ARISE CONNECT
An event celebrating innovation and collaboration, bringing together some of the brightest minds in the industry to share their ideas, experiences, and insights.
WRITTEN BY TEAM ARISE
PUBLISHED APRIL 21, 2023
Arise Connect 2023 Celebrates Innovation and Collaboration
Arise Connect 2023, a recent event celebrating innovation and collaboration, was a resounding success. The event brought together some of the brightest minds in the industry to share their ideas, experiences, and insights.
The event featured an impressive lineup of segments, including the Arise Pitchathon S2023, Top 8 Portfolio Showcase, and Fireside Chats on Global B2B SaaS and Generative AI by industry leaders such as Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director of Accenture Ventures & Open Innovation, Angie Mahtaney, Business Mentor at BRIGADE REAP, Venkat Raju, Venture Partner at StrongHer Ventures & CEO of Turbostart Global , and Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan, Managing Partner of Upekkha, and another Fireside Chat on India Shining- Market Opportunities by Anisha Patnaik, Founder and Managing Partner, Lexstart , Mohit Gulati, Managing Partner, ITI Growth Opportunites Fund , Bhavna Suresh, Founder, 10Club , and Pushkina Nautiyal, Chief Marketing Officer, Refyne .
Lightning talks on healthcare, cybersecurity, sustainability, and climatech were also delivered by industry experts such as Swami Swaminathan, Executive Chairman of TMI Healthcare & Former Executive Chairman of Manipal Health Enterprises, Ajay Goel, Managing Partner and Producer at Crestlight Ventures & Productions, and Avnish Sabharwal, Managing Director of Accenture Ventures & Open Innovation.
The event's success was made possible by the support and contributions of the community, including the incredible speakers and panelists who generously shared their knowledge and expertise.
Arise Connect 2023 highlighted the power of collaboration and community in driving innovation and progress in the industry. The event was an inspiring reminder of the importance of working together to achieve common goals. As the industry continues to evolve and innovate, Arise looks forward to continuing the conversation and driving progress together.
The Arise Pitchathon 2023, one of the key segments of the event, featured a diverse group of early-stage startups who pitched their ideas and solutions to a panel of esteemed judges. The Top 8 Portfolio Showcase also highlighted some of the most exciting emerging companies who are driving change and innovation in their respective industries. These startups showcased their cutting-edge solutions and demonstrated their potential to transform the industry. Below is the summary of the profile of the companies who presented at the Arise Pitchathon
COMPANY PRESENTATION SUMMARIES:
Lead by community, Outdoor Goats is a vertical D2C multi-branded marketplace for categories including clothing, footwear, accessories, equipment, nutrition and wearable tech from iconic Indian and International Outdoor brands. Outdoor Goats has built India’s largest community-led marketplace, positioned to sell over 300 brands across 30 categories within 4 years. We work closely with experienced athletes for awareness, boost sales & support community.
RECYCLINK
Recyclink is a Climate Fintech providing Sustainability-as-a-Service for Banks by generating carbon footprint based on Payment Transaction Data. Banks can now offer Net Zero Financial Products to Millions of their Individual & Business customers designed by Recyclink to take direct Climate Action. The consumer on a complete journey, wherein they are aware of their carbon footprint and how their consumption patterns cause a negative impact. They guide the consumers towards more sustainable options and brands which are pro-climate.
Design stop is the online studio for those individuals seeking a faster and more affordable alternative to conventional architecture and design. We provide execution-ready drawings, with great customization in a fraction of the time and cost. With their innovative VR and web-app interface, they are able to reach a wider audience than ever before, providing tried and tested quality designs.
Sochcast is a hub for hosting, redistribution & monetization of audio. It's the first full-stack audio suite that is powered with Ad-Tech. It enables on-the-go-content creation in every language, a monetization marketplace, audio innovation with social audio feeds for discovery, and LIVE interactions with a gamified experience. 662 million Indian women need a way to build and nurture communities of like-minded individuals who can connect over content that empowers and inspires them. Sochcast is a creator focused & community-enabled company with the goal of democratising content creation by building avenues through technology to enable you to share your thoughts, ideas & musings your 'Soch' with the world.
Aprilcares is affordable mental health self-care truly caring for the challenges YOU are facing in life.
