Ah! Ventures registers its first exit from startup Harness Handitouch

 

Ah! Ventures, a Mumbai based startup, has just recorded its first ever exit in startup Harness Handitouch. The Chennai based company is currently going in for a series A investment of an undisclosed amount from Luxembourg based Armat group. The startup had successfully raised a funding of Rs. 1 crores two years ago from investors, members of Club Ah!, part of Ah! Ventures, a platform which brings together entrepreneurs and investors.

"It was a profitable exit for us. The Series A investors wanted all the existing angel investors to exit," said Abhijeet Kumar, founder, Ah! Ventures in a statement to Economic Times.

"In all 12 investors have exited in this round; including 9 of our investors, and financial transactions have been closed. We are targeting to have many more such exits in near future and we shall be doing so by investing into high quality startups and entrepreneurs," added Kumar.

Founded by an IIT Madras and ISB Hyderabad alumnus, Subramanaian Viswanathan, Harness Handitouch is an education technology company that leverages tablet and the cloud to create connected learning. The company has an aim of enhancing the teaching experiences through its platform.  The company though headquartered in Chennai, India, also has a corporate office in the United Kingdom.  It currently sells in six countries and has over ten thousand learners in these countries. Apart from this, Handitouch also works in areas such as corporate training and online coaching.

The Mumbai based Ah! Ventures has made around ten investments through the help of its network of investors since the year of its existence and the startup has some big plans in store for this year.

"We will be investing in 10 to 15 startups this year through our network of investors, and plan to invest in ticket size of around Rs 6 crores ($1 million). We are sector agnostic but are picking good teams before backing them” Kumar said.

Ah! Ventures registers its first exit from startup Harness Handitouch

 

Ah! Ventures, a Mumbai based startup, has just recorded its first ever exit in startup Harness Handitouch. The Chennai based company is currently going in for a series A investment of an undisclosed amount from Luxembourg based Armat group. The startup had successfully raised a funding of Rs. 1 crores two years ago from investors, members of Club Ah!, part of Ah! Ventures, a platform which brings together entrepreneurs and investors.

"It was a profitable exit for us. The Series A investors wanted all the existing angel investors to exit," said Abhijeet Kumar, founder, Ah! Ventures in a statement to Economic Times.

"In all 12 investors have exited in this round; including 9 of our investors, and financial transactions have been closed. We are targeting to have many more such exits in near future and we shall be doing so by investing into high quality startups and entrepreneurs," added Kumar.

Founded by an IIT Madras and ISB Hyderabad alumnus, Subramanaian Viswanathan, Harness Handitouch is an education technology company that leverages tablet and the cloud to create connected learning. The company has an aim of enhancing the teaching experiences through its platform.  The company though headquartered in Chennai, India, also has a corporate office in the United Kingdom.  It currently sells in six countries and has over ten thousand learners in these countries. Apart from this, Handitouch also works in areas such as corporate training and online coaching.

The Mumbai based Ah! Ventures has made around ten investments through the help of its network of investors since the year of its existence and the startup has some big plans in store for this year.

"We will be investing in 10 to 15 startups this year through our network of investors, and plan to invest in ticket size of around Rs 6 crores ($1 million). We are sector agnostic but are picking good teams before backing them” Kumar said.

Zomato opens subsidiary companies in over dozen countries

Zomato, one of the leading food ordering and restaurant discovery portals is planning on opening subsidiary companies in over a dozen countries all around the world. This step by the Gurgaon based company comes even before the portal is preparing to launch its operations in the markets of these countries.  Zomato hopes to get a headstart in these markets through this move.

The portal has already opened “on paper” companies in Finland, Mexico, Germany, Norway and Sweden. These on paper companies are complete with all legal requirements and a bank account. Zomato is planning to take on its closest rival, Germany’s Foodpanda, through these global expansion moves. Foodpanda is currently present in over 40 countries all around the globe.

According to Deepinder Goyal, cofounder and CEO of Zomato Media Private Limited, “A ready 'company' makes our entry into that market easier either by organic or inorganic means.” He further said, “Opening a bank account for a company is a difficult process in many countries and takes several months, we have decided to smoothen our entry into major world markets in the next four years.”  Goyal said this in a statement to the Economic Times.

The Gurgaon based company currently has its presence in over twenty countries all around the world.  The portal has its offices in New Zealand, India, Poland, Dubai, Turkey, UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil, to name a few. However, with the addition of these on paper companies, the company’s presence has crossed the tally of Foodpanda’s forty countries in the world.

According to various experts, the six year old company has undertaken the right strategy to capture the markets in a fast growing sector.

This is an innovative way,' said Rishikesha T Krishnan, Professor of Corporate Strategy and Director at IIM-Indore in a statement to ET. He further added, "Historically the way to test the waters in an international market was to enter in a joint venture with a local company but Zomato needs to ensure that the brand is protected."

In many countries a local entity is required in order to establish operations. According to the Indian regulations, a company can open as many subsidiaries as it wants globally but each subsidiary has to be accounted for.

Zomato opens subsidiary companies in over dozen countries

Zomato, one of the leading food ordering and restaurant discovery portals is planning on opening subsidiary companies in over a dozen countries all around the world. This step by the Gurgaon based company comes even before the portal is preparing to launch its operations in the markets of these countries.  Zomato hopes to get a headstart in these markets through this move.

The portal has already opened “on paper” companies in Finland, Mexico, Germany, Norway and Sweden. These on paper companies are complete with all legal requirements and a bank account. Zomato is planning to take on its closest rival, Germany’s Foodpanda, through these global expansion moves. Foodpanda is currently present in over 40 countries all around the globe.

According to Deepinder Goyal, cofounder and CEO of Zomato Media Private Limited, “A ready 'company' makes our entry into that market easier either by organic or inorganic means.” He further said, “Opening a bank account for a company is a difficult process in many countries and takes several months, we have decided to smoothen our entry into major world markets in the next four years.”  Goyal said this in a statement to the Economic Times.

The Gurgaon based company currently has its presence in over twenty countries all around the world.  The portal has its offices in New Zealand, India, Poland, Dubai, Turkey, UK, Australia, Canada and Brazil, to name a few. However, with the addition of these on paper companies, the company’s presence has crossed the tally of Foodpanda’s forty countries in the world.

