Qualcomm announced earlier today that warehouse automation tech-startup Ark Robot has been adjourned the winner of the Qprize – Make in India contest. The contest was judged by Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Qualcomm India president Sunil Lalvani, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan among others.
The event saw participation from about 500 startups based in India.
Ark Robot as the part of prize will receive a sum of Rs. 2 crore as investment from Qualcomm. The Qprize -Make in India contest was held earlier today at the Make in India centre located in Mumbai. Ark Robot’s technology that is still awaiting patent demonstrated its next generation warehouse automation technology that is set to aid logistics and warehouse management. Ark Robot put forth its best robots on the battle field to demonstrate the design.
The other top contenders competing for the prize included Cardiac Design Labs, which develops advanced cardiac diagnostics tools to benefit the deprived sections of the society. The start-up was followed closely by NexGear Technology, which is developing Frodo an strap-on adventure camera, which shoots and edits videos for the users. TeraFlight Data Labs, a drone data analytics solutions provider for harnessing solar energy. Threye Interactive, an interactive tech company focused on the expanding segment of virtual reality, which has also forayed into aerospace and defense, were some of the other tech startups that participated in the contest.
Qualcomm stated that
(It) has supported the Government’s vision of Make in India by recently announcing the Qualcomm Design in India Initiative. Now with the QPrize – Make in India contest, the company has further incentivized the start-up ecosystem to join this movement towards the goal of local design and manufacturing.
Qualcomm Ventures has made its presence felt in India’s start-up ecosystem ever since it set up its base in India in 2007. “Qualcomm Ventures has been actively investing and nurturing the Indian startup ecosystem. It has been holding the QPrize competition since 2009 to identify the industry’s most promising early-stage startups.”
Ark Robot is a warehouse automation technology developed by iFuture Systems, which was founded in 2008 as an industrial automation company. iFuture Systems boasts of clients spread across 20 countries. The company is headed by Rajesh Manpat, who is also the inventor of the Ark robot, which is still awaiting its patent approval.
Using robotics, the company wishes to revolutionize the growing logistics and e-commerce market in the country. The company, which is based in Bangalore is looking at expanding its foothold into the US and European Markets.
The Ark Robot technology harnesses the capabilities of robots that can clock speeds 4 Km an hour, and are capable of carrying 250 kgs.
