipal solid waste (MSW) management market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.14 percent by 2025, while e-waste management market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.03 percent during the same period.

A handful of startups seemed to have sensed the market opportunity. The players include The Kabadiwala, Scrapos, ekabadi, Kachrapatti, Kachre Ka Dabba and POM POM. With the proliferation of waste management startups in India, the domestic industry is estimated to grow over $1 billion by 2020.

Investors are also betting high on the growth of this industry. Bengaluru-based Saahas Waste Management raised an undisclosed amount from Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Upaya Social Ventures. Delhi-based Karma Recycling has received fund from Infuse Ventures and Low Carbon Enterprise Fund.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/07/we-convert/

This Doctor Invented a Rs. 50 Device To Give Throat Cancer Patients Their Voice Again

Dr. Vishal Rao, a Bangalore based oncologist, has developed a voice prosthesis that can help throat cancer patients speak after surgery. And unlike the extremely expensive ones available in the market today, this device will cost just Rs. 50.

It had been over two months since a throat cancer patient from Kolkata had eaten properly. He was depressed, unable to speak or swallow, and was being fed with the help of a pipe through his nose. His financial condition made it very difficult for him to afford proper medical treatment. It was then that a doctor informed him about a surgeon in Bangalore who could be of help. So he travelled, met the surgeon and sought his treatment. After a procedure that lasted only five minutes, he was able to speak properly, swallow his food, and was even ready to travel back home – all thanks to Dr. Vishal Rao U.S.

“That day, when I came out from another surgery after about three hours, the Kolkata patient was still standing there, waiting for me. He was so emotionally overwhelmed that he just ran towards me and hugged me saying that he had never imagined getting his voice back would be so easy,” says the 37-year-old doctor.

Dr. Rao is an oncologist and head and neck surgeon at the Bangalore-based HealthCare Global (HCG) Cancer Center. He has developed the Aum Voice Prosthesis – a voice prosthesis device that can help patients whose voice box has been removed, to speak and eat properly.

Unlike the currently available prostheses that cost anywhere between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 30,000, and have to be replaced every six months, Dr. Rao’s prosthesis will cost just Rs. 50.

Dr. Vishal Rao

Voice prosthesis is a device made of silicone. It is used to help patients speak when the entire voice box, or larynx, has been removed. In such cases, the windpipe and food pipe are separated from each other, either at the time of the surgery or later, creating an opening between the two. The device is then placed in this opening. Dr. Rao explains that the voice box basically vibrates with the help of air provided from the lungs. The mechanism behind the prosthesis is that instead of the vocal cord vibrating, the food pipe is made to vibrate with the back end of the prosthesis sitting at the food pipe.

“If you send air into the food pipe through the lungs, it will vibrate, create noise, and that can be converted into intelligent speech with coordination from the brain. As food or water should not fall into the lungs, it is a one-way valve device,” he elaborates. The device weighs 25 grams and is 2.5 cm long.

The foundation for Aum Voice Prosthesis was laid about two years ago, when a throat cancer patient from a remote Karnataka village came in to meet Dr. Rao.

The prosthesis – Front View

“That man had not eaten since about a month and he could not speak. After the cancer surgery, his voice box had been removed, but he could not afford the prosthesis. When he came to me, he did not find life worth living anymore,” remembers Dr. Rao, who promised the patient that he would try and help.

Till then, every time he had encountered a case like this, Dr. Vishal had to contact some pharmaceutical companies, ask for discounts, raise funds, and arrange donations – but he had been able to help patients in spite of all this trouble. So raising funds was his first thought this time as well. But then, something amazing happened. “I would call it serendipity that right after the patient a friend walked in to meet me,” he says. This friend, Shashank Mahes, promised that he would try and arrange the required funds but he also asked the doctor a simple question:

“Why are you dependent on all these people. Why don’t you make something on your own?”

Dr. Rao felt that something like this was beyond his capacity. He was familiar with the technical side but didn’t have the industrial expertise to turn his idea into a viable product. Fortunately, Shashank was willing to help him with that. They decided to collaborate for this cause – Dr. Rao got the entire technical plan ready and Shashank helped him convert it into reality using his expertise as an industrialist. They put in the required funds from their own pockets and developed the device.

“I never want to donate torn old clothes to the poor because they deserve more dignified donations. That’s why I didn’t want to create a medical product of cheaper quality only because my patients are poor. Don’t they deserve the best? So we brought in the best materials,” says Dr. Rao.

The duo has filed for a patent for the device; it will be available in the market by next month. They have also received approvals from scientific and ethical committees at HCG to start using the product on patients. Testing will begin on 30 patients initially.

Most voice prostheses are very costly because they are imported. Dr. Rao and his friend took two years to come up with the final product. But in order to keep it affordable, they decided not to charge for their time and effort.

“We believe that speech and communication are not a privilege but a right. We cannot hold them back from a patient only because he/she is poor,” he says.