According to various experts, the six year old company has undertaken the right strategy to capture the markets in a fast growing sector.

This is an innovative way,' said Rishikesha T Krishnan, Professor of Corporate Strategy and Director at IIM-Indore in a statement to ET. He further added, "Historically the way to test the waters in an international market was to enter in a joint venture with a local company but Zomato needs to ensure that the brand is protected."

In many countries a local entity is required in order to establish operations. According to the Indian regulations, a company can open as many subsidiaries as it wants globally but each subsidiary has to be accounted for.

Sequoia vs Housing.com spat goes viral

All is not that well in the Indian startup ecosystem. Hosuing.com, one of India’s most sought after startups and Sequoia Capital, a marquee venture capital fund, have found themselves engulfed in a hot controversy.

A leaked email from Housing.com’s founder Rahul Yadav to Sequoia Capital’s MD Shailendra Singh has given birth to this controversy. The email written on 6^th march with subject “Last Straw” has accused the venture capital fund of poaching Housing.com’s employees and being “unethical” towards entrepreneurs in general.  Apart from Housing.com, Sequoia has also invested in some of top startups like Zomato, Mu Sigma and Just Dial.

According to the mail written by Yadav, the venture capital fund is trying to brainwash his company’s employees towards starting a new incubator.

Sequoia’s Singh chose to respond to the controversy via Quora, a question and answer website. This controversy shows that all is not hunky-dory between some founders and investors in the Indian startup world.

Singh sounded deeply sad and hurt in his long response on the Q&A site.  According to Singh’s response, “My best guess is that this mail has been triggered by an offer that we made to one of the Housing employees to join us as an analyst." He further wrote, "I would still like to use this opportunity to talk about something larger and close to my heart - how will we all work together to create a better startup ecosystem in India? For us, that means not being vindictive and petty and instead being collaborative with the ecosystem - to focus on what matters in the long term. While I don't know Rahul well personally, and have only met him one-on-one once, I felt incredibly nice to read a recent article about how Housing has been one of the most active breeding grounds for new startups.

He concluded his response by writing, “At Sequoia, we consider it a privilege to do what we do - and be trusted by some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs, not just to be in their cap table, but to have a seat around the table to help set direction for their companies. I wish the Housing team and Rahul good luck."

Sequoia vs Housing.com spat goes viral

All is not that well in the Indian startup ecosystem. Hosuing.com, one of India’s most sought after startups and Sequoia Capital, a marquee venture capital fund, have found themselves engulfed in a hot controversy.

A leaked email from Housing.com’s founder Rahul Yadav to Sequoia Capital’s MD Shailendra Singh has given birth to this controversy. The email written on 6^th march with subject “Last Straw” has accused the venture capital fund of poaching Housing.com’s employees and being “unethical” towards entrepreneurs in general.  Apart from Housing.com, Sequoia has also invested in some of top startups like Zomato, Mu Sigma and Just Dial.

According to the mail written by Yadav, the venture capital fund is trying to brainwash his company’s employees towards starting a new incubator.

Sequoia’s Singh chose to respond to the controversy via Quora, a question and answer website. This controversy shows that all is not hunky-dory between some founders and investors in the Indian startup world.

Singh sounded deeply sad and hurt in his long response on the Q&A site.  According to Singh’s response, “My best guess is that this mail has been triggered by an offer that we made to one of the Housing employees to join us as an analyst." He further wrote, "I would still like to use this opportunity to talk about something larger and close to my heart - how will we all work together to create a better startup ecosystem in India? For us, that means not being vindictive and petty and instead being collaborative with the ecosystem - to focus on what matters in the long term. While I don't know Rahul well personally, and have only met him one-on-one once, I felt incredibly nice to read a recent article about how Housing has been one of the most active breeding grounds for new startups.

He concluded his response by writing, “At Sequoia, we consider it a privilege to do what we do - and be trusted by some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs, not just to be in their cap table, but to have a seat around the table to help set direction for their companies. I wish the Housing team and Rahul good luck."

Mobile Marketing Platform Vserv Raises US$15M In Funding From Maverick Capital & IDG Ventures

Mumbai-based mobile marketing platform startup Vserv has secured US$15 million in funding from US-based Maverick Capital Ventures, with participation from existing investor IDG Ventures. The total amount of funding it has raised till date has reached to $18 million. This includes its first round of funding of $3 million from IDG Ventures India, in July 2011.

The startup will use the funds in its sales, engineering and data analytics areas.

Founded in 2010, by Dippak Khurana and Ashay Padwa, VServ is currently provides marketers, telcos, app developers and various data partners with solutions to enable relevant ads, drive user engagement and increase ROI on mobile ads among others. Vserv’s flagship platform AudiencePro ties together data from multiple sources, such as offline and online marketers, telecom operators, mobile app developers and other third-party sources.

In November last year, Vserv launched an e-commerce-focused re-targeting product Vserv Smart RT, which allows advertisers/brands to re-target desktop users on mobile sites & apps, and re-target mobile site users on third-party apps.

Vserv claims that it interacts with over 500 million unique user profiles and has data on over 50% of the mobile internet users across emerging markets, including India, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia among others.

Vserv's flagship AppWrapper platform has also won Best App Monetization Platform award at Mobby's and mBillionth Award South Asia. Vserv's AudiencePro™ has won the Best Audience Targeting Platform award at Mobby's. Vserv has also won silver and bronze awards for its mobile marketing campaigns at IAMAI, Mobby's, MMA Smarties and CIDCA.

Vserv is backed by IDG Ventures & Epiphany Ventures. The company has a global footprint with offices across USA, UK, South Africa, India, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines & Vietnam.

Share Ideas & Suggestions For The PMO Mobile App On MyGov

MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the Government of India announced the launch of a nation wide contest to build a mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). This contest will be held across the country, at different institutions & colleges and will invite participation from people throughout India. Google will partner MyGov in this contest to build the PMO Mobile App. The contest will launch tomorrow at 5:00 pm on MyGov.in.

Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi's vision of Digital India is well appreciated. He has advocated the use of technology for bringing a positive change in people’s lives and to use technology to encourage innovation, aspiration & enhance connectivity. Speaking at an NASSCOM event yesterday Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said, that he was planning to invite ideas from the public for developing a mobile app for his office. He added that the government would work with Google for selecting the best ideas to develop the app and it’s features.

