The Tech Panda takes a look at recent tech launches.
FinTech: A payment gateway to split eCommerce payments into instalments right at the point of checkout without credit cards
Paycorp Solutions Pvt Ltd has launched first of its kind Automated Clearing House (ACH) payment gateway that eCommerce consumers can now use to opt to split their eCommerce payments into easy instalments right at the point of checkout without using their credit cards.
Balaji Jagannathan, CEO of Paycorp.io says, “Consumers greatly value the option of paying for their purchases in easy instalments. However, the possibility of missing their credit card due date and the consequent penal charges make them reluctant to convert card payments into instalments. Besides, when a card purchase is split into instalments, the entire value of the purchase is blocked in the credit card, effectively restricting the consumer’s purchasing power. The “Pay by ACH” option mitigates both these challenges and helps consumers plan their finance better.”
Karthik Thenkarai, Chief Business Officer at Paycorp.io says, “This technology service has been launched in liaison with few select banks in India. The banks will offer the ‘Pay by ACH’ option to all their eCommerce and other corporate customers who can extend it to their consumers. These banks will provide the underlying credit and the instalment options, while Paycorp.io will become the backbone, providing them with necessary technology.”
The Why
Consumers are aware that converting a card transaction into instalments, blocks the entire transaction value from their available credit. ‘Pay by ACH’ is the best option to mitigate this challenge. As long as they can maintain sufficient balance in their bank account for the instalment on the instalment due date they won’t face any financial burden. Paycorp.io also prompts the consumer in advance to maintain a sufficient balance in their bank account towards the upcoming ACH instalment due. Therefore, consumers can now plan their purchases better.
Features
- A 3 step process, which can be completed in 3 minutes.
- At the checkout point in the eCommerce portal, ‘Pay by ACH’ is listed along with all the payment options. In the first step, the user chooses the “Pay by ACH” option. The partner bank presents the option to split the payment into easy instalments of 4, 6, or 12 months.
- Next, one can choose the preferred instalment duration option and proceed to the page to fill bank account details, presented by Paycorp.io.
- Lastly, after authentication of identity, and banking details, Paycorp.io sets up the ACH auto-pay successfully.
Agtech: An end-to-end SaaS based platform for all stakeholders of agriculture & disaster management
Leads Connect Services, an Agritech data, risk management, and financial services company, introduces the game-changing Agrani platform at the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2023 (UPGIS).
Agrani is an end-to-end SaaS based platform developed for all stakeholders of agriculture and disaster management. It aims to connect all dots spanning from Farm to Table in the agricultural spectrum for providing farmer centric solutions using Space Tech Analytics and Artificial Intelligence.
“Agrani is not just a simple market linkage app, it’s a game changer for the agriculture industry,” stresses Navneet Ravikar, Chairman and Managing Director of Leads Connect Services. “We’re proud to be launching it at UPGIS.
The Why
Land, water, and soil health are witnessing stressed scenarios due to phenomenal urbanization and other allied activities. This may create a scenario of uncertainties in the context of productivity and economic stability. Therefore, appropriate interventions are required.
By bridging the gap between farmers and customers, the platform helps to expand the food product distribution network for farmers and other stakeholders in domestic markets. Similarly, Mandis and FPOs need digitisation to bring more transparency into transactions and farmers need more sales channels.
“Through AGRANI, we’re aiming to provide stage wise agronomy advisories such as impact of weather, biophysical, and crop management practises on yield productivity. We have also assessed the need for financing and crop insurance to help strengthen the ecosystem. This requires robust and transparent underwriting algorithms and medium,” says Ravikar.
Features
- Agricultural credit and value chain scores for seamless, and efficient farm lending with electronic applications, disbursal of loans, insurance pay-outs linked to weather, field data all this aimed to benefit transfers in agriculture and help farmers struggling to get timely access to finance.
- Omni-channel insurance platform, to provide seamless access to all relevant insurance products – health, crop, cattle, life, and motor.
- Continuous post-sale service assistance, including claims management.
- Right market linkages between farmers and buyers to create better transparency in pricing and better value, especially for perishable products.
- Timely access to finance for FPOs/Agribusinesses for community infrastructure in terms of storage and transportation.
- Walk-in Agrani Centres to act as the physical outlets for all platform services to the stakeholders
FinTech: An international fintech company that enables businesses to interact with freelancers launches in India
Solar Staff, an international fintech company that enables businesses to interact with freelancers from 190+ countries, launched in India to give 15 million freelancers access to new opportunities and global clients. In its first week, the platform attracted over 4,000 Indian freelancers.
Since launch, the company has already processed over 6 million tasks. Solar Staff revenues topped $12M in 2022, showing 196% YoY growth. Solar Staff aims to triple revenues and double the number of independent contractors in 2023.
