New tech on the block: FinTech, PaaS, AI, SaaS, ML, gaming, esports & cloud

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent tech launches.

Fintech: India’s first multi-brand co-branded card

Fintech startup POP, founded by former Flipkart employees, introduced India’s first multi-brand co-branded credit card, the YEB BANK POP-CLUB  RuPay Credit Card, developed in collaboration with RuPay and Yes Bank. This launch coincides with POP surpassing 1 million UPI transactions, aims to leverage the power of the RuPay network to make credit on UPI easier for its network of users

As India’s first multi-brand co-branded card, it brings together top brands such as Zomato, Blinkit, Cult, Rapido, Cleartrip, and Pharmeasy, covering key daily expenditure categories like e-commerce, groceries, F&B, travel, and health & fitness. POP aims to create a relevant value proposition with these marquee brands while leveraging the growing UPI and RuPay networks.

“We initiated a waitlist during the pre-launch phase alongside the launch of POP UPI. The response was overwhelming, with 32,000 customers waitlisting for the card—an impressive feat achieved without any marketing push. This strong initial interest reflects the market’s readiness,” said Bhargav Errangi, Founder of POP. Errangi, a former Flipkart Senior Director, has a track record of scaling Flipkart’s Shopsy and Flipkart Supercoins.

Features

• Cardholders can earn rewards on every transaction through POPcoins.
• RuPay card holders benefit from accelerated POPcoins earnings when using the card with POP UPI.
• POPcoins can be redeemed for a wide range of products from major direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands in categories such as beauty, personal care, electronics, fashion, and home goods—all available within the POP app.
• POPcoins can be used for purchases on Zomato, Blinkit, Cult, Rapido, Cleartrip, and Pharmeasy.
• The card offers an attractive rewards structure. Users can earn 10% POPcoins on all online transactions, 2% POPcoins on offline transactions, and an additional 5% POPcoins when using the card with POP UPI.
• The card has no joining fee and comes with an exclusive set of joining benefits worth ?5,000, including 500 bonus POPcoins, a six-month Pharmeasy Plus membership, a ?750 Cleartrip Flight Voucher, a ?500 Cult Voucher, a three-month Zomato Gold Membership, and a Rapido Ride Pass.

Fintech: India’s first rent credit score repository transforming the rental landscape

RentenPe is launching the country’s first Rent Credit Score and Residence Card (R-Card). This innovative platform, validated by market research undertaken by the global consultancy Ernst & Young, aims to address a significant gap in the financial ecosystem by recognizing and rewarding tenants for their consistent rent payments, a crucial yet undervalued financial commitment.

Sarika Shetty, Founder of RentenPe, explains, “We believe that rent, a significant monthly financial commitment, should be recognized in the same way that EMIs and credit card payments are. Our Rent Credit Score and R-Card are designed to empower tenants, giving them the financial recognition they deserve and helping them achieve their long-term goals, including homeownership.”

The Why

With nearly 50% of India’s population under the age of 40, many young professionals relocate from smaller towns to major cities, contributing significantly to the nation’s GDP. These individuals often dedicate a substantial portion of their income—up to 30%—to rent, while aspiring to own a home, a symbol of status and security in Indian society.

Despite the regularity and significance of these payments, they remain unacknowledged in traditional financial metrics. Unlike credit card payments or loan EMIs, which contribute to building a positive credit score, rent payments have historically been overlooked, leaving renters without the financial recognition they deserve.

RentenPe aims to change this by introducing the Rent Credit Score—a pioneering metric specifically designed for the residential rental market.

Features

• Developed using an advanced algorithm, this score considers a variety of financial, qualitative, and quantitative factors.
• It enables tenants to build a credit profile based on their rental history, paving the way for better rental agreements, rent loans, pre-approved home loans, and potential savings on rent.
• Complementing the Rent Credit Score is the R-Card, India’s first digital rental identity. Unlike traditional financial tools, the R-Card acts as a digital ID, offering tenants access to better rental deals, quicker approval processes, and potential rent discounts.
• For landlords, it provides instant access to verified tenant profiles, early rent facilities, and more, streamlining the rental process and fostering trust.