Commenting on the initiative, Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google India & South-East Asia, "We announced about five months ago that we will contribute on the Digital India initiative and the app development contest is a step in that direction. We are very excited to be a part of the Prime Minister’s vision and would urge every Indian to come forward and participate in the app development contest and become a cohesive part of governance and decision making in the country."

The contest has been divided into three phases: the first phase will seek ideas from the public on what they would like to see in the mobile app for the PMO, the second phase will involve building wireframes, and the final phase will include short listing, judging and building the app.

Talking about the announcement, Shri Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, MyGov said, "Through the PMO app contest we wish to use technology effectively to encourage innovation, aspiration and enhance connectivity. We want to provide every citizen access to the PMO through a mobile device. And since this is an app for the people, we are inviting people to submit ideas on the features they would like to see in their PMO's mobile app."

Chetan Krishnaswamy, Country Head- Public Policy at Google India added, "To realise the Government’s Digital India vision, we are collaborating with MyGov to develop a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) through a contest. With this we wish to support the Government’s agenda and provide every citizen access to the PMO's office through a mobile device."

Here is how you can be a part of building the PMO mobile app.

• Have an idea on what you would like to see as a feature in the mobile app, share it on www.mygov.in.The features can be around i) The kind of Information you want to see from the PMO - i.e. latest updates. ii) Interaction with the PMO. Submit your idea, or vote for an idea now on www.mygov.in . Last date for submitting ideas or voting is 12th March. The shortlisted features will be a part of the mobile app.



• Once the idea is in, the next step is to build the app with the shortlisted features. Register your team and submit your wireframes and be the chosen one to develop a mobile app for the PMO. Ten wireframes will be shortlisted to compete for the development phase.



• In the final stage, five finalists will be chosen by the jury, to compete for the ultimate prize of making the Prime Minister Office’s mobile app. These finalists will be mentored by Google, the technical partner of the contest.

Meet ‘MeDine’ - An App That Gives You Rewards For Just Walking Into Restaurants/Cafes ?

MeDine is a free mobile app that rewards you for just checking in at places such as restaurants, cafes, spa, shops etc. You download MeDine app and every time you walk into our thousands of partner places, the app's 'intelligent assist' feature automatically recognizes your location and alerts you to collect reward points. This technology works even without your GPS being on or when your data is switched off too.

These reward points can be redeemed for a host of shopping, lifestyle, movie, e-commerce or utilitarian e-gift cards/e-vouchers examples include Flipkart, Amazon,Bookmyshow, Freecharge, Snapdeal, restaurant, spa treatments etc.



From a consumer's standpoint, it's an absolute pleasure to just download some 6MB of an app and get rewarded at places that he/she goes to with the least possible effort of just one single tap. The app currently currently caters to users in cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad and Secunderabad only.

Below are questions we put up to Bengaluru-based startup behind the app, to understand more about MeDine as an app and its conception story :

How does the rewards concept work in the app? What do you redeem for?

Reward redemption is one click away and you can choose from a host of 30+ brands that you can redeem the reward for. The rewards are essentially e-gift cards/vouchers of various brands online, offline stores, mobile recharges, shopping vouchers (with no conditions like you have to buy for X Rs. etc) that come straight into the app itself. You can chose to watch a movie free and get bookmyshow egift voucher in your app or if you want to buy stuff online, you can redeem for e gift vouchers of Flipkart, Amazon, Lifestyle, Coffee day, Jabong, Shoppers Stop, Myntra etc. You can chose to get a bit pampered through select spa treatments or if you chose to recharge your mobile free of cost or pay your bills. SO a customer gets a host of additional benefits and earns great rewards for just having the app.

Hence, just have the app and forget about telling your mobile number to the store clerk or calling endlessly with a list or standing in line for redemptions etc. All you need is to keep the app and redemption is click away.

What is the addressable market and underlying opportunity you are going after?

The single most problem for any offline business (retail, restaurants, storefront etc) is to drive foot falls into their physical stores. Now, if that is the most important aspect for any business that has an offline presence, then why not reward people to just walk into the stores? Well, most businesses would have loved to do it if only they know who came in through the door. This is where our technology helps.
We are building a platform for businesses to reward customers just for walking into their stores and reach out to their customers real time. Converting digital traffic to foot traffic, essentially to personalize intelligently!

Tell us more about your industry; competition (will be great if you can share certain market trends with numbers)

India’s restaurant industry itself is about $55billion (24 times bigger than the film industry as well as ahead of the telecom industry) and organized retail which accounts for less than 10% in India is another US $20 billion in size. Both are growing at a healthy rate and poised to grow even bigger provided they stave off competition from online players. The wallet share of these industry spends is primarily being driven by top line growth contributors including ad networks, specific players, CRM players etc. Hence there are a number of players across sectors who have a pie in this huge industry. From our standpoint, we will of course be vying for a small share of this immense spends and competition could be anyone who is vying for the same wallet share.

What is your product differentiation and competitive advantage?

How many apps tell you to do nothing except download and register? Every app says that it helps you to do this, that etc but we ask you NOT to do anything other than to check-in and get rewarded!

In almost all the apps across the world, you open the app and then they show you all near-by places and you select a place to check-in and that’s posted on your social network etc. In MeDine, you do not have to remember to check-in also. The app tells you that you are in a partner restaurant/café and once it pops up, all you need to do is tap once. This ‘intelligent assist’ is based on a multitude of factors and works even if you are NOT connected to the internet – Yes, even if you are not connected to the internet you can earn rewards. Its context-aware, hyper location-aware and will get personalized over time.

Our execution model and convenience of a consumer doing almost nothing to get rewards and redeem them is what differentiates us from the rest. Ultimately scale has to weigh in apart from the technology.

What inspired you to start this venture?

Convenience, ease of use and the way data sciences can be applied to simple everyday activities driving customer experience is what we are passionate about.

Who all are the founders and what is their background?

Satish Medapati: Have about 10 years of analytics, data sciences and portfolio management across multiple domains like BFS/Telco/Retail/Insurance and multiple geos.

