Blockchain Technology – Dutch Uncles

How Sports Tech Startups are Enhancing Fan Engagement

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 12:54:41 +0000

The outbreak of the virus and its evolving versions have caused the stadiums of football, cricket, and the Olympics to wear a deserted look. The absence of constant cheering of sports fans, banners, and placards with bold font showcasing affection, whistles, waving flags, drums, cymbals, and what not from stadiums for over a year and a half has impacted fan’s engagement with the tournament. In addition to engagement, the absence has immensely hurt the ticketing revenues and other revenue sources i.e. merchandising. Although match updates, after-match discussions, memes, behind the scenes, social media, contests are the existing mediums to drive engagement but are insufficient for engaging in a meaningful manner. Recently, IPL’s Lucknow franchise Team opened a contest for the fans to suggest names for the new team in the upcoming IPL season, it was a success however the limitations related to social media platforms will not guarantee similar fan engagement in the future. For sports that do not have a year-long schedule such as Kabaddi, Indian Super League, or Olympics, maintaining off-season engagement is a herculean task.

Interestingly, sports tech startups having technologies like blockchain, AR/VR, gamification, and NFTs can drive fan engagement in sports in a virtually connected world.

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According to a survey conducted by The Current State of Sports Technology, 78 percent of respondents believed that fan engagement technologies such as live streaming, content platforms, and esports will have the biggest impact on the sports industry in the next 12 months.

How sports tech startups can bring in fan management

According to a survey conducted by The Current State of Sports Technology, 78 percent of respondents believed that fan engagement technologies such as live streaming, content platforms, and esports will have the biggest impact on the sports industry in the next 12 months. Here are some of them:

Blockchain: Blockchain technology can help teams develop tokenised membership or precisely ‘fan tokens’ to engage fans. Fan tokenisation is an engagement model that has already begun in Europe and is yet to be adopted in Asia. In fan tokenisation, both the teams and fans can be engaged in various levels of team decisions such as voting for the colour of the jersey for the next tournament.
Player auction using token mechanism: When the player auction session begins team franchises can bring in heavy engagement from fans by taking opinions from them. Franchises through fan token mechanism can design a reward mechanism where fans can build their potential team and win rewards for correct prediction in the form of reward points that can be converted to fan tokens.
Gamification: Gamification for fan engagement is nascent on traditional social media platforms but holds potential. Playing games on blockchain technology offers great avenues of fan engagement during the off-season. The rewards for winning games can be in the form of fan tokens that can be exchanged for merchandise or financial gain.

What lies ahead for the sports tech?

A new report from the Capgemini Research Institute finds that Indian sports fans are accepting of emerging technologies such as virtual reality, gamification, and contests in their sports viewing experience both inside and outside the stadium.

Sports fans love to remain active and will never shy away from any opportunity that requires expressing their views and engaging with like-minded people for the teams they support. By saying meaningful engagement, we mean viewers crave a deeper engagement by becoming experts in their ways by understanding strategies of the game, the player statistics, and their strengths and weaknesses, which through technology the sports tech startups should utilise and drive fan engagement.

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Non-Fungible Token : A New found Love for Celebrities, Artists and Content Creators

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 09:00:09 +0000

Whether to trade in cryptocurrency or not is still debatable in India and meanwhile South Indian superstar Kamal Hassan announces to foray into the digital space with the launch of his digital avatar- a non-fungible token in partnership with Fantico – an Indian licensed digital collectibles platform. This makes him the first Indian celebrity to do so.

Soon after Hassan entered into the metaverse, Indian celebrities starting from Amitabh Bacchan, Salman Khan, fashion designer Manish Malhotra, Sunny Leone, Vishal Malhotra, and India’s wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant are following suit to foray into this space by launching their NFTs ( Non-Fungible Tokens).

But, what is it that NFTs have piqued interest amongst Indian celebrities?
For that, we will first understand what an NFT is all about.

What is an NFT ( Non-Fungible Token)?

The non-fungible tokens are blockchain-certified copies of digital art, pictures, videos, music, pixelated punks that are unique and cannot be duplicated. The word ‘fungible’ here means it cannot be split or duplicated. The tokens are digital items that can be bought and sold using blockchain technology which is the same as the technology as cryptocurrencies. The NFTs have gained immense popularity in the past few months. According to the online marketplace OpenSea, monthly sales of NFTs ballooned from USD 8 million (roughly ₹ 60 crores) in January 2021 to USD 95.2 million (around ₹ 714 crores) in February.

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According to the online marketplace OpenSea, monthly sales of NFTs ballooned from USD 8 million (roughly ₹ 60 crores) in January 2021 to USD 95.2 million (around ₹ 714 crores) in February.

How does the trading happen in NFT ( Non-Fungible Token)?

Similar to cryptocurrencies, NFTs are traded on specialised platforms and are part of the Ethereum Blockchain. The word fungible draws the major difference between cryptocurrency and NFTs. If we trade one bitcoin for another bitcoin we will have the same thing, but when we trade an NFT for something we will get something entirely different. A sale of NFT does not involve the physical transfer of the object portrayed by the token. For instance, say we NFTs of noted digital art have been sold but the buyer does not receive the art but what changes is the ownership of the art which the buyer receives in the form of a certificate of ownership registered on the blockchain and secured in a digital wallet. The original creator receives a royalty for each token resale, because the metadata contains the creator’s identity.

