Quirkily Yours

 Jarsh, Making Helmets ‘Cool’

Even as students of mechanical engineering at Hyderabad’s VNR VJIET college, Kausthub Kaundinya, Sreekanth Kommula and Anand Kumar had the itch to create something beyond college projects that would matter in the “real world”. The trio was constantly on the lookout for a problem they could solve, and finally found one when they visited a Tata OEM factory in 2015, during their seventh semester. “We saw that whenever the production manager comes in, all workers wear helmets. As soon as he leaves, all the helmets are put back on the floor, primarily because helmets are so uncomfortable to wear in the heat,” says Kaundinya, CEO. This, he says, was something that is common in most factories. “Uncomfortable people don’t work efficiently and productivity declines,” adds Kumar, VP-production. 

These observations led to the creation of Jarsh Innovations in 2016, which manufactures India’s first air-conditioned helmets for workers. “Creating Jarsh or Just A Rather Safe Helmet required us to first create an air-conditioning system that was small enough to be fixed inside a helmet,” says Kommula, CTO. It then had to be fixed inside the helmet in an efficient, cost-effective manner. 

In March 2017, the first prototype was sent for testing to the Indian Navy and companies like Tata Motors and Kriti Industries. After incorporating their feedback, the trio set up a factory in Hyderabad to manufacture the helmets. The helmets come in two variants: One runs for 2 hours on a single charge and is meant for executives, the second runs for 8 hours on a single charge and is meant for workers. These are priced at Rs.7.200 and Rs.7,500 respectively. 

The start-up operates on a B2B model and has invested about Rs.1 crore until now. “The funds were bootstrapped by us along with the help of some angel investors,” says Kumar. They have also been incubated by the government of Telangana and have orders lined up for the next six months with distributors. 

But the trio is by no means sitting on their laurels. “Innovations is the key word in our company name. So we will keep solving Indian problems with Indian solutions,” signs off Kaundinya. 

Gamezop, The Game Changers

Founded by Delhi-based siblings Gaurav and Yashash Agarwal in 2015, Gamezop is a B2B2C gaming start-up that buys games from international companies, optimises it for developing markets and sells it to large companies. “All developers are creating apps and getting users to install it. Our strategy was to tap into networks that already have a reach so we can add value to it,” says Gaurav, who worked with Bain & Co before co-founding Gamezop. 

The USP of Gamezop’s games are that these are created on HTML5 technology, which allows it to be played on mobile browsers without the need to install apps on devices. Further, all games can be played offline after first usage. Currently, Gamezop has over 1.5 million daily users and has raised about $350,000 in seed funding from investors including Kwan and Powerhouse Ventures. 

From social messaging service Hike messenger to phone maker Xiaomi, Gamezop has inked 40 partnerships globally. They also work with browsers directly, like a UC Browser, Opera as well as travel apps like ixigo. “The inclusion of our games on Xiaomi’s browser not only saw a spike in monetisation (we have ads and revenue is shared with them) but also saw a lot of users coming back on the browser, thereby increasing engagement, retention and monetisation,” says Yashash. 

Early focus on monetisation and an asset-light model ensured that Gamezop is already a profitable company, claims Gaurav. Until now, Gamezop has optimised over 200 casual games across genres like arcade, puzzle, strategy, store experience. “We are able to deliver a game at about 20% of the size it originally existed,” says Gaurav. For the next phase of growth, the co-founders are looking at driving monetisation further, getting into game development, adding a social layer and making the experience more immersive for users. 

Help Us Green, The Clean Tech Company

Create the ‘best out of waste’ is something we all learn in school. But childhood friends Ankit Agarwal and Karan Rastogi have turned itinto a business model with their start-up. Founded in 2015, Kanpur-based HelpUsGreen aims to create eco-friendly products out of temple waste – usually rotting flowers – and prevent it from getting dumped into rivers. 

“We had often seen tonnes of temple waste getting dumped into the Ganges and were determined to do something about it,” says Agarwal, who earlier worked with Symantec Corporation in Pune as an automation scientist. In January 2015, he and Rastogi, who holds a Master’s degree from Warwick Business School, began pursuing this dream seriously. 

With an initial investment of Rs.72,000, the duo began collecting waste from temples in Kanpur and experimenting on what they could do with it. Soon, they had a product range that includes vermicompost, soaps and thermocol made from flower waste. They also came up with a technique to roll the incense sticks with flowers instead of charcoal. 