“With over 760,000 independent contractors and 2,800 businesses already on our platform, we strive to bridge the gap between businesses in developed economies and the talented workforce in emerging markets.” says Pavel Shynkarenko, co-founder and CEO of Solar Staff.
The Why
A survey conducted with Indian freelancers shows that getting paid on time and tax reporting were the biggest difficulties. Additionally, paperwork and searching for the best payment method and controlling payment were ranked as the most annoying non-core activities because of the lack of streamlined and efficient payment options. Direct bank transfers can take a long time, and money can get stuck along the way. Alternative solutions, although available, can take a significant commission of up to 10%, and may not always be accessible to foreign clients. Moreover, they often favor the payer and leave freelancers vulnerable to fraudsters who demand free work. As a result, freelancers often have to work extra hours without pay to get their funds released.
At the same time the independent workforce in India has seen significant growth in recent years; an estimated 15 million individuals are working as freelancers across various sectors. This represents a significant portion of the global freelance population, with reports indicating that India accounts for one-fourth of all freelancers worldwide.
In response to these challenges, Solar Staff has launched its F2B (freelancers-to-business) product for independent contractors. The freelancing industry in India is projected to continue its upward trend, and estimates forecast revenue growth to reach $30 million by 2025, while freelance professionals will make up half of the country’s workforce.
Features
The platform assists freelancers in handling paperwork, securing prompt payment, collaborating with clients globally without restrictions, enabling them to focus on their income rather than non-essential tasks.
Metaverse: Metaverse capabilities to help life sciences companies create immersive healthcare experiences
Indegene, a digital-first, life sciences commercialization company launched metaverse capabilities to support life sciences organizations with a variety of use cases, including health care provider (HCP) interactions, HCP education, and patient education.
“Life sciences organizations are looking to reimagine healthcare interactions and be ahead of the curve. Providing new ways to connect, educate, and lead transformation using virtual and augmented reality can help solve some of their key business challenges”, said Gaurav Kapoor, Executive Vice President, Indegene, Inc. “We are excited to bring to our clients the ability to create immersive experiences to aid seamless and richer engagements with HCPs and patients. Indegene’s metaverse capabilities to design highly personalized virtual worlds, coupled with our experience and deep domain expertise, enables life sciences companies to be future ready.”
The Why
“Metaverse has the potential to be a game changer in the education industry. Its intrinsic nature opens the door for a new dimension of how knowledge can be shared and measured”, said, Gustavo Kesselring, Vice President, External Affairs, at IFAPP Academy. “In the near future, its gamification features can be used to transform the way we have taught and evaluated for more than a hundred years, and the early adopters will benefit the most.”
Features
Indegene’s domain expertise will provide life sciences organizations a foundation for navigating the complexity of this emerging technology and the flexibility to create tailored virtual worlds. Using these, life sciences organizations can foster immersive healthcare experiences, like interactions with HCPs in a virtual medical congress, meeting for a virtual educational lecture, or facilitating interactions in a virtual patient hub.
Blockchain: A cutting-edge ESG automation tool designed to help organizations monitor, measure, analyze and report their ESG performance
TRST01 (TrayamBhu Tech Solutions Pvt. Limited), a blockchain climate-tech company, launched Footprint- the world’s first ESG Blockchain automation tool.
It is a cutting-edge ESG automation tool designed to help organizations monitor, measure, analyze and report their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. This will be the first Global ESG automation tool product using the web3 interface (Blockchain).
“We must take responsibility and action to create an environmentally, socially and economically positive corporate footprint. It’s a new beginning for reliable and automated environmental impact measurements powered and secured by blockchain. We make big promises at climate treaties and commit to ambitious goals to cut down on emissions, but are we even close enough to our sustainability targets? We must take responsibility and action to create an environmentally, socially and economically positive corporate footprint. Footprint by Trst01 is a game-changer to help you do just that”, said Prabir Mishra, CEO of TRST01.
The Why
The Footprint ESG automation tool has been developed to meet the growing demand for transparency and accountability in an organisation’s sustainability practices. Footprint by TRST01 has been designed keeping in mind an organization’s triple bottom line – People, Planet and Prosperity.
Features
- Its supply chain management reporting allows companies to track and report their suppliers’ ESG performance, providing a comprehensive view of their supply chain sustainability practices. This feature is crucial as companies increasingly recognize the importance of responsible sourcing and sustainable supply chain practices.
- Follows the latest ESG reporting standards, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).
- In sync with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to provide a comprehensive view of an organisation’s ESG performance.
- Industry-specific content offers customized materiality topics arrangement. This feature enables companies to report the most relevant ESG metrics and critical issues for more meaningful engagement with investors, customers and other stakeholders.
