- The Economic Times

Tech startups are tying up with brick-and-mortar publishing houses to change the way textbooks are written and presented

Ever sat through a class where the teacher droned on about the Great Barrier Reef, while you wished you could be transported to its colourful corals that are home to countless sea creatures? Or maybe drifted off into an imaginary spotting of a woolly mammoth during a geography class? Tech startups and publishing houses are tying up to attempt to bring such flights of fantasy right into the classroom with augmented and virtual reality.

Virtual reality (VR), or creating a virtual world that users can interact with, and augmented reality (AR) or the blending of virtual and real life, are technologies are transforming every sector from real estate, medicine, e-commerce, advertising and gaming to training and education.

The potential to change the way children study is what has many startups and tech giants truly excited. Technology behemoth Google, for instance, has thrown its money and muscle behind Expeditions, that makes virtual reality field trips for teachers to take students everywhere from Machu Pichu to the International Space Station. Google says the "trips" offer a collection of virtual reality panoramas annotated with details, points of interest, and relevant questions, and that over a million students have used Expeditions so far.

Closer home, it's school curriculum that is being augmented with this technology. Delhi-based Tushar A Amin and his friends began creating DIY kits for students based on science, technology, engineering and math learning at a maker space, but decided to get into augmented reality when they saw the possibilities it offered. Their startup, Smartivity, founded in January 2015, made a beginning with AR colouring sheets. "Dinosaurs and giraffes come to life on being coloured," says Amin. "A child can tap on a section and the character will walk to that point. They can hear what it sounds like, read more about the character and participate in quizzes," he explains. Available in 80 cities across 1,500 stores and online, Smartivity's products are focused on smart and immersive learning. Last year, the company raised funds from 77-year-old S Chand Publishing and will be working with them to create academic content.

Another publishing house that's betting big on AR/VR is 44-year-old Ratna Sagar, whose books are used by schools across the country. The company is working closely with Chennai-based startup Ingage Technologies to develop AR content for all subjects from primary school till Class 12. "A book has a picture of the Himalayan range. Once you scan the picture using the app, the mountains come alive in front of you. Along with a 360-degree view of the range, the student can click on a particular mountain and view related data, interesting facts and videos," explains Vijay Karunakaran, founder, Ingage, which is also working with Cambridge University Press.

While some startups are focusing on the school audience, others feel pre-university and college students are in a better position to appreciate the technology. Raman Talwar started Simulanis in November 2013 as an engineering consulting company but the burgeoning skill gap pushed him to get into training. Simulanis added AR-VR to its portfolio in January 2015, and has been developing a range of education-focused products. "The reason we developed AR-VR products for education was simple — to enable students to visualise technically challenging content, and learn difficult concepts easily through AR-VR and 3D gamification methods," says Talwar.

Simulanis is targeting students from Classes 6 to 12, mechanical, chemical, electrical, civil and instrumentation engineering students, graduates and professionals across all age groups. From viewing a 3D centrifugal pump to entering a virtual science laboratory to playing a 3D game to learn how to repair a car, specific modules have been created along with training partners, publishing houses and education companies.

Going to school

Some institutions have also got involved. IIIT-Hyderabad is working with Hyderabad-based Imaginate, funded by the government, to develop VR content in education. Hemanth Satyanarayana, founder, Imaginate, is very excited about his upcoming offering—a conferencing solution. "It is a virtual classroom setting using AR and VR. Participants and the speaker across locations can wear glasses and enter a virtual shared world. The speaker can use 3D modelling within the virtual room while interacting with participants. We have also integrated spatial audio where sounds can be presented from any direction to draw a listener's attention and give them cues on where to look next," he says.

Medicine and its immense complexities is another field that is likely to benefit from AR/VR. Karunakaran of Ingage is working with two Ivy League schools, building AR content for the medical practice. "AR can open up dimensions in surgery. One can view the anatomy, remove layers and parts to view minute details," says Karunakaran.

