In this new series in association with SAP we will be introducing our audience to different industries that has been directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic. In our first session of the series we spoke about the future of Retail with Titan, Ernst & Young, Adloid and SAP on how this economic transformation has forced retailers to be more 'Phygital' (Physical yet Digital) and how startups have taken this opportunity to revamp their business module in order to optimize their reach in a time of a lockdown. 

IoT in the 'New-normal': Technology of the Hour!

In our next session of the series, we bring in something even more interesting where we talk about how the IoT industry has evolved while the nation has been in lockdown. We bring in speakers from a varied background where they bring 5 different perspectives to the table, Investor, Startups, Ecosystem and Corporates. Through this session, we aim to help our audience understand investment opportunities, collaboration opportunities with larger corporate like SAP, how we can adapt technology to address COVID situation, How is WFH working for the company and ensuring productivity of the team. 

Our Speakers:

Pavan Kumar PVN: Director IoT Edge Services, SAP Labs India

Pavan has extensive experience working with global customers in emerging and developed markets and also with remote teams. His expertise is in the areas of the Internet of Things (IoT), Sustainability, and Analytics. His specialties are Product Strategy and Execution, Customer and Partner Engagement, Responding to RFPs additionally he is one of the core team members to drive Product Management forum for SAP Labs India. PVN is an active Member of IEEE Standards Working Group & NSDC - NASSCOM IoT Sector Skill Council Workgroup for IoT and finally he acts as an evangelist by being a guest speaker numerous times in various forums about enterprise IoT business and sharing its concept, and educate the audience to understand its relevance in the current digital era. Along with public speaking, he also shared his vision about IoT enterprise practice in various blogs, external publications and currently authoring a book.

Chinnu Senthilkumar, General Partner and CTO at Exfinity Venture Partners

Chinnu is passionate about new Technology and before joining Exfinity Technology VC fund, for over 15 years, he worked in US-Indo Tech corridor, in leading Technology companies like Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments and SanDisk Corporation. Growing up in progressive roles, in the capacity of Country Head for SanDisk Operations, he also executed SanDisk India strategy - R&D Center, Engg. Outsourcing and Sales Mktg. And worked on cutting edge technologies and received 9 patents from USPTO for innovation. In the recent years, he co-founded Exfinity Venture Partners LLP, a Technology Venture Capital fund promoted by India's well known Tech Industry leaders. In addition, as an Angel investor, he invested in multiple start-up Technology firms and help them in their strategy as a Board member. He is an active industry participant in industry forums such as IESA (India Electronics & Semiconductor Association), CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), authored several articles related to Technology policies, participate as Panel member in Technology and VC forums & work with Government Ministries on Technology policies.

Geetha Manjunath: Co-founder and CEO, Niramai Health Analytix

Geetha is the Founder and CEO of Niramai Health Analytix, which is developing a novel solution for detecting early-stage breast cancer using machine learning. Geetha has over 25 years of research expertise in the IT industry and has proposed and lead multiple research projects in Artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing, cloud computing, semantic web, mobile, and distributed computing. Her research in the above areas has resulted in innovative prototypes, patents, publications, new products, and some national and international recognition. Geetha's specialties lie in Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Computer Vision, Data Analytics, Big Data, Cloud Computing, Semantic Web, Mobility platforms, Web Middleware, Data Mining, Storage Virtualization, Compilers, Java Virtual Machine 

Tej Pochiraju: Director, IoT Ready

Tej Holds a PhD in Wireless from QUB, IIT KGP and has 13+ years experience as a hardware technologist, has built 5 patents and sold and has consulted 150+ clients globally.Tej currently leads IoTReady, a platform that helps businesses build smart products and smart processes. Their platform has ready-to-use modules that help you get smart across these processes through their ERP, mobile apps and IoT hardware. IoTReady was previously Jaaga Labs, a product incubator in Bangalore focused on environmental challenges that have an economic value and a potential solution in technology. 

Venkatesh Kumaran (Venki): President & Partner, AxelerateNOW | TiE Charter Member - IoTForum

Venki has over three decades of work experience in consulting, Business Development, sales management, marketing, operations, and executive leadership roles across IT, Semiconductors & Software at MNC's and Indian companies in Hong Kong, Boston, and India. Venki is a partner at AXLerateNOW focusing on scaling Deep-Tech startups. Prior to his current startup, he was a Senior Director of Business Development at ARM (Softbank Group )developing IoT, AI/ML, Security, HPC & cloud Data center market. Prior to ARM, Venki was with an Industry body on Electronics and Semiconductors where he passionately worked to grow the Electronic System Design & Mfg industry as well as created an IoT ecosystem in India. He curated 16 IOT start-ups across MedTech, Wearables, Spacetech and mentored, coached, and advised them on Execution, Market, and funding capital.He is the Chief mentor of STPI IOT COE, Member of Government Fabless Task Force, co-chair of IOTNEXT, TiE Bangalore board member, founder member of NETRA Accelerator Foundation. Venki is also a corporate faculty of the ART OF LIVING and has taught to various sections of the society. 

PS: The zoom will be shared 1.5 hours prior to the session on Google Calendar and an email reminder will be sent 30 mins before the session starts!