Kishore Biyani-led Future Group today announced the launch of Future C&D Lab in Bangalore that fosusses on the consumer and digital space to bring in next generation innovations using artificial intelligence, big data analytics, blockchains, internet of things, robotics and allied technologies.
The Lab brings together multiple teams and companies that are working on these areas, housed in a common, collaborative space set up by Future Group in Bangalore. These teams and companies have a ready access to test, experiment and prototype their technologies across Future Group's brand and retail platforms that serve over a million customers everyday.
Vivek Biyani, director, Future Group is leading this initiative. The research and development activities will be supported through a Rs 100 crore accelerator fund that will be set up to fund the operations, technology development and IPR creation by the teams working at The Lab.
Future Group founder Kishore Biyani said: "The Future C&D Lab is aimed at co-creating the next generation technologies for the consumer space in India. We are creating an open environment of collaboration and co-creation with some of the best young Indian minds who are working with new technologies to create solutions that can impact the retail and consumer space over the next couple of years."
The Lab is pursuing technology developments that will influence consumer experiences in areas such as payments, unique consumer identification and development of one-on-one consumer conversations, anaytics and predictive modelling as well as in backend functions such as supplier engagements, supply chain automation and infrastructure deployment.
The Lab features a multidisciplinary team composed of technologists, engineers, data scientists, designers and consumer specialists and will also be running hackathons, secondments and open workshops that allow continious learning, collaboration and exchange of skills. The Lab is located within a light-filled independent building in Indiranagar, in the heart of Bengaluru.