Slow to change

Technology and education have always offered an immense opportunity for transformation but the change has always been slow to come due to institutional inertia and lack of purchasing power. Entrepreneurs in the AR/VR space are few and even fewer are trying their hand at education. "There is dearth of good quality content. The initial investment is quite high but as hardware gets better, people will invest," said Parveez Masyam, MD, Xenium, an AR/VR startup that is working with an international company to augment textbooks for primary school.

According to Goldman Sacs, the market for AR/VR in education will touch $0.7 billion by 2025, several notches below video games ($11.6 billion), live events ($4.1 billion), video entertainment, real estate and retail.

So, will people really pay for a virtual trip inside the pyramids of Egypt? Gaurav Jhunjhunwala, MD, S Chand Publishing, is positive. "These technologies facilitate interaction between the real and digital, offering an 'out-of-the-world' experience—one that will leave an impact."

Amin of Smartivity sees a very competitive market in education. Once a handful of schools invest in it, others will follow, he says.

Karunakaran of Ingage is confident that VR glasses will soon be as ubiquitous as smartphones. "Like all technologies, the price will come down to a point where most people will be able to afford it," he says.

Between AR and VR, it is the former that is expected to flourish in India. Dhanasree Molugu, investment analyst at Blume Ventures, says there is huge amount of interest in the VR space but she has her reservations about whether a content business can scale. She is optimistic about AR/VR becoming an integral part of education. "Eventually it will happen. Byju's which has picked up massive funding is an example. There is a shift in the way in which education is being imparted and technology is core to this shift," Molugu said.

Just like the blackboard to whiteboard to smartboard shift happened over several years, Satyanarayana of Imaginate, is confident that AR/VR will also be accepted. "Smart education needs good content and affordable hardware and it is going to take five years or more for this transition to happen," he says.

Bengaluru- UiPath, robotic process automation startup, said has raised $568 million in Series D round funding, taking its post-money valuation to $7 billion. This round of funding was led by Coatue and joined by Dragoneer, Wellington, Sands Capital.

The US-headquartered robotic process automation firm said Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Accel, who led the Series A and B rounds, and CapitalG and Sequoia, who led the Series C round, all participated in this round with other existing investors, including IVP and Madrona Venture Group, said the company in a press release.

More businesses across different countries are adopting automation as they look to reduce cost of operations.

UiPath’s peer Automation Anywhere raised $300 million in November last year taking the total funding to $550 million.

With a rising demand for automation, UiPath has expanded its worldwide customer base to 400,000 users across 200 countries and caters to 8 of the top 10 Fortune 500 Global, and half of the the top 50 Fortune 500 Global.

The startup has significantly expanded its presence in India tapping the captive centres of global businesses and has plans to add 1200 people this year. It currently employs nearly 2500 people.

UiPath said it has grown ARR (annual recurring revenue) from $8 million to over $200 million in last 24 months.

“We are at the tipping point. Business leaders everywhere are augmenting their workforces with software robots, rapidly accelerating the digital transformation of their entire business and freeing employees to spend time on more impactful work,” Daniel Dines, UiPath co-founder and CEO, was quoted in the press release.

UiPath has recently added customers such as American Fidelity, BankUnited, Duracell, Google, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), LogMeIn, McDonalds, NHS Shared Business Services, Nippon Life Insurance Company, NTT Communications Corporation, Uber, US Navy among others.

New Delhi: US-based IT company UiPath Tuesday said it has raised USD 568 million at a total valuation of USD 7 billion in series D investment round led by Coatue.

"UiPath is blazing a path to an 'automation first' era, closing its Series D investment round, raising USD 568 million at a post-money valuation of USD 7 billion, led by Coatue," the company said in a statement.

The lead investor was joined by "Dragoneer, Wellington, Sands Capital, and funds and accounts advised by T Rowe Price Associates, Inc, Accel, CapitalG, Sequoia, IVP and Madrona Venture Group". The company, which provides robotic process automation, said it will invest in India to train 5 lakh people on its technology.

"India is in a prime position to become an RPA powerhouse, because of the rapid adoption of RPA (robotic process automation) and AI and the growing talent pool. We are committed to investing in India to realize our global vision of 'A Robot for Every Person' and create a talent base of over 5,00,000 automation-trained professionals," Raghu Subramanian, President and CEO of UiPath India said.

