For years, Chennai has been the hub for manufacturing and engineering. But over the past decade the city has seen a humungous boom in its start-up scene. It not only has built itself a strong and flourishing ecosystem but is now called the SASS capital of India.
On the occasion of Madras Day, here’s the list of 5 startups based in Chennai to watch out for-
1. Nutpum
Set up in 2016 by Senthil Sarguru and Karthik Bavanandan, Nuptum builds virtual reality-driven training content for people working in large corporations and sectors like healthcare and education.
Its product uses immersive technologies to train industrial labour, doctors, and students. It uses AR, VR, internet of things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) to bring immersive experiences into the app or even into the physical world
2. CiniCloud
Founded by Suresh Kumar G, CiniCloud helps single-screen cinemas and multiplexes manage inventories, seat layouts, scheduling, and ticketing seamlessly over the cloud.
It serves as an end-to-end integrated platform for theatre management, location management, movie cataloging and scheduling, screen management, seat layout management, parking management, ticketing fulfilment and delivery, and also finance and HR management. It even provides data analytics and insights to admins of cinema chains and single-screen theatres to help them decode cinegoers’ behavioural patterns and preferences across locations.
3. ThoughtBit
This Chennai-based startup by IIMA alumni Panneerselvam (Sid Selvam) and Rajeshwaran Venugopal allows businesses to file their GST returns, and provides data-driven solutions with the help of its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) software.
Started in 2017 the startup uses an AI engine, which it claims can parse lakhs of requests in seconds, to help businesses file their returns.
ThoughtBit is connected to the government system, which allows it to pull data from the official website. The startup provides reports to its clients about suppliers who are non-compliant with GST.
4. Wedding Wishlist
Started by Kanika Subbiah along with Tanvi Saraf and Sathish Subramanian in 2-15 Wedding Wishlist is a wedding gift registry that offers 2 services – B2C and B2B.
For the larger part, it is a B2C company that offers wedding technologies (with a focus on gift registries) to engaged couples. And it is only recently that it has launched a B2B element to the marketplace model where wedding planners and invitation designers can create storefronts for their products and services.
The platform has successfully completed over 130 gift registries, and sold over 4,000 invites and other tools to date.
5. Genie
Genie is a service app that picks, drops and purchases items for customers. It started off as a personal concierge service but soon founders realised the need to pivot after 6 months to ensure quality control and consumer experience.
The Genie for Business (GFB) model is a web dashboard that enables businesses across the city widen their logistical reach by using Genie to deliver products to their customers. Businesses pay Genie an annual subscription for the platform, and get Genie’s route planning and load-handling algorithms along with their deliveries.
It ceased its operations in April 2017 due to its inability to raise funds despite multiple efforts. However, with customer support, they were able to resume operations and now have also raised a small angel round from a Singapore-based fund.