Anita Bhat: Founding team member manages engineering & development. She has about 18 years of experience in developing and delivering large scale applications

Tell us about your journey so far .What is the current team size , revenues and in how many cities have you expanded to ? (Please feel free to elaborate as much as you can)

The journey so far has been an exhilarating one. My corporate experience was not aiding me in the startup journey and its all learning afresh. You start getting enormous support from the start up community and of course disappointments are also as common. You will always be surprised to see how many people want you to succeed! We have had 2 pivots and that experience has taught us a lot in terms of approaching product market fit. We are growing fast now and we are learning at double that pace to.

We have a team of about 6 full time employees, 3 part-time employees and 3 interns apart from freelancers that continue to be really helpful to us on an ongoing basis. Anita and Nagarajan are the key members of technology team and Amitesh & his team is responsible for growth hacking for us.

At the early stage we are in, our focus is on growth and technology and hence we do not have any revenue focus at the moment. We are present in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad at the moment. Our alpha product was launched on Feb 5th and Chennai and Hyderabad have been recently added.

Some of the most critical challenges you have faced and how you overcame those?

Product market fit is the most important challenge that we had learnt from our past keeping ears to the ground and only tracking numbers that grow (& do not). At one point your consumers will start telling you the next step and you need to listen to them attentively minus the noise.

The second most challenging job is to get people to believe in your vision and building a team that delivers without loads of money in your pocket [for that matter even nothing :)].

Some exciting learnings/moments in your journey so far which you would like to share with all of us?

There have been many transforming from living on indulgences to living on necessities as an entrepreneur. You should desperately want to be an entrepreneur and want to succeed - then everything else will not matter, else it’s difficult. We are always excited when our consumers call us with suggestions or blog about us or write about us.

When customers get their first egift card through us, they typically write a review and few of them even call us to tell how exciting it was to earn and redeem rewards with so much ease -makes us feel very happy.

What can we expect from you in the coming months?

We are focusing on optimizing our ‘intelligent assist’ to a good measure of accuracy and making it work across all devices. Though we do have a viable product in the market that works very well, we haven’t addressed all devices or all operating systems. We are re-branding the new product with a name that suits the current business model. We should be making rewards more exciting to earn and focus on growing the consumer base we have already.

Are you looking for funding?

We are a growth focused business and technology intensive one that would need impetus in funding. We are looking for partners who can take us to the next level than mere funding and want to be part of this exciting journey.

Post Budget: Amazon, Flipkart & Uber To Be Affected By New Increased Service Tax Rate

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Super Budget 2015 on 28^th February and got a thumbs up from most of the industry people. According to a proposal under the newly presented budget, the ecommerce industry will now come under the new service tax rate of fourteen percent. This new proposal is surely going to have a huge impact on web base aggregators of bus operators, retail sellers, hotels and taxi owners like OlaCabs, Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and Uber.

According to the new proposal, which became effective from March 1, all online aggregators that own and operate a web based application will now come under the tax net.

Related - Budget 2015: All Talks, No Work For Tech-Startups, Reacts Tech Industry

"All aggregators which by means of an application and a communication device, enable a potential customer to connect with persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand name or trade name; shall fall under the service tax bracket," said a notification issued by the Finance ministry's department of Revenue, effecting the amendments to the Service Tax Rules of 1994 introduced in the Union budget 2015 on Saturday.

“We applaud the government's decision to include specific language pertaining to aggregators in the 2015 Union Budget that will drive improvements to tax compliance,” said a statement given by an Uber spokesperson to the Economic Times.  This new proposal to include online commerce industry under the ambit of the new service tax can be seen as a result of intense discussions that have been taking place between Uber and the Indian Tax authorities over the last few months. The Tax authorities of India questioned Uber last year over the payment of service tax in the country.

Until recently, the service tax rules did not imply on the web based aggregators. According to Uber India, this new proposal will ensure that there is transparency in the flow of tax revenues directly to the Indian government.  On the other hand, OlaCabs is hopeful that such new rules will bring the foreign players and domestic players on a level playing field and give them equal chance to grow and flourish.

As per the new rules introduced in the Budget 2015, even if such web based aggregators employ just a country head or liaison, their officials will still be liable to pay service tax on the behalf of the company.

These new service tax rules will also be applicable to classifieds players, deal websites and online aggregators like Stayzilla, Quikr, Cashkaro, Zomato, Mydala, FoodPanda, Housing and Olx

Post Budget: Amazon, Flipkart & Uber To Be Affected By New Increased Service Tax Rate

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Super Budget 2015 on 28^th February and got a thumbs up from most of the industry people. According to a proposal under the newly presented budget, the ecommerce industry will now come under the new service tax rate of fourteen percent. This new proposal is surely going to have a huge impact on web base aggregators of bus operators, retail sellers, hotels and taxi owners like OlaCabs, Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and Uber.

According to the new proposal, which became effective from March 1, all online aggregators that own and operate a web based application will now come under the tax net.

Related - Budget 2015: All Talks, No Work For Tech-Startups, Reacts Tech Industry

"All aggregators which by means of an application and a communication device, enable a potential customer to connect with persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand name or trade name; shall fall under the service tax bracket," said a notification issued by the Finance ministry's department of Revenue, effecting the amendments to the Service Tax Rules of 1994 introduced in the Union budget 2015 on Saturday.

“We applaud the government's decision to include specific language pertaining to aggregators in the 2015 Union Budget that will drive improvements to tax compliance,” said a statement given by an Uber spokesperson to the Economic Times.  This new proposal to include online commerce industry under the ambit of the new service tax can be seen as a result of intense discussions that have been taking place between Uber and the Indian Tax authorities over the last few months. The Tax authorities of India questioned Uber last year over the payment of service tax in the country.

Until recently, the service tax rules did not imply on the web based aggregators. According to Uber India, this new proposal will ensure that there is transparency in the flow of tax revenues directly to the Indian government.  On the other hand, OlaCabs is hopeful that such new rules will bring the foreign players and domestic players on a level playing field and give them equal chance to grow and flourish.

As per the new rules introduced in the Budget 2015, even if such web based aggregators employ just a country head or liaison, their officials will still be liable to pay service tax on the behalf of the company.