PaaS: Centre of Excellence for SAP® business technology platform to drive enterprise innovation

PwC India launched its Centre of Excellence for SAP® Business Technology Platform. Through this initiative, driven in collaboration with SAP India, enterprise customers will have access to PwC India’s innovative, ready-to-use solutions which will enable them to transform their business processes across the ERP value chain. SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) is an innovative Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering, that brings together data and analytics, artificial intelligence, low-code, no-code and pro-code app development, automation, and integration in one, unified environment.

Sudipta Bandyopadhyay, Partner and SAP Alliance Leader, PwC India said, “Indian businesses are digitally transforming with SAP solutions and related technologies. This launch of the Centre of Excellence for SAP® Business Technology Platform will enable clients to customise SAP applications, empowering the business users to connect processes, make decisions with confidence and significantly accelerate business innovation.”

Vivek Belgavi, Partner and Leader – Alliances and Ecosystems, PwC India said, “Digital transformation has impacted all industries and continues to significantly alter how companies conduct their business. With this collaboration, PwC India can provide a seamless foundation for digital innovation across business functions and drive sustainable growth and enhanced efficiency for its clients.”

Features

Through the Centre of Excellence for SAP® Business Technology Platform, PwC India will be able to deliver significant benefits to enterprise customers in India, including faster time to market, and the ability to customise cloud-based technologies to fit their business needs. It will also help enterprise clients harness the full potential of SAP BTP to innovate on top of their installed SAP systems, by extending and integrating new applications and systems on SAP BTP. Starting with the Import Export Manager, which has been developed by the PwC India team in SAP BTP for public cloud customers, PwC India will provide a comprehensive trade management tool. This solution streamlines export and import processes by automating compliance, improving documentation accuracy, and offering real-time visibility into trade transactions.

As business processes increase in complexity, the demand for swift implementation of innovative solutions has intensified. In recent years, PwC India has developed numerous industry solutions and assets using the latest technologies to drive digital transformation for its clients. These solutions are highly scalable and adaptable, effectively addressing crucial gaps in industry processes, sustainability, and technical migration.

AI: Generative AI platform for family offices

Eton Solutions, a wealth management ERP systems solution for family offices launched EtonGPT™ it claims to be the world’s first GenAI module for family offices globally.

Satyen Patel, Eton Solutions’ executive chairman said, “Our AtlasFive® solution was the first to offer a centralized data platform that had integrated structured data processing across accounting, investment and tax functions.  With the launch of EtonGPT™, the world’s first family office LLM, we are embracing cutting-edge technology and reshaping the future of family office management across the globe. AI is increasingly being deployed across businesses. While family offices have largely remained rooted in manual processes, with the integration of AI, they will undergo an unparalleled change, making them resilient and future-ready.”

“With EtonGPT™, AtlasFive® can now parse and integrate data buried in more than 250 document types such as trust plans, estate plans and partnership agreements. This combination of structured and unstructured data processing offers wealth managers the ability to gain a 2 to 4X increase in operational efficiency.”

Features

• It integrates the powerful transactional capabilities of Eton Solution’s ERP platform, with sophisticated conversational AI functionalities.
• It will enable the majority of the 750 families on AtlasFive® to benefit from EtonGPT™.
• It will be available exclusively to AtlasFive® users to enhance the productivity of their family offices.
• It will improve family office operations by seamlessly integrating data stored in documents with transaction data on AtlasFive®, thereby helping streamline processes and lead to a boost in productivity.
• Several of Eton Solutions clients, including Shade Tree Advisors (US), Todd Family Office (New Zealand) and Aglaia Family Office (Singapore) have been using this new AI enabled platform. It will allow them to access information and conduct in-depth analyses of their investment and asset portfolios.
• It doubles up as both an internal search and data extraction tool within the secure centralized database of the cloud-native AtlasFive® ERP platform.
• Backed by pending patents, this hybrid AI platform incorporates machine learning, expert systems-based business rule engines, and large language models to deliver unparalleled accuracy and insights. It leverages AI-driven data extraction, summarization, generation, inferencing, and transformation to help family offices operate more efficiently and securely.