From 12 kg, HelpUsGreen today collects about 4.4 tonnes of waste every day. The flowers are recycled and turned into eco-friendly products at a factory in Kanpur, which provides livelihood to 92 women. Once ready, the products are sold through online channels and select retail stores. 

“We clocked sales of Rs.1.2 million in the first year and Rs.5.6 million in the second,” says Agarwal. The start-up has also raised a million dollars from angel and corporate investors. “We also have 6 patents in the pipeline and are planning to expand to the US,” says Rastogi. In India, the start-up is expanding to other cities including Varanasi, Mathura, Vrindavan, Haridwar and Kolkata. The start-up is currently rebranding itself and will be launching its products under the brand, Phool.

 Square off, The Magical Chess Board

‘Board games’, once considered to be an intrinsic part of childhood, are slowly getting relegated to the backburner as their fancier, app versions take over. But things could change, if Mumbai-based Aatur Mehta and Bhavya Gohil have their way. The duo has invented a technology which retains the app, but also brings the physical boards back into the game. 

With an initial investment of about Rs.500,000, Mehta, CTO and Gohil, CEO invented Square Off, a smart chessboard in which the physical chess pieces move by itself on the board to reflect the movement made on the app. Once connected by Bluetooth, a user can play on the board against the AI, challenge any user through the app or live stream any professional chess tournament on the physical board. Their faith in the innovation was validated when it raised $5,000 at Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform based out of the US, where they also secured 2,000 pre-orders. 

Gohil and Mehta proceed to demonstrate the game, and it sure is a bit surreal. “It is all about adding a little magic to life through telerobotics,” says Gohil, as he advances his knight and the AI quickly comes up with a counter move. The chessboard is equipped with a robotic arm placed under the board, and is fitted with an electromagnet. This helps the pieces glide along smoothly, in real-time. 

The game is available in two variants priced at $330 and $399 respectively. One in which a user has to collect the chess pieces manually after the game, and the other in which the pieces slide back to their designated ‘parking space’ after the game is over. The boards are manufactured in China and retailed globally after a user places an order on their website. 

The plan is to now expand this innovation to other board games, but not before innovating further in chess. “We can come up with AR/VR layer on top of this, holograms, or perhaps devise a technology by which, with one tap, the chessboard can transform into ludo,” says Mehta.  The possibilities, much like in the game of chess, are endless. 

DAZL, Safety Meets Internet of Things

Aditi Chadha was constantly bothered by the thought that even in this day and age, women aren’t safe. “A UN statistic states that 35% of women experience assault at least once in their lifetime and I am not okay with that,” says Chadha. Determined to do something about this issue, Chadha began looking for possible solutions in 2014. At the time, she was working in the Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory Group at Grant Thornton in Silicon Valley. And within a year, she hit upon the idea of wearable tracking technology designed especially for women that was also aesthetically appealing.

Chadha then returned to India and founded DAZL in 2015. Based out of Gurugram, DAZL is a unique blend of design and IOT technology. The small and discrete connected device allows individuals to set off a loud alarm or trigger a location-based SOS alert to friends and family in an emergency by just pressing a button on the device for 3 seconds. This technology has been integrated into keychains or can be attached to clothing, handbags and wallets. “Since the technology is modular, it can be attached to anything. We also have designs ready to integrate this technology into jewellery, if required,” says Chadha. The smart wearables, which also receive notifications on phone calls and mails, offer a battery life of 45 days on a single charge. It is priced at $80 for the developed markets, but the price would vary from market to market depending on tax and costs involved. 

According to Crunchbase, DAZL has raised $113,000 from SOS Ventures of Europe, Vodafone, and the Government of India and has been accelerated by San Francisco-based HAX, among the most active technology hardware accelerators globally.

DAZL currently manufactures out of Malaysia and is not available in India. Chadha shares that India being a very price sensitive market, they couldn’t find the right channel partners for retail even though direct consumer inquiries for DAZL have been strong. DAZL has instead adopted a B2B2C model to expand its footprint in Europe and US. “We are in the middle of an international strategic alliance with a US and European company and are under NDA, and are expanding into the medical and healthcare space as well,” shares Chadha.