Recent customer additions include American Fidelity, BankUnited, CWT (formerly known as Carlson Wagonlit Travel), Duracell, Google, Japan Exchange Group (JPX), LogMeIn, McDonalds, Quest Diagnostics, Uber, US Navy, Virgin Media, World Fuel Services.

UiPath claimed to one of the fastest growing and highest-valued AI enterprise software companies worldwide at the valuation of USD 7 billion.

"In 24 months, RPA and AI leader has grown annual recurring revenue from USD 8 Million to over USD 200 Million, and valuation from USD110 Million to USD 7 Billion," UiPath said.

NEW DELHI: Online marketplace Amazon Tuesday said it expects e-commerce exports from India to reach $5 billion by 2023 under its global selling programme.

"Amazon launched the global selling programme in India four years ago, aligning with this vision. Over the next five years, 'India to Global' has the potential to become huge," Amazon India Country Head Amit Agarwal said in a statement.

He said the firm is confident that the "global selling programme will hit the $5 billion mark by 2023 fuelling the growth of lakhs of Indian manufacturers, exporters and small enterprises".

The programme started with just few hundred sellers in 2015 and has now crossed $1 billion export mark from India with 50,000 exporters.

Amazon in second edition of its annual 'Export Digest' said there has been a growth of 56 per cent in the number of global sellers from India in 2018.

It said Amazon's international marketplaces saw a rise of 55 per cent in the selection of Indian products offered globally and 71 per cent growth in sellers.

"The Annual Exports Digest showcases top Indian states and cities with international exporters and most popular product categories abroad. Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana emerged as the leading states with most international exporters on Amazon in 2018," the statement said. It added that books, apparel, jewellery, kitchen and health & personal care products witnessed a huge demand from international customers across ethnicities.

Singapore-based AR/VR tech startup Holosuit on Tueday said it has joined hand with Weisman Worldwide Entertainment (WWE), a leading Hollywood media and tech agency, to bring AR/VR experience across entertainment industry globally.

According to a statement, this collaborative partnership will enable the media and entertainment players to reap the benefits of cutting edge technology including AR, VR, AI, and ML. “Now, with our formal partnership and reach with Weisman Worldwide Entertainment, we have added a strong incubator and representation in the global Hollywood and entertainment community at large, including executives, creatives and production. This key relationship speeds up the process of integration and awareness across the board for Holosuit,” said a statement.

Weisman Worldwide Entertainment is the conduit between high tech media firms and traditional entertainment companies, providing A-list talent and synergistic solutions for Holograms, Motion Pictures, Series, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality from packaging through distribution.

Cory Weisman, Founder & CEO at Weisman Worldwide Entertainment said in a statement, “We at WWE, bridge the gap between the talent, traditional production houses, and technology elements to create opportunities for all in the ever-expanding entertainment technology convergence space. By joining hands with Holosuit and leveraging their expertise in cutting edge technology including AR/VR, we will architect and revamp one platform to cater the entertainment industry across the world with the 360 tech solutions.”

Holosuit acts as a bridge between the virtual & real world. It is a full-immersion sensor and feedback packed jumpsuit which allows you to point touch and feel 3D objects creating a 4D immersive experience.

“Other than gaming & automobile, our expertise in AR/VR has been deeply engaged with the real life situations and catering the solutions to neuro-rehab, sports, healthcare, education skill development, factory training, disaster response, robot training, defense or industrial operation etc. We at Holosuit believe in providing our tech driven solutions across all the industry including media & entertainment now,” says Harsha Kikkeri CEO of Holosuit Pte Ltd in a statement.

New Delhi: Moscow is the 10th best city in the world for startups, followed by Bengaluru, StartupBlink Startup Ecosystem Ranking said on Tuesday.

Moscow moved up from 14th position in 2017 to 10th position, while Bengaluru moved from 21th position to 11th position, bypassing cities such as Tokyo, Paris and Hong Kong.

San Francisco has been crowned the world's best city for startups. The list features more than 1000 cities in 100 countries. At number two on the list is New York, followed by London at number three.