NFTs – a revenue churner for celebrities, artists, and content creators

Indian celebrities comprising actors, cricketers, and artists are finding NFTs a lucrative medium to directly reach their audience and earn more money. Especially for the artists who earlier had to organise traditional exhibitions and look for sponsorships from brands that involved many intermediaries that consumed time. The NFTs offered a solution that made their talent reach people also offering them a personal experience. Investors also take pride in owning something unique.
NFTs offer inclusive growth to all content creators since through this medium they receive the true worth of their creativity, can interact with the customers and buyers can offer different kinds of assets for liquidity using NFT.

A fillip to the revenues of the creator economy

NFTs will create new avenues of economic opportunities for content creators. The content creators usually depend on social media platforms whose significant revenue sources are the ads displayed for their fan base. A creator does not realise revenues from the benefits of the platform which NFTs are offering.

Lastly, investors find investing in NFTs to be skeptical since for instance if one painter paints the original Hussain’s horses, that person will not become MF Hussain or the copy will not have the same value monetarily as the one drawn by the original artist. Currently,in India there is no separate legal framework for NFTs in India and one can easily buy one from platforms such as BuyUCoin, Binance, WazirX and many others.

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Blockchain Start-Ups in India Disrupting Finance

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 08:31:42 +0000

What is Blockchain?

It is defined as a ‘digital ledger of transactions’ and is a technology that powers cryptocurrencies and NFTs (non-fungible tokens is a unit of data which when stored on a blockchain, certifies a digital asset to be unique and hence non interchangeable).

What is Disruption?

Disruption essentially means the ability to rapidly change an industry and subsequently cause changes to other linked sectors as well. In this scenario, the Blockchain technology is disrupting finance by transforming payments across many other sectors like Cybersecurity, Healthcare, etc.

Indian start-ups disrupting finance

Polygon

Polygon wants to make blockchain mainstream. The start-up is disrupting finance by facilitating quick, low-cost transactions on the main chain and by attracting high investor interest. Polygon’s very own form of Bitcoin named ‘Matic’ is among the top 20 global currencies with a market cap of over $10B.

Instadapp

Instadapp is a Hyderabad-based blockchain start-up which is disrupting finance with their blockchain-based platform that’s solving problems in decentralised financing. The regulatory landscape in India which is not conducive to crypto transactions. Instadapp offers foundational DeFi (decentralised finance) integration which services can plug into in the absence of infrastructure and can even offer their own system to top it.

WazirX

WazirX, a Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange is disrupting finance even amidst the regulatory cloud in India and RBI’s apprehension of the crypto boom. Their NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) marketplace recently went live. Banks and crypto exchanges like WazirX are at war regarding crypto investments. But that is not deterring WazirX from taking leaps in enabling crypto usage in India with its NFT trading platform which is the first of its kind in South Asia.

Other noteworthy Blockchain start-ups disrupting finance

CoinSwitch Kuber, an Indian focused crypto exchange is popular among newbies to the crypto world for its clean UI. Psi Phi Blockchain lab is disrupting the healthcare and supply chain industries by optimising the supply chain data flow with blockchain-based products for these sectors. Next is Print2Block, a Chennai-based blockchain start-up which is disrupting governance by assisting the state government of Maharashtra in issuing Covid-19 test certificates. Also worth mentioning is Primechain, which is disrupting the banking sector with its blockchain based solutions.

Zebi is another noteworthy start-up which has come up with a unique NFT platform for the cricket world. Unique digital collectibles pertaining to cricket (e.g., an autograph) can be exclusively purchased and owned on Zebi’s platform.

KoinEArth’s MarketsN platform is disrupting the supply chain by enabling greater collaboration between suppliers, logistics, service providers, and distributors. CoinDCX, a cryptocurrency exchange, is targeting millennial and GenZ crypto investors to consider Bitcoin as an investment class asset. SoluLab’s blockchain applications are disrupting multiple industries like finance, healthcare, real estate, and more. The company is also offering blockchain development services and is also an active investor in this space.

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CoinDCX, a cryptocurrency exchange is targeting millennial and GenZ crypto investors to consider Bitcoin as an investment class asset.

What’s in it for me?

The biggest outcome of investing in a blockchain start-up is that you can facilitate lightning-fast payments and transactions for your customers. The upside for customers availing blockchain services is that they will enjoy a better output at much lower fees compared to banks and traditional financial institutions.

Blockchain technology is piping hot currently in the fintech world and start-ups are in the race to capture the market. Some of the successful Indian start-ups mentioned above have shown tremendous growth and potential, even amidst a less conducive environment within the country. Blockchain is a goldmine to tap into mainly because it can disrupt multiple industries. Start-ups venturing into Digital Contracts have immense potential of winning foreign investments.

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Future of Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in Helping Indian SMEs

Aakash Sharma — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 03:35:04 +0000

Ethereum, popularly traded as ETH or Ξ, is a decentralised, open-source blockchain cryptocurrency with smart contract functionality. Following Bitcoin, it is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. Ethereum is the most active blocking chain. Russian developer Vitalik Buterin along with Gavin Wood programmed this cryptocurrency in 2013.

Ethereum is a decentralised finance (DeFi) application that provides a wide range of financial services without the need for regular financial intermediaries such as banks or stock exchanges and allows cryptocurrency users to enter into contracts or hold their own loans.

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Ethereum is home to digital money, global payments, and application - the crypto community has built a booming digital economy.

Can Indian MSMEs Get Relief with Cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin?

With the high tide of blockchain and cryptocurrency, it is time for India to partner with world-renowned cryptocurrencies to fund SMEs and help businesses grow. The government can do this by channelling legitimate investors through Indian and international exchanges, which will help eliminate a $500.5 million funding gap for SMEs.