It’s the first gender-sensitive and culturally aware solution for individuals and employers. We empower women to address their unique challenges and stressors with psychological skills learnt through a motivating learning experience based on behavioural science. They support employers prioritize women’s well-being, thus successfully attracting and retaining female talent while aligning their DEI, women’s health and mental health efforts.
CoLLearn believes in enabling each one in our community to quench their curiosity and make their learnings into a passport for their future. Our collection of highly curated courses are designed and delivered by industry experts in a live and interactive manner. Collearn helps you realize your non-traditional career dreams. Sports is their currently largest category. They help people become Umpires, Sports Analysts, Sports Commentators, Sports Journalists and Sports Social Media Managers. Their students are currently placed at Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capital, KKR, ESPN, Star Sports etc.
CoreFactors delivers the world’s first Automated Relationship Management (ARM) platform. It enables companies to maximize revenue by managing end-to-end client relationships proactively. We drive global enterprises to optimize sales effort and cost, prevent revenue leakage, and maximize the number, frequency, and value of transactions for every client. CoreFactors Teleduce uses sophisticated revenue operations and AI capabilities to nudge each team member and business unit to deliver a curated, effective sales process throughout the relationship with each client.
A multi modal video analysis platform that encompasses integrated analysis using Computer Vision, NLP and Speech signal analysis to generate insights on unstructured data present in these complex data sources. We are live in multi billion FMCG leaders in the USA and Europe and starting to scale our solution capabilities rapidly. An ecosystem to enable Video and Image data focused BI. Deeplabel is an AI-powered human-driven web platform, that enables video to be used as a rich data source for business analysis.
Wundrsight uses Mixed Reality and AI to provide effective and accessible treatments for mental and neurocognitive health challenges. Their solutions include virtual walks and games to relieve stress, anxiety, and burnouts. Wundrsight aims to become a market leader in Digital Therapeutics.
Yellow's mission is to help people protect their loved ones through accessible information and resources. They have developed a digital Will-making solution to bridge the gap for those without access to expensive lawyers and wealth management firms. Yellow aims to make Will-making accessible for everyone.
Luru strives to simplify CRM tools and create a sales productivity workspace with minimal friction for revenue organizations. By using scripts and APIs, Luru seeks to streamline the CRM interface, making it easily accessible and frictionless for users, while also enhancing data availability and decision-making.
Mera Kal is building a multilingual web app and a robust agent network to enable customers to put shape to their dreams like educating their children, building or buying a home, or retiring and to work towards achieving these dreams. Mera Kal aims to be the partner of choice for financial and non-financial service providers.
Shoppre is a cross-border e-commerce platform that provides an end-to-end solution for customers who want to purchase products from Indian online stores and have them shipped internationally. Shoppre provides customers with a virtual address in India, where they can have their purchases shipped, and then consolidates and ships the packages to the customer's international address. The platform aims to make cross-border e-commerce simpler, more affordable, and accessible to customers around the world.
AJAY GOEL - Cybersecurity
Ajay Goel, an entrepreneur in cybersecurity, gave a talk where he emphasized the importance of data security and privacy, explaining the difference between the two. He also highlighted the vulnerability of businesses that hold customer data and the importance of proactive security measures.
Goel discussed how current security technology is reactive, only detecting fraud after it happens, and how mathematicians in India are developing proactive security technologies to predict potential hacks and protect sensitive information. He pointed out that large companies like Google have unclear privacy policies that infringe on personal privacy, leaving businesses vulnerable to hacking attempts.
Goel then mentioned two Indian companies - Zerolabs for data encryption and a second company for API security - that are working towards proactive security measures to protect businesses from hacking attempts. Goel ended by encouraging entrepreneurs to take steps to protect their customers' data and offered assistance in this endeavor.
SWAMI SWAMINATHAN - Healthcare
Swami Swaminathan, the Executive Chairman of TMI Healthcare and Former Executive Chairman of Manipal Health Enterprises, recently gave a lightning talk on healthcare at the Arise Connect 2023 event. The talk addressed concerns about the lack of technology available during medical emergencies and highlighted issues with healthcare processes such as admission, billing, and discharge procedures. Swaminathan emphasized the need for improvement in these areas and mentioned ongoing efforts towards digitizing health records.
