Delhi: Entrepreneur First (EF), a pioneering UK-based global talent investor celebrated the inaugural India Investor Day. EF’s first-ever Indian cohort had 47 talented individuals who founded 8 companies. Recently, at the India Investor Day, 13 startups from India, Singapore and Hongkong showcased their ideas and companies to 150 investors. India’s first cohort under its $30 million India specific entrepreneur nurturing program had 6 startups presenting.
Six Indian startups presented ideas that ranged from AI-enabled SaaS for rapid diagnosis of drug-resistant tuberculosis to the next generation of AI hardware based on using light. Following are the business ideas that were showcased:
- Light Speed AI LABS– Two Engineers, Rohin Yeluripati and Dinesh Natesan is set to provide increased performance for AI computations by building revolutionary optoelectronic processors.
- AI– Anuj Mittal, ex-cofounder of a health-tech company developed an AI-powered SaaS tool to help small manufacturing businesses to manage resources and double their speed and capacity.
- AI– Rimjhim Agarwal, pursuing Ph.D. in AI in Psychiatry and Laina Emmanuel came up with an AI-powered SaaS tool that helps psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorders using just MRI scans.
- KOUNT– Bhargavi Vijayakumar from finance background & Ankit Parashar an Engineer, built a digital finance platform for Small, Medium Business owners to make data-driven business decisions.
- Aarogya AI– Praapti Jayaswal, a health-tech researcher and Avlokita Tiwari, computational biologist developed an AI-enabled SaaS that diagnoses drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in hours instead of weeks.
- Pakka Profile– Danish Sinha, gaming expert and Nagmanjunath Shivakumar a business expert, are using games to transform aptitude and personality of blue-collared workforce.
These were joined by other startups created by Entrepreneur First in Singapore:
- AI:This startup will improve customer service compliance for healthcare providers by analyzing and responding to voice conversations.
- Outside Voice:Conducts qualitative market research at scale using intelligent bots.
- LEORIX:Manages infrastructure for high-frequency data pipelines. Instead of paying for hundreds of developer hours to build complex custom solutions, companies can be up and running in days.
- AURORA: AI-Assisted Assessments:Generates quality k-12 (ages 5 to 18) assessments 100x faster, powered by AI.
- AtomBrush:Building robots to automate building painting.
- KrossLinker:Develops the world’s best insulation material for bio-pharma packaging.
Startup from Hong Kong that presented:
- Intensel:The intelligence behind climate risk and its dollar value.
“Showcasing these high potential startups from our first India cohort is a privilege and a demonstration of the scalability and global impact of the EF program,” said Matt Clifford, co-founder, and CEO, Entrepreneur First. “We’re also extremely proud of our first group of co-founders from EF here in India. We look forward to working with every company showcased, and more, to create a new generation of deep tech giants.”
Esha Tiwary, General Manager, India, EF, said, “There are numerous talented and successful Indian entrepreneurs who serve as role models for the next generation. Their success has made the world sit up and take notice, resulting in a lot of money pouring into the country. Even with all this activity and a maturing startup ecosystem, deep tech entrepreneurship is nascent in India. There is still a huge gap in opportunities and resources for deep tech talent. And EF fills exactly that need – it provides a platform for ambitious, deeply technical individuals to connect with talented business minds and together they come up with path-breaking, commercially viable ideas that are a step-change in technological innovation.”
To date, EF has helped over 600 co-founders build over 120 companies in Asia. In early 2019, EF also announced the US$115m first close of a new global fund, one of the largest pre-seed venture capital funds ever raised. This will allow EF to invest in more than 2,200 individuals across the globe over the next three years.