Dr. Rao has used the device on three patients so far. His aim is to study and fine tune it further, in the hope that its use will soon become widespread in every cancer centre in the country.

Side view

“My first patient was a watchman from Peenya. Two years ago, we arranged for his prosthesis with the help of donations. While the shelf life of the device is only six months, he used it for two years because he could not afford a replacement. Eventually, the device led to many complications. When he came in, I felt that he deserved the Aum Voice Prosthesis. And after the procedure, he happily called me in the middle of the night from his duty to tell me that the device is working well. That call gave me immense satisfaction,” says the doctor, with pride.

Why is the device called ‘Aum’?

“In older scriptures, ‘Om’ was written as ‘Aum.’ ‘A’ stands for creation, ‘U’ for sustenance and ‘M’ for annihilation. These are the three basic principles of our universe. When a person speaks again after losing his voice box, for me it is more like rebirth, like Aum being recreated, because it is the origin of all sound,” concludes Dr. Rao.

Reference: http://www.thebetterindia.com/41251/dr-vishal-rao-affordable-voice-prosthesis/

Meet the 14-year-old coder who has coded 22 apps, right from healthtech to women empowerment

Contrary to what you may think, a genius isn’t always the product of the availability of world-class education, state-of-the-art equipment and rigorous training – more often than not, he or she may be born out of circumstances that exhibit a dearth and banality, and pose an opportunity to build and overcome. That is the story of Naman Tiwari, the 14-year-old self-learned app developer from the small UP city of Shahjahanpur, who has coded 22 apps of a mind-boggling range.

“I started learning about development technology about three years ago. No one knows about Android development here, so I work alone and find it a bit difficult.”Naman doesn’t have access to any fancy devices, in fact, here’s some trivia on the young whiz kid‑ he does not even own a mobile phone!“I just have a laptop and internet.I haven’t joined any tuitions or classes. I have coined a saying, ‘Don’t ask for more until you make the best use of the things you have.’”

Backward is ‘code’ for unrealised

A student of Takshashila Public School, Naman started coding when he was in the 7thstandard, aged 11. “I picked it as a hobby because I thought it is the only way through which I can solve real world problems without a multi-billion dollar startup. I made many entertainment apps, but after seeing the problems in the medical industry in our country, I shifted from entertainment to social awareness apps.”

Besides the internet, his uncle mentors him through his journey of self-exploration. Patiently and relentlessly, he kept at it ‑ creating apps that were entertaining and useful all the same – and that range is mind-boggling. Straight from his brewery are apps like the AiO Converter that converts units in seconds with a few clicks, or the app that helps one swiftly calculate tips at a hotel. One is a trivia app loaded with fun facts, and another’s a tool that helps measure the frequency of your voice in decibels. There’s one to help children with their cognition of colours or even learn state capitals in the United States. Or, how about the one that provides sample interview questions to aspiring developers to make them job ready?

He even whipped up some educational apps, like “HTML Cool Learn” that helps developers learn HTML language with examples of webpages, or the one that helps kids learn all about the solar system. Another one of his concoctions helps Spanish connoisseurs learn the language, or Audiophiles learn any song by looping or selecting any part of it, and one that helps toddlers learn alphabets. Another app facilitates education, by helping school children organise the notes they make on their subjects.

The little genius also combined his imagination with his skill to code some games, like Man Pong Fight, Maths Quiz, Tic Tac Toe (Classic), Vector War – or Shahrukh Man Pro, a guilty pleasure for SRK fans.

This number amounts to a whopping 22. The ones that were more than seven-day wonders. But he has favourites, the ones that gave him a much more triumphant sense of eureka, are the two apps that are achieving the purpose that he got into app development for in the first place – Malaria Defender and Secure Girls.

His most complex and popular application Malaria Defender is an app that helps detect malaria in seconds, and Secure Girls is an app for women’s safety. On average, he takes about three to four days to code an app, but “Malaria Defender” warranted a month’s research and development.

“My most successful app is malaria defender, as it is solving a real world problem.It takes just few seconds to check the symptoms of malaria in a person and gives them a prescribed health report. It is ane-solution for those who cannot afford the doctor’s fees – and I designed it in a way that it can even work offline.” A user can also get a doctor’s advice through the app. Malaria Defender got selected in the Facebook Start Bootstrap Programmme, and Naman was awarded Rs33,000 in Facebook ad credit.

Secure Girls provides important helpline information, a panic button which can be used to send an emergency message, and is otherwise loaded with the latest news and motivational quotes and sayings.

(Na)Man with a Plan

He has never worked for a client professionally, though. “Currently, I make apps for people to entertain. I work as a public developer. I don’t want to get bounded by a personal client, I will have a lot of time to do that later. I am too young, so I work for my passion.”

All his apps are live on Google PlayStore, under his publisher name “Naman Tiwari Spn”. Overall, he has about 2,500users on all his apps collectively, “without even spending a dollar on marketing.”

