Child Healthcare Startup Babygogo Bags $300K in Seed Funding

[caption id="attachment_104470" align="alignnone" width="700"] Babygogo Team[/caption]

New Delhi-based child healthcare startup Babygogo which is owned and operated by AddoDoc Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised $300,000 (Rs. 2 crore) in seed funding from a clutch of angel investors including Rajul Garg, a veteran in healthcare investment. Rajul Garg has also invested money in Qikwell, HealthKart & Cygnus Medicare earlier.

"We will use the money to build deep tech and analytical engine. We want to deliver the content to parents, that is tailor-made for their kid’s health care. Some part of money will be utilized in exploring new channels of digital marketing," the startup said.

Other investors who participated in the round include Dr Aniruddha Malpani, IVF specialist from Mumbai and an angel investor; Daljit Singh, President of Fortis Healthcare; Aditya Vij, ex-CEO of Fortis Healthcare; Salil Kapoor, ex-COO, DishTV; Dr Kishore Kumar, Founder & Chairman, Cloud Nine Hospitals; Ashu Agarwal, Director, BW Accelerate; Ashish Tulsian, Founder, Posist; Afsal Salu, Founder Delyver; Dr Shuchin Bajaj, founder of Cygnus Hospitals; Dr Ritesh Malik, founder of Innov8.

Babygogo is a community of parents and doctors where everyone help new parents. The venture is trying to solve the problem with help of technology so that right information about child health care can be provided to parents at the time when they need it most.

In current version, parents can read helpful articles on baby food, health and day-to-day care. Parents can ask their questions within app and experienced parents & doctors answer them.

Apart from Q/A  and articles, a parent can record & track their child growth, save health records in app, tele-consult pediatric, book appointment with their doctor and get vaccination reminders.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Sowrab NRS and Satyadeep Karnati, founded AddoDoc (the parent company of Babygogo), a platform for doctors to help them manage patient data. Doctors were able to feed patient records into the system, keep track of their visits & medicines and send appointment reminders through SMS.

The team enabled patients to call doctors through their system where patients could directly call their doctor without even knowing the doctor’s number.

In October 2015, team launched Babygogo mobile app for parents where they could access their baby’s vaccination details, appointment records and growth chart. It becomes easy for parents to book appointment and call their doctor through the app.  

The startup is also making a team of in-house experts on child health to help pregnant women and mothers. The health advice will be delivered to parents according to their child needs. For example, a kid of 2 years having low weight and asthma would receive help from experts on how to increase weight and build stronger lungs.

Other players which are operating in the same space include Practo which raised $90 million; Lybrate secured $10 million in 2015; My Child App raised $100,000 in January and parenting app BabyBerry secured $1 million in angel funding from a bunch of investors in February this year.

Child Healthcare Startup Babygogo Bags $300K in Seed Funding

[caption id="attachment_104470" align="alignnone" width="700"] Babygogo Team[/caption]

New Delhi-based child healthcare startup Babygogo which is owned and operated by AddoDoc Technologies Pvt Ltd, has raised $300,000 (Rs. 2 crore) in seed funding from a clutch of angel investors including Rajul Garg, a veteran in healthcare investment. Rajul Garg has also invested money in Qikwell, HealthKart & Cygnus Medicare earlier.

"We will use the money to build deep tech and analytical engine. We want to deliver the content to parents, that is tailor-made for their kid’s health care. Some part of money will be utilized in exploring new channels of digital marketing," the startup said.

Other investors who participated in the round include Dr Aniruddha Malpani, IVF specialist from Mumbai and an angel investor; Daljit Singh, President of Fortis Healthcare; Aditya Vij, ex-CEO of Fortis Healthcare; Salil Kapoor, ex-COO, DishTV; Dr Kishore Kumar, Founder & Chairman, Cloud Nine Hospitals; Ashu Agarwal, Director, BW Accelerate; Ashish Tulsian, Founder, Posist; Afsal Salu, Founder Delyver; Dr Shuchin Bajaj, founder of Cygnus Hospitals; Dr Ritesh Malik, founder of Innov8.