According to experts, major crypto applications and tokens in India can be credited to MSMEs for financial backing. The difficulty of lack of credit for India’s vast strip of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has appeared to be unending so far. For the uninitiated, the credit gap for MSMEs in India is estimated to be a whopping $380 billion, as per the World Bank.

Today, the critical question is – to back businesses of all sizes in India, could there be an investor segment with an essentially volatile investment appetite mixed with a global outlook to support vast local and small business assets? Experts believe that cryptocurrency investors could be the answer to this question.

Crypto is Bringing Fundamental Change for All, including SMEs

Changes in blockchain technology and regulations have caused a fundamental shift between private and public equities. By adding a solid community of private investors and preparing to support the private sector tomorrow, India needs to democratise private sector investment and finance the enterprise of Indian SMEs.

With the rise of cryptocurrency, banks will ultimately have to use blockchain technology to facilitate crypto investments. The whole contemporary banking structure is an obstacle to the financial absorption of cryptocurrencies in the country. India needs more innovative systems to ensure faster penetration, better investment and better performance across the sector.

Cryptocurrencies in India need Regulation, Not Bans

For the Indian cryptocurrency industry to reach its full potential, the regulatory framework needs to be clarified. To harness the power of crypto in India, tax authorities must work with governments on crucial issues such as definition and ownership, compliance, certification and reporting and taxation.

The crypto giants like Ethereum, Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Polygon Matic, etc., today are bigger than the numerous tech giants in India. As soon as India adopts the technology with open arms, stringent policy and regulations, all these new channels will add to the economy. In addition, by increasing information on foreign investment, crypto can meet the financial needs of SMEs.

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Upcoming Fintech Webinars and Online Events in India

Anju Nambiar — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 03:35:04 +0000

There are a number of exciting webinars and online events lined up for the Fintech Industry for the remainder of 2021. Here are 10 of the most prospective virtual events for India:

Fintech Meetup

This virtual event is an online meeting for professionals. Scheduled between the 15-17 June 2021, Fintech Meetup is a unique event where about 15,000 double opt-in, one-on-one virtual meetings will be conducted. Fintech Meetup will be attended by 2000 professionals. It’s an opportunity to network with the payments, banking and financial service community for collaboration on several avenues. Through 1-1’s and peer group conversations titled ‘TableTalks’, you can connect with business prospects, showcase your products/services, invest, or raise funds for start-ups, bag mergers and acquisitions, etc.

ASEAN Fintech Forum

The ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Fintech Forum is an online event taking place on the 6th of July 2021. This virtual conference is occurring in partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Topics of discussion include fintech movements, financial inclusion, regulatory trends and compliance, AI/ML in Fintech, Blockchain, etc.

Finnovate Asia

Finnovate Asia is an online virtual event scheduled between 22-23 June 2021. It’s a unique event that is focused on innovation in the industry and key trends in Asia. The prospective topics of discussion include Digital Banking, the future of payments, embedded finance, cross border payments systems, and more.

Fintech Connect

Fintech Connect 2021 is focused on the Global Fintech Ecosystem and will commence on the 3rd of November to conclude on the 2nd of December 2021. An online event, it will see participation from over 80 countries and will feature Mukund Umalkar, Head of RegTech Partnerships, ING on the RegTech advisory board. The spotlight of the event is on digital transformation in the banking, insurance, and payments sectors. Key areas of focus include PayTech, Blockchain, and RegTech.

Fintech India Expo

Scheduled between the 23-25 March 2022, Fintech India Expo is an event taking place at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, and which will feature a ‘Phygital’ conference encompassing several virtual conference programmes alongside physical conferences. Several discussions have been planned for the event on Blockchain, Digital Lending, Fraud & Cybersecurity, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Machine Learning (ML) for Financial Regulators, and Financial Services in the IoT era.

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NBFC100 is a virtual summit which will take place on July 9, 2021. This is a single day confluence which will feature discussions on the role of technology in finance, RBI Support, re-strategizing business amidst the second wave, liquidity concerns, and more.

Building Financial Resilience

Building Financial Resilience is an upcoming webinar on securing investments amidst economic uncertainty. It will be conducted by ICICI Prudential and will feature Manish Kumar, Chief Investment Officer at ICICI Prudential. It’s an invite only webinar and key topics of discussion will include financial instruments to be invested in, personal financial decisions, and investment options.

The Future of Finance

The Future of Finance is a free, virtual event that will take place on the 8th of June, 2021. Topics of discussion will include Digital Transformation in Banking, Crypto, Polished Payment Options, and Sustainable Investing. The event will feature speakers from leading financial institutions like Bank of America, American Express, Grayscale Investments, etc.

Fintech Festival India 2022

Occurring between 9 – 11 March 2022 at IICC Dwarka, New Delhi, the Fintech Festival India is a hybrid event which will feature multi-city hybrid micro experiences on payment solutions, credit scoring platforms, P2P lending, financial planning, and billing solutions.

NBFC100 Tech Summit

NBFC100 is a virtual summit which will take place on the 9th of July 2021. This is a single day confluence which will feature discussions on the role of technology in finance, RBI Support, re-strategizing business amidst the second wave, liquidity concerns, and more. Attendance is recommenced for technology solution providers, start-ups, and CXOs.

Global Fintech Fest

A virtual event, the Global Fintech Fest will be taking place between 1-3 June 2021. It will feature discussions on Policy, Business, Investment, and DeepTech with Fintech as the common theme. It will see attendance from the biggest thought leaders in the industry.

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Indian Blockchain Tech Startup Polygon Added to Mark Cuban’s Portfolio

Aakash Sharma — Sat, 29 May 2021 07:35:04 +0000

Polygon, formerly known as Matic Network, is a protocol and framework start-up dedicated to building and integrating Ethereum-enabled blockchain networks. The start-up combines a scalable Ethereum solution that supports the cryptocurrency’s multi-helical ecosystem, and is now backed by Mark Cuban.