AI: Intelligent insights for effective wildlife monitoring & conservation

Valiance Solutions, a global company leveraging state-of-the-art AI technologies to drive digital transformation across diverse industries worldwide, launched ‘WildlifeIQ’, a revolutionary AI-powered platform designed to provide intelligent wildlife monitoring and preservation insights. This advanced system offers unprecedented capabilities in tracking and managing wildlife populations, ensuring a harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

Shailendra, Co-Founder & Chief Data Scientist of Valiance, expressed, “Our vision is to equip wildlife managers with the intelligence they need to make informed decisions to manage wildlife better and reduce conflicts. WildlifeIQ bridges the gap between technology and conservation. WildlifeIQ is more than a product; it stands as a testament to Valiance Solutions’ commitment to leveraging technology for social good. With the right tools, we can make a significant impact on wildlife conservation and ensure a balanced coexistence between humans and nature.”

The Why

Traditionally, wildlife monitoring is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. Annual surveys in tiger reserves and other national parks, require the installation of camera traps(typically for 2 months) and manual analysis of millions of images, often taking up to six months. With WildlifeIQ, Valiance Solutions’ technology significantly enhances wildlife conservation and forest officials’ efforts by automating image analysis and providing real-time monitoring of wildlife populations. This isn’t limited to 2 months or so, but a continuous activity. This allows for quicker and more informed decision-making in managing human-wildlife conflicts. What previously took months can now be accomplished in just a few days, allowing for a more responsive and proactive approach to wildlife management.

Features

• WildlifeIQ features a centralized data mart for efficient storage of camera trap images, enhanced animal density analysis over geographic maps, and automated species classification using advanced machine learning algorithms.
• It streamlines tiger identification and tracking across shifting territorial polygons, which may change due to deforestation or other environmental factors, providing valuable insights into their habitats.
• The platform calculates a “Tiger Risk Index” to assess the likelihood of tigers attacking humans or livestock by analyzing territory shifts, behavioral changes, habitat quality, and proximity to human settlements.
• Unique leopard identification technology, role-based access control with full data encryption, and robust measures against unauthorized access ensure conservationists have the tools to make informed decisions and effectively manage wildlife populations.
• It predicts potential conflict zones for timely interventions, crucial as tigers, which typically require 50-60 square kilometers, may move to human settlements if these needs aren’t met, increasing the risk of attacks on humans or livestock
• By providing real-time, intelligent insights into wildlife populations and behaviors, WildlifeIQ empowers conservationists to make informed decisions and take proactive measures to protect our precious wildlife, bridging the gap between technology and conservation and offering a powerful tool for effective wildlife management and preservation.

SaaS: India’s first SaaS platform for connecting Drone service providers with farmers

PDRL, a drone technology company launched BhuMeet, an advanced SaaS platform designed to revolutionise the way essential drone services such as agricultural spraying and surveying are accessed and managed. By bridging the gap between drone service providers and farmers, BhuMeet is set to transform the landscape of drone spraying operations in India, offering a seamless and efficient solution for locating reliable drone services and optimizing operational workflows.

Anil Chandaliya, Founder and CEO, PDRL said, “As India continues to embrace advanced technologies to revolutionize its agriculture sector, we at PDRL are proud to introduce BhuMeet, a platform that will fundamentally change how farmers access essential drone services. By bridging the gap between farmers and reliable service providers, BhuMeet not only enhances operational efficiency but also empowers the agricultural community to harness the full potential of drone technology. We believe this innovation will set new standards in the industry and play a vital role in modernizing agriculture across the nation.”