Babygogo is a community of parents and doctors where everyone help new parents. The venture is trying to solve the problem with help of technology so that right information about child health care can be provided to parents at the time when they need it most.

In current version, parents can read helpful articles on baby food, health and day-to-day care. Parents can ask their questions within app and experienced parents & doctors answer them.

Apart from Q/A  and articles, a parent can record & track their child growth, save health records in app, tele-consult pediatric, book appointment with their doctor and get vaccination reminders.

Siddhartha Ahluwalia, Sowrab NRS and Satyadeep Karnati, founded AddoDoc (the parent company of Babygogo), a platform for doctors to help them manage patient data. Doctors were able to feed patient records into the system, keep track of their visits & medicines and send appointment reminders through SMS.

The team enabled patients to call doctors through their system where patients could directly call their doctor without even knowing the doctor’s number.

In October 2015, team launched Babygogo mobile app for parents where they could access their baby’s vaccination details, appointment records and growth chart. It becomes easy for parents to book appointment and call their doctor through the app.  

The startup is also making a team of in-house experts on child health to help pregnant women and mothers. The health advice will be delivered to parents according to their child needs. For example, a kid of 2 years having low weight and asthma would receive help from experts on how to increase weight and build stronger lungs.

Other players which are operating in the same space include Practo which raised $90 million; Lybrate secured $10 million in 2015; My Child App raised $100,000 in January and parenting app BabyBerry secured $1 million in angel funding from a bunch of investors in February this year.

SoftBank Ventures Korea Invests in Indian Mobile Balance Checking App True Balance

SoftBank Ventures Korea has made an investment of an undisclosed amount in True Balance, one of India’s integrated, one touch prepaid mobile balance manager app. This announcement follows True Balance’s recent announcement of registering more than 25 lakh downloads within 17 months since establishment.

The funds from SoftBank Ventures Korea, will help True Balance accelerate its expansion plans along side enhancing its product advantage.

Launched in September 2014 by seasoned entrepreneur Charlie (Cheolwon) Lee, Gurgaon-based True Balance provides balance check, call log, data pack assessment, and recharge service for prepaid Android smartphone users. With its capability to use Big Data to give real-time information on better plans and offers, the app also helps earn and recharge balance.

This investment comes as part of True Balance’s Series A funding followed by last year’s seed funding from Korean VC, Bon Angels partners and Mega Investment.

Charlie Lee, founder of True Balance said, “Our journey to be a “must have application for all 200 million smartphone users in India” has just begun. With SoftBank Ventures Korea team’s commitment to the rising Indian startup, we are more than confident to provide simple and hassle free balance managing service to all Indian users.”

He added, “Our goal in the long run is to enable people around the world to communicate freely with their loved ones without any stoppage. True Balance app is the first step towards our vision, which has been developed for prepaid users who relatively pay more for using data networks. This year our focus will be to continue providing the market with the best of our products. We have already crossed the 2 million downloads mark this March and looking to achieve a new milestone of 10M downloads in the next 9 months.”

SoftBank Ventures Korea Invests in Indian Mobile Balance Checking App True Balance

SoftBank Ventures Korea has made an investment of an undisclosed amount in True Balance, one of India’s integrated, one touch prepaid mobile balance manager app. This announcement follows True Balance’s recent announcement of registering more than 25 lakh downloads within 17 months since establishment.

The funds from SoftBank Ventures Korea, will help True Balance accelerate its expansion plans along side enhancing its product advantage.

Launched in September 2014 by seasoned entrepreneur Charlie (Cheolwon) Lee, Gurgaon-based True Balance provides balance check, call log, data pack assessment, and recharge service for prepaid Android smartphone users. With its capability to use Big Data to give real-time information on better plans and offers, the app also helps earn and recharge balance.

This investment comes as part of True Balance’s Series A funding followed by last year’s seed funding from Korean VC, Bon Angels partners and Mega Investment.

Charlie Lee, founder of True Balance said, “Our journey to be a “must have application for all 200 million smartphone users in India” has just begun. With SoftBank Ventures Korea team’s commitment to the rising Indian startup, we are more than confident to provide simple and hassle free balance managing service to all Indian users.”