FinTech: mobile application powered by MPC technology allowing crypto-native companies to make secure transactions on the go
Liminal, a wallet infrastructure platform, announced its new mobile application on the iOS platform. The app is powered by secure Multiparty Computation (MPC) technology, allowing crypto-native companies to make secure transactions on the go while improving organisational efficiency and productivity.
Mahin Gupta, Founder of Liminal, said, “We are delighted to launch our iOS app ‘Liminal Vaults’, which empowers our users to securely approve transactions on-the-go. With the app, we will give users the tools and freedom to make transactions with the assurance of complete privacy and security. In addition, the MPC technology helps store a variety of digital assets with confidence.”
Dhruvil Shah, SVP of Technology, Liminal, said, “With the increasing need for a robust infrastructure, it’s imperative for Web3 businesses & exchanges to have control of digital assets at any given time. Our app gives enterprises the power to manage transactions while offering the utmost security of self-custody on the go.”
The Why
The app launch is a part of Liminal’s mission to provide businesses with a secure infrastructure for digital asset transactions, while eliminating device limitations.
The app comes as a breather, bringing agility to the tedious transaction signing process. Users can now add an extra layer of authentication by utilising the app’s features while carrying out a transaction. This way, they can have complete control over their keys and transactions without compromising security, making it an ideal choice for Web3 organisations.
Features
- The app is designed to provide a smooth and intuitive experience for all users.
- The process is quick and effortless with a user-friendly interface.
- Users can be an exchange, HNI, web3 company, treasuries or even an individual who needs to manage digital assets.
- User can enable mobile signing access for relevant team members in an organisation.
- User can create and approve policies like whitelisting address, transaction limit etc.
FinTech: Parenting category in an Invest to Spend app
To ensure that parents can make smarter choices and save more while spending for their kids, especially for recurring expenses, Multipl, an Invest to Spend app, launched a parenting category on the app.
Paddy Raghavan, the CEO, and co-founder, of Multipl, said, “Youngsters look at saving for vacations and gadget purchases. However, as one grows older, their priorities may change, and be more focused on their regular expense-based lifestyle, a big part of which includes their children’s education and other expenses.”
“The new category on Multipl is launched with the purpose of helping parents become more prudent while spending for their children. It ensures that young parents do not fall into a debt trap and are able to build a positive savings behavior. We will be adding many more relevant and exciting brands to this category to make it exciting for the parents.”
The Why
Financial planning for children remains restricted to age-old financial instruments such as bank savings, fixed deposits and long-term insurance plans. These plans and instruments often do not benchmark the rising education and miscellaneous costs and could end up being inadequate the meet expenses when the child grows up. Huge educational loans, families getting deeper into the debt cycle and similar stories are very familiar.
Multipl’s parenting category launch aims at solving this problem.
Features
- They have partnered with popular kids-first brands such as FirstCry, Hamleys, Vendatu, StayQrious. Moreover, other popular brands such as Decathalon, Myntra, Flipkart, Nike, Puma, etc. also feature in this category from where parents usually purchase for their kids.
- Users can plan for their kid’s expenses 3-12 months in advance and earn investment returns on their savings.
- Multipl’s partnered brands provide 3-25% additional savings in the form of co-investments. Brands include FirstCry, Hamleys, Vendatu, StayQrious, Decathalon, Myntra, Flipkart, Nike, Puma.
Esports: A community marketplace to enable fans to trade collectibles & provide a first-of-its-kind experience to gamers
STAN, a Bengaluru-headquartered blockchain-based esports fan engagement platform has launched the STAN Community Marketplace to enable fans to trade their collectibles and provide a first-of-its-kind experience to the gamers.
STAN Co-Founder & Product Chief, Shubham Gupta said, “We are thrilled to bring the much-demanded Community Marketplace to the esports community in India, empowering both creators and fans alike. Our marketplace’s unique features, built with insights and liquidity in mind, will help break down the barriers for fans to obtain their favourite collectibles on the platform. STAN is here to usher in the next chapter of the Web3 X Influencer Economy, and we can’t wait to see the esports community in India thrive through our platform.”
The Why
STAN’s Community Marketplace is a feature-loaded community-led market where users will be able to trade their Digital Collectables. This feature will allow the fans to easily trade their collectibles along with providing liquidity to STAN assets.
The Esports industry estimated that the number of online gaming users in India is poised to grow by almost 50 percent from 481 Mn in 2022 to over 657 Mn by 2025. By creating a community-led market, STAN seeks to empower both creators and their fans in building more fandom, and credibility, and rallying more esports and gaming fanatics. The STAN Community Marketplace will also help boost the nascent esports industry in India.
Features
- Offers users easy insights essential for traders and executes trades automatically when conditions are met to top it.