The Why

In India, where agriculture is the backbone of the economy and the livelihood for millions, the integration of drone technology holds great potential. As of 2021, agricultural land in India spanned over 1.78 million square kilometres, according to the World Bank. The National Statistical Office’s Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households (SAAH) report estimates that between 90 million and 150 million farmers, ranging from smallholders to large-scale landowners, are actively engaged in agriculture. Given that India is the world’s second-largest producer of food grains, fruits, and vegetables, as well as the second-largest exporter of sugar, the application of drones in agriculture extends far beyond pesticide spraying. Drones can play a critical role in crop monitoring and health assessment, precision agriculture, field mapping and surveying, crop scouting and surveillance, planting and seeding, irrigation management, livestock monitoring, and post-harvest assessment.

Furthermore, the G20 Agriculture Deputies Meeting of the Agriculture Working Group (AWG) has highlighted four key areas: food security and nutrition, climate-smart sustainable agriculture, an inclusive agriculture value chain, and the digitization of agricultural transformation. These discussions have further given tremendous impetus to the application of drones in the Agriculture Sector.

Features

• The platform will streamline drone spraying operations, enabling the completion of tasks that once took weeks in just hours.
• It enables users to find and hire top drone service providers based on their service records and proximity, ensuring efficient and localized service delivery. For drone service providers, the platform offers a unique opportunity to expand their reach, connect with potential customers, and drive business growth through enhanced service management.
• It is designed to address the key challenges faced by drone service providers, pilots, and farmers, offering a streamlined and user-friendly experience for all parties involved.
• It simplifies the handling of service requests and task assignments, enabling providers to manage multiple requests efficiently and optimize resource allocation.
• Real-Time Updates: Providers can enhance transparency and customer satisfaction by delivering real-time status updates to their clients.
• Efficient Fleet and Inventory Management: With robust tools for managing drone fleets, pilot assignments, and inventory, BhuMeet ensures effective utilization of resources.
• Business Growth Opportunities: BhuMeet centralizes service opportunities, providing a unified platform for providers to attract new customers and expand their business.
• The platform facilitates direct payments from customers, simplifying the invoicing and payment process.

Features for Drone Service Providers:

• Service Request Management: Simplifies the organization of service requests, ensuring nothing is overlooked.
• Task Assignment: Facilitates clear and efficient task delegation to drone pilots, improving operational efficiency.
• Real-Time Status Updates: Keeps customers informed about the progress of their services, enhancing transparency and trust.
• Drone Fleet Management: Optimizes the utilization and assignment of drone fleets for maximum efficiency.
• Location Management: Simplifies the organization of resources and service locations, enabling providers to operate across multiple areas seamlessly.
• Service Analytics and Reports: Generates insights and reports to help providers enhance service delivery and business performance.
• Invoice and Payments on the Go: Enables customers to view and pay invoices directly from their mobile devices, using convenient payment methods like UPI or cash.
• Service History: Maintains a record of past service requests for easy access to important information in the future.

Value Addition for Drone Pilots:

• Clear Task Assignments: BhuMeet offers an organized workflow, allowing pilots to efficiently receive and manage their assignments.
• Enhanced Communication: Pilots can easily provide status updates to customers, fostering better communication and trust.

Value Addition for Farmers:

• Easy Access to Reliable Services: BhuMeet simplifies the process of finding and hiring trusted drone service providers based on location and customer ratings.
• Real-Time Service Updates: Farmers receive timely updates on their service requests, ensuring transparency and peace of mind.
• Convenient Management Tools: The platform offers an intuitive tool for managing service requests, exploring top providers, and paying for services directly from their mobile devices.

ML: New suite of Accelerators for Machine Learning Projects (AMPs)

Cloudera, a hybrid platform for data, analytics and AI, announced six new Accelerators for ML Projects (AMPs), designed to reduce time-to-value for enterprise AI use cases. The new additions focus on providing enterprises with cutting-edge AI techniques and examples within Cloudera that can assist AI integration and drive more impactful results.

“While almost every business is experimenting with Generative AI, the technology is still so new that there are very few best practices for enterprises,” said The Futurum Group’s Chief Technology Advisor, Steven Dickens. “As a result, it’s common practice for data scientists and AI engineers to build on existing examples when starting new AI projects. However, there are many drawbacks with this approach, including added security and legal risks. AMPs remove this ambiguity by providing fully built, end-to-end solutions that give data scientists a ready-to-go MVP for various AI use cases that are proven to be effective and able to quickly drive value.”