He added, “Our goal in the long run is to enable people around the world to communicate freely with their loved ones without any stoppage. True Balance app is the first step towards our vision, which has been developed for prepaid users who relatively pay more for using data networks. This year our focus will be to continue providing the market with the best of our products. We have already crossed the 2 million downloads mark this March and looking to achieve a new milestone of 10M downloads in the next 9 months.”

YouWeCan And AdLift Present Their Latest Venture ‘Yral'

AdLift, a global digital marketing agency and YouWeCan Ventures, a Yuvraj Singh initiative, has launched a new platform – Yral (pronounced ‘viral’) – that connects advertisers with celebrities by leveraging their social media network. Yral delivers the right audience and scalable reach to its advertisers by leveraging modern social media platforms.

Yral provides registered advertisers with the right set of information that enables them to identify and interact with brand advocates, helping advertisers reach customers throughout all stages of the purchase funnel.

Globally, advertiser-paid social media spend is slated to increase 26% in 2016 and will reach $29.91 billion, representing 15% of all digital ad spending. In Asia-Pacific, year-over-year growth is stronger – 30.6% with $9.6 billion in social media ad spending. As more brands and businesses adopt paid social media advertising, yral provides the tools to advertisers to help them scale their social media initiatives and enhance their reach.

“We want to transform the way celebrities engage with brands – making it a whole lot easier and faster for advertisers to efficiently connect with the right celebrities.” said Yuvraj Singh. “Yral is our first foray in to the digital space – we’re excited to partner with AdLift in making this happen.”

“The total reach of the top 50 celebrities is close to 100M which is 33% of India’s Internet population. Digital marketing spends are estimated to reach $2B by 2019 and if only 5% is led by celebrities we estimate the market size to be $100M,”said Nishant Singhal, Founder & Chief Investment Officer of YouWeCan Ventures.

Yuvraj Singh recently launched YouWeNow in association with Yral, which is an entertainment platform featuring popular and trending videos within the Sports and Lifestyle vertical.  The content is closely curated by Yuvraj Singh and his team.

YouWeCan And AdLift Present Their Latest Venture ‘Yral'

AdLift, a global digital marketing agency and YouWeCan Ventures, a Yuvraj Singh initiative, has launched a new platform – Yral (pronounced ‘viral’) – that connects advertisers with celebrities by leveraging their social media network. Yral delivers the right audience and scalable reach to its advertisers by leveraging modern social media platforms.

Yral provides registered advertisers with the right set of information that enables them to identify and interact with brand advocates, helping advertisers reach customers throughout all stages of the purchase funnel.

Globally, advertiser-paid social media spend is slated to increase 26% in 2016 and will reach $29.91 billion, representing 15% of all digital ad spending. In Asia-Pacific, year-over-year growth is stronger – 30.6% with $9.6 billion in social media ad spending. As more brands and businesses adopt paid social media advertising, yral provides the tools to advertisers to help them scale their social media initiatives and enhance their reach.

“We want to transform the way celebrities engage with brands – making it a whole lot easier and faster for advertisers to efficiently connect with the right celebrities.” said Yuvraj Singh. “Yral is our first foray in to the digital space – we’re excited to partner with AdLift in making this happen.”

“The total reach of the top 50 celebrities is close to 100M which is 33% of India’s Internet population. Digital marketing spends are estimated to reach $2B by 2019 and if only 5% is led by celebrities we estimate the market size to be $100M,”said Nishant Singhal, Founder & Chief Investment Officer of YouWeCan Ventures.

Yuvraj Singh recently launched YouWeNow in association with Yral, which is an entertainment platform featuring popular and trending videos within the Sports and Lifestyle vertical.  The content is closely curated by Yuvraj Singh and his team.

Acquisory Launches Startup Advisory ‘Empower Startups’

New-age consulting firm, Acquisory, has announced the launch of its “one stop solution” advisory service, “Empower Startups”, focusing on the startup revolution that is getting widespread traction across India.