Polygon was established in 2017 by three Indian software engineers – Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun. They started the company to provide faster and cheaper transactions on the popular programmable blockchain Ethereum using Layer 2 sidechains.

Blockchain is a method of recording data that makes it difficult or unlikely to change, hack, or cheat the system. Blockchain is essentially a digital transaction log that can be copied and distributed over the network of computer systems in the blockchain.

The layer two side chains are a blockchain that works closely with the Ethereum core chain. The scaling solution has been widely adopted with more than 250 decentralized applications, 76 million transactions and 790,000 unique users.

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Polygon aims to solve pain points associated with blockchains, such as high gas fees and slow speeds, without sacrificing security.

Why has Mark Cuban Invested in Polygon?

American billionaire Mark Cuban has recently invested in Polygon. The company says that it was now part of Mark Cuban’s portfolio. Cuban is one of the biggest proponents of cryptocurrency, especially Ether and Dogecoin. His crypto portfolio consists of 60% of Bitcoins, 30% of Ethereum, and other currencies that account for the rest. Cuban has invested in more than ten blockchain start-ups and is a big promoter of the bright future of cryptocurrency.

Polygon Captures the Crypto Scene in India at the Right Time

Polygon is the first well-structured and user-friendly platform for scaling and infrastructure development of ethereum. The company aims to improve the usability and utility of the current decentralized ecosystem. Its crucial element is the Polygon SDK, a flexible and modular framework that supports creating a wide variety of applications.

In recent years, demand for scalable two-part solutions has attracted capital inflows, leading to the rise of Matic coins, Polygon’s original cryptocurrency. Matic is a made in India cryptocurrency which has grown by over 8,000% over the previous year. With a market value of approximately $11 billion, Matic is one of the 15 best cryptocurrencies in the world.

What has Polygon done to disrupt the cryptocurrency industry?

Polygon has effectively transformed Ethereum into a complete multi-chain system: The Internet of Blockchains, this multi-chain system is similar to other methods such as Polkadot, Cosmos, and Avalanche and has the advantage of protecting the open Ethereum ecosystem. With Polygon, a new structure has been created around existing mature technology to expand the capability of the developer ecosystem to meet a wide variety of needs.

Polygon will continue to develop the core technology to expand it into a larger ecosystem. Needless to say, Polygon and it’s made in India cryptocurrency $MATIC crypto is playing an essential role in system security and control while opening avenues for Indian crypto enthusiasts simultaneously.

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How to Identify Fake Products on your E-Commerce Platform?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Thu, 13 May 2021 11:00:09 +0000

Shenzhen Jiayz Photo Industrial Ltd., the parent company of BOYA wireless microphones and accessories, has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against e-commerce sites Flipkart, Amazon India, Paytm Mall, Tata Cliq, and Snapdeal for allegedly selling fake versions of its products.

Such cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

There are various instances on social media where people have expressed their anger and resentment towards receiving fake products. Repeated incidents of receiving such fake products tend to erode the brand reputation and consumer trust. This results in loss of revenues which is detrimental to the e-commerce businesses especially in the pandemic where people are most likely to shop from online platforms.

The size of fake and counterfeit products, according to Acviss- a technology company that uses algorithms to protect consumers and brands from experiencing counterfeit products- is a massive Rs 20,000 crore industry, which is roughly less than 0.37 percent of the total retail pie in India. The size is quite alarming for e-commerce businesses. According to ASPA (Authentication Solutions Providers Association), fake and counterfeit products cause revenue losses worth Rs 1 lakh crore annually in India.

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The size of fake and counterfeit products, according to Acviss- is a massive Rs 20,000 crore industry in India.

Reasons Behind the Growth of Fake Products on E-Commerce Platforms

Lack of visibility, traceability, and transparency in the existing supply chain network from manufacturing to point of sale is making room for fake products.

In e-commerce marketplaces, the detection of counterfeit and fake products is cumbersome since orders are accepted by the e-tailers and are shipped directly by suppliers. There is no such body that inspects the goods that are being supplied by the suppliers.

This holds the e-retailers responsible for the quality and authenticity of products and ends up with negative reviews of customers receiving the counterfeit or fake product.

Amazon’s Project Zero to fight fake products

E-commerce giant Amazon was troubled with the menace of fake products largely due to the size and scale of its third-party marketplace that went unregulated. The e-commerce major decided to tackle the fake product menace with its Project Zero initiative which ensured that the customers received authentic goods while shopping on its platform.

More than 7000 global brands are associated with Amazon’s Project Zero initiative across the US, Europe, and Japan, with pilot tests being launched in India to test Project Zero.

How Amazon’s Project Zero Works

Amazon’s Project Zero, as the name suggests, aims to have zero tolerance towards fake products on its platform through its Machine Learning (ML) capabilities consisting of three powerful tools:

Automated protections
Self-service counterfeit removal tool
Product serialisation.

Brands to counter their fake versions will associate with Project Zero to submit trademarks, logos, and intellectual property data with Amazon, which in turn will be used by Project Zero to automatically detect fake or counterfeit products.

Amazon’s machine learning-backed automated protections will continuously scan its site that displays a myriad of 5 billion product listing updates per day, for detection of any suspected counterfeits.

The self-service counterfeit tool gives brands the autonomy to directly remove products impersonating as original from Amazon’s store that otherwise required to file a counterfeit report first with Amazon to take action. This information is shared with the company’s automated protections enabling Amazon to catch potential fake product listings proactively in the future.