The Why

AMPs are end-to-end machine learning (ML) based projects that can be deployed with a single-click directly from the Cloudera platform. Each AMP encapsulates industry-leading practices for tackling complex ML challenges with workflows that facilitate seamless transitions, no matter where enterprises are running examples or deploying data.

With its collection of AMPs, Cloudera is committed to making AI more accessible so businesses can accelerate adoption and maximize the value of both their own data and the generated AI outputs.

Features

• Fine-Tuning Studio – Provides users with an all-encompassing application and “ecosystem” for managing, fine tuning, and evaluating LLMs.
• RAG with Knowledge Graph – A demonstration of how to power a RAG (retrieval augmented generation) application with a knowledge graph to capture relationships and context not easily accessible by vector stores alone.
• PromptBrew  – Offers AI-powered assistance to create high-performing and reliable prompts via a simple user interface.
• Document Analysis with Cohere CommandR and FAISS – Showcases RAG using CommandR as the LLM and FAISS as the vector store.
• Chat with Your Documents – Building upon the previous LLM Chatbot Augmented with Enterprise Data AMP, this accelerator enhances the responses of the LLM using context from an internal knowledge base created from the documents uploaded by the user.
• In addition to accelerating AI projects, Cloudera AMPs are fully open source and include deployment instructions for any environment, serving as further testament of Cloudera’s commitment to the open source community.

Gaming: Made-in-India mobile shooter FAU-G: Domination

Nazara Publishing, the publishing arm of publicly listed company Nazara Technologies revealed the gameplay trailer for made-in-India mobile shooter FAU-G: Domination at the FAU-G: Domination World Premiere Event held in Mumbai. In addition to this, pre-registrations for the game are live now on Google Play.

Under the mentorship of Akshay Kumar, nCore is dedicating the game to Bharat Ke Veer. Bharat Ke Veer Trust gives homage and support to India’s Bravehearts. To support the families of India’s Armed Forces Martyrs, Nazara will donate Rs. 25,00,000 to Bharat Ke Veer and FAU-G: Domination will also feature specific cosmetic items such as badges, of which 100 percent of the proceeds will go towards Bharat Ke Veer.

Nitish Mittersain, Founder and CEO of Nazara Technologies, said, “It is a matter of great pride to respond to PM Modi’s call and present a game made-in-India for India — and the world. FAU-G: Domination is well on the way to launch and our new gameplay trailer along with our pre-registration campaign are first steps in revealing more to players,” said Vishal Gondal, Co-Founder of nCore Games. “India has amazing game design and development talent, and this signals India’s arrival as a major player in the global gaming industry. Along with Nazara’s publishing experience we’re excited to bring a Made-in-India game to the world.”

“After several playtests and positive player feedback, we’re confident that FAU-G: Domination is in a state that Indian gamers expect,” said Deepak Ail, Co-Founder and CEO of Dot9 Games, FAU-G: Domination’s developer. “Shooter fans are perhaps FAU-G’s most demanding audience right now, wanting high performance with high fidelity graphics on their smartphones, thankfully our team is up to the task.”

The Why

FAU-G: Domination is Nazara and nCore Games’ answer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day call to action to the nation. He urged India’s games industry to focus on designing world-class games. He highlighted the country’s talent and potential to become a global leader in gaming.

With this in mind, the trailer entices players to win on FAU-G: Domination’s many maps all while showcasing a variety of weapons. It also highlights multiple locations and firefights to show the scope and size of the experience Dot9 and nCore Games will bring to gamers in India and the world.

Features

Pre-registrations for FAU-G: Domination are now live on the Google Play Store for Android with pre-registrations on the App Store for iOS and iPadOS to follow soon. Pre-registering now gets players the Beast Collection. The Beast Collection a limited edition set of in-game cosmetics inspired by the ferocity of the Tiger — India’s national animal.