Led by an experienced team, Empower Startups shares a range of services that can enable and guide startups right from set up to providing support to their innovative ideas when India is set to outperform all other countries in this space. Acquisory’s one stop shop involves advising these startups, setting up the right kind of entities for them, processes & systems and fundraising, taxation, auditing, hiring and overseas expansion advice ensuring that risks and road blocks are mitigated to a large extent.

“With huge focus by the current Government on Start Ups and the benefits being doled out in the current budget, our objective is to support entrepreneurs realize those benefits, by managing their entire non-core activities such as setting up entities, systems and processes, accounting, payroll processing and compliance, so that they can focus on building the business and the brand which is where the entrepreneur mind-space should be," said Sumchit Anand, Managing Director, Acquisory.

Empower Startups has put together an experienced team comprising Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, CFAs, Law graduates, MBAs, Cost Accountants, Certified Public Accountants with a simple purpose i.e. ‘To help our clients realize their aspirations’.

Another major benefit that Empower Start-Ups brings to the table is to give its clients a global reach, to serve its clients in every major financial Center worldwide, owing to their global affiliations. Also, it can create opportunities for their clients in the global marketplace, and extend business interests for their clients across services covering all major sectors.

Acquisory and Empower Startups have experience in dealing with both small, medium and large enterprise across various industry verticals like eCommerce, QSR chains, manufacturing, services, telecom, IT & ITES, technology platforms, financial services etc., thus bringing in the requisite sector and business expertise for hand holding these start ups.

Founded in 2010, with offices in Delhi & Mumbai, Bangalore and Jaipur and resource strength of 200+ team members, Acquisory is committed to helping clients become high-performance businesses.

Acquisory Launches Startup Advisory ‘Empower Startups’

New-age consulting firm, Acquisory, has announced the launch of its “one stop solution” advisory service, “Empower Startups”, focusing on the startup revolution that is getting widespread traction across India.

Led by an experienced team, Empower Startups shares a range of services that can enable and guide startups right from set up to providing support to their innovative ideas when India is set to outperform all other countries in this space. Acquisory’s one stop shop involves advising these startups, setting up the right kind of entities for them, processes & systems and fundraising, taxation, auditing, hiring and overseas expansion advice ensuring that risks and road blocks are mitigated to a large extent.

“With huge focus by the current Government on Start Ups and the benefits being doled out in the current budget, our objective is to support entrepreneurs realize those benefits, by managing their entire non-core activities such as setting up entities, systems and processes, accounting, payroll processing and compliance, so that they can focus on building the business and the brand which is where the entrepreneur mind-space should be," said Sumchit Anand, Managing Director, Acquisory.

Empower Startups has put together an experienced team comprising Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, CFAs, Law graduates, MBAs, Cost Accountants, Certified Public Accountants with a simple purpose i.e. ‘To help our clients realize their aspirations’.

Another major benefit that Empower Start-Ups brings to the table is to give its clients a global reach, to serve its clients in every major financial Center worldwide, owing to their global affiliations. Also, it can create opportunities for their clients in the global marketplace, and extend business interests for their clients across services covering all major sectors.

Acquisory and Empower Startups have experience in dealing with both small, medium and large enterprise across various industry verticals like eCommerce, QSR chains, manufacturing, services, telecom, IT & ITES, technology platforms, financial services etc., thus bringing in the requisite sector and business expertise for hand holding these start ups.

Founded in 2010, with offices in Delhi & Mumbai, Bangalore and Jaipur and resource strength of 200+ team members, Acquisory is committed to helping clients become high-performance businesses.

Ahmedabad-Based M1Order Is Changing The Way Neighborhood Stores Receives Orders

Making retail a tech savvy sector is the main aim of this Ahmedabad based startup. Introducing M1-order. Launched in May last year, this unique startup is giving the retail sector a technological uplift by changing the way retailers currently receive orders from their customers.

Offline shopping has taken a big hit among the customers mainly because they're no long interested in running pillar to post for one particular top and standing in long car queues for finding a decent parking. Hence, shoppers have ditched the traditional way for the new, trendy and much more comfortable online shopping way.