Project zero’s product serialisation will allow Amazon to scan and receive confirmation about the authenticity of a brand’s products being purchased on the site. It assigns a unique code for each manufactured unit, that is put on products during the manufacturing process. When the product is ordered, Amazon scans this unique code to verify if the product being bought is authentic. If not, Amazon can detect and stop a counterfeit item before it reaches the customer.

Is Project Zero Free for Brands?

Project Zero enrollment is free for brands however, brands that will use the product serialisation service will incur costs.

Other technologies to Counter Fake Products Being Sold

Blockchain technology is another solution. Its characteristic of distributed ledger technology is widely being used in the fashion industry to establish transparency, security and authenticity in products thus saving the livelihoods of designers and restoring the trust of end consumers. Many global fashion and luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, Zara are implementing blockchain technology in the process.

During the development of a product, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags are attached to the raw materials and are scanned at various stages right from its production to packaging to confirm the genuineness and authenticity of the product. The RFID tags, when scanned, execute a smart contract where multiple trusted nodes verify the information to be correct before the update goes on record in the blockchain ledger. Each entry in the blockchain ledger is protected and encrypted that deters fraud.

How should small businesses go about it?

For Small Businesses who Sell on E-commerce Platforms

Fake or counterfeit products will create irate and unhappy customers whose trust regarding your brand will erode resulting in refunds and exchanges eventually causing a drop in revenues. Hence, small businesses who are sellers on e-commerce giants Amazon should enroll themselves with Project Zero.

For E-commerce Businesses

Independent D2C e-commerce can invest in blockchain or ML technologies to make the entire supply and operations under its radar, therefore, protecting the business from selling fake products.

This will make your e-commerce platform secure and increase user’s trust. Sellers and Buyers using your platform will choose you over other options in the market. Hence, you will be ahead of the competition and increase the number of loyal customers. You might also be able to expand your user base with new sellers and buyers when they are influenced by the existing happy users.

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These are the Latest Public-Private Partnerships in Fintech

Naina Sood — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:35:03 +0000

Financial Institutions (FIs) have been collaborating over the past few years to harness the technology offered by Fintech players to offer a plethora of more efficient, secure, digital-first financial products to customers. Fintech partners, on the other hand, are benefiting from the significant financial resources, valuable data on customers, and market insights that banks have to offer and create disruptive solutions. We evaluate some of the latest public-private collaboration trends and future opportunities in the same:

Blockchain

Public lending institutions and insurance companies have been paying increasing attention to blockchain and drawing on the technological expertise of blockchain-focused Fintech companies so they can continue to focus on their core business. Application of blockchain is in three forms: Cross-border payments, settlement of securities and trade finance.

Recently, a consortium of top Indian banks was formed for the purpose of collaboration on blockchain initiatives. As many as 11 Indian banks, including ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, Standard Chartered, RBL, and South Indian Bank, have aligned in the consortium to introduce and execute a blockchain-based loan system for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. The FIs are looking to collaborate with blockchain developers/ Fintech start-ups which can demonstrate the use case and what is the role for the bank in that use case.

RegTech

FIs have also started partnering with RegTech companies to strengthen their identification verification and background checks, financial crime surveillance and fintech risk management. Tech ventures, such as Mumbai-based CogNext Analytics, are collaborating with FIs, which are regulated bythe Reserve Bank of India (RBI), to help them comply with regulations for transaction monitoring, fraud and risk management, identity management, among other functions.

On the other hand, regulators are also benefiting from RegTech companies by using their artificial intelligence and other technologies to streamline resources, understand rogue consumer behaviour and to prioritise and maintain market stability.

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The FIs are looking to collaborate with blockchain developers/start-ups which can demonstrate the use case and what is the role for the bank in that use case.

Open Banking Partnerships

Open banking is slowly growing in the Indian financial services with several Fintech partnerships happening in this area. During COVID-19, several banks adopted open banking via Open APIs and have started offering a major chunk of their banking services outside their firewalls. Fintechs are able to use data from banks using secure protocols built on sharing models via API. This trend is expected to magnify in India through 2021 as more and more customers demand digital financial services.

Fintech players, however, need to keep in mind the security challenges and bring in a tighter system in open banking platforms.

Cloud-Based Technology

A recent example of this is the ICICI Bank’s collaboration with cloud-based accounting software solution provider, AlignBooks, to add accounting technology to their system and strengthen its SMB services. Current account holders at ICICI Bank can now link their bank account data into AlignBooks software to automate data entry and streamline reconciliation. The partnership will enable SMBs to access their account information even when they do not have an internet connection. FIs are looking for similar tie ups, especially with the ones that utilise secure cloud-based technology, to find unique solutions for better user experiences, personalisation and automation.

Neo Banking

Neo-banking in India is expected to see a huge spur in 2021, attracting investments from global players as well. Indian Neo Banks like NiYO, RazorPayX, Instant Pay etc., have already collaborated with traditional banks and support them with customer acquisition as well as new-age digital services. The Neobank model is a little different in India as the RBI presently does not allow pure-play digital banks to operate yet. Therefore, collaborations are the win-win case scenario.

What is in it for me?

Fintech players/start-ups looking for successful collaborations must evaluate how their new product and service is bringing something new to the FIs—a new segment of customers the FI could not access earlier, or a new service to existing customers, or a new way to approach existing problems and workflows. FinTechs challenges revolve around areas like performance of systems, speed, security and vulnerabilities. Hence, they must standardise the systems performance, user authentication and security controls for a successful tie-up.