- No platform or trading fees even when it involves gas-powered on-chain transfers.
- Fans can list their collectibles through Fixed Price Sales or an Auction effortlessly without paying any kind of trading fee to STAN.
- Has several filters that allow fans to find the right asset for them. As far as the trade is concerned, it will be executed automatically once the price requirements or other conditions of trade are met.
- Consumers can trade on the platform for building profits through flipping NFTs by understanding market sentiments and demand.
AI: AI Noise Suppression & 3D Spatial Audio
Agora, Inc. announced two new product features – AI Noise Suppression and 3D Spatial Audio. AI Noise Suppression is a new audio solution that removes background noise such as typing, pets, kids, coughing or room echo from meetings leaving only the human voice. It ensures distraction-free communication, improves the quality of broadcasts and provides a more immersive audio experience.
The 3D Spatial Audio solution allows developers to add immersive, dynamic audio into real-time digital experiences. With a few lines of code, developers can connect to Agora’s 3D Spatial Audio to enable a more natural audio experience that works seamlessly with video, voice, and streaming products, replicating how sounds are heard in the real world and boosting user engagement.
The Why
In recent years, hybrid working has led to employees working from a variety of locations, resulting in the increasingly important need for good acoustical background conditions to support clear, high-quality and effective communications in a remote audio or video setting. Audio experiences such as background noise, echo, and sound reverberation being transmitted into meetings, causes disruptions and distractions. As a result, meetings lose productivity and employees can be stressed from not being able to clearly hear what colleagues are saying.
Based on deep-learning models, Agora’s AI Noise Suppression solves these poor audio experiences by recognizing human speech and analyzing the audio feed, filtering out any background noises and enabling a crystal-clear audio output.
“At Agora, we ensure sound quality as a foundational element of our technology, products and services support communications, whether it be a work video call, virtual education, or playing games with friends,” said Patrick Ferriter, Vice President of Product at Agora. “Audio is at the core of any digital experience and with AI Noise Suppression, customers can easily remove background noise from their applications and create more focused, immersive experiences for their users.”
Features
- Noise reduction capabilities, echo and reverberation removal, low latency, cross-platform support and global scalability
- Easy to integrate & compatible across commonly used platforms such as Web, Windows, Android, MacOS/iOS, Electron, Flutter React Native and Unity.
- AI Noise Suppression can be applied to improve enterprise collaboration, enhancing the clarity of voices in video calls and removing distracting sounds like keyboard noise, office conversations, and outside noise like construction.
- 3D Spatial Audio brings theater-like effects to video, voice and streaming products by making it seem as if the sound originates from all around the user
- By setting the local and remote user’s spatial positions, developers can create an environment that enables users to experience changes in the distance, position, and orientation of other users in real-time
- Quick and easy for developers to integrate and provides the highest fidelity of 3D audio, supporting 48 kHz full-band sampling
- Low latency, low power consumption, and supported across all regularly used platforms such as Web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Unity, Flutter, React Native and Electron
- Can be applied to live casting to create a more personal environment, as well as education to enrich the digital learning experience by making it feel as if the teacher is sitting next to the student
HealthTech: A smart ward with wearable wireless technology
Amala Hospital, a multi-disciplinary chain of hospitals based in Kerala, launched a new and innovative smart ward with wearable wireless technology. The hospital chain has partnered with Chennai based health-tech startup, LifeSigns to implement their iMS technology across cardiology and medicine departments at its hospital based in Thrissur, Kerala.
Fr. Deljo Puthoor CMI, Associate Director of Amala Hospital, said, “We are thrilled to be introducing this new wearable continuous and innovative technology to our patients. Our commitment to providing top-notch care is unwavering, and this smart ward will help us to achieve that goal. At Amala Hospital, we are always looking for ways to improve patient care and provide a more efficient and effective healthcare experience”.
“Patient monitoring at the right time and with accurate results is very important. With the deployment of wireless patient monitoring technology, the doctors and the hospitals can keep a real-time record of the patient’s vital stats which will eventually decrease the risk on the patient’s health because every patient matters. The smart ward at Amala is just one example of our commitment to deliver the best technology in the healthcare field”, says Hari Subramanian, Founder and Director, LifeSigns.
The Why
This smart ward, the first in Kerala, is equipped with advanced technology that provides continuous patient monitoring and aims to improve patient outcomes and reduce the risk of medical errors.
Features
- Wireless patient monitoring system, with early warning scores which allows for real-time monitoring of vital signs and other important health indicators
- Eliminates the need for traditional wired monitoring systems
- Monitors at nursing station, and patient information systems for the hospital
- BioSensor patch can help the patients as well as the doctors to keep a track on the patients’ health, without being attached to the multiple wires