M1-order's mission is to enchase this very trend of online shopping gaining momentum in the country especially for the small and mid-size retailers. In order to achieve this, the startup provides the retailers with a platform to create their own mobile stores and start taking orders from that.

Along with the mobile store, the startup also allows retailers to make extensive use of popular social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook etc. to attract more and more customers and orders their way. Along with being a virtual marketplace, the platform also offers the customers the luxury of paying via CC/DC/Net banking/Digital Wallets or the current favourite among many, the Cash on delivery option.

Along with the new mediums, the startup is also putting considerable efforts in reviving the ages old print media and bringing in call-to-action for all the money spent fueled into such activities.

With M1-order, the customers are the kings in true sense as they personally have the freedom to select, compare and buy the products they want rather than being forced to buy from a fix list of merchants.



M1-order boasts of being the number one in virtual marketplace space as the platform, unlike others, believes in putting the merchants on the front foot. The startup's philosophy is to make “BRANDS” out of merchants, so that the shoppers are aware about the real genius brains behind the products. This feature will also help retailers gain loyal customers and hence, repeated business.

Available on iOS, Android and Windows platforms, the mobile application can be downloaded free of cost by the users but the startup does charge the retailers a nominal fee of INR 5 per order. The amount is much less when compared to other players operating in the sector.



M1-order was given birth by the bright minds Mr. Tejinder Pal Singh Oberoi and, Mr. Niraj who had a simple want to make technology an affordable and accessible medium for all types of retailers irrespective of their bank balance. Mr. Oberoi is an engineer by profession and a sales by heart. Addressing people's problem is his favourite thing in the world and hence he decided to make a switch from corporate world to entrepreneurship world in the early 2000's. Mr. Niraj, on the other hand, is a serial entrepreneur looking after multiple businesses under the Cygnet Group.

Currently available in 5 Indian cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, the startup's future goal is to promote itself to the title of being called "The Universal Ordering App” and expand its services across other Tier-II and III cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi within the next two years.

[Top Image - Paul Wilkinson@Flickr]

Ahmedabad-Based M1Order Is Changing The Way Neighborhood Stores Receives Orders

Making retail a tech savvy sector is the main aim of this Ahmedabad based startup. Introducing M1-order. Launched in May last year, this unique startup is giving the retail sector a technological uplift by changing the way retailers currently receive orders from their customers.

Offline shopping has taken a big hit among the customers mainly because they're no long interested in running pillar to post for one particular top and standing in long car queues for finding a decent parking. Hence, shoppers have ditched the traditional way for the new, trendy and much more comfortable online shopping way.

M1-order's mission is to enchase this very trend of online shopping gaining momentum in the country especially for the small and mid-size retailers. In order to achieve this, the startup provides the retailers with a platform to create their own mobile stores and start taking orders from that.

Along with the mobile store, the startup also allows retailers to make extensive use of popular social media platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook etc. to attract more and more customers and orders their way. Along with being a virtual marketplace, the platform also offers the customers the luxury of paying via CC/DC/Net banking/Digital Wallets or the current favourite among many, the Cash on delivery option.

Along with the new mediums, the startup is also putting considerable efforts in reviving the ages old print media and bringing in call-to-action for all the money spent fueled into such activities.

With M1-order, the customers are the kings in true sense as they personally have the freedom to select, compare and buy the products they want rather than being forced to buy from a fix list of merchants.



M1-order boasts of being the number one in virtual marketplace space as the platform, unlike others, believes in putting the merchants on the front foot. The startup's philosophy is to make “BRANDS” out of merchants, so that the shoppers are aware about the real genius brains behind the products. This feature will also help retailers gain loyal customers and hence, repeated business.

Available on iOS, Android and Windows platforms, the mobile application can be downloaded free of cost by the users but the startup does charge the retailers a nominal fee of INR 5 per order. The amount is much less when compared to other players operating in the sector.



M1-order was given birth by the bright minds Mr. Tejinder Pal Singh Oberoi and, Mr. Niraj who had a simple want to make technology an affordable and accessible medium for all types of retailers irrespective of their bank balance. Mr. Oberoi is an engineer by profession and a sales by heart. Addressing people's problem is his favourite thing in the world and hence he decided to make a switch from corporate world to entrepreneurship world in the early 2000's. Mr. Niraj, on the other hand, is a serial entrepreneur looking after multiple businesses under the Cygnet Group.