Naman has found his ultimate calling even for the future, and surely enough, it is tech. “In the future, I want to create something bigger and more impactful so that people could remember me even after my death. I want to become a successful entrepreneur and want to run my own software company,” concludes Naman.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/07/naman-tiwari/

How Delhi-based Turannt intends to capture the Indian logistics market

With the growing world of on-demand and e-commerce, logistics has become the key, ensuring quick deliveries and a smooth operational flow. Over the past year, several startups have ventured into the space and transformed an otherwise unorganised segment with technology. According to YourStory Research data, in 2015 alone, the amount of funding pumped into logistics startups was believed to be $617.7 million.

Three broad categories have emerged in the growing logistics market – inter-city, intra-city and hyperlocal. Delhi-based Turannt, previously known as Turant Delivery, was founded in April 2015 and is among the startups with inter and intra-city plays.

The logistics startup provides intra and inter-city logistics services in the B2B segment and operates a plethora of commercial vehicles ranging from a mini truck to a 34ft high cube container. Turannt had begun their journey by providing on-demand hyperlocal intra-city logistics solutions as a light-commercial vehicle aggregator.

Team @Turannt

Aggregating the team and idea

The three co-founders Ankur Majumder, Siddharth Arora and Satish Gupta were batchmates at ISB. Ankur had experience in capital markets with UBS AG and Yes Bank, Siddharth had worked in various IT and Product Manager Roles with AMEX and Snapdeal, while Satish had work experience in P&L and in operations management with Baker Hughes and Halliburton as Country Manager.

The trio got into a discussion on how the e-commerce sector was growing and booming in the India. They realised that while the on-demand market was growing, the truck industry wouldn’t be able to match that growth and demand without the right technology in place. This was an opportunity to take advantage of, and thus Turannt came into being as a one-stop logistics solution provider.

The intra and inter-city play

It was after stabilising their intra-city operations that Turannt ventured into inter-city logistics at the beginning of this year.

Ankur adds that like every other player who was present in the market, the team initially focussed on the intra-city play, but with time and traction, they realised that the real problem that needed to be solved was on a B2B level, where logistics play needed more structuring and streamlining.

The team also realised that in the intra-city space, the existing competition was already quite strong. Each customer would closely compare the new player with the old ones before making any change in their current choices.

“We started off with a vision to solve a problem that the unorganised logistics sector faces, streamline the same and make it accessible and hassle free, with the use of technology,” says Ankur.

The supply and demand chains both had loopholes and were not mutually complementary in the logistics sector. The team decided to closely monitor and study the target market and customer and vendor pain-points, and the solution was shaped based on these.

Turannt first started in Mumbai and Delhi. While they found both these cities competitive, it became apparent that each had its challenges.

In Mumbai, for instance, the unions would play an important role, making it difficult to onboard wary vendors. But when they found that instead of taking away orders from the unions, Turrant was working with them to complete orders and re-organising the demand in a way that would prove to be beneficial to them, onboarding the vendors became easier.

“In Delhi, on the other hand, due to permit windows for commercial vehicles in certain sectors, our hyperlocal model came into play, ensuring a good conversion rate,” says Ankur.

Pre-fixing the model

Following a hyperlocal model, Turannt partners with local vendors, thus helping clients get a logistics service close to them. This, Ankur adds, helps them lower costs, maximise inventory utilisation, lower fuel costs for vendors and reduces pricing for the clients.

Turannt has a pre-fixed pricing model, the clients in turn get complete visibility from the placing of the order to dispatch and delivery. “As this price is fixed, the price becomes independent of the route the driver takes or the time that is consumed during the execution of the order,” says Ankur.

Once an order is received from a client, the same is forwarded to the vendor closest to the pickup location.

A mobile app allows customers to place, track and manage orders with ease. Corporate clients get customised services and based on their requirements, the most cost effective and time-saving plans are developed.

All orders get updated on the Turannt Admin real time, which helps the Turannt team monitor operations remotely at all times. All the platforms and applications ensure complete records of order history for both customers and drivers, which further helps in detailed invoicing and digital PODs, and creates a hassle free experience overall for every party involved.

Breaking the market

After bootstrapping for nine months, Turannt closed a round of seed funding this year, from Rupinder Singh Arora, an entrepreneur with 40 years of experience and MD at Par Solar Ltd and Arora Fibres, Hari Balasubramanian, a startup enthusiast, Rajan Manchandana, founder of PAFEX, which was sold to Fedex. The team is looking for their next round of funding.

The logistics space is fast growing in India. ‘Logistics Market India 2015-2020’, a report by Novonous, suggests that the logistics market is close to $300 billion and is poised to grow at a CAGR of 12.7 percent by 2020.

In the intra-city logistics space, the other major players are TruckSumo, Blowhorn, which raised seed funding from Unitus, Shipr and TheKarrier that raised Rs 1.5 crores from Sol Primero in May 2015 among others. In the intercity logistics space is Blackbuck that raised $25 million in Series B funding from marquee investors like Accel Partners, Flipkart, Tiger Global, Apolette, and Yuri Milner’s Founder’s Fund – DST Global.