These new service tax rules will also be applicable to classifieds players, deal websites and online aggregators like Stayzilla, Quikr, Cashkaro, Zomato, Mydala, FoodPanda, Housing and Olx

A Lockscreen App That Shows Live Cricket Scores On The Locked Screen

Are you a cricketaholic? Having difficulty in keeping up with scores? Fret not, because just like for everything else, there is an app that takes care of this problem too. Scorely Live Cricket Locscren is an app that displays the live scores of cricket matches right on your phone's lockscreen, which means you don't have to open any app to view the score.

This innovative app saves you precious time and effort of unlocking the phone and opening an app again and again to view the score and keep track of the scores from the comfort of your lockscreen.

Designed especially for ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, this app ensures you remain updated with all cricket scores because of its real time feed of scores of multiple matches. You would not need to live stream any matches after having installed this app. There is no battery drain as this app is light as well as fast.

Now no more of unlocking phone and opening apps again and again to just keep track of scores. The app is currently available for Android users only.



The app basically modifies the lock screen of your phone and displays live cricket scores. The interface of the lockscreen has been designed keeping game of cricket in mind.

The app is developed by Bazzinga Labs, a Bangalore-based mobile apps development startup founded in 2013 by Computer Science graduates of Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal.

Railways Launches India's First Customer Complaint Mobile App

The Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu launched a Customer Complaint Web Portal and Mobile Application (currently android only and will soon launch windows based mobile App as well), at a function here yesterday.

Speaking on the occasion the Railway Minister said that this 'Customer Complaint-cum-Suggestion' portal and mobile App which can be freely downloaded, will be very useful as one can track the status of the complaints which he or she registered on this portal with the help of mobile App. He said that Railways welcome suggestions from the people to further improve the passenger services and valuable suggestions on this newly launched portal can be incorporated in all possible ways, if found suitable.

The passengers can also SMS their complaints on mobile number +91-9717630982.

With newly launched mobile app, the complaint will be auto assigned to the railway official concerned for redressal. The complainant will receive a message on his mobile phone and via email about the action taken on the matter. Complaints will be provided with a unique complaint ID number. Complainants can use the unique ID number to track progress of complaints.

Railways will advertise the portal and the App on social networking sites and other platforms to popularise it. The Customer Complaint Portal will later also be available in Hindi and other regional languages.

Google Partners MyGov To Build PMO Mobile App

Online search giant Google will help MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the government of India, to launch a nationwide contest to build a mobile app for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), a company statement said here on Monday.

Notably, government's citizen-engagement platform MyGov on Monday launched a nationwide contest to build a mobile app for the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Google will partner MyGov in this contest to build the PMO mobile app. The contest will launch today at 5 p.m. on MyGov.in.

Speaking at NASSCOM event Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that they were planning to invite ideas from the public for developing a mobile app for his office.

"Through the PMO app contest, we wish to use technology effectively to encourage innovation, aspiration and enhance connectivity. We want to provide every citizen access to the PMO through a mobile device," Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO, MyGov said.

• If you have an idea on what you would like to see as a feature in the mobile app, share it on www.mygov.in.The features can be about the kind of information you want to see from the PMO. Submit your idea, or vote for an idea now on www.mygov.in. Last date for submitting ideas or voting is 12th March. The shortlisted features will be a part of the mobile app.


• Once the idea is in, the next step is to build the app with the shortlisted features. Register your team and submit your wireframes and be the chosen one to develop a mobile app for the PMO. Ten wireframes will be shortlisted to compete for the development phase.


• In the final stage, five finalists will be chosen by the jury, to compete for the ultimate prize of making the Prime Minister Office’s mobile app.

These finalists will be mentored by Google, the technical partner of the contest. An external jury will judge the contest and choose the final app.

Online Dating Startup TrulyMadly Raises Rs.35 Cr Via Helion Venture & Kae Capital

Delhi-based online dating and matchmaking app TrulyMadly has raised Rs. 35 crore in their first round of funding from Helion Venture Partners and Kae Capital. TrulyMadly has been started by several serial entrepreneur, including Sachin Bhatia, who had also co-founded MakeMyTrip.

TrulyMadly is an app which serves a platform that brings singles together based on common interests and psychological matching.

The TrulyMadly app was launched in August 2014, and so far has seen over 200,000 downloads, and claims to have about 65,000 monthly active users mostly from India and south-east Asia. Of those, 35 percent are women.

Other than Sachin Bhatia, co-founder MkaaeMyTrip, the other co-founder is Hitesh Dhingra, who co-founded his earlier venture Letsbuy.com which was sold to Flipkart in 2012 for reported $25 million. The third co-founder in the company is Rahul Kumar, who has earlier been associated with Expedia, Oracle, and MakeMyTrip.

Sachin Bhatia, CEO and Co-Founder, TrulyMadly said, "since we are building a social network of sorts, the brand needs to grow virally and therefore we will be investing in developing original, sharable content. We will also be investing heavily in bolstering our product and tech team. We plan to grow to five million users by next year and sustain our leadership position in the dating and match-making space."

Online dating is finally finding mainstream acceptance in India. Last month, matrimonial portal Shaadi.com owner People Group has acquired about 25% stake in dating applications maker Thrill in a cash and stock deal valued at close to $1 million (about Rs 6 crore 13 lakhs).

Ola Buys Rival TaxiForSure For $200 Million

Mobile app based online cab booking service Ola has bought rival TaxiForSure for $200 million in a cash-and-equity deal. Notably, TaxiForSure is India's second largest cab aggregator and this is first merger and acquisition (M&A) in the taxi service aggregator space.

This acquisition deal by Ola is among the biggest in India's startup industry after Flipkart's purchase of Myntra for about $300 million in May last year.

Ola and TaxiForSure will continue to operate as separate entities, said a statement. The leadership and all of the 1700 employees shall continue to work with TaxiForSure, with Arvind Singhal (currently COO) being appointed the CEO. Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, the founders of TaxiForSure, will contribute in an advisory role for a certain period.

TaxiForSure currently operates in 47 cities with over 15,000 vehicles registered on its platform. With the acquisition, investors in TaxiForSure will roll over their stock into Ola, the company said.