Currently available in 5 Indian cities i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, the startup's future goal is to promote itself to the title of being called "The Universal Ordering App” and expand its services across other Tier-II and III cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kochi within the next two years.

[Top Image - Paul Wilkinson@Flickr]

NDTV launches online wedding platform Bandbaajaa

One of the leading Indian  broadcaster NDTV has launched its online wedding platform Bandbaajaa.com.

The site boasts of marquee designers like Neeta Lulla, Anju Modi, Kisneel, Prama, Kylee & Neha Mehta. It has also a listing of over 1,500 best vendors and lifestyle professionals, and has over 5,000 products.

Through the Bandbaajaa, users can get assistance to ideate wedding ideas, manage budget and  find vendors according to their preferred location. The platform provides assistance on venues, photography, DJ & entertainers, wedding decor, makeup artists, invitation cards, caterers, etc. It also provides retail options for wedding dresses and delivers an end-to-end solution to the customers.

The development comes four months after the company raised an undisclosed amount in funding from US-based CerraCap Ventures for the new platform at US$20 million valuation.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lbs3XW9EC4?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0]

“We have curated a selective list of elite vendors. Our focus is to help the customers with the perfect mix of right products, best vendors and amazing ideas in order to make their journey to the big day hassle free and memorable", said Sachin Singhal, CEO, Bandbaajaa.com .

“Weddings are a recession proof business, the current generation of young Indians will find everything they need to plan a perfect wedding with minimum fuss. The idea has been very well received by the market. It’s a hugely exciting space to be in,” said Smeeta Chakrabarti, Managing Director, Bandbaajaa.com:

Earlier this year in February 2016, NDTV’s ethnic e-commerce venture, IndianRoots, launched Fashion Business Accelerator in partnership with 6Degree, to boost budding fashion professionals. Other ventures by NDTV include online health product marketplace SmartCooky, an ecommerce venture for gadgets, named Gadgets 360° and Fifth Gear Auto, an auto portal complementing NDTV’s car and bike shows.

Touchkin Secures Seed Funding from Angel Investors

Touchkin, the Bangalore-based mobile healthcare startup, has raised $400,000 in seed funding from a clutch of angel investors. The funding came from investors, including Alok Mittal (ex-Canaan Partners), Amit Gupta (co founder, InMobi), Anuj Srivastava (ex Google, CEO and co founder Livspace), Himanshu Aggarwal (CEO, Aspiring Minds), Raghunandan G (co founder TaxiForSure) and Puneet Agarwal (ex Google, co founder Moneyview).

"Mobile healthcare is a $46 billion opportunity,” said Jo Aggarwal, Co-founder of Touchkin. “Soon, your phone will sense if you are depressed or ill, and proactively get you help. The sensor technology needed for this is already in your hands, and in 2 billion smartphones globally. Our platform uses passive data from smartphone sensors to create a picture of a person’s well being and identify potential health issues. This is very powerful, because unlike most mobile health apps, it doesn’t require any change in user behavior."

Aggarwal and her co-founder, Ramakant Vempati, left senior roles at Pearson and Goldman Sachs in the UK and moved to Bangalore to start Touchkin. Vempati added, “In finance, credit card companies look for changes in spending patterns to predict if a transaction may be fraudulent. Touchkin is based on a similar principle – behaviourial analytics of phone activity can predict a potential health issue. This can alert families or doctors, and deliver help in time to those who need it.”

Touchkin plans to apply this technology to support healthcare systems, community health and families across the world. Its free app, StayClose, shows families how their loved ones are, and triggers alerts if their activity levels drop drastically. The enterprise solution focuses on chronic illness and mental health, to help care providers improve outcomes by letting them know which of their patients may need follow up.

Anuj Srivastava, an active angel and founder of Livspace, was one of the first investors in Touchkin. He said, “Touchkin is applying machine learning to healthcare in a unique and potentially disruptive manner. It is exciting to see companies like this building innovative products for the global market, starting in India."

