How These 5 Startups Are Contributing To Make In India Initiative Encouraging companies to manufacture in India
By Nidhi Singh
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Make in India was launched by the Government of India on 25th September 2014 to encourage companies to manufacture in India. A lot has been said already about the Make in India Initiative started under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The campaign was majorly designed to facilitate investment, foster innovation, protect intellectual property, and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure for the aspiring entrepreneurs. The campaign includes several policies that can help budding entrepreneurs. And in this startup era, entrepreneurs are contributing maximum to drive Make in India initiative to next level.
So, let us have a look at few startups that are contributing in making Make in India initiative a successful one:
Digitizing the work of Indian Craftsmen
The online marketplace Shopclues hailed the "Make In India' initiative by getting over 500 merchants on board from all over the country. The company intends to highlight the work of Indian Craftsmen by displaying their products on a larger platform. It is also working with government bodies to encourage local craftsmen and traders and help them participate in this ecommerce revolution.
A personal coach for your fitness goals
Wearable fitness band Goqii has achieved huge success in recent months. Founded by Vishal Gondal, the startup has recently secured funds worth $ 13.2 million from Ratan Tata. Also, according to the market research firm recent IDC report on Q2, the fitness device grabbed the top position in India's wearable market by gaining 16.1 per cent shares. There is also an interesting observation that this Indian brand defeated the Chinese company Xiaomi, with other companies like Fitbit, Garmin and Huawei following them in top five.
Meeting the challenges of warehouse automation space
Grey Orange Robotics, the Gurgaon-based company aims at providing robots to the growing retail, consumer goods, logistics and eCommerce sector from all over the world. The multinational robotics firm supply robots to warehouses to help them meet the challenges of warehouse automation space. Founded in 2011 by Samay Kohli and Akash Gupta, the startup has raised a Series A from Tiger Global and Blume Ventures. The company has already started its international expansion in bigger names like Japan, China and South Asia.
A smart way to message
Hike messenger was developed by Bharti Softbank in 2012 to introduce free text messaging anywhere in India. The app recently raised $ 175 million in a series D funding led by Foxconn and Tencent. Today ,the company has raised over $ 250 million.The messaging app has already introduced four international languages to increase its global audience and fight with the biggest competitor Whatsapp. The app is trying to make an impact on Indian users by introducing more and more Indian features.
Electrifying your ride
Ather Energy Private Limited, a Bengaluru-based smart electric two wheeler startup developed its first product, Ather S340 in Feb this year. The company founded by IIT- M Alumini Duo Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain raised $ 12 million from Tiger global and $1 million from Flipkart founders. The vehicle has a touch screen dashboard to offer various features like navigation, driving modes and user profile based sign in. The user profile will analyse the riding habits and give suggestions for better riding experience.
The campaign has already received overwhelming response from multinational as well as domestic companies. The initiative may have been given a go ahead from the companies, investors and startup owners but the overall outcome is still unknown. Also, can this initiative be a stepping stone in making India a global investment hub?
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