Strong performers in India included New Delhi (14), Mumbai (29), Chennai (74), Hyderabad (75). Chennai and Hyderabad moved more than 100 positions up in comparison with 2017.

There are more than 4,500 startups in Moscow, according to the Moscow Agency of Innovations, which provided statistic, expert and analytical information to the Ranking. “Moscow boasts a developed innovation ecosystem, which is growing rapidly”, says Alexei Parabuchev, CEO of Moscow Agency of Innovations.

“It’s not only about the number of startups”, says Eduard Lysenko, Head of Moscow’s Smart City Department. “Moscow is creating favorable conditions for developing technology at large.”

Head of Center for Indian Studies of Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Tatiana Shaumyan suggested that Indian and Russian cities to exchange experience in the field of innovation. “Moscow and Bangalore shall be proud of going head-to-head in such a prestigious rating,” she said. “Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad are one of the centers of high technology industry. I am sure that Moscow is willing to share experience with Indian cities.”

The rating system evaluates IT data from startups, accelerators and coworking spaces registered on IT platforms and aims to identify the cities with the strongest startup ecosystems. The rating methodology considers the number and quality of startups, infrastructure, business climate and public support for innovation.

Previous StartupBlink Startup Ecosystem Ranking was published in November 2017, the next report will be annual as well in April 2020.

BENGALURU: Three angel investors have invested an undisclosed amount in Housr, the yet-to-be-launched co-living startup that has already been valued at $30 million.

Abhishek Lodha, CEO of the Lodha Group; Pirojsha Godrej, executive chairman of the Godrej Group; and Harsh Patodia, chairman of the Unimark Group have invested in Housr, which is set for launch in about two months.

Housr has already locked in over 10,000 beds across key locations such as Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Kota. Over the next 12-18 months, the company plans to expand its India footprint to more than 50,000 beds by entering markets such as Chandigarh, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

“We will be launching close to about five properties in the next four months. These five properties should in phase-one make about 3,500 beds operational,” said Deepak Anand, founder, Housr.

The Gurugram-based firm aims to become the largest co-living player in the next 12-18 months, with plans to launch over 20 properties across 8-10 key cities, with each property housing 500+ residents.

“Housr has all the ingredients required to disrupt this space through a super aggregated, and community first approach. As a developer and an investor, I look forward to supporting Housr to transform the co-living industry in India,” said Abhishek Lodha.

According to industry estimates, residential yield in India is about 2.5% currently. The co-living model gives around 6% yield to investors.

“We firmly believe that the modern shared accommodation is the future of living, driven by a thriving shared economy coupled with a largely young demographic. Collaborative consumption has become a global trend, and India is no exception,” said Kalpesh Mehta, cofounder, Housr.

India represents the largest potential market for co-living in the world with the highest number of millennials. This has led to the concept of a shared economy, owing to the shifting trends towards gaining access over the ownership model.

According to industry experts, the co-living market is pegged at around $10 billion globally and is expected to grow to $15 billion by 2020. Rents for a shared living accommodation range from ₹6,000 to ₹20,000 a month on sharing basis, while for individual living the range is ₹18,000-30,000 a month.

CHENNAI: After an entrepreneurial stint and various assignments as a product management consultant in India, Rashmi Ranjan Padhy is the senior product manager at Dubai-based transportation company Careem for seven months now. “I get to be part of a global, diverse team and the role offered was quite competitive,” he said.

Like Padhy, several mid- to senior-level executives are now finding jobs in global teams at growth-stage startups and young companies in Germany, the US and Southeast Asia. What used to be the dominion of global tech giants like Google and Facebook is now trickling down to smaller firms too.

Companies such as GrabTaxi, Go-Jek, Delivery Hero, etc are hiring executives in full-stack development, data science and product management. “These are startups that are looking to ramp up their team after sealing a series-B or -C round so that they have enough bandwidth to look outside their market for talent. They are on the lookout for people with 3-10 years of experience,” said Subhendu Panigrahi, co-founder, Skillenza.

