BENGALURU, November 20 – Target India hosted a Demo Day for the third batch of start-ups graduating from the Accelerator Program, today. The five start-ups, Find Me A Shoe, TimeFlex, BugClipper, Discover Dollar and House of Blue Beans showcased transformative ideas developed during the four-month immersive program.
“Being the first mover in this space in India, this initiative has provided us a unique opportunity to work with some of the best entrepreneurs, who have the potential to solve global retail problems. We have already worked with 15 start-ups over three batches and it has been tremendously exciting and satisfying to see start-ups mature their product journeys through this engagement, while helping Target accelerate its innovation journey,” said Navneet Kapoor, president and managing director, Target India. “We are committed to growing the scope of this initiative and will continue to nurture path-breaking ideas that hold the potential to disrupt the retail industry,” he added.
Many of the start-ups, who have graduated from this program, have continued to work with Target beyond the program. For example, Whodat Spaces continues to offer virtual reality guest experiences and Visarity helped us with digital marketing solutions over the last few months. Future engagement opportunities with the current batch are being evaluated.
Strengthening innovation capabilities within the organization, the third batch also provided three internal Target teams a platform to work alongside the five external start-ups. These teams will grow and implement their ideas at Target.
The third batch focused on themes like Merchandising, Digital Marketing, Omni-channel, Mobile, Supply Chain and Analytics Technology, along with areas like Finance and DevOps that are core to retail technology. The five start-ups which presented at today’s Demo Day are:
| Start-up | Idea | Outcome |
| Find Me A Shoe | Helps find the right footwear through virtual shopping. | Developed a frictionless workflow and product to match US demographics. |
| TimeFlex | Provides cloud-based monitoring for micro environments.
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The product has evolved to be an energy efficient sensor for key parameters in retail stores. |
| BugClipper | Reports bugs and shares feedback through screenshots and screen recordings. | Developed a web-based testing product and is pivoting to an enterprise solution. |
| House of Blue Beans | Provides best-in class 3D product visualizations. | Built a tool that enables computer generated images (in less than 30 minutes) as an alternate to photography. |
| Discover Dollar | Revolutionary technology that stops leakages and overpayments. | Detects and resolves overpayments and revenue leakages like pricing errors, unclaimed allowances and rebates by analyzing various data sources. |
Along with the graduation of its third batch of start-ups, Target is also excited to announce a partnership with GOQii, a wearable technology start-up. With a focus on wellness, Target is undertaking various initiatives to promote team member wellbeing. Making healthy living easier and more fun, every team member in India will be given a GOQii device to help track their wellbeing goals. This is one of the largest corporate wellness group purchases of GOQii devices to date.
Target is now accepting applications for the fourth batch of the Accelerator Program at: www.f6s.com/targetacceleratorprogram. Scheduled to commence early next year, the four-month initiative will be run out of a specially designed, energetic and creative hub at Target India’s office in Manyata Tech Park, Bengaluru.
About Target Corporation
Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) serves guests at 1,804 stores and at Target.com. Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its profit through community grants and programs; today, that giving equals more than $4 million a week. For more information about Target’s commitment to corporate responsibility, visit Target.com/corporateresponsibility.
About Target Corporation India
As an extension of our headquarters, Target India operates as a fully-integrated part of our global team. Target India’s more than 2,900 team members are engaged in work that supports Target’s global strategy across business areas such as technology, marketing, human resources, finance, merchandising, supply chain, property development, analytics and reporting.
Target cares about and invests in the career development of more than 360,000 team members worldwide and the communities where they live and work. Target’s International Giving Program focuses on creating accessible, quality educational opportunities for children and youth in many of the countries where Target has offices, including India.