These include six accessories: frame, banner, avatar, sticker, spray, and charm, as well as six gun skins: sawed-off shotgun, USP, Scout rifle, M4, Uzi, and Kabar. The Beast Collection will only be available for players that pre-register and will not be available after launch.

eSports: AA Play, India’s all-in-one gaming application

AA Gaming, an esports solutions and production company, launched AA Play, an innovative gaming and esports platform. Designed to meet the growing needs of gamers across the country, AA Play will offer gamers with communities to participate in, esports tournaments, digital commerce, and more – all in one place.

Akash Dhangar, Founder and CEO of AA Gaming, expressed his excitement about the platform’s potential. “With AA Play, we are gearing up to revolutionize the gaming experience, bringing everything a gamer needs—competing, connecting, and shopping—into one exciting platform! As India’s gaming industry explodes, we’re thrilled to be at the forefront, offering a one-stop solution that puts the power in players’ hands. In the past, we focused on third-party and white-label B2B services, but this app marks a bold turning point. We’re making a giant leap towards a direct-to-consumer model, opening up incredible opportunities for innovation and new revenue streams. This is our vision for a super app that unites all things gaming in one place.”

The Why

India’s video game industry is one of the fastest-growing in the world, projected to reach a value of $1.4 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.1%, according to Niko Partners. By that time, India is also expected to surpass China in the number of gamers, adding 277 million new players for a total of 730.7 million. With this rapid expansion, the launch of AA Play comes at a pivotal moment to engage both new and returning gamers.

AA Play has been designed from the ground up by a team of veterans in the Indian gaming and esports industry by analyzing the needs of hardcore and mid-core skill-based gamers. With its unique features, it promises to redefine how players interact with games, fellow gamers, and the larger ecosystem in India. At its launch, the application will support tournaments and communities with a digital marketplace set to arrive later.

Features

• Tournaments: Gamers will be able to participate in exciting, skill-based competitions for free with the chance to win big. Currently, Indian gamers struggle to find tournaments to hone their skills, but AA Play will solve this problem by constantly having esports competitions for aspiring esports athletes to go pro across a plethora of titles.
• E-commerce: The app will also include a dedicated marketplace for players to purchase gaming merchandise. With the inclusion of a secure and user-friendly digital wallet, gamers will be able to purchase in-game items for their favorite titles, ensuring a seamless gaming experience from start to finish.
• Community Building: One of the standout features of AA Play is its ability to foster connections among players. Gamers can form or join communities, enabling them to interact with like-minded individuals, organize meetups, and enhance their gaming journey through collaboration and shared experiences.

Cloud: Private link network for secure, internet-free cloud connectivity

Cloudera, a hybrid platform for data, analytics and AI, launched Cloudera Private Link Network to address critical data security and privacy concerns for highly regulated organizations with strict internal data security policies. It provides secure, private connectivity from customer workloads to the Cloudera Control Plane, ensuring that data does not traverse the public Internet.

“Cloudera Private Link Network is purpose-built and managed by Cloudera to address enterprise privacy and connectivity concerns. By offloading the management of Private Link Network to Cloudera, it will both lower TCO for your organization and free up valuable resources, allowing you to focus on strategic business initiatives,” said Dipto Chakravarty, Chief Product Officer at Cloudera. “By managing  data integrity and trustworthiness throughout the architecture, we help enterprises safeguard sensitive customer data.”

The Why

Organizations in industries such as finance, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals often face privacy challenges because providers often cannot guarantee that traffic between tenants, even within the same cloud, will not traverse the Internet and risk data exposure. Cloudera Private Link Network helps to solve these challenges by providing a unified, cross-cloud private connectivity service, enabling enterprises to securely manage data-intensive workloads across multiple cloud environments through a single, specialized network.

Features

• It integrates across major cloud providers by utilizing existing cloud provider services like AWS PrivateLink and Azure Private Link and other network infrastructure such as multi-cloud connectivity.
• This setup extends secure data transfer across multiple cloud environments, to enable consistent security and streamlined management.
• Customers can efficiently self-serve and provision services using the Cloudera Command Line Interface.