If Orange is the New Black, then start-ups are the new business monarchs. Hoodie boy Varun Agarwal picks his list of hot and happening start-ups for 2017
Niki.Ai
Niki is an AI-powered chatbot that acts like your personal assistant, helping you with everyday things like booking cabs, buses, hotels, events, paying bills and ordering food. All you have to do is download the free app and chat with Niki. It was founded in April 2015 by four IIT Kharagpur alumni — Sachin Jaiswal, Keshav Prawasi, Nitin Babel and Shishir Modi — and just last May, Ratan Tata invested in it. With a 28-member team, Niki’s founders are looking forward to improving the bot’s conversational style in 2017
Zappfresh
Did that cooking video on Tasty tempt you to make some chicken fritters? But then, you open the fridge and find it empty. Don’t worry. You can go to zappfresh.com, order fresh meat, fish and cold cuts, and get them delivered at your doorstep. This Gurgaon-based start-up was founded in 2015 by Deepanshu Manchanda and Shruti Gochhwal. Currently, Zappfresh delivers meat in Delhi and NCR which it sources straight from meat farms around Gurgaon. They also make sure there is no compromise on quality by conducting regular quality checks and inspections. The average delivery time is 90 minutes. Customers can order meat varying from chicken, mutton, pork, quail, turkey and duck, and pre-cooked items like kebabs, chicken popcorn, marinated barbecue pieces and cold cuts. www.zappfresh.com
Bounty
Cashback coupons are every online shopper’s dream and Bounty is here to make this dream come true. It runs silently in the background and gives you alerts when you are in a Bounty rewards zone. The app automatically recognises your location and alerts you to collect reward points. Another feature is that it works even without GPS or high speed internet. The start-up is almost two years old and was founded by Satish Medapati from Bengaluru
Shubh Loans
Everyone knows the hassle of getting a bank loan. Endless procedures and questions, and at the end, a no for an answer. But that is not the case with the Shubh Loans app. Here, the data sources build a courage score (think credit score) out of 100 for the user. Using this score, the user can obtain a bank loan easily. The best part? No paperwork, all digital. The app is currently available in English and Kannada. The company’s CEO Monish Anand said that this year they plan to launch the app in Tamil and Malayalam
Innovacer Analytics
Founded in 2012 by Abhinav Shashank, Kanav Hasija and Sandeep Gupta Innovaccer Analytics is headquartered in Silicon Valley. Through its platform Datashop, it offers end-to-end Big Data solutions to its users
Varun Agarwal is an established entrepreneur, filmmaker and an author. His company Alma Mater which makes custom hoodies for colleges across India, has catered to over 4,000 colleges across the country in 200 different cities