Empowering Start-ups Through Co-innovation: The Capgemini Way

Capgemini’s commitment to CSR is second to none. As one of the world’s global technology leaders, its goal is to create breakthrough technologies to bring real change in the world. It regularly collaborates with start-ups and innovators to especially leverage this expertise in the CSR domain.

Capgemini has launched the Capgemini Innovation Challenge along with AGNIi – Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (a programme of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India) to enable enterprises to discover relevant Indian innovations and to contextualize and engage with them within their specific industries. As part of this initiative, Capgemini partnered with the LifeOfGirl start-up to provide mentorship and business support.

LifeOfGirl is a B2B personal safety start-up targeted to serve MNCs. The programme enabled assistance to the company in showcasing the solution to Capgemini’s client network as well as its global innovation network. The mentorship also helped the company prepare for business funding events such as Shark Tank India and Horses Stable, where it secured INR 4 crore in funding.

Capgemini Innovation Challenge Season 2

Capgemini, in collaboration with AGNIi and Start-up India, hosted the Capgemini Innovation Challenge Season 2 with the goal of collaborating with start-ups and innovators to find breakthrough innovations in the CSR space. The hackathon received 68 applications, which were evaluated based on criteria such as problem-solving approach, proposed solution, innovativeness, execution, scalability, and feasibility. The Top 5 start-ups were assessed, and LifeOfGirl was chosen as the winner for SafeMaps problem statement. Click below for more information.

Co-Innovation program with LifeOfGirl

The co-innovation program with LifeOfGirl was a three-month virtual mentorship to address technical and business problems faced by the start-up. Capgemini AIE team led by Swapnil Mahadik and Ann Fernandes helped the start-up with program management, while AI expert Sonu Kumar provided guidance and solution strategy to enhance its security solution for auto-detection of SOS requirement and its “safest path” feature. This program also enabled LifeOfGirl to showcase the solution to Capgemini’s client network in internal and external events, as well as to a global innovation network and internal audience.

The range of support by Capgemini AIE extended across the technical, branding, and funding domains.

1. Technological Support & Motivation: Supported LifeOfGirl with the requirement analysis, technology stack decisions, algorithms to use, standards to adhere to, and more. The mentors focused on assisting in developing the app’s “Safest route to travel,” “Predictive SOS,” and “safe heavens” features.
2. Authentication & Brand Establishment: Provided LifeOfGirl with much-needed credibility and market validation of working with MNCs. This will allow the start-up to serve clients and in markets other than MNCs, especially B2C markets.
3. Funding Support: Provided LifeOfGirl with technical advice and proficiency, understanding of corporate setup, and, as a result, a strong business model that it has since been using. Along with the technology and brand support, this enabled the company to gain the trust of investors on Horses stable show and other regular investors to raise its pre-seed round of funding. LifeOfGirl was able to secure INR 4 crore in funding.

“A very important pillar of our journey, who not only played a key role in developing the most important features of our app but was also a constant guide & inspiration: Capgemini#AIEIndia. We never knew working alongside a huge MNC can be so humane, personal, and comforting. For us, Capgemini is an early believer, supporter, and guide that any entrepreneur needs; we never felt that we were communicating with a big firm. Congrats to you Capgemini#AIEIndia, one of the start-ups guided by you is faring well now. Cheers! Do continue your efforts to support more start-ups. 

Special thanks to Saumya, Ranjan Pradhan (Ranjan), Ann Fernandes, Mangirish Herwadkar, and Swapnil.”

King Vignan Joseph, Founder – LifeOfGirl, Hyderabad

Kudos to our mentors for helping the start-up and enabling fulfilment of Capgemini’s brand promise across partners Get The Future You Want!

• Ranjan Pradhan, Director AIE Hyderabad
• Mangirish Herwadkar, Director, Europe Enablement
• Swapnil Mahadik, Senior Manager, AIE
• Sonu Kumar, Consultant, AIE

For more details on the engagement, please reach out to Swapnil.

For more information, check out the video: