Sensara raises funding from ex-Google India head Lalitesh Katraggada

Sensara has developed a technology that converts smartphone into television remote

Former Google India head Lalitesh Katragadda and Ganayantrika Systems have backed Bengaluru-based Sensara that converts smartphones into television remotes and enables search of TV programmes on the mobile device.

"We've set out on a mission to make it easy for users to change TV Channels. India has 150 million set-top boxes and 150 million smart phones, but the two do not acknowledge each other. Most phones do not have InfraRed emitters, so we decided to build affordable accessories that give power to your mobile phones. We've declared war on that old remote in your living room,"said Bharath Kumar Mohan, founder and chief executive of Sensara in a blog. Mohan, a former Googler who worked with Katraggada, did not disclose the funding amount.

"We've set out on a mission to understand everything that happens on Television - in real time. An incredible platform team made use of the best of signal and image processing along with sequence mining methods to create AdBreaks.in, a real time index of all TV Commercials in India," he said.