Eyeing the $300 billion market are also giants like Mahindra and Mahindra, which launched SmartShift and other players like Rivigo.

Future plans

Apart from foraying into different metros like Bengaluru and Kolkata, Turannt has also entered Tier II cities like Ratnagiri, Surat and Bikaner. Starting out from a team of three along with two customer care executives, today Turannt has over 30 members.

The team claims that from August last year, when they made a turnover of Rs 4 lakh with over 30 intra-city transactions per day, they have grown to the point where, today, they make a turnover of over Rs 1 crore a month. They say that they are on track to their projected revenue of Rs 20 crores for this year, which they expect to achieve through their inter-city operations, which are beginning to pick up. Turannt has partnered with the likes of Furlenco, Chaayos and also work with Jaycee, Godrej, Aditya Birla Retail Group, Vijay Sales and Snehanjali.

“We have ambitious plans for the inter-city operations, and are looking at a 5x growth touching close to Rs.100 crores. We have a unique advantage of both intra and inter-city operations, realising the synergies across both verticals. This synergy helped us immensely in our bottom-line growth in an environment where the focus has been only on the top-line,” says Ankur.

The venture is currently at 40 percent month on month growth and the team is looking at 50 per cent MOM CAGR in the next three months. The team is also looking to raise funding and carry out aggressive marketing plans.

Reference: http://yourstory.com/2016/07/turannt/

Turkish Man Creates Glasses That Conceal Phone Screen from Anyone but the Wearer

Don’t you hate it when you’re using your smartphone on public transportation and notice strangers looking at it over your shoulder? Those people are the worst! But thanks to Celal Göger special glasses, you won’t have to deal with them ever again.

Göger, a 42-year-old mobile phone repairman from the Turkish town of Bismil, Diyarbakır province, has invented special glasses that interact with a smartphone’s screen so that only the wearer can see it. He said he came up with the idea for the glasses four months ago, when, while checking his emails on the local tram, he noticed people on the packed vehicle were staring at the screen of his phone. He realized it was a serious privacy issue that surely other people were facing on a daily basis. So he went back to his phone repair shop and started working on a solution.

The experienced repairman, who has been fixing phones since 1999, came up with a system that turns the screen of any phone, tablet or laptop completely white for everyone looking at it, unless they are wearing a special pair of glasses that allows them to see the screen normally. The exact details of how his invention works are not very clear, as the story has not yet been covered by western media, but from what I could make out from Turkish websites, Celal programmed a small chip to turn the display white and installed it on the smartphone. He also came up with another chip that can be mounted on any pair of glasses and connect to the chip on the phone via Blutooth, to bypass the white screen.

The best part about Celal Göger invention is that he claims it only costs around $10, including the Bluetooth system which switches the mechanism on and off. He adds that his privacy protection system works on any electronic display, even television sets. For example, if you want to watch a program, but don’t want anyone else knowing what you’re watching, you just put on the glasses, flip a switch and the screen goes white for everyone but yourself.

The Turkish inventor says he first tested the effectiveness of his system in a cafe, and people started asking him if he was ok, because to them, he was just a guy staring at a white screen. It was only after lending them the galsses that they realized his genius.

Reference:http://www.odditycentral.com/technology/turkish-man-creates-glasses-that-conceal-phone-screen-from-anyone-but-the-wearer.html

Why the tech world cannot stop talking about 12-year-old Tanmay Bakshi

Tanmay Bakshi is nothing like the average child you would meet. The twelve year old was first drawn to programming languages, when he was but five and wondered how his name could be displayed on his dad’s computer screen. He set out on a quest to solve simple mysteries that intrigued him and started programming with his father’s help, and he is now one of the youngest app developers in the world today.

The hits and misses

Tanmay lives in Brampton, Canada, and built his first app for the iPhone when he was only nine years old. He might be jet-setting around the world today, delivering key-note addresses and demonstrating his apps before awestruck audiences, but recognition and success didn’t come easy. The whizkid faced several rejections before his app finally got published on the app store on Valentine’s Day 2013, marking the beginning of what seems to be Tanmay’s promising love story with tech.

Since then, he has continued to develop at an astonishing rate as he acquired more programming languages. He is fluent in most, if not all, of the major codes in use today.

In his address at IBM DeveloperConnect in Bengaluru on Friday he demonstrated his algorithm called ‘AskTanmay,’ which he described as “the world’s first web-based NLQA system, built using IBM Watson’s Cognitive Capabilities.” The eight-step algorithm can solve queries related to a ‘PERSON,’ ‘ORGANIZATION,’ ‘LOCATION,’ or ‘DATE’ answer type.

Not your average 12 year old

The 12 year old is currently studying in the seventh grade and is being home-schooled to optimise his time better. Going by his repertoire you might assume Tanmay to be coding away in a secluded corner at home but that is far from the truth!

