Festival of optimism in Lisbon

There are enough reasons to be pessimistic about the world. Climate change, war zones, and economic inequality are worrying policymakers and citizens alike. But the Web Summit in Lisbon shines a light of excitement on the world.

The annual gathering of technology leaders, practitioners, entrepreneurs, students and users is a festival of optimism. More than 60,000 participants including 20,000 companies and 7,000 CEOs get together to pitch, plan and propel us into the future.

Walking among the gigantic hangars packed with hundreds of start-up stands and multiple pitch stages, I spoke to several enthusiastic entrepreneurs. These international and domestic companies use fourth industrial revolution technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), IoT for local and global needs. Meet some of the exciting companies working for India and the world.

Uniti Electric Car

The biggest and most promising launch new idea is an electric car by Uniti of Sweden. Founder Lewis Horne has reimagined the car as a consumer electronic product with accompanying ease of use. The controls move from “press and pull” to “touch and swipe”. The car is made of recyclable composite material and will be manufactured not just in Sweden, but in Australia and India. A joint venture in India is in the works, and the cost is likely to be under 9,000 Euros (Rs 7 lakh, possibly lower with subsidies). Horne says, more than 85 per cent of the hardware will be sourced locally.

Unbabel

Lisbon-based Unbabel is democratising translation with smarter results using machine learning in combination with human editors. This combination ensures that translation is not literal and suits business communication for enterprises. Hindi is among the 28 languages that it supports. Co-founder Vasco Pedro said that he has ambitious plans to expand in Asia.

Smarter Time

Nifty solutions squeeze productive time out of our daily schedules. By constantly calculating the time we spend on calls, messaging and other activities, Smarter Time allows “users to take action based on a rational and accurate representation of how they employ their time.” Founders Emmanuel Pont, Anna Winterstein and Anis Fehri promise to create time for us when we think there is none. Smarter Time already has 80,000 plus downloads and is getting a 1,000 new users daily.

InteriMarket

Founder Bhumika Zhaveri has created a marketplace for the gig economy with InteriMarket. The idea is to connect experienced professionals with relevant companies for short-term projects. As enterprises become agiler, they need to put together teams rapidly for new ideas and execution. The traditional employment format doesn’t work for short-term objectives. On the other side are experienced professionals who are looking for work. By matching them intelligently, InteriMarket plugs a need that goes beyond traditional job sites.

ShoppinPal

While large retail companies can afford to invest in technology, smaller players struggle. ShoppingPal’s Pune-based founder Sreeram Subramanian wants to “democratise retail tech” by offering platforms for small and medium enterprises. It helps small producers and retailers by offering their cloud services, stock replenishment, B2B commerce solutions tailored to their needs. With this platform, Sreeram hopes that size will not be a barrier for small enterprises who want to go global.

Zoom.ai and Sherpa

The digital assistant market is buzzing with hundreds of new ideas, mostly driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Zoom.ai takes charge of managing your daily tasks at the office with predictive sense. It’s not just a personal assistant but connects everybody in an office. Zoom will automatically sync calendars, organise meetings and even anticipate problems for everyone in the enterprise. Founder Roy Pereira has created a nifty feature that even offers a personality profile of people who are attending a meeting. The AI in Zoom trawls the web for information and posts to create an instant personal profile of people you will meet for the first time. Sherpa is an intelligent digital assistant that is predictive and proactive in nature. This personal assistant doesn’t just take orders but plans and anticipates your needs. It connects all relevant devices to help you navigate different activities like shopping, eating, reading and watching videos.

Ad Results Media

After text and video, the next big content category is podcasts. CEO Marshall Williams of Ad Results Media is pioneering the inclusion of advertising in podcasts. This could fuel the growth of podcasts around the world since monetising will be as easy as in online videos. The company is the largest purchaser of podcast advertising in the world. Williams says that listeners are not pushing back yet but advertising in podcasts will have to be smart and sensitive.

The writer is an economic analyst and author of Kranti Nation: India and The Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Views expressed are personal. DNA does not endorse any of these start-up ventures