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India: New Product Development in Agritech

Chayanika Sen — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 10:35:04 +0000

When we think of technology, we think of robots, automation, artificial intelligence, etc. that make our life easy and convenient. Little do we think about the intervention of technology in the field of agriculture. Agritech is the application of technology and technological innovations in agriculture. With the world population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, agritech is going to play a crucial role. But before we talk about the new product development in agritech, let’s understand some of the challenges in agriculture and how technology plays a crucial role in solving those challenges.

Challenges in Agriculture

Land management: As the population keeps increasing, farmers have been engaging in intensive farming to the growing population of the world. This means that more synthetic pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers are used on the soil, which reduces soil fertility. Hence, more fertilizers are needed to be added to restore the soil quality. Additionally, all the synthetic fertilizers that are used in agriculture, seep in slowly in the nearby water sources.

Effect on the climate: As we embrace intensive agriculture to meet the growing population’s demand, more forest lands are being reclaimed. Along with reducing forest cover, it also increases the greenhouse effect, thus increasing the temperature. Climate change not only affects us, but it affects crops too.

Change in biodiversity: With forest land transforming quickly into agricultural lands, there has been a major impact on the local flora and fauna, thus creating an imbalance in the biodiversity.

How Technology is Solving Agricultural Issues

Drones and satellites: Drones and satellites have a lot of roles to play in solving agricultural challenges. For example, drones can provide food security to the growing population of the world. It helps to maximize crop production by promoting pollination, replicating the activities of bees. Drones can fire seeds into the ground, thus helping to sow seeds at a much faster rate than any other existing devices or human efforts.

With the help of thermal cameras, drones can keep track of remote livestock pastures, watch for predators, and keep a check on the livestock’s health. The Near Infra-Red (NIR) sensors are capable of determining the plant’s health based on light absorption. This helps farmers take preventive measures and intervene on time to restore the plant’s health, resulting in better and higher yields of crops.

Drones also help to keep crop diseases at bay. For example, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can evaluate crop diseases and thus provide critical information to the farmers. It can also spray herbicides where needed instead of covering all the crops with herbicides.

Big -data and blockchain in agriculture: Blockchain has been revolutionizing various industries, and the agriculture sector is not left behind. Leveraging blockchains, consumers can now know how the produce originated that they are going to consume. Blockchain also helps to reduce the intervention of middlemen, thus reducing the price of the goods.

Technology in farm maintenance: Robotics and automated farm maintenance machinery play an essential role in locating the produce precisely, optimize irrigation, select the right crops to harvest, and more. Traditionally these processes are done manually, which takes a lot of time and effort, while with a little bit of technology, the whole process can be speeded up.

IoT-based sensors: Different IoT-based sensors are used in agriculture that helps farmers with critical information about weather, soil condition, thus allowing them to optimize crop yields.

Smart farming: One of the most prominent uses of tech in agriculture is smart farming. Smart agriculture is a method where farming is optimized by previous research, inspection, and data. Some of the common techniques used in smart agriculture include:

Precision farming: To make precise farming decisions on the nature of the crop or the farmland tract, drones, sensors, satellites are used to gather data.

Automated irrigation: Automated irrigation helps to have better yield while at the same time it helps save cost on energy, and at the same time conserves the environment.

Hydroponics: Hydroponics is the method of growing crops without involving soil. In this method, the exact amount of water and nutrients are provided in precision. Since there is no soil needed to grow produces, the hydroponics method can help grow crops anywhere, especially on a vertical farm.

Vertical farming: This is another modern concept of farming where crops are grown in the vertical layer. Lighting supplements and appropriate water irrigation systems are used to water the plants. Vertical farming is popular in places where farming lands are scarce. The method is easy and encourages farmers to adopt it.

Leveraging weather forecast systems: Different crops thrive under different weather conditions. Knowing the weather in advance with the weather forecast system’s help, farmers can choose the right time for sowing seeds.

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UAV can evaluate crop diseases and thus provide critical information to the farmers. It can also spray herbicides where needed instead of covering all the crops with herbicides.

Benefits of Agritech

With the rise in agriculture, especially organic farming, organic fertilizers, mulch, and compost all come into use. Agritech can help to a great extent in the production of these.

While many farmers are adopting integrated farming, technology can help them explore different opportunities.

Hydroponics is encouraging farmers and home gardeners to consider soilless agriculture. Agritech is also encouraging farmers to grow more crops in limited land with better yields.

New Agritech Product Developments in India

Agritech is leading the next green revolution in India. With several startups leading from the forefront, many incubators are encouraging and promoting technology innovation in agriculture, especially in rural India. Some of the new agritech product development is happening in automation, IoT, AI/ML, data science, etc.

For example, SatSure, an agritech company, has been working in satellite image processing, big data capabilities, and IT in agriculture. The company has mobile app platforms focused on delivering information on supply statistics of crops and crop stressing. Thus, farmers have better visibility on what to sow when to sow, and such critical information can help them make better products and earn more.

Another agritech company, Fasal, is helping farmers by offering microclimate forecasts customized on a point-scale basis. The startup collects data on which their AI-based microclimate forecasting algorithm includes real-time in-field information. The real-time actionable inputs help farmers to take preventive measures on a day-to-day basis in their farms.

Gobasco, another agritech startup, works on real-time data analytics on data streams that they source from multiple channels. Their solution is backed by AI-optimized automated pipelines, which improve the agriculture supply chain.

Internet, AI, and shared services are used extensively in agritech space to help farmers with precision agriculture technologies backed by real-time synchronization of supply and demand. Aibono is one such agritech company that is assisting farmers extensively in this area.

