With Rs 100-cr fund, Future Group to set up C&D lab for GeNext technology

The Kishore Biyani-led Future Group on Friday announced setting up of Future C&D (consumer and digital) Lab in Bengaluru backed by a Rs 100-crore Accelerator Fund.

"Future C&D will focus 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," Future Group said in a statement.

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 and CEO Kishore Biyani said: "The Future C&D Lab is aimed at co-creating 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, the group said, brings together multiple teams and companies working on these areas, housed in a common, collaborative space set up in the IT city.

"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 every day," it added.

Future Group director Vivek Biyani is leading this initiative.

The Lab is tracking technology developments that will influence consumer experience in areas such as payments, unique consumer identification and development of one-on-one consumer conversations, analytics and predictive modelling as well as back-end functions such as supplier engagements, supply chain automation and infrastructure deployment.