French accelerator readies 8 city startups for global plunge

Flaunting path-breaking innovations, eight Indian startups are being nurtured by Bengaluru-based French accelerator NUMA to make a global splash, with potential access to the European markets.

Getting through a gruelling selection process that featured 200-plus applicants nationwide, NUMA Bengaluru’s inaugural batch of eight startups recently showcased their prowess in ideation to execution. The ‘Demo Day’ was in effect, a telling testimony of their collective push to grab NUMA’s international startup exchange and exploration programmes.

They could now leverage on the global opportunities offered by the Global Accelerator Network (GAN), of which NUMA Bengaluru is the only Indian partner. Paris-headquarted NUMA had tied up with co-working space COBALT to launch its Bengaluru branch last year. Here’s what is on offer by some of the chosen startups.

Quick surveys with PiKi
“Ask your audience a question using PiKi. The audience answers in real-time. See their responses live on the web or on your App. Download detailed results so that you can slice and dice.” Designed to deliver quick surveys of targeted audiences, the startup PiKi’s App then lets you use this data to measure class participation, audience engagement or customer feedback as a snapshot.

PiKi co-founders Amit Basu and Indrayudh Ghoshal say the App could help businesses take snappy decisions. But before getting into the big league, the App -- launched in its beta version in October 2015 -- is plunging into university campuses. PiKi is integrated into an ‘iClicker’ device that helps professors to shoot  yes / no quizzer questions to his students and get results instantly.

The objective with iClicker, as the co-founders explain, is also to tap into the youth. “Businesses seek young adult demographics. We already have the required database and are building on it. Market research organisations are now tying up with us,” informed Basu.

Canvazify
For the team that built Canvazify, the startup idea was clear: A visual platform where members of any team can collaborate and brainstorm on a shared canvas in realtime, and access it wherever he / she works from.

Every idea could be posted on that shared screen, discussed in detail and structured through colour codes and clusters. Tasks could be assigned and their progress tracked visually.

Canvazify can simplify complex data gathering, explained its co-founders Abhijit Mhetre, Akshay Nahar and Niket Puranik. “At the click of a button, a project’s partners located anywhere in the world can ideate face-to-face, sharing the same canvas. Discussions and ideas could be replayed, you could go back and forth,” said Puranik.

A live project on redesigning helmets for lady cylists had the partners use Canvazify to post dozens of new designs. Each design had a clickable interface that opened up the ideas that went behind it, complete with text, images and videos. “Even a deleted idea is captured. All the ideas are searchable, from concept to execution stage.”
DH News Service