QUEEN’S ROAD: A city-based start-up is looking to make things easier for enterprises in the increasingly competitive world of innovation.
The start-up, Ideapoke, helps organisations search and collaborate with technology partners across the globe to meet their research and development and product development challenges. Ideapoke’s
technology uses big data analytics and matching algorithms to find the best possible solutions provider to the numerous problems a company might be facing, be it related to resources, technology or personnel.
“The idea is to democratise innovation and accelerate idea generation within and across companies. Posts like chief innovation officer are becoming commonplace now. Over the next 15 to 20 years, breakthroughs are predicted to be driven by innovation in technology.... Businesses across the world are realising that technology innovation can no longer be confined within organisational silos or to a group of researchers or scientists working in a lab,” says Anoop Sahu, co-founder of Ideapoke.
These days, businesses actively and openly participate in online innovation communities where solution seekers and providers work together.
Open innovation is slowly but surely emerging as the preferred framework that enables businesses to work with one other. It allows start-ups and academia to create fundamental innovations that address market challenges. All because it allows all stakeholders to pool in their strengths, practices and budgets to develop new technology solutions.
Let’s Ideapoke it
Similar to Google, the Ideapoke platform is a search engine that trawls through the web and mines data from the likes of university blogs, scientific papers, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and European Patent Office (EPO). When a corporate signs up, they post a suggested problem and the platform then suggests a solution matching the requirements.
Ideapoke was started in 2012 by Anoop and Sanjay Sahoo and the platform went live in April last year. In a little more than a year, around 25 companies have subscribed to the platform. They include Fortune 1000 companies like Unilever, Reliance, Coca-Cola, Godrej and Titan.
At present, the Ideapoke team shuttles between the company's San Jose and Bengaluru offices.
The platform focuses on verticals like Internet of Things (IoT), consumer electronics, sensors and chemicals for FMCG, packaging, manufacturing, personal care, and food and beverages.
On the revenue model, Anoop says, “Most of Ideapoke’s revenue comes from subscriptions. Companies can sign up for various monthly or yearly packages, depending on the number of queries and problems they want solved. These packages range from $30,000 to $1,50,000.”
“We also allow companies to use the platform on transaction basis, which means that they don’t have to subscribe,” he adds.
The team wants to turn Ideapoke into a one-stop-shop for any kind of technological information companies might need. For more details of the company, log on to www.ideapoke.com.