Entrepreneur First (EF), a global talent investor, has announced total pre-seed investment of USD 440,000 in eight cutting-edge tech start-ups from its fourth cohort in India. As part of the company’s Demo Day, EF introduced these innovative startups, powered by new age technologies such as Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Virtual Reality (VR) to top early-stage investors in the country for their next round of funding.
Since its launch in India in January 2019, EF has supported more than 200 talented individuals in their entrepreneurial journey. The company has invested and facilitated a total investment of USD 5 million in Indian start-ups over the last two years.
EF has seen a 100 per cent increase in applications received since it first launched in India. While the first cohort had 800 applications, it grew to 1800 for the most recent cohort – a sign that the most ambitious aspiring founders can identify opportunity in the time of adversity. The firm has been working closely with premier technology institutes and industry leaders in the ecosystem triggering greater interest for their cohorts among academicians, and young business professionals across various industries.
Commenting on the Demo Day, Esha Tiwary, General Manager, India at Entrepreneur First said, “The founders at EF India are pushing the boundaries of how technology can be leveraged to solve real world problems. And the fourth cohort is no different – from smart recruitment for SMEs to AI-driven automated apparel cataloguing to revolutionizing antibody discovery and immersive experiences, these startups show are well poised to disrupt their industries.
Despite the global challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are seeing a steady influx of aspiring Indian entrepreneurs keen to build their dream tech startups. EF provides the best platform to connect brilliant minds in tech to the best minds in business, together with the right mentorship and financial backing.
For each cohort, EF selects around 50 potential founders and helps them find co-founders among themselves. EF invests pre-seed in selected startups and those founders then move to the second stage of the program, which involves building the product, expanding the team and deploying with early customers. Finally, once the founders are ready, they meet early-stage investors for their next round of funding.
With presence in six global markets, EF pioneered the concept of talent investing – finding and funding talented individuals – pre-company, pre-team, and most often, even pre-idea. EF has built over 300 technology startups that have created more than 3000 jobs worldwide since its inception in 2011.
Unveiling of 8 tech start-ups
EF’s Demo Day showcased 8 startups from India offering tech solutions, powered by AI, Robotics, VR and other new-age technologies, to solve issues across industries.
Expertia
Despite a lot of hiring job boards being available today, recruitment is still a long and painful process. This is what Expertia solves through its ‘smart’ platform. As a platform-independent job and candidate recommendation engine for SMEs, it uses Deep Learning, Natural language processing (NLP) and Explainable AI to predict the right candidate for SMEs with 90% accuracy and at 1/10th of the cost.
Neuropixel
Neuropixe.AI is a deep-tech start-up focused on apparel cataloguing. This is one of the most repetitive processes that any fashion retailer/e-commerce platform undertakes every single day. NeuroPixel. AI’s proprietary DeepNet framework not just simplifies this process, but also makes it cost-effective.
Fello
Fello is a fintech startup that leverages its proprietary games to turn Gen-Z gamers into financial investors. Gen-Z users can play and win big, just by saving.
Subconscious Compute
Subconscious Compute is using neural computing technology to bring AI to the Edge. Subcon deploys proprietary, ultra-compact Edge AI models on resource-starved edge devices to deliver scalable multi-sensory intelligence that is 10x faster & 1000x cheaper than cloud AI based solutions.
Immunito AI
Immunito AI is a life sciences (biotech) startup that leverages AI to revolutionize antibody discovery & therapeutics. Positioned to scale globally, their full stack-platform will predict the best therapeutic antibody candidates, saving time by 60% and money by 50%, and increasing efficiency by 2X.
UngearVR
UngearVR set to disrupt the Virtual Reality industry by bringing VR-like immersive experiences to laptops and TVs without requiring any specialized VR gear. Leveraging their proprietary advanced computer vision algorithms, they are able to produce all the elements of a high-level VR headset experience without a VR headset, all in real-time.
Aspiro
Aspiro is a voice AI driven sales coaching SaaS solution. Armed with Aspiro’s personalized sales platform, sales leaders will now be able to onboard and coach their sales force continuously, in a fully automated manner.
Rightbot
Rightbot is a robotics startup focused on “Goods to Person (G2P)” warehouse automation – critically needed by online commerce players to satisfy the needs of their demanding consumers. Rightbot’s plug & play G2P robotic solution is compatible with existing flooring, racking, shelving, deploy 10x faster with negligible installation capex and generate 3x higher ROI vs. competition.