Swaminathan stressed the importance of technology in keeping people away from hospitals and preventing healthcare costs. He emphasized the need for preventive healthcare and improving primary healthcare centers, especially for those at the bottom and middle of the pyramid. Swaminathan's talk provided valuable insights into the challenges facing the healthcare industry and the potential solutions that technology can offer. The talk concluded with a Q&A session, allowing attendees to engage with Swaminathan and learn more about the challenges and opportunities in the healthcare industry.
LIGHTNING TALKS
FIRECHAT – B2B SaaS
Industry leaders such as Avnish Sabharwal, Angie Mahtaney, Venkat Raju, and Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan participated in a Fireside Chat to discuss the impact of Generative AI and SaaS on various industries. Although Generative AI is seen as a revolutionary technology that could change the way we interact with technology, there are concerns about job loss. The panelists highlighted some promising use cases for generative AI in content creation, process optimization, and design. Despite the funding crunch faced by startups in India, the panelists are optimistic about the potential growth of Indian SaaS companies due to their structural advantage.
The speakers also discussed the current state of SaaS markets, with a slowdown in spending and concerns about inflation. However, they remain optimistic about SaaS companies from India building for the global market. The conversation then shifted to generative AI and potential use cases in various industries, such as healthcare, education, customer service, and marketing. The panel cautioned against startups solely focused on improving generative capabilities as they may be outpaced by advancements like Chat GPT 5. Instead, they suggested focusing on solving workflow problems using generative AI capabilities.
The panel also expressed enthusiasm for LLM and Ops for tooling, including app dynamics, Nutanix, virtual machines, and AWS. Generative AI apps are like plugins in an App Store. Although India ranks low in startups related to AI compared to China and the US, there is hope with public goods infrastructure initiatives by thought leaders such as Nandan Nilekani. The speakers suggested that embedding generative AI into public goods infrastructure can have a huge societal impact across sectors. Indic LLMs need to be developed due to bias in current algorithms being English language-focused. Finally, the panel noted India's potential to become one of the most data-rich countries in the world
Fireside Chat – India Shining Market opportunities
The recent Fireside Chat on India Shining-Market Opportunities, featuring Anisha Patnaik, Mohit Gulati, Bhavna Suresh, and Pushkina Nautiyal, discussed the potential for growth in India's economy, particularly in fintech and consumer-focused businesses. It highlighted the significant growth and innovation of fintech in India, with interventions such as digital lockers and CKYC enabling seamless use of lending apps. However, more financial literacy education is needed for wider accessibility to financial products.
The speakers also discussed the expanding Indian middle class and their increasing aspirations, presenting a vast potential market for consumer-focused businesses. Entrepreneurs need to keep in mind that Indian consumers are value-driven and love discounts, but lack loyalty. The four major segments where disruption has occurred globally are electronics, fashion and apparel, FNB (food and beverage) and personal care, and general merchandise/home & kitchen. The last segment represents an untapped opportunity in India worth about 100 billion USD annually.
The discussion highlighted the potential for creating billion dollar brands in India, citing the example of Mercedes Benz understanding Indian consumers and catering to a younger audience. The conversation then shifted to three industries with high potential in India: D2C for homegrown niche products, B2B SaaS for global customers, and finance as the heart of all transactions. The speakers emphasized building a brand that stands for something sustainable and showcased success stories such as Razor Pay in the B2B payment space.
The Indian economy is expected to quadruple in the next decade, creating opportunities for growth in all sectors as long as they align with India's vision. Upskilling is necessary for success as disruption is inevitable in all industries except plumbing and electrical work. Banks are collaborating with fintechs to improve accessibility, and entrepreneurs are encouraged to consider the Indian middle class as a potential market with vast potential. The speakers concluded by urging businesses to prioritize sustainability in their branding to appeal to the conscious Indian consumer.
Overall, the Fireside Chat on India Shining-Market Opportunities provided insights into the current state of fintech innovation and access to financial products in India, along with highlighting potential opportunities for growth in various sectors. The conversation emphasized the need for financial literacy education, sustainability in branding, and upskilling to prepare for inevitable disruption.