Over the last few years, many online platforms have come into existence, which help farmers, enterprises, governments, traders, and banks to connect online. AgriBazaar is one such online platform that works on a traditional “mandi” model on a digital platform. It allows small farmers and merchants to directly buy and sell farm produce without the involvement of middlemen.

Agritech Trends to Keep an Eye on

The first thing to focus on is crop monitoring technologies for improving agricultural outcomes. The agribusinesses can highly benefit from on-farm data and agronomy management technology along with basic digitization to leverage data.

Companies with a strong digital foothold will have a competitive advantage in solving the growing needs of both the growers and the consumers.

With innovative technologies like remote sensing, image recognition software, and satellite technology, one can monitor farmlands from anywhere in the world. Leveraging such technologies, farm managers can provide real-time inputs to the farmers and suggest proactive measures.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Agriculture

With remote monitoring of fields becoming a reality, farm managers, farmers, government agencies are now better positioned to make more informed decisions. These decisions are now based on data, thanks to advanced data analytics tools available to the farmers. Apart from making informed decisions, farmers can also have real-time inputs that will impact the same crop cycle.

The recent advancement in AI / ML technologies is allowing farmers to embrace intelligent food productions. Food production is now becoming both traceable and climate-resilient. Technologies like machine learning and deep learning are helping agro-businesses to mine agri data. For example, farmers now know precisely which trait of crops is best suited for better yield. Thus, they can now choose the right seeds and need not depend on the trial-and-error method.

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With innovative technologies like remote sensing, image recognition software, and satellite technology, one can monitor farmlands from anywhere in the world.

Agritech Startups in India: The New Ray of Hope

The agro-industry has been a loss-making industry for the majority of the farmers. But, for the last few years, agritech startups are mushrooming all over India, trying to bridge the gap and fix issues like low landholding, lack of sophisticated technologies, or underwriting loans. Some of the prominent agritech startups to watch out for in 2021 include:

Agrowave: This Delhi-based startup uses mobile pickup stations to reach the farmers at the farm gates. The firm reaches out to farmers in remote corners of the country, buys fresh produces, and sells directly to businesses like restaurants, cafes, etc. They are building a farm-to-market mobility supply chain through a network of mobile pickup stations at farm gates.

BharatAgri: This Pune-based startup provides end-to-end decision-making support to the farmers. The company offers tech-enabled services to mid and large-sized farmers who are mainly into cash crop production. Their app-based platforms provide inputs like real-time monitoring, weather-based advisory, and personalized advisories using data science. They work on a subscription-based model. However, the reach of smartphones and internet technology to rural India is a concern for this model’s success.

BigHaat: This Bengaluru-based startup is an online agri-input distribution platform. This next-gen agritech startup leverages data and offers high-quality inputs to the farm including crop advisory. It has also been leveraging different digital channels to engage the farmers.

Bijak: Bijak is a Delhi-based B2B marketplace for farmers, middlemen, and food producers. It has a user-friendly app used by agritech startups, aggregators, processors, traders, and everyone.

Clover Ventures: This Bengaluru-based startup offers full-stack agronomy solutions to greenhouse farmers, thus improving and standardizing output quality. This startup supports farmers in peri-urban and rural areas, thus ensuring consumers receive fresh yields and no spoilage.

The Future of Agritech in India

As more startups continue to invest in agritech to provide real-time solutions for agricultural issues, the future of agritech in India looks promising. The future of agritech needs to focus more on sustainable methods and move away from depending heavily on chemical processes. Irrigation facilities are still lagging in this country, although the government has created separate funds for improving the irrigation system. It will be good to see how technology can help reduce the farmers’ dependence on rainfall for better crop yields. With more and more people becoming conscious and acknowledging the agriculture industry’s requirements, more investors and startup founders are coming forward to invest in new product development for this sector.

The post India: New Product Development in Agritech appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Tech Trends for Fashion Ecommerce to Rule in 2021

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 23 Feb 2021 01:30:08 +0000

‘It is difficult to determine size while shopping clothes online.’

-The plight of an online shopper

An online shopper in India goes through ambiguity while selecting the right size of apparel. The fashion and apparel category though being one of the most revenue-generating category is recognized to have the highest return rate, with colour, size, and textile being the major reasons. Findings of a RedSeer report of 2019 say that about 20-30 percent of the products bought from fashion e-commerce stores are returned that accounts for about $6 billion of the total $32 billion gross merchandise value of online retail in India. Sometimes, when a customer returns a product, he has to incur the charges for reverse shipping. Reverse shipping becomes expensive for the company since the logistics firm has to go to that location to pick up that one parcel. Also, since the ordered apparel is worn and tried by multiple people, the same is repacked and sold to the next customer, by which the apparel neither gets washed nor ironed. To resolve this problem of high returns, the fashion e-commerce sector needs to implement technology solutions such as AR, VR and virtual assistants, etc. by which the customer can purchase the right apparel.

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About 20-30 percent of all fashion products bought online are returned that accounts for about $6 billion of the total $32 billion gross merchandise value of online retail in India.

- RedSeer Report, 2019

Phygital = Physical + Digital

The pandemic has restricted movement and people are comfortable buying online. With an increase in online shopping, its good times for offline stores. Shops that initially began as an offline store can transit into an online one offering a phygital experience. A phygital experience shopping experience is an amalgamation of technology such as Blockchain, virtual reality and augmented reality infused with the experience of physical shopping. Implementation of such technologies can be used for geo-targeting consumers and help fashion retail companies create specific offers and rewards. It will also aid the fashion e-commerce companies to gather insights on consumer shopping habits and patterns, footfall, efficiency, etc. It also helps to improve brand positioning, promotion, product, pricing and shopping experience.

New Tech trends that will enhance the fashion e-commerce shopping

The virtual shopping assistants

Consumer preferences and trends especially in the fashion industry are highly volatile, making it imperative for fashion e-commerce companies to go for a personalized shopping approach and customer-centric merchandising. Mimicking the sales assistants in a physical store, the fashion e-commerce companies can implement AI-based chatbots as the new virtual sales representatives. These AI chatbots or virtual representatives are computer programs that simulate a human conversation through chatting and messaging. When a customer arrives at the website, the AI chatbots engage with the site visitor in a conversation, first introducing themselves as a chatbot and shooting an array of questions that determines what the customer is searching for. After, knowing the preferences, the AI chatbots can directly take the customer to browse collections in the catalogue. The virtual assistants can provide suggestions of styling, selection of outfits, customer service, and product discovery. The conversational tone of finding products on the website makes the filter feature an obsolete one.

Virtual Trial Rooms

The fashion e-commerce industry is plagued by high returns that can be blamed on the inability to detect the right size of apparel bought. The long queue before trial room can be tackled by leveraging AR (augmented reality) technology that enables a virtual fitting room. In a virtual fitting room, the shoppers can click a picture of themselves and drag the chosen outfits that are AR filters, and create a unique style. Multiple collages of every outfit, style and fitting can be created for comparison and understand what works best.

An alternate virtual fitting room can also be created by including 3D models. Virtually a 3D model can be created by mimicking a shopper’s exact body measurements. Once the 3D model is made, it is a replica of the shopper itself, from where we can drag various outfits to the 3D model created.

A virtual fitting room allows shoppers to experiment with various looks and apparel combinations, which in offline trial room is limited to a few apparels.

Self-Checkout Kiosks

Online businesses are adopting omnichannel strategies to fully leverage the supply chain and better utilization of inventory. Unlike online shopping, billing of items in an offline store consumed a significant amount of time, leaving the shoppers annoyed. In times when customers are seeking instant gratification, the time taken for billing can be reduced by keeping self-checkout kiosks. Self-checkout kiosks enable quicker checkout by allowing the customer to complete billing in simpler steps and without any intervention of humans.

Blockchain Technology

Besides finance and digital currencies, blockchain technology is gaining ground in the fashion ecommerce industry as well. Customers often vent their resentment on social media of not receiving genuine products that eventually erodes the brand image. To counter fake products or products of substandard quality, blockchain technology in combination with physical RFID chips or QR codes, companies can track the multiple stages involved in sourcing the raw materials to distribution of finished products to the end consumer. It ensures that the entire process right from manufacturing to a finished product is performed in an ethical and secured manner by monitoring in between processes. It induces transparency since blockchain’s characteristic of distributed ledger can be accessed by manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors. The ledger contains a detailed history of the product’s origin to where it is presently.

How Shopify Helps Fashion E-commerce

Shopify AR

Fashion online stores website is the showroom, and the better the display of vibrant colours and detailing of a fabric or apparel, the more it entices the customer. Shopify AR is a web-powered augmented reality service that gives an immersive shopping experience to the customers driving more sales. It brings the product alive and allows shoppers to have a realistic idea of the size, scale, and detail of the products. Just like images, we can add 3D models to product pages. As per Shopify’s study, the conversion rate of products increases by 94 percent if it has AR content. It has an accessible toolkit to create a 3D model of the product that can be stored in the 3D Warehouse App that is integrated with Shopify AR, making it easy to add any models to the product pages. Shopify has an AR-powered-product customizer that can determine how potential buyers, window, shoppers, and loyal customers and explore products online. Its ‘size-up feature’ and 360-degree viewer allows customer to get an enlarged view of the product. The file size of the 3D-model should be of a minimum of 6MB and a maximum of 15 MB and file type to be in GLB. GLB is the binary version of the gITF (Graphics Language Transmission Format) 3D file format.

AI Chatbots

Artificial intelligence is shaping the online customer experiences by addressing their queries, grievances, providing suggestions, thus reducing the barrier of interaction between a brand and customer, personalizes the experience. The Shopify app store has a plethora of AI Chatbots apps to install for your fashion e-commerce site. The AI chatbots also connect with social media platforms. In case we want an in-built chatbot for the store, we can have some customized chatbot designs for an A/B test. The top five AI chatbots for Shopify are Tidio, Gobot, Tobi, Kit, and Intelliticks.

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As per Shopify's study, the conversion rate of products increases by 94 percent if it has AR content.

A blockchain plugin

The counterfeit products put business owners’ years of hard work in vain. The influx of counterfeit products in fashion e-commerce can be blamed on the lack of monitoring and control on the journey of raw materials to a finished product. However, Shopify is tackling this menace by blockchain integrated plugins, to ensure that the items sold on the site are authentic. The plugin is a combination of blockchain technology and a cloud-based application ‘TAM’ that allows companies to create non-fungible tokens (NFT) with which the physical assets can be secured. NFTs are cryptographic tokens that are unique and cannot be mutually interchanged. Products consisting of an NFT can be scanned by the customer to check if it is genuine.

The minimum contact to pay

To revolutionize the in-store retail experience for brands with an omnichannel presence, Shopify has launched a point-of-sale (POS) hardware Shopify Tap & Chip Reader. Shopify’s Tap and Chip reader allows customers to complete transactions by scanning the contactless mobile payment apps or by inserting credit/debit cards. The reader also connects with Shopify POS that provides a host of facilities like inventory management, secured payments, and a consolidated backend that links directly to the merchant’s online store.

With the above-mentioned technology advantages that Shopify offers, it is time for the fashion business owners to kickstart their own private fashion label.

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