According to Raghunandan G, Co-founder and CEO, TaxiForSure the brands coming together will provide more opportunity than ever to do what they do best. "Post this acquisition; the combined entity will be strong enough and better capitalized to offer the best value to all our stakeholders, including our customers. This development ensures that industry attractiveness is preserved and the combined entity can race ahead and continue to create unprecedented value for all stakeholders."

Ola has been funded by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital and most recently, Japan's Softbank over its four rounds of fund-raising. Investors in TaxiForSure are Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.

Kerala's Startup Village Has Produced 533 Startups So Far And Going

Startup Village has been giving wings to the dreams of young entrepreneurs of Kerala ever since the time it was established in the year 2012. The Kochi based incubator, which is India’s first PPP model internet-mobile incubator, is now churning out one entrepreneur a day, according to a statement given to PTI by a top official.

By the end of last year, the incubator had been successful in producing 533 startups, out of which 116 were college startups. It has also successfully created a total of 2,889 jobs since its inception.

The incubator, which completed thousand days in January, has registered a quarter to quarter growth of forty percent in applications received from new startups. The total valuation of the incubator’s startups is pegged at a whopping Rs. 292 crores.

Since the incubator’s inception in April 15, 2012 to December last year, it has received a whopping 6,491 application requests.

“37 startups have raised Rs 27 crore in funding from angel investors, private backers and seed funds and 161 have raised initial seed money from friends and family,”  said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village in a statement to PTI.

He further said that the incubator has been able to build a great ecosystem focused on early stage startups.

According to him, the incubator has a huge scope for growth and if the constraints of funds and infrastructure are resolved, India might be able to get its own Silicon Coast.

According to data available, the incubator had incubated a total of 960 startups till the end of the last year. This comprised of 58 physical startups and 902 virtual startups. Out of these 960 startups, a good 533 are currently active. Of the 58 physical startups incubated till now, two failed and 56 are currently active. On the other hand, of the 902 virtual startups, 355 are inactive and 477 active, while seventy of them were aborted.

"Survival of physically incubated startups is 96.5 per cent and of virtual 53 per cent, which shows that a physical ecosystem substantially increases the chances of a startup doing well," said Vijayakumar.

Speaking about student startups, he said of the 293 student startups incubated till now, 116 are currently active, 149 inactive and some 28 fizzled out midway.

Scarcity of funds accounted for eighteen percent of the mortality of these students startups.

According to Vijayakumar, "Lack of family support (10.5 per cent), well-placed jobs (43 per cent), unviable business idea (11 per cent), competition from a better player (7 per cent) and pursuit of higher studies (3.5 per cent) were among the other major factors that aborted some of these startups.”

Kerala's Startup Village Has Produced 533 Startups So Far And Going

Startup Village has been giving wings to the dreams of young entrepreneurs of Kerala ever since the time it was established in the year 2012. The Kochi based incubator, which is India’s first PPP model internet-mobile incubator, is now churning out one entrepreneur a day, according to a statement given to PTI by a top official.

By the end of last year, the incubator had been successful in producing 533 startups, out of which 116 were college startups. It has also successfully created a total of 2,889 jobs since its inception.

The incubator, which completed thousand days in January, has registered a quarter to quarter growth of forty percent in applications received from new startups. The total valuation of the incubator’s startups is pegged at a whopping Rs. 292 crores.

Since the incubator’s inception in April 15, 2012 to December last year, it has received a whopping 6,491 application requests.

“37 startups have raised Rs 27 crore in funding from angel investors, private backers and seed funds and 161 have raised initial seed money from friends and family,”  said Sanjay Vijayakumar, Chairman, Startup Village in a statement to PTI.

He further said that the incubator has been able to build a great ecosystem focused on early stage startups.

According to him, the incubator has a huge scope for growth and if the constraints of funds and infrastructure are resolved, India might be able to get its own Silicon Coast.

According to data available, the incubator had incubated a total of 960 startups till the end of the last year. This comprised of 58 physical startups and 902 virtual startups. Out of these 960 startups, a good 533 are currently active. Of the 58 physical startups incubated till now, two failed and 56 are currently active. On the other hand, of the 902 virtual startups, 355 are inactive and 477 active, while seventy of them were aborted.

"Survival of physically incubated startups is 96.5 per cent and of virtual 53 per cent, which shows that a physical ecosystem substantially increases the chances of a startup doing well," said Vijayakumar.

Speaking about student startups, he said of the 293 student startups incubated till now, 116 are currently active, 149 inactive and some 28 fizzled out midway.

Scarcity of funds accounted for eighteen percent of the mortality of these students startups.

According to Vijayakumar, "Lack of family support (10.5 per cent), well-placed jobs (43 per cent), unviable business idea (11 per cent), competition from a better player (7 per cent) and pursuit of higher studies (3.5 per cent) were among the other major factors that aborted some of these startups.”

Do You Know About Facebook's New Suicide Prevention Tool

Facebook, the social networking giant, has decided to make its platform more sensitive and safe for its users. According to the company, the safety of its users is their most important responsibility.

The social networking giant has come up with various updated tools that would provide advice, support and more resources to users struggling with suicidal thoughts. These tools were announced at its fifth Compassion Research Day held on 25^th February.

Now, if you see an unusual, worrisome post from your friend, you can help that friend by reporting the post to Facebook. After you have reported the post, Facebook will get the post reviewed from a third party and prompt the user to get help the next time he/she logins into their accounts.

The California based company closely worked with mental health organizations like Forefront, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org, Now Matters Now and various others on developing these updates. It also consulted people who had lived experience with suicide or self-injury in the past.

Facebook will get the reported posts reviewed by a third party as it doesn’t want its users to be a victim of unwanted pranks from the hands of their friends. The social networking site has various teams working 24x7, round the clock to review any report that comes their way. The team reviews and prioritizes the most serious posts and sends helps and resources to the users in distress.



Besides encouraging such distressed users to connect with a mental health expert at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Facebook will also give them the option of reaching out to a friend, and provide advice and tips on how they can work through such feelings.  Facebook has created all these resources in conjunction with its academic and clinical partners.

These updates will be rolled out to Facebook users in the United States over the next couple of months.  The social networking giant also plans to improve its tools for its users outside the US. This step taken by the company to make Facebook a sensitive and safe platform has received an overwhelming response from its users all around the world.