“I code in my free time and love it so much that it helps me take my mind off things,” the little man explains.

An avid reader and sports enthusiast, Tanmay loves biking and playing table tennis with his friends, and has also authored a book called Hello Swift, which is about iOS programming techniques for kids and developers.

“The world needs more developers,” says Tanmay and is doing his bit to help increase the number. To everyone’s surprise at the IBMDevConnect, Tanmay open-sourced his app on stage, a move to make it more accessible to the developer community. Through his YouTube channel ‘Tanmay Teaches’, he also imparts programming knowledge and clears tech doubts of over a thousand of his subscribers who are as young as fifteen and as old as forty!

So, from whom does this wonder kid draw inspiration? “I look up to Steve Jobs never giving up on his passion and I want to get my book signed by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan,” he says.

What’s next?

Tanmay is currently trying to figure out how to get the Apple Watch to work independently from the iPhone, a few apps for iOSX, and an app to help college students and developers look up algorithms. However, he holds hope for a “really powerful answering system” in “many years” with “100 percent accuracy.” He is also working on updates for ‘Ask Tanmay,’ including different question styles, higher accuracy, improving its engine and making it faster.

Tanmay prefers working on IBM Watson’s API and wants to develop an app that will allow businesses to analyse social media better and target better audiences, and is looking to get into the B2B side of things.

Having accomplished so much in so little time, what is Tanmay looking to do next?

“I want to become a better developer, write more books, deliver more keynote addresses and share my knowledge through my YouTube channel,” he quips.

And as he continues to take the world by storm, he also has some advice for his contemporaries,

Follow your heart and passion. It could be anything, just practice and get better at it!

Rerefence:http://yourstory.com/2016/06/tanmay-bakshi/

Meet the IIT Roorkee grad who wants to become the next big thing in the Indian comic scene

The first lesson on barter for every kid is mostly through comic books. Researching carefully on what comic to read, painstakingly finding out which kid in the neighborhood has it and convincing him/her to exchange it with a comic you’ve got. Those were the days!

However, the craze of comics is no longer limited to children as adults are also equally hooked onto them these days. Case in point is the Comic Con. While the number of people who attended the Comic Con in 2015 in India was lesser compared to the previous year, the buzz isn’t dead. With the growing number of Indian writers, artists, and publications in the scene the market space is poised to grow. 

Twenty-six-year-old Rajeev Tamhankar, a 2012 silver medalist from IIT Roorkee had always been a comic buff and an avid writer since childhood. After graduating from college, he joined Flipkart to work on private label brands. During this stint, he authored the book Get corporated before you get fired!, a corporate satire. Post it’s launch, he received feedback from a lot of the book’s readers about how it would have been more interesting if the book was in a graphic novel style. Around the same time, Rajiv was also working on a script around the mysteries of the submerged city of Dwarka, under the title ‘Varun,’ which was being written in the format of a novel. Rajeev realised that there was so much happening in the script that it seemed much more fun to present it using graphics. That’s when the idea of a comic books startup struck him.

He decided to build a platform called Thought Bubbles Studio (TBS) and wanted it to stand for imagination, creativity and freshness. Since he wanted TBS to be a complete planet of imaginary heroes, villains and events around them, he also came up with the brand TBSplanet.com.

“Comic book business is quite complicated to start. You need to get the right stories, the right sketching, inking, colouring, printing and top this with the regular business requirements of sales, distribution, marketing, logistics, finance and operations. For me, getting the first team to sketch and colour was the biggest challenge. I searched for over four months but was unable to find quality work,” says Rajeev, speaking of his initial challenges in starting up in the comic space.

Setting things up

But when you really want to do something, things automatically seem to fall into place. It so happened in Rajeev’s case that a school friend with a studio in Gujarat agreed to work on his first project, ‘Ved’. Armed with design help and his own writing prowess, Rajeev then started working on building the in-house team, which now has five members.

The team is working on a range of comic books and graphic novels projects, which include creating Indian superheroes, corporate humour, political satires and household comedies. “From conceptualisation to getting the actual product on shelf is a complicated process,” says Rajeev, while explaining how the entire business is heavily dependent on ideas, hence making it a lengthy process. So how does the team go about it?

Once a concept is ready, the writers get to script it. This is followed by a preliminary edit. The edited script is then followed by story-boarding. Based on these storyboards the illustrators get to sketching, inking, colouring and lettering. After this process, the book goes in for a final edit and is then submitted for a sample print. Once this sample gets approved, it goes for mass printing.

The Indian comic scene

But the speculation around the Indian comic industry is aplenty, with many questions being raised about its lost sheen and the end of the era of Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle and Chacha Choudhary, all beloved and iconic indigenous comics.

The graphic novel as a genre is taken very seriously in the West, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales every year. It has repeatedly attracted the fancy of Hollywood, where comic book crossover movies are box-office hits. In India, however, despite the large fan following for international comics, indigenous comics have only now begun to shed their Tinkle-AmarChitraKatha-ChachaChoudhary shell.

