Rubiscape wins IPR award
Pune-based technology product start-up Rubiscape has been recognised with special appreciation award for its innovative platform for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at the 7th International Conference on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) hosted by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, former director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Chair of the eminent jury for the AII-IP Awards 2021 said, “India wants to be at the forefront as a leading innovation nation and IP plays a critical role in innovation management, from idea to impact and mind to market. Innovation is an enabler of academia and industry as connect between The Saraswati and The Laxmi.”
Dr Prashant Pansare, founder and CEO of Rubiscape said, “At Rubiscape, we started with a simple goal – to help people and enterprises gain a true worth of their data, as data-democratisation is at the core of successful Digital transformations. We dedicate this award to our eco-system partners from industry, academia and our team who have helped us in this journey”.
With its ISO certified lab at Pune, Rubiscape is growing rapidly since its inception 2020. Featured under India’s DIPP start-up program, a member of NASSCOM’s Deep-Tech Club Rubiscape is empanelled as a software OEM on the GeM Portal – Govt of India’s eMarket Place.
Electric women of Piaggio roll out its Apé Electrik range
Piaggio Vehicles (PVPL) introduced an all-women workforce on its assembly line making its Apé Electrik range of products. Women working here are responsible for quality control checks, fitting, assembly, electrical, and overall material management.
Piaggio has inducted these female workforce from various technical institutes located in and around Baramati. These women were trained on the safety procedures, usage of tools, electric vehicles and the latest technology related to BMS, motor, E-box before being introduced to the assembly line. Piaggio has redesigned the workplace to make it more ergonomically suited for women.
Diego Graffi, chairman and managing director, PVPL said, “We will have inclusion of more women at the assembly line, plant premises, and offices. This is not just to empower women but also to bring workforce equality in the auto sector which was long due.”
Pooja Bansal, head of HR at Piaggio Vehicles added, “Diversity at the workplace is very important as it fosters innovation and growth. The strategy at Piaggio is to provide all women employees economic independence, parity of opportunities which includes career development, and escalating them to managerial and leadership positions.”
Metaverse platform GMetriXR raises $600k funding led by IvyCap Ventures
Metaverse company GMetriXR, founded by Utsav Mathur and Sahil Ahuja, has raised $600k funding in its seed round led by IvyCap Ventures with global participation from the DE Holding and HNIs.
GMetriXR offers a no-code platform that allows content creators and enterprises to build, host and deploy metaverse apps without writing a single line of code. “GMetri is unique – there is no other toolkit as complete yet so ridiculously simple that you can have fully functional, monetisable metaverse apps in minutes, not months. This puts us in a very good place to surge forward and see through our vision to truly democratize building the metaverse. We are targeting nothing short of an explosion in adoption over the next few quarters,” said Utsav Mathur, founder & CEO, GMetriXR.
Vikram Gupta, founder and managing partner, IvyCap Ventures Advisors, said, “The pandemic has played an important role in accelerating the adoption of this, opening out endless possibilities. As an early mover with a stellar platform that global large enterprises are paying for, GMetri is in a leading position in a rapidly expanding space at just the right time.”
Proctur launches app for teachers and tutors
EdTech Company Proctur has launched their app ‘Proctur – Live Teaching App’ – a multilingual app available in different languages for users and having chat feature to communicate – for teachers, educators, and tutors in India.
The app will help coaching institutes to manage and streamline their services like live classes, online exams and fee collection. ‘Proctur – Live Teaching App’ will also help individual educators and teachers monetise their coaching offerings with a platform developed for their needs.
Nishant Agarwal, director, Proctur said, “Tutors and coaching centres will have the complete autonomy to conduct custom tests, mock exams and share files and resources with students. Tutors and educators can also create groups and offer personalised attention that students need. The app also offers support for multiple languages, and we have ensured that video contents and study resources are protected against piracy on our platform. The UI has been designed to simplify online tutoring for educators who have limited exposure to such platforms.”
Hyperlocal social media platform ‘Lokal’ expands operations
Hyperlocal social media platform ‘Lokal’ – focused around community updates, jobs, matrimonial, real estate, and classifieds – has announced its entry into Maharashtra. The application will provide hyper-local solutions in Marathi and has already witnessed a significant number of active users across 36 districts of the state.
Founded in 2018, Lokal aims to garner 10 million users within a year. Since Marathi is one of the most spoken languages, Lokal believes the state will contribute 25 per cent of revenue in the coming quarter. Lokal is currently operational in 150+ districts across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and now Maharashtra.
Jani Pasha, co-founder and CEO of Lokal, said, “We are a country with a remarkable diversity of societies, demographics, traditions, and languages. Our mission is to democratise digitisation by enabling every non-English speaking Indian with relevant digital opportunities in their native language. The expansion to Maharashtra is a key component of our growth plans in India.”
BizzTM secures $1.2 million seed funding
US-based early-stage India fund ‘2am VC’ along with Axilor Ventures, Let’s Venture, IIMI Fund, Qua Capital, Incisive Ventures, and marquee angel investors such as Anupam Mittal (founder Shaadi.com), Ramakant Sharma (Co-founder Livespace), Abhishek Nag (Director at Netflix) and Ryan Valles (a US-based serial entrepreneur), has invested in M2B2C model startup ‘BizzTM’ enabling retailers to sell without owning inventory through a futuristic supply chain platforms working on aggregated delivery services.
Family offices like Patni, Supriyajith Family Trust, and Almoayed General also contributed to the funding, bringing the total to USD 1.2 million for BizzTM in the seed funding round. The brand will leverage the freshly infused capital to further expand its presence in 100 new cities across India.
Amit Sharma and Siddharth Biyani, co-founders of BizzTM, said, “The Indian retail ecosystem is swiftly adopting digital adoption. More than 90 per cent of retailers are now using social media applications like WhatsApp. However, these retailers suffer from an inept supply-chain process and expensive costs, thereby earning the lowest margins worldwide. We aim to build smooth supply-chain operations on the back of modernistic technology and enabling retailers to maximise their profits.”