Companies such as Skillenza and HackerRank serve as facilitators, hiring top talent through hackathons. While for executives it means global exposure, for the Southeast Asian companies, an experienced hand to work for their growth is an advantage. Recruitment firms add that there is also a slight cost arbitrage that these growth-stage companies see, in the range of 10-15%.

“When you consider the salaries, what the international startups offer are close to 20% or more. The Swiggys and Zomatos are paymasters themselves. However, employees get to work on global assignments, considering Singapore and other Southeast Asian nations have diverse teams,” said Kamal Karanth, CEO, Xpheno.

But companies add that such talent comes at a premium and the investment is up to 20% higher. “The engineers that we have hired have sound knowledge in programming languages like Clojure, Ruby and Golang. And since we don’t hire in large numbers, the process takes three weeks minimum. Besides, the resources need to travel often to all markets we operate in, so the Indian engineers are premium talent,” said Adithya Venkatesan, marketing specialist, Go-Jek tech.

While companies look mostly at lateral hires, some Silicon valley firms hire freshers from premium educational institutions for an assignment in their offices. Karanth of Xpheno adds that such offers remain an attraction, especially after Visa rules have been tightened. “Besides, the craze for a dollar salary is still prevalent and jobs in the Silicon Valley are even more coveted,” he said.

By Ellen Heut

WeWork Cos., the world’s biggest co-working company, is planning to go public, joining a wave of highly valued technology startups moving to the U.S. markets.

The New York-based company said Monday it filed paperwork confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to hold an initial public offering. WeWork, which rents office space to companies and freelancers, would likely be the year’s biggest U.S. IPO after Uber Technologies Inc., which expects to start trading next week. WeWork, which also goes by the brand We Co., was most recently valued at $47 billion in a January investment from SoftBank Group Corp., its biggest investor.

Similar to the crop of other big-name tech IPOs this year, such as Uber and Lyft Inc., WeWork runs a business with eye-watering losses. That’s due in part to heavy real-world expenses, such as building lease commitments that can last 15 years. The company lost $1.93 billion on $1.82 billion in sales last year.

In an email to staff Monday, WeWork’s chief executive officer, Adam Neumann, painted the company’s responsibilities in the lofty terms expected of a company whose mission is to “elevate the world’s consciousness.” The email’s subject line read: “Just Getting Started.”

“We have regularly focused on how to take our business to the next level in every aspect,” Neumann wrote in the email viewed by Bloomberg. “Partly due to technology and partly due to the times we live in, the world has never felt smaller and yet more people than ever are sharing that they feel alone. As one of the world’s largest physical networks, it is our responsibility to help lead the way and set the global example for people and corporations on how we should take care of each other and of our planet.”

Since its founding in 2010, WeWork has raised more than $12 billion in funding, most of it from SoftBank. The Japanese conglomerate has reshaped the world of tech startups with its $100 billion fund backed by Saudi Arabia. SoftBank is a major investor in several of the biggest public offerings planned for this year, including Uber and Slack Technologies Inc.

WeWork said it initially filed plans to go public in December and recently issued updated documents. Around the time WeWork first filed with regulators, the company was in talks with SoftBank to sell a majority stake. As global markets faltered, SoftBank backed off the plan and agreed in January to invest $2 billion to increase its minority stake. SoftBank’s stock is up almost 50 percent since then.

Although WeWork’s IPO filing isn’t yet available to the public, the company has made select disclosures about its financial performance for the last year or so. The bond market got a first glance in April 2018, when WeWork was selling $702 million in bonds rated as junk.

Since then, WeWork has briefed reporters periodically on certain financial information. It has shown a pattern of growing revenue and growing losses. The company coined its own earnings metric, called “community-adjusted Ebitda,” which eliminates all expenses related to its investments for expansion and into new markets. The company indicated the measure was an attempt to convey whether its existing buildings are profitable on their own, though it also invited derision from critics who say the operation is unsustainable.

By Lin Qiqing and Raymond Zhong

China’s richest internet moguls think their employees should work more.

Jack Ma, a founder of the e-commerce titan Alibaba, called long work hours “a huge blessing.” Richard Liu, who runs the Alibaba rival JD.com, said people who frittered away their days “are no brothers of mine.”

