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“We are here for a reason. We aren’t here just to take up a fancy job in a MNC. We are here to create jobs and livelihoods for others… The problems that we see [in India] are actually opportunities. We just need a different mindset to look at them, create solutions, and build businesses around them,” says Ashwanii Rawat, Co-founder, Transerve, as he talks about his mission to democratise access to location data and solutions for businesses across all industries.

Ashwanii along with his co-founder and close friend Amarsh Chaturvedi are among the entrepreneurs whose stories are captured in Omidyar Network India’s newly launched video series titled ‘The Bold Ones – Innovating for the Next Half Billion’. A compilation of 11 short videos, the series captures power-packed stories of entrepreneurs who are building for the 500 million-plus Indians coming online for the first time via their mobile phones, a segment often referred to as the ‘Next Half Billion’ or NHB.

Since its inception in 2009, Transerve has become one of the fastest growing data startups in India.

Transforming India using data-driven technologies

“Transerve helps you solve the problem of ‘where’ in your day-to-day decision making [process]. We want to be the decision enablers for the government as well as the private sector players, where they can leverage the power of data and location in solving basic issues,” says Amarsh in the video.

Providing a geospatial analysis platform for organisations and agencies to process location data and gain insights, Transerve’s technology simplifies the process of handling, visualising, and analysing location data, which is complicated in nature. Transerve technology is being used to overcome problems related to urban setup, such as inventorying urban assets, revenue enhancement, land records modernisation, managing utilities like water and sewerage systems, traffic management, and more.

Transerve provides data-driven analysis for industries such as agriculture, mobility, finance, energy, and sanitation.

Building a smart future

With a strong emphasis on sectors like smart city development, urbanisation, and in implementing the e-governance system and digitisation of workflows, India has undergone a vast transformation in the past decade. Additionally, with more and more people coming online, the need for solving urban issues as well as understanding the needs of the underserved segments is becoming more crucial than ever.

“We are in the process of gathering data about the marginalised [communities and demographics]. If we can show the world where the next half billion people live and what they need using our location platform, it’ll certainly give plenty of ideas to people [on how to serve them], especially the younger generation,” says Ashwanii reiterating the importance of location intelligence.

Some of Transerve’s key clients include state governments, PSUs like SAIL, Institute of National Importance like NDDB and NIUA, philanthropic organisations like Tata Trust, corporates like PwC, L&T, Country Garden, Deloitte, etc.

The personal and professional challenges and success Ashwanii and Amarsh have faced while building their startup can be seen here.

The 11-part series is live on theboldones.in. Additionally, the series is also available on Omidyar Network India’s YouTube channel and social media handles.