But Rajeev is hopeful.

“I believe as long as there is fresh content coming up, the industry will keep flourishing. After all, we all love to read good stories. And that’s why it has been flourishing in US. The Indian comics industry had seen a spike in eighties and nineties, with popular characters like Chacha Chowdhary, Pinki etc., which connected with the Indian masses. I think it is always the content which is important. Movies, social media, videos, books are all just different mediums of communicating content. Thanks to the advent of events like Comic Con and movies around action superheroes, comic books are gaining popularity once again,” Rajeev says.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/06/thought-bubbles-studio-rajeev-tamhankar/

How Angle Paisa is helping budding entrepreneurs chase their dreams

Having eight years of experience in financial modelling, fund management and business advisory services, chartered accountant Himanshu Kumar realised that there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of funds in the market.

Angle Paisa Team

According to a estimation by The World Bank, approximately 70 percent of all MSMEs in emerging markets lack access to credit. The current credit gap for formal SMEs is estimated to be $1.2 trillion and the credit gap for both formal and informal SMEs is $2.6 trillion.

Soon, Himanshu stumbled upon the idea of reaching out to a large number of investors to bridge the gap and back startup ideas. Founded in last September, Angle Paisa acts as a bridge between startups and investors by providing early-stage funding to startups. It helps startups raise equity investment from friends, family, community, independent investors and public at large.

With the help of Angle Paisa, startups can explain one’s business idea, narrate the startup story, describe the target market and strategy and the quantum of investment to be raised in exchange for the equity on offer. They can also engage investors using videos and photos.

Angle Paisa’s experts then evaluate this plan in detail to ensure that the campaign is fair, clear and not misleading for investors. Once the campaign goes live, the investors study the proposal, evaluate it in order to invest in the startup.

We create opportunities using Internet as a medium, to raise investment for businesses online, outlining the associated benefits and risks in a clear and easy-to-understand manner,” says Himanshu (33).

Seed stage

An expert in Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards, Himanshu provided support to many transnational companies. In 2013, he returned to India and started working on Angle Paisa. It took almost one year to channelise the process and kick-start Angle Paisa, where a person is considered as angel investor when he/she invests Rs 5,000.

Angle Paisa was bootstrapped with an initial corpus of Rs 50 lakhs, which was primarily utilised in setting up its website and social media campaigns and online presence.

Angle Paisa has around 34 investors and five startup ideas. While evaluating startup ideas, it considers business model, environment, feasibility, funding required and founding team. So far, it has invested Rs 3.75 crore in the startup community.

Revenue model and traction

Angle Paisa charges a fee between three and six percent, depending upon a few criteria such as nature of the project, quantum of investment required, dilution of stake. The company has a team of four people across finance, management, social media and IT. By next year, Angle Paisa expects to have more than 200 startups and 2,000 investors.

Further from the perspective of increasing our current set of skills and knowledge, our venture has been supported by some well-renowned CXOs from various sectors working with us as mentors,” says Himanshu.

Crowd Funding market in India

Crowdfunding is generally defined as an online platform for small businesses and startups to increase their opportunities, investment base and funding prospects. The concept is believed to have started primarily in the US and UK and entails the use of the Internet and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

It India witnessed a couple of crowdsourcing success stories, before the term even became popular. Dhirubhai Ambani’s Reliance Industries, a small but successful textile business, was crowdfunded by communities across Gujarat.

According to SEBI, crowdfunding is defined as solicitation of funds (small amounts) from multiple investors, through a web-based platform or social networking site for a specific project, business venture or social cause.

SEBI is currently in the process of establishing regulations on crowdfunding, which will be a boon to the SME or early-stage startups to raise funds from small-time investors.

According to a study by World Bank, the global crowdfunding market could will reach $90-96 billion by 2025, which is 1.8 times the size of the global venture capital industry today. The last couple of years have witnessed the srpouting of a few platforms in the space, such as Mumbai-based Wishberry, Bengaluru-based FuelADream, crowdfunding fintech platform Impact Guru, actor Kunal Kapoor’s Ketto and Mumbai-based Catapooolt.

Angle Paisa

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Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/05/angle-paisa/

How these two industry veterans are monetizing the $11 billion worth of textile surplus

It is an age-old business practice for textile mill owners to print some excess stock, lest they have wastage of the entire lot if a part of the design is not printed perfectly. They also print surpluses to be prepared for re-orders by their clients. The surplus stock thus generated after fulfilling the order, is, naturally, an equally high quality product, but is sold at lower prices through agents by word-of-mouth. In India, textile mills produce close to $11 billion worth of surplus textile and most of it is sold in an inefficient, cash-led method. The opportunity of bringing in an organised set-up where the mills and the buyers could transactin an open transparent manner, thus, is huge.

L to R: Harish Poojary, Sanjiv Khandelwal, Founder XSTOK.com and Mihir Shah, Co- Founder XSTOK.com

Who saw this opportunity?

