For some companies, Proto was the first public platform to unveil their products. This included Mumbai-based Blink Media Pvt. Ltd, which has devised an intelligent screen affixed to shopping carts at retail chains to help users navigate through aisles and serve targeted ads, and Soliton Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a defect detection company that unveiled its latest product, a palmtop-sized smart camera that would capture and detect flaws in assembly and machine parts.
The oldest firm at this edition, Databyte Equipment Pvt. Ltd began in 1983 as a small business supplying LED (short for light emitting diode) display boards to banks and companies, but was chosen at the IIT-D Proto to demonstrate a recent software product, Lipikaar, which makes it easy to type out Indian languages using a normal Qwerty keyboard.
The youngest, Ferox Foods was incorporated earlier this year and is yet to begin operations. It plans to market a cereal crop called Makhana, the kernel of a nut called Gorgon, grown in large quantities in Bihar, as a healthier alternative to breakfast cereals available in the market. Founder Bhishm Narayan Singh, originally from that state, is currently in touch with the Central Food Technological Research Institute to obtain certified technology and equipment. “I have lived in Bihar for 20 years and want to go back and work with the farmers. There is big opportunity in this if we can set up a food processing plant in Bihar.”
More than 400 people attended the event. “We were apprehensive about moving base, but the turnout has exceeded our expectations,” said Vijay Anand, chief organizer, Proto. Participants, too, were impressed. “Because of the location, people have come down from all over the country, which has been good for us,” says Chandan Maruthi, founder, JustOnDemand Technologies Pvt. Ltd. On its site Storrz.com, it creates and aggregates online stores for more than 55 branded stores.
Picporta Inc.
Photosharing: Picporta founder Pulkit Gaur.
Birth: 2006
Funding: self-funded
Area: Image search
Buzz: Picporta allows image search based on content rather than tags, using face recognition technology. Its current consumer offering is a photosharing site that stores and fetches images based on who or what is in the picture, but is also looking at enterprise solutions. The technology platform built by the company over the last two years can be trained to recognize faces or automobiles, using multiple images. While it faces competition from large digital imaging companies, what differentiates Picporta, according to founder Pulkit Gaur, is “it can recognize not just 2-D images, but even real people”.
Blink Media Pvt. Ltd
Intelligent shopping: Blink Media;s Devang Raiyani.
Birth: 2007
Funding: self-funded
Area: Intelligent shopping carts
Buzz: Blink Media makes portable screens affixed to shopping carts in malls to engage a buyer with interactive content. The screen allows users to check out product information and location within the store using a touchscreen. The start-up, whose co-founder Devang Raiyani wheeled out a prototype shopping cart on stage for demo, intends to serve targeted advertisements to buyers at the time of purchase using a combination of Wi-fi to beam the content and sensors to detect a product when the buyer is in that aisle. Blink plans to share the cost of setting up and advertising revenue with the retailers.
Crederity Inc.