Startup Street: Flipkart’s Ashish Gupta Finds His Next ‘Rocket Ship’ In Rubrik

Ashish Gupta quit India's largest e-tailer Flipkart to join as India head of Silicon Valley startup Rubrik, a data management company. Google acquired a data science venture to strengthen its artificial intelligence arm. Beverage giant Coca-Cola extended its incubator programme and a cyber security startup hub was set up in India. Here's what happened on Startup Street this week…

Gupta To Set Up Rubrik's India Team

Ashish Gupta, who was vice-president of engineering at Flipkart, will set up Rubrik's engineering centre in Bengaluru this year. The new office will have a team of 20-25 engineers to work on independent data solutions, Gupta told BloombergQuint over the phone.

Why did he choose Rubrik? “Identify your rocket ship and jump on it,” Gupta said, explaining that he prefers to work at ventures that offer high-growth opportunity. That's why he joined Flipkart five years ago and Rubrik now, he said.

Rubrik grew 700 percent last year and touched a run rate of $100 million, he said.

Cyber Security Startup Hub In India

Amrita University, Coimbatore set up what it said was India's first cyber security startup hub on March 6, new agency Press Trust of India reported.

Established jointly by the university's Technology Business Incubator and its Centre for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks, the hub will focus on research and getting funds for startups, PTI quoted the incubator's Chief Executive Officer Krishnashree Achuthan as saying.

The hub will focus on digital forensics, cryptography and malware, the report said.

Cyber security is estimated to be a $70-billion industry and losses from cyberattacks are expected to rise to $2 trillion by 2020, Achuthan told PTI.

Google Acquires Data Science Startup Kaggle

Google went shopping at the Cloud Next 2017 conference and came back with Kaggle in its kitty.

The company bought the data science platform for an undisclosed amount to strengthen its artificial intelligence arm, according to a blog post by Kaggle's chief executive officer Anthony Goldbloom. Google Cloud ranks third in the industry, behind Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

“We must lower the barriers of entry to AI (artificial intelligence) and make it available to the largest community of developers, users and enterprises so that they can apply it to their own unique needs. With Kaggle joining the Google Cloud team, we can accelerate this mission,” said a PTI report quoting Fei Fei Li, chief scientist for Google Cloud's AI and machine learning arm.

The startup will maintain its independent brand identity initially while working with Google, the report said. Founded in 2010, Kaggle is home to the world's largest community of data scientists and machine-learning enthusiasts, the report said.

Coca-Cola May Extend Tech Startup Incubator Programme

Coco-Cola's three-year incubation programme for startups may be extended as it seeks more ventures to expand its technology innovation centre, the Wall Street Journal reported. Established in 2014, the Bridge programme will host fresh startup participants this week, according to the report.

Brigde guides technology startups in the consumer engagement, consumer retail, supply chain, marketing innovation and health and wellness sectors for six months and gives them an opportunity to pilot within Coca-Cola, according to its website. The company does not acquire any equity in the startups in return for mentorship.

The incubator has mentored 31 companies in the last three years, including startups like Hachiko, Advestor, Cimagine and Neomatix, the website said.

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