Do You Know About Facebook's New Suicide Prevention Tool

Facebook, the social networking giant, has decided to make its platform more sensitive and safe for its users. According to the company, the safety of its users is their most important responsibility.

The social networking giant has come up with various updated tools that would provide advice, support and more resources to users struggling with suicidal thoughts. These tools were announced at its fifth Compassion Research Day held on 25^th February.

Now, if you see an unusual, worrisome post from your friend, you can help that friend by reporting the post to Facebook. After you have reported the post, Facebook will get the post reviewed from a third party and prompt the user to get help the next time he/she logins into their accounts.

The California based company closely worked with mental health organizations like Forefront, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Save.org, Now Matters Now and various others on developing these updates. It also consulted people who had lived experience with suicide or self-injury in the past.

Facebook will get the reported posts reviewed by a third party as it doesn’t want its users to be a victim of unwanted pranks from the hands of their friends. The social networking site has various teams working 24x7, round the clock to review any report that comes their way. The team reviews and prioritizes the most serious posts and sends helps and resources to the users in distress.



Besides encouraging such distressed users to connect with a mental health expert at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Facebook will also give them the option of reaching out to a friend, and provide advice and tips on how they can work through such feelings.  Facebook has created all these resources in conjunction with its academic and clinical partners.

These updates will be rolled out to Facebook users in the United States over the next couple of months.  The social networking giant also plans to improve its tools for its users outside the US. This step taken by the company to make Facebook a sensitive and safe platform has received an overwhelming response from its users all around the world.

Budget Reactions From Hyderabad Inc For 2015 - Startups, IT &Telecom Sectors, Industry Associations.

After finance minister Arun Jaitley presented Union Budget 2015 just a day before yesterday, Hyderabad Inc. gave budget reactions. These include inputs from Startups, IT & Telecom Sectors, Industry Associations from Hyderabad city, arguably a Silicon Valley of India.

Mr. Y Guru

Chairman & Managing Director
Celkon Mobiles

"Overall it was a strong and structural budget with clear roadmaps to achieve the target of more than 8% economic growth and reduce the fiscal deficit to 3% in the next 3 years. Government has shown its intent to create a business friendly environment and boost the 'Make in India' initiative. The thought process of merging the Skill India initiative with Make in India is the right approach as skill development and manufacturing complement each other in the long run. The focus of the budget has been more towards boosting infrastructure, agriculture, healthcare and manufacturing and hits the right chords. Bringing the middle class under a unified pension scheme to prevent India from being a pension less society is commendable. Boosting the business environment by easing the regulations will be an impactful decision."

"From the industry perspective, reduction of the corporate tax from 30% to 25% is appreciated. GST implementation is another welcome move which will end taxation uncertainties in a lot of aspects. High allocation for infrastructure projects such as roadways and railways will give further boost to manufacturing. Reducing the CVD on certain goods in another area the industry is looking forward to, however more clarity is needed in terms of its implementation. Having said that; the budget missed considering the challenges faced by the telecom industry." Guru, Chariman & MD, Celkon Mobiles added.

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Mr. Suman Reddy

Managing Director
Pegasystems India

"It looks like a mixed budget from the IT Industry perspective. While there has been a significant reduction in the Corporate Tax from 30% - 25% and of tax on Royalty from 25% to 10% that will benefit the industry; on the other hand the budget did not provide any clarity on the transfer pricing issue which the industry was awaiting. Having said that, the budget has given the right direction to the economy going forward, the 150 Cr corpus on making India world class IT hub will bring in a positive sentiment. Focus on Infrastructure, Skill development and Manufacturing will enhance economic growth in the long term. Public expenditure in terms of investment in Infrastructure has also increased. It is good to see the government taking initiatives for startups, particularly the setting aside of Rs 1000 crores to set up Self Employment and Talent Utilization SETU supporting incubation and startups. The special attention on incubators and technology led startups is welcome as these will help the industry move from a services led to products led industry. The hike in expenditure on education by setting up premier institutions in states such as J&K, AP, Punjab, Bihar Karnataka etc and strengthening the primary, secondary and higher secondary education along with the increase in specific educational scholarships for students is will further support skill development in the country."

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Mr. Ramesh Loganathan

Vice President and Managing Director Progress Software
President HYSEA – Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association

While there was nothing dramatic in the budget, it broadly seems to be a growth inducing one. The budget provided a decent balance of Social reforms and growth initiatives including Make in India. Several small items seem like they may add up to have an impetus to make in India. The corporate tax reduction to 25% from 30% is straight away making more money available to the companies for investments and growth. The technical services tax reduction and reduction of duties on raw material import both should help the manufacturing sector. Streamlining the foreign investment process as well as the increased visa on arrival facility will hopefully also simplify external investments. Simultaneously, few measures seem in place to promote startups. While the details are unclear, the 150cr world class IT hub will hopefully encourage development of new technology and products. The 1000cr startup corpus, given the wording seems like will help setup and grow incubators and startup seeding. An interesting clause is 'mechanism for self employment to help with startups - SETU"

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Mr. Debasis Chatterji

CEO
Netxcell Limited

"The budget was great in terms of showing the direction for accelerating economic growth. The government has taken a long term approach by focus on improvement in existing services. The Jan Dhan Yojana, Coal Auction and Swacch Bharat program have given a very good start by dealing with the fundamentals of government fund distribution honestly, starting thermal power plants and to make India disease free. The budget showcases the fundamental change in the government’s thought process and is different from so called popular measures. The initiative to build 6 crore toilet under Swacch Bharat Yojana, will trigger growth in FMCG and ancillary industry and create lots of service jobs."

"It was a good budget for the It industry with an initial sum of Rs 150 Cr announced to create a world class IT hub to take advantage of our competitiveness. Further the reduction of Corporate tax and support to tech Start-ups with a mechanism for techno-financial incubation corpus of Rs 1000 crore; has given tremendous boost to the IT sector and startup ecosystem. Implementation of GST has been the greatest economic reform so far that will aid India to become business friendly. From the telecom industry perspective, there were a lot of expectations from the industry however the budget failed to offer any concrete initiatives for the sector."

