This column often covers the latest developments made by promising tech startups, but it is hard to keep up with all the changes happening at a rapid pace! Hence, here is a quick round-up of the amazing things being done by five startups to address serious issues.
BRANCH – A PERSONAL FINANCE APP
Branch uses machine learning to customize and provide quick and easy loans up to INR 50,000. It is the only platform that provides credit to borrowers without requiring a collateral or needing to see the credit score. The money is deposited directly into the person’s account within two hours. With over twenty million downloads, four million customers and the disbursement of over $500 million of loan amount in the five years since they began, Branch is on the fast track to growth.
Sucheta Mahapatra, MD India of Branch says, “We use data from the phone, for instance text messages, to understand what a person’s risk profile is. We make a cashflow statement of the user based on this information which enables us to lend more profitably.”
BITSCRUNCH
Based in Chennai and Munich, BitsCrunch is known for its excellence in blockchain technology, used particularly for NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). By blending artificial intelligence with blockchain, their services aim to make the ecosystem safer and more reliable. Their AI model flags forgeries, copycats and bootleg digital art content to protect artists and their creations. They also offer a fair value estimation and analytics for Digital Assets using AI, and their AI agents act as watchdogs to flag spoofing transactions that manipulate both volume and price of the assets in the NFT ecosystem.
Vijay Pravin Maharajan, Founder and CEO of BitsCrunch explains the future of this lucrative sector by saying, “The next big thing in the NFT space, is likely to be the fashion industry. Designers and labels will be able to patent NFTs for each piece of merchandise in the future.”
AI LOGISTIX
AI Logistix describes itself as an intelligent logistics company that aims to identify and resolve day-to-day logistics and supply chain issues. They are the only logistics company with static and dynamic check points for shipment updates throughout the length and breadth of the country. By creating virtual geographical boundaries or Geofences around pickup / delivery locations, they are able to complete system-based route planning keeping planned and unplanned events in mind.
Md. Abdul Khadeer, Founder and CEO of AI Logistix shares, “We aim to ‘Deliver Delight to the Deserted Rural’, by solving the logistics needs of the highly neglected rural segment of India. We are planning to create a model where there are ‘NO non-serviceable’ areas and no extra charges for delivering there, by installing a pricing mechanism of fixed charges to deliver the shipment irrespective of the postcode.”
KEKA
Keka is a simple and intuitive Human Resource (HR) software. The team that started Keka, did it to address their own professional needs. When their 100-person business needed easy-to-use software for managing employees, they could not find anything despite a thorough search – so they created it themselves.
Vijay Yalamanchili, its Founder, shares its vision, “Whether employees are working from one location or multiple ones, they need streamlined processes, which isn’t possible through manual HR processes. We believe in solving the current challenges for the HR world by providing tech that assists humans in making strategic decisions for the benefit of employees.”
DRINKPRIME
Accessing clean, safe, and healthy drinking water is quite a challenge in certain parts of the country. DrinkPrime was initiated to address this problem. The team’s research revealed that most of the water sold in plastic is not fit for drinking, and even more surprisingly they discovered that only around 5% of Indians actually own a water purifier. Since they began their subscription service of water purifiers five years ago, more than one lakh users in seven cities depend on them to access clean and safe drinking water.
Vijender Reddy Muthyala, Founder and CEO of DrinkPrime explains their innovative service, “Subscribers of our service don’t need to make hefty investments to buy water purifiers, and only need to pay for the water they consume. We even offer maintenance of our water purifiers for free.”
The writer pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com. She can be reached on nooranand@gmail.com.