Rank-and-file tech workers in China, discouraged by a weakened job market and downbeat about their odds of joining the digital aristocracy, have other ideas.

They are organizing online against what in China is called the “996” culture: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week.

For years, Chinese tech employees have worked hours that make Silicon Valley’s workaholics seem pampered. Now they are naming and shaming employers that demand late nights. Some programmers are even withholding their creations from companies that they think overemphasize 996.

“Ten years ago, people rarely complained about 996,” said Li Shun, a former employee at the search giant Baidu who left to found an online medical startup. “This industry was booming once, but it’s more of a normal industry now. There are no more giant financial returns. Expecting people to work a 996 schedule on their own like before isn’t realistic.”

Unusually for China — where independent labor unions are banned and the government comes down hard on populist movements it does not control — the movement is gaining traction.

Ma softened his remarks. An industrywide conversation has begun. An open letter, sent Monday to China’s Ministry of Human Resources and signed by 74 lawyers from around the country, urges the government to properly enforce labor laws.

Even Chinese state media has called on employers to ease back.

“Under the pressures of a slowing economy, many companies are faced with questions about their survival, and their anxiety is understandable,” a commentary in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said. “But the solution is not to make employees work as much overtime as possible.”

Angst about 72-hour workweeks speaks to a deeper gloom in China’s digital industries.

Not so long ago, 996 symbolized possibility for Chinese tech entrepreneurs. Their country had the vast market. And increasingly, it had the engineering talent. The secret ingredient, the one that supposedly set China’s companies apart from Silicon Valley’s, was the hustle.

While China requires overtime pay, the laws are haphazardly enforced and the tech industry usually insists workers are committing their time voluntarily.

But hustle is harder to demand of workers in a bear market. Internet darlings have laid off employees. A torrent of venture investment in tech has slowed to a trickle. As China’s internet industry matures, giant companies like Alibaba and Tencent are looking more like monopolists whose world-swallowing dominance leaves little room for upstarts.

In China, “there’s not a lot of hope for runners-up anymore,” said Max Zhou, a co-founder of a Beijing mobile software startup called MetaApp. As a result, he said, smaller companies can no longer use a sense of grander purpose to motivate workers to sacrifice their personal lives.

“Most companies don’t have a dream anymore,” Zhou said. “They can only try to fabricate something for their employees.”

The 996 debate started last month with a simple post on GitHub, an online community where programmers around the world share code and software tools. An anonymous user posted under the screen name “996icu,” a reference to the place where such hours take engineers: the intensive care unit.

The 996.ICU GitHub repository — basically a folder for a project’s files — has since been “starred” more than 230,000 times, indicating people’s level of interest. Hundreds of fed-up tech workers have contributed to the GitHub project. Others have assembled on messaging and social media apps, with little centralized coordination.

The Chinese government is eternally fearful of spaces where mass discontent can simmer. It has long barred access to Facebook, Twitter and other global platforms. Years ago, China briefly blocked GitHub, too, but engineers protested and the site was unblocked. GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, has a policy of posting any takedown requests it receives from governments.

Nagi Zhuge, an engineer at a startup in the southern province of Hunan, has lived the 996 life for the last two years.

“My colleagues are too afraid to go home after work,” Zhuge said. “As a junior employee, I can’t be the first to leave.” He is now an active contributor to the GitHub project.

Across the different groups, the basic strategy is to push, but not so hard that the Chinese government feels compelled to react.

That means no strikes and no demonstrations. In one group on the messaging app Telegram, references to Marx and Lenin are forbidden. The philosophies of communism’s leading lights often run contrary to the way China is run today. The government cracked down against a labor rights movement in the tech hub of Shenzhen this year.

Instead of sit-ins, the tech workers are harnessing the power of memes, stickers and T-shirts. Some have pushed for a holiday to celebrate beleaguered software engineers. Zhuge is rallying workers to mail paper copies of China’s labor law to Ma of Alibaba.

“We’re expressing ourselves very gently, as programmers tend to do,” said Suji Yan, the founder of a startup in Shanghai called Dimension.