Sanjiv Khandelwal did his undergraduate studies in Business Management at the Boston University. “I began with a venture in the textile industry and subsequently started a business in 2006.The company offered solutions for e-auctions, digital marketing, local services over Wi-Fi, mobile apps, and other such solutions for the B2B businesses,” says 52-year-old Sanjiv.

During that time, Sanjiv met Mihir Shah through a common friend. Mihir graduated with a BE from Mumbai’s Thadomal Shahani Engineering College and a Masters in Computer Engineering from University of Texas, and an MBA in Finance from Wharton. He has worked with Intel for four years and has had a long stint as a Director for TMT Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch, USA, and in filing patents. “In mid-2014, I decided to move back to India as I felt it was a different place since I had left 17 years back. The startup sector was just exploding and the entrepreneurial gene in me was starting to get vocal,” says 40-year-old Mihir.

Upon crossing paths, the two discussed their business ideas and realised they have complimentary skill sets, with a common vision to build a technology solution in the B2B space, which would change the old order fundamentally. “Mihir brings in the ability to analyse business and his experience in the technology, finance, and the TMT sector, and I bring in an understanding of the textile industry and the distribution network, and the experience in providing technology solutions to B2B business,” says Sanjiv.

XSTOK

They conceptualised a solution to digitise the process of trading in textile surpluses, and make it more transparent. The result was XSTOK‑ a mobile-first platform for buyers and sellers in the haphazard B2B space. By July 2015, they built an online B2B marketplace for surplus stock across fabrics, home textiles, apparels, and yarns. It enables the textile mills to upload details of their surplus stock on XSTOK, which can then be accessed by the registered buyers.

The company works with two parties ‑ mills and sellers, and wholesale buyers. The registered sellers upload the details of their available products. The registered buyers then get a notification, and the products are sold on the principle of dynamic pricing –either through an auction-based system or a wholesale price option.

“This way, the buyers also play an important role in determining the right price. XSTOK chargesthe suppliers a transaction and listing fees for every successful transaction. A buyer doesn’t pay anything over and above the cost of the product he or she purchases,” explains Sanjiv.

As an end-to-end service provider, XSTOK lets the buyer search for products, review real-time inventory, buy the products, and make the final payment through their website.

Early challenges

Dealing with an age-old sector that is disorganised and informal, and has patrons who are loyalists of brick and mortar and make purchases relying on the touch with snap exchanges of hard-cash, XSTOK definitely had its share of skeptics in changing mindsets to convince the business owners to formalise their system and adopt modern means. For the same, XSTOK took on the responsibility of checking the quality of textiles sold on their site, ensuring timely delivery for buyers and also timely payment for sellers. “Initially, whenbuyers wanted to see samples of fabrics, we created ‘SampleXpress’, so that buyers could touch and feel the fabric before purchasing it. We also conducted textile weeks across cities and invited the potential B2B buyers, to see the samples and also clarify doubts about the process.”

In the next three to five years, XSTOK aims to manage at least 10 percent of the overall surplus textile products in India.

Strategy

XSTOK.com finds the greatest opportunity to be in Tier 2,3, 4 cities and rural areas. “Most of the mills have been selling their surplus produce through local agents and hence the accessibility to the products was limited.But with digital, we are giving these buyers the opportunity to buy directly from mills and the largest manufacturing players, irrespective of their geographical location.”

As of now, some of the well-known mills that sell through XSTOK.com include Arvind, Bombay Dyeing, Nahar, Trident, D’Decor, Grasim, Garden Vareli, Welspun, Syntex etc. Their suppliers are located in the key manufacturing hubs across the country, like Delhi, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, TamilNadu, Andhra Pradesh and some in West Bengal for Fabrics, Home-Textiles and Apparels, on a large-scale.

Their strategy to develop the registered buyer’s base is through a very strong digital presence, across all digital channels, including Google, Facebook, social media, direct mailing, and online advertising.

Is the business in surplus?

The startup has conducted over 500 auctions since July 2015, and has over 8000 registered buyers and over 300 registered sellers. “Very recently, a merchant downloaded our XSTOK mobile app while he was traveling from Vizag to Hyderabad by train. He participated in an auction; won it and also paid the product price, all of this while he was traveling. Such is the convenience that we aim to offer and it feels ecstatic to experience such stories.”

In September 2015, they raised Rs. 3 Crore in an angel round from an elite group of professionals that were heading consulting, stock broking, and logistics companies.The angel investors include Jeetu Panjabi (ex Capital Group), Manish Chokshi (Asian Paints), Anupam Mittal (People Group), VineetSuchanti (Keynote Capital) and Oliphans Capital, to name a few. “We were clear on only collaborating with investors who understood B2B business,” says Sanjiv

With the funds, they aim to expand to over 120 cities and break-even by the end of the current financial year, with over 1000 auctions, 25,000 registered buyers, and 500 registered sellers. In the long term, they aim to expand theirservices to several other commodities like paper, chemicals, etc.

