The thing about IoT
There are encouraging signs pointing to Pune’s growing IoT influence. In
April this year, a consortium of industry bodies, startups, and manufacturing
giants proposed to the government to create India’s very first IoT cluster in
Pune. The focus would be on solutions designed to make Industry 4.0 more easy
to apply in Indian conditions. If all goes well, the S. L. Kirloskar Centre
will come up later this year. Then in March, technology giant Hitachi
Consulting opened MIRAI, a state-of-the-art IoT experience centre in Pune. This
peek into the future (MIRAI means future in Japanese) shows a glimpse of the
connected factory equipped with predictive maintenance.
The action is not restricted to the big companies either. Pune’s own
Altizon Systems last year closed a $4 Million Series A funding led by Wipro
Ventures. Their IoT platform Datonis is attracting attention from a clutch of
industry segments including Manufacturing, Energy, and the Supply Chain.Earlier
stage funding is also finding its way to IoT-focused startups in other sectors
too. Security solutions startup SmarterHi Communications is an example of one
who closed an early stage round earlier this year.
There are more exciting IoT-driven innovations created by Pune’s startups
already making waves in a variety of sectors. CarIQ is focused on creating a
connected ecosystem in even the most basic of cars. Their eye-catching
plug-n-play device is seemingly easy to deploy and is helping cars, and drivers
make data-enabled decisions with the combined power of IoT& the Cloud
behind them. Entrib is attacking niche segments in the manufacturing space and
helping improve shopfloor productivity by 30% or more with their IoT-based solutions.
Lifeplot is looking to address another crying need in India – the technology
enablement of the delivery of healthcare. Their IoT-enabled solution allows
important data like ECG reports, to be displayed and read on the mobile of
doctors, allowing them to deliver care when needed, wherever needed.
Healthy in HealthTech
While launching a HealthTech accelerator in Pune last year, Govin
Capital CEO Anand Govindaluri said, "Pune has the best start-up ecosystem
because of the natural presence of good medical, engineering and management
schools. There is a natural flow of talent that is automatically attracted to
Pune, and so identifying management teams for start-ups with diverse
backgrounds is also easier." That’s true, as is the fact that some of
India’s largest services companies like Infosys have traditionally had a significant
representation of their healthcare verticals in Pune. All this has come
together to create some significant excitement around the Healthcare Technology
(or should we say Technology-enabled Healthcare) space.
Much of the energy is focused on digital health platforms and leveraging
the power of mobility to drive greater access, better doctor-patient
communication, and ultimately better patient care. ThingsMeet Solutions’
Prescribez platform that integrates patients with the entire healthcare
ecosystem – doctors, path labs, and pharmacies has been in the news recently as
it seeks to raise a $ 2 Million funding round to drive customer acquisition.
LiveHealth is another such startup with a report management solution that helps
patients make sense of the medical reports they have been provided. App-based
startups that focus on specific other parts of the patient’s journey are also becoming
visible. Witness online pharmacy MedsOnWay that offers to home delivery
medicines within 24 hours thus offering convenience and comfort to those who
may not be easily able to step out to make purchases for themselves.
The sector is attracting the attention of the big guns too. Just this
month Athenahealth announced a $ 63 Million acquisition of Pune’s own Praxify.
Praxify’s app-based approach to enabling physician productivity and decision
support seems to have caught the eye of the Watertown Mass healthcare major.
Athenahealth believes the acquisition will help drive their own R & D
efforts in the space.
Pune has always been at the vanguard of technology-based movements, and
in many cases, it has been the startups that have been the standard-bearers. Pune
also has a special relationship with Innovation as our survey “Pune: Nurturing the Fast Emerging Tech
Innovation Hub” shows. This
trend looks set to continue with the IoT and HealthTech movements.
Do you have an exciting startup in either of
these areas that deserves mentionin this post – g.a add a line in the comments
for all of us to see!