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Mr. Neeraj Jewalkar

Founder and CEO
Smartur.com

The Budget in totality looks positive with enhanced focus on fast-tracking growth in Healthcare, IT, Infrastructure and Education sectors. The government has linked many initiatives to support and provide a boost to Make in India. Therefore giving additional attention to startups, the government has introduced a corpus of Rs. 1,000 Cr to support technology led startups and incubation centers. This will further enhance the startup ecosystem in India. Another significant move is the government’s emphasis on making the country more business and investment friendly. Easing of regulations and focus on increased public sector investments in infrastructure will boost the business environment in the coming year. IT Industry has received a good uplift in terms of reduction in the corporate taxation from 30% to 25% and also reduction of taxes on royalty being reduced from 25% to 10%. Moreover a 150 Cr corpus has been announced to make India a World Class IT hub; which should attract further investments in the sector. Strengthening of the education system through up gradation of primary, secondary and higher secondary education, enhanced funds allocation to the sector and introducing premier institutes in states like J&K, Punjab, AP, Karnataka etc will enable skill development across the country. The budget thus included a good pipeline of reforms which will be implemented in detail and bear fruits in the coming years.

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Mr. BVR Mohan Reddy
Executive Chairman Cyient Ltd. and Vice Chairman NASSCOM.

"Budget has a positive thrust on Startup and Technology but concerns persist:

Positives: For Start-up and SMEs, the Self Employment Talent Utilization (SETU), the techno-financial incubation scheme is a big positive; Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) platform to foster R&D and Innovation is another positive. Tax on royalty / fee for technical services reduced from 25% to 10% will be helpful in reducing cost of technology and give more incentive for technology deployment. Public Procurement Dispute resolution Bill is likely to streamline the government procurement process, and also address some of the pending disputes. This will give a fillip to Industry participation in domestic markets.

Negatives/Misses: Increase in Service Tax rate, by 1.5 %, is disappointing. Further, with mounting backlog in service tax refunds, the Industry will be impacted. Angel tax continues – Fair market valuation applicable to angel investments and capital receipts taxed in start-ups. This problem is unaddressed in spite of the focus on entrepreneurship and start-ups. Duality in service tax and sales tax applicability to product companies not addressed"

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Mr. Safir Adeni

President – TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Hyderabad

"We have mixed reactions to the Union Budget. It is encouraging that the government has laid emphasis on job creators by promoting entrepreneurship. However, so far there were talks of Rs. 10,000 crore allocation for startups so we don't have a clarity whether in this budget the allocation of Rs 1000 crores under Self Employment and Talent Utilization (SETU) for the startups is in addition to the same or it is Rs. 1000 crore only now. Although the corporate taxes have gone down by 5%, the increase in service tax and surcharge will have negative impact on the startup ecosystem. Due to the change in the permanent base treatment, this could be a boost in Fund Manager startup space."

Budget 2015: All Talks, No Work For Tech-Startups, Reacts Tech Industry

Yesterday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2015 at Lok Sabha, however not much space has been given to startup ecosystem of India in this year's budget except for just one scheme called SETU (Self- Employment and Talent Utilisation), which is essentially a mechanism of techno financial and incubation platform for tech-based startups. The government will be spending Rs 1,000 crore to help incubate these new companies.

Not to forget, in last year Union Budget of 2014, government announced $1.6 billion or Rs.10,000 Startup Fund to attract private capital by providing equity, quasi equity, soft loans and other risk capital for startups. Now, a next union budget has been announced but nothing has been done on ground level for previous announced startup fund, nothing has been released about how the fund will be used by the government and not even some kind of initiation process has been kicked off so far for the same.

Additionally, this year government again announced Rs.1000 crore startup fund with the scheme named as SETU. Questions are being asked about last year promised startup fund (Refer - What happened to Rs.10000 crore startup fund, YourStory, FirstPost).

Before this year's Union Budget are about to announced the highest expectations of startups from 2015 Budget was a favorable tax reform, as an Indian tech startup has to pay service tax, which is at the rate of 12.36 per cent - a rate similar to what large corporates pay and in this this year's budget service tax has been increased to 14%, biggest disappointment for startups. This is in addition to startups having to pay excise and income tax.

Additionally, startups in India wanted to make starting-up business in India a lot more easier as current procedure for starting a business requires the entrepreneur to run from corner to corner, office to office in order to get all the approvals, clearances and licenses for his new venture. The sector has been long demanding the setting up of one single window for all these approvals, so that the entrepreneurs can concentrate more on his business and less in running around.

"Modi has said a lot of wonderful things, but so far nothing has happened, other than a lot of public relations," legendary investor Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1960s, said in a recent interview.

NASSCOM's Vice Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy reacted in on budget 2015 and said - "Increase in service tax rate is disappointing. Angel tax continues - fair market valuation applicable to angel investments and capital receipts taxed in start-ups. This problem is un-addressed in spite of the focus on entrepreneurship and start-ups. Duality in service tax and sales tax applicability to product companies not addressed."

Mobile Startup Momoe Raises $1.2 Mn In Funding Led By IDG & Jungle Ventures

Bangalore-based mobile payment startup Momoe has raised $.12 million in funding round led by IDG ventures and Jungle ventures, with participation from India Quotient.

The newsly raised funds will be used to expand the team as Momoe plans to reach 500 merchant outlets in the next few months.

Momoe enables people to pay on their mobile phones. Momoe is a location aware smart phone app. People can pay on Momoe with their existing credit cards & debit cards. Momoe is accepted at restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores & apparel stores in India.

Unlike PayTM and Mobikwik, which facilitate cashless payments with a virtual wallet solution that stores a fixed amount of cash, Momoe's app works by using credit-card details which is very much similar to another Gurgaon-based mobile payment app called Ruplee with which one can pay using his credit or debit card.

Momoe was founded in 2014 by Utkarsh Biradar, Karthik Vaidyanathan, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Neelesh Bam and Aiman Ashraf who are mostly graduates of IITs and IIMs. "We are the early movers in the space," said CEO Utkarsh Biradar, 44, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, who expects the company to handle Rs 3,000 crore worth of transactions in the next 18 months.

Momoe app currently has a user base of over 3000 customers, and has crossed Rs 1 million in transactions. They plan to expand to other urban metros in India and abroad once they get to a 100-150 restaurants in Bangalore. The startup currently has five founding members and eight employees.