The company is targeting a market pegged at $11 billion in India. Without any direct competitors, XSTOK is up against different flavours of transactional market places, such asliquidation.com and overstock.com.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/05/xstok/

This startup lets you get behind the wheel of a BMW or Audi car even if you don’t own one

Most startup stories begin with two passionate friends or classmates inspired by an idea that would solve an existing issue in the market. This one too begins that way, well sort of. A forty-one-year-old Ashwin Jain started DRIVEN by you, with 27-year-old Karrar Taher Ahmed. But the huge gap in the founders’ age was bridged by the opportunity they both sniffed out in the self-drive business. Coming from families that run chauffeur-driven vehicle businesses, it made sense for them to join hands and set up a car rental business based out of Hyderabad.

The duo observed that while there were several car and bike rentals in the legal issues ensured they never the car-bike-bicycle experiences were never integrated for the self-mobility play.

This got us thinking and we thought we wanted to build a hub for mobility rental enthusiasts, where they can hire a self-drive or self-ride automobile effortlessly for every occasion, says Ashwin.

Ashwin and Karrar

Bringing in a new experience

The idea was to bring in a whole new car rental experience for consumers that fit every budget and aspiration. The duo began their journey with the idea of offering self-drive and self-ride experiences, with Nano to some of the fanciest cars, street bikes to super-fast bikes and bicycles, like Cannonades to Surly.

In 2014, when they started up, the Indian market was opening up to the idea of self-drive. The concept of self-drive car rentals is already very popular in countries like the US and China, where fairly large companies like Hertz, Zipcar, eHi, etc., have been created. However, India too isn’t far behind. Today there are several self-drive rental companies that have burgeoned in the space. Some like Zoomcar, Carzonrent, Cartisan, Myles, Voler Cars and JustRide have already raised funding. Apart from the funded startups, there are other newer ones in the space like Let Me Drive, ZipHop and NOW.

Exploring the Indian market

Ashwin says, We in India now have an increased need for privacy and safety, there is lack of skilled manpower, increase in the cost of available manpower, non-reliability of the manpower, the rise of newer business models like app-based taxi aggregators as well as the increase in the quality of road infrastructure plus a slew of other factors were decisive in creating a new category for self-mobility.

DRIVEN was initially floated as a joint-venture between 4-Wheel Travels and Noori Travels, the duo’s family business. The fleet includes Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volvo, Porsche and Mini and bikes like Triumph Rocket and Ducati in addition to bicycles like Cannondale and Surly. The rental prices start from Rs 299 to Rs 29,999 for the top-end model car.

Ashwin and Karrar

Since last year, the online rental automobile market has seen funding being pumped in across quarters. The funding has been across self-drive car rentals and automobile service providers. In June 2015, used-car marketplace Truebil raised $500,000 funding from Kae Capital and Anupam Mittal. Last July, automobile-focussed classifieds marketplace Droom secured $16 million.

Creating awareness

Ashwin adds that they are expanding their base of 50 cars and 10 bikes to a fleet of 150 cars and 50 bikes and 10 bicycles as they are beginning to gain insight into customer expectations and are now showing a 30-percent incremental growth month-on-month.

However, DRIVEN’s biggest challenge was to build and run a hub that offer dream cars, bikes, and bicycles at one location. To build awareness about the idea was their first big challenge. “Our first big milestone was to get the government agencies to approve the licencing for the car and bike rentals,” adds Ashwin.

Insurance products are available world over for self-drive services but these weren’t available in India, which in turn worked as a challenge in dealing with clients and convincing them, while maintaining sight of viability of ops and fleet.

The team claims that from the proof of concept stage to now, DRIVEN has seen a close to 350 percent growth and has gone from zero to $4 million in a span of seven months. “We are witnessing steady acceleration of customer numbers; we believe a 50-percent growth rate month-on-month is an achievable target we set for ourselves for the next few months,” adds Ashwin.

Expanding their avenues

Ashwin says that they are an integrated mobility services company that offers a range of cars, bikes and bicycles that none offer in the industry under one brand and one roof. He adds that their services are backed by strong city-centric pick up and drop facility, which is in turn is backed by comprehensive maintenance along with transparent and hassle free self-drive and self-ride rental plans.

“Our unique offer also includes pick-up point at Hyderabad airport, which is the first of its kind self-drive car rental service from airport. We will soon launch ‘DRIVEN Cafe’, which will be first-of-its-kind destination in India where you could step in for a cup of coffee and get your bike, car or super car rental as well,” says Ashwin.

DRIVEN has rolled out its services in Hyderabad, Vizag and Vijayawada in the first phase. The fleet addition is to help strengthen its next phase of expansion to cover Bengaluru, Chennai, New Delhi, and Mumbai.

“Our target is to build a fleet of 3,000 cars and 1,500 bikes. While the venture is bootstrapped we are open to investor interest and are evaluating them,” says Ashwin.

Reference:http://yourstory.com/2016/05/driven-startup-story/