The Delhi-based company launched the app two weeks before India's ban on Chinese apps and has acquired 400K users till date India's ban on 59 Chinese apps has opened up the Indian market for many native startups, who have the potential to replace these banned apps. With CamScanner, one of the most prominent productivity apps in the market, also banned, Indians are looking for replacements. While Microsoft Office Lens, Adobe Scan and other apps are available, the current wave of adoption for Indian products has brought the spotlight on Kaagaz Scanner. Launched about two weeks before the ban, Kaagaz Scanner is an app built by Sorted AI, which is an year-old file management platform. Kaagaz's launch was driven by the company's realisation that scanning is where the document storage process starts for millions of Indian users. Founder Snehanshu Gandhi said that Indian users scan documents in an app, and they also want to use the app to peruse the document storage solution.

While many financial institutions are talking about robotics and artificial intelligence, some have already implemented these technologies; some have made significant strides including impressive cost savings of up to 60 per cent in some areas. Over the last two decades, the invasion of technology has changed the entire landscape and the way we perceive things around us. Banking has taken a paradigm shift in this technological revolution. While many new technologies are emerging, it is also bringing in a host of changes to the industry and generating newer forms of employment. Being a critical aspect of the economy, technological progression in the banking sector has become an important topic.

Starting with the good news -- as you can see from the chart below, last year, at this time, 82% of VCs were either "very concerned" or "didn't feel compelled to do deals given uncertainty" and that has totally reversed with 62% being optimistic or bullish. Unsurprisingly, with VCs being more optimistic the number of VCs who planned to increased their investment activities doubled in 2017 while the number who planned to do fewer deals went down by nearly 2/3rds. And as VCs get more bullish on the investment environment and pick up the pace of their activities a natural result is the valuations tend to hold up, which bodes will for entrepreneurs raising capital in 2017. As you can see from the chart below, very few VCs are forecasting significant price drops (2%) versus a year ago when a large number were bracing for price drops (30%). We also asked VCs to weigh in on the areas of technology that most interested them in the coming five years and the overwhelming winner was in startups focused on machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI). And as a result of this interest, you can expect an increase of activity in investments in the space in the coming year, whereas many VCs thought AR / VR and Blockchain investments would be more ripe as opportunities in the 3–5 year time horizon. Since the change in government is still fresh on people's minds we asked what VCs thought about the Trump Administration. This was anonymously conducted after the election but a couple of weeks before the inauguration and the data were very clear -- VCs don't like Trump.

Business Intelligence is one of the oldest concepts in data processing. Though it was first coined by Richard Millar Devens in 1865 in the Cyclopædia of Commercial and Business Anecdotes, mining transactional data for business insights has been popular since the 90s. Today, Business Intelligence tools are systems that enable companies to collect, store, access, and analyse enterprise data to allow for efficient decision-making and strategic predictive intelligence for planning. Businesses can also leverage predictive models to help detect patterns in transactional and historical data in order to identify risks and take advantage of the opportune potential of different aspects of machine learning. In the 1990s, the BI business flourished when improved and powerful graphics on PCs entered the market and it became a $17 Bn industry last year.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing so rapidly that even its developers are being caught off guard. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in Davos, Switzerland, in January that it "touches every single one of our main projects, ranging from search to photos to ads … everything we do … it definitely surprised me, even though I was sitting right there." The long-promised AI, the stuff we've seen in science fiction, is coming and we need to be prepared. Today, AI is powering voice assistants such as Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri, allowing them to have increasingly natural conversations with us and manage our lights, order food, and schedule meetings. Businesses are infusing AI into their products to analyse the vast amounts of data and improve decision-making.

"Content is king, but marketing is queen and runs the household" -Gary Vaynerchuk'Content marketing' is one of the most frequently used terms in digital parlance today, and for good reasons. Any content, regardless of how well written it is, doesn't make the cut anymore if it is not interspersed with the intent of targeted marketing. The subtlety of content marketing in piquing the interest levels of potential consumers is a no-brainer and when done right, the union of content and marketing can do wonders for any brand. In a nutshell, content marketing is a well-calibrated technique leveraged to distribute insightful, actionable content in order to garner the attention of your target group in way that makes them do something about it (like signing up for a newsletter, filling up a form, or buying a product/service). An interesting dimension to content marketing has been the introduction of AI (Artificial Intelligence), which is being increasingly explored as the next big phenomenon.

AI-based chatbot Niki.ai has raised funding from global leader in business management software SAP. With this the company has debuted investment in India. The investment was done via SAP's newly launched $35 Mn artificial intelligence-focussed fund SAP.iO in March 2017. Niki.ai is an AI-powered shopping assistant. It leverages the technology of natural language processing and machine learning to converse with the customers over a chat interface, and places their orders with the partner businesses. Users can search, discover, choose, make payments and complete transactions within the Niki.ai

Early-stage venture fund, pi Ventures has secured an undisclosed amount of investment from venture capital fund Accel Partners. The World Bank's financial arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) has also proposed to make an equity investment of $3 Mn in the fund. This investment would be made through the IFC Startup Catalyst (ISC) programme. Commenting on the development, Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures said, "Accel has played a key role as they have been good mentors and go to guys for us. We are working on some investments along with them as well. So, it is good to get them on board as investors in the fund. Also, we are excited that IFC is considering us. The process is still on."

Bengaluru-based Microsoft Accelerator has selected 14 startups for its startup accelerator programme. It is the tenth batch for Microsoft's Accelerator Programme. Selected startups belong to the realm of AI and machine learning and will undergo an intensive programme to increase their'enterprise readiness quotient.' The cohort has been selected from VC portfolios – including Inventus Capital Partners, Ideaspring Capital, Accel Partners, IDG Ventures and Pi Ventures, based on their nominations. They were selected based upon founder experience and industry expertise, products, and traction, as per an official statement.

Founded in 2012 by Rajesh Sawhney, GSF Accelerator has announced the list of startups graduating from its fifth batch. The graduating five startups have also received $65K to $100K as Seed funding, the startups are currently working out of Gurugram and are being mentored. The startups will travel to San Francisco and Tokyo next month with an aim to explore tech ecosystems outside of India. The accelerator provides promising startups with unparalleled access to venture and business networks, intensive mentoring, and initial capital. It is a multi-city programme and extends beyond India, with partners in London, Silicon Valley, and Singapore. Commenting on the development, Rajesh Sawhney, founder, GSF Accelerator said, "This is our fifth iteration and we have chosen 5 startups.