Pitney Bowes, a global technology company that provides innovative products and solutions to power commerce, has named four startups to the summer session of the Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program which provides mentorship, access to venture funds and networking to innovative startups in the areas of customer information management, mobile, data analytics, location-based services, ecommerce management and machine learning.
The four inductees are:
• Ipsator Analytics is a consumer perception measurement product for ecommerce.
• Fetchon is a hyperlocal customer engagement and activation platform for brands and retailers to connect with customers in a geo-fenced area.
• Kayeura is an in-store proximity and right-time marketing solution for retail stores and brands.
• ShipDesk is a SaaS-based multi-carrier shipping management platform for ecommerce with intelligent algorithms to calculate rules-based lowest cost shippers.
The Pitney Bowes Accelerator Collaboration Program has enrolled two startups that will work with Pitney Bowes to test and market solutions.
• Loginext is a location-based analytics platform which uses Internet of Things and Big Data to collect location data from packages, delivery personnel or vehicles, and provides real-time analysis of the delivery network.
• PrimaSeller is a SaaS-based platform for retailers to manage orders and inventory across multiple online and offline sales channels.
Pitney Bowes has entered into partnerships with Microsoft and 91springboard, the startup growth hub based in India.
Pitney Bowes Accelerator startups will have access to the Microsoft BizSpark Plus program which awards Azure credits worth up to US$120,000 to each participant. Pitney Bowes and Microsoft will also facilitate customer and market access programs, and a mentor exchange. Pitney Bowes will work with 91springboard to support the startups through joint networking events and access programs.
The Accelerator startups will have full access to Pitney Bowes’ software, application programming interfaces (API’s) and data for a duration of six months. In addition, Pitney Bowes will provide mentorship with leading engineering and innovation experts for technical and business guidance. The startups will be placed in Pune or Noida for incubation and will have opportunities to network with prospective investors.
Manish Choudhary, Vice President, Global Engineering and Managing Director, Pitney Bowes India said, “We are happy with the success of the Accelerator program. Most of the startups work with our clients and co-innovate with Pitney Bowes teams. The portfolio now consists of diverse business models in emerging technologies in location, commerce and big data. The ecosystem has delivered market insights as we develop our products and solutions and has helped our clients in India.”
Last year, Pitney Bowes incubated six startups as a part of the program: Audianz, Tagalys, Teritree, RetailNav, Heuristics, and Ideata.
Sharing his experience, Antony Kattukaran, CEO and Founder of Tagalys said, “The Pitney Bowes Accelerator Program gave us opportunities to interact with many leading founders and to leverage their strengths. It helped us improve the way we build Tagalys. In addition to connecting with potential customers, we have started discussions with another Accelerator participant to evaluate partnership opportunities.”
Prateek Chaturvedi of Focus Analytics added, “Being in the convergent space of location, analytics and mobile, where Pitney Bowes is a leader, the team was able to add a great deal of insight to our idea. The Pitney Bowes team also connected us to their customers for a few use cases that we could solve from our platform.”
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