5 rising startups in India

Photo credit: Pascal

Artificial intelligence has just got another shot in the arm in India, with visual intelligence platform Snapshopr getting funding. Indians also seems keen on shaping up and travelling smart – for it was a good day for two apps that facilitate carpooling and fitness.

Here are the startups that made it to our list.

Snapshopr

Snapshopr, a visual intelligence platform powered by artificial intelligence, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from top technology executives, the startup said today.

The funding was led by Amod Malviya, former CTO at Flipkart, and saw participation from angel investors.  They will use the fresh funds to increase product innovation and build their visual intelligence platform for online retailers.

Snapshopr was founded by Navneet Sharma, Debashish Pattnaik, and Vivek Gandhi in 2014. It helps customers improve the search and discovery experience of users through its visual search and recognition products.

“We have been working with some of the largest internet companies in India and have built out the next generation visual intelligence platform for online retailers,” Navneet said in a statement.

Instead of using text to describe visually rich categories like fashion and home decor, people can simply use images taken from their camera or uploaded from their devices for search, based on the visual content of the image.

Orahi

Orahi, a carpooling app based in Gurgaon, today snapped up INR 35 million (US$519,400) in funding from Indian Angel Network.  IAN investors Vinish Kathuria and Amandeep Gupta led the round and will join the board.

The startup, which launched two-and-a-half years ago, has been facilitating carpooling in Delhi, Gurgaon, and Noida. The funds will be used to enhance the product, grow the team, and increase market share.

“India has 30 million cars on the road and we are going to target 10 percent of these cars to enable carpooling in the next two years,” says Orahi founder Sameer Khanna.

Delhi’s odd-even scheme – which requires cars with license plates ending with an odd number to run on odd dates and even numbered cars to run on even dates from Jan 1 to 15 – has underlined the need for carpooling in India.

Zapr

Obino

Buildkar