Touchkin Secures Seed Funding from Angel Investors

Touchkin, the Bangalore-based mobile healthcare startup, has raised $400,000 in seed funding from a clutch of angel investors. The funding came from investors, including Alok Mittal (ex-Canaan Partners), Amit Gupta (co founder, InMobi), Anuj Srivastava (ex Google, CEO and co founder Livspace), Himanshu Aggarwal (CEO, Aspiring Minds), Raghunandan G (co founder TaxiForSure) and Puneet Agarwal (ex Google, co founder Moneyview).

"Mobile healthcare is a $46 billion opportunity,” said Jo Aggarwal, Co-founder of Touchkin. “Soon, your phone will sense if you are depressed or ill, and proactively get you help. The sensor technology needed for this is already in your hands, and in 2 billion smartphones globally. Our platform uses passive data from smartphone sensors to create a picture of a person’s well being and identify potential health issues. This is very powerful, because unlike most mobile health apps, it doesn’t require any change in user behavior."

Aggarwal and her co-founder, Ramakant Vempati, left senior roles at Pearson and Goldman Sachs in the UK and moved to Bangalore to start Touchkin. Vempati added, “In finance, credit card companies look for changes in spending patterns to predict if a transaction may be fraudulent. Touchkin is based on a similar principle – behaviourial analytics of phone activity can predict a potential health issue. This can alert families or doctors, and deliver help in time to those who need it.”

Touchkin plans to apply this technology to support healthcare systems, community health and families across the world. Its free app, StayClose, shows families how their loved ones are, and triggers alerts if their activity levels drop drastically. The enterprise solution focuses on chronic illness and mental health, to help care providers improve outcomes by letting them know which of their patients may need follow up.

Anuj Srivastava, an active angel and founder of Livspace, was one of the first investors in Touchkin. He said, “Touchkin is applying machine learning to healthcare in a unique and potentially disruptive manner. It is exciting to see companies like this building innovative products for the global market, starting in India."

Seven Startups That Have Graduated From STun’s Second Batch

New Delhi based Startup Tunnel (STun), an early stage incubator has announced seven startups that have graduated from its second batch. STun helps startups by  providing mentorship to passionate teams working on game changing ideas to enhance their capabilities in product development, marketing strategy, rapid prototyping, and design & user experience.

Here is a list of graduated startups:

Woobus: Founded in 2015 by Tushar Gagerna and Pariskshit Dutt, Bangalore-based Woobus is a premium budget bus service which provides plethora of features in the buses. It work on an aggregation model by tying up with bus operators and standardize their buses.

8Minutes: New Delhi based 8Minutes was founded in 2015 by Dev Arora. It helps homes and businesses reduce their energy costs by installing solar on their rooftop with little or no upfront cost.

Brevity: New Delhi based Brevity curates, summarises and distributes life enhancing content (lifehacks, how-to's, edutainment). With data-driven curation, semi-automated summarisation and approach of a distributive media company, Brevity helps people learn great things, be smarter everyday in minutes. It was founded in 2015 by Aditya Ganguly and Diksha.

ParQue: Started in 2015 by Vipin Goyal, ParQue  is a mobile app through which one can request valet on demand. Just enter your destination when you leave and you will find a professionally trained valet when you will reach there. The startup's valet will take your car and will park it into authorised parking lots. Once you are done, you can request back your car from the app itself anywhere in the same serviceable area and its valet will bring it back to you.

Medimojo: Delhi-based Medimojo is a cloud based digital assistant to store, track and manage health records. It provides convenience of storability accessibility & doctor connect for evidence based consultancy. The startup was founded in 2015 by Shikha Suman and Vikas Ranjan.

M4maths: M4maths is a community-driven Q&A site focused on Competitive exam, Mathematics , English and Programming Languages. The primary purpose of M4maths site is to enable users to post questions and answer them. Users can like, dislike on both answers and questions, and through this process users earn reputation points. M4maths publicly launched in June 2011 by Naveen Joshi and Madhukar Joshi. It released an associated mobile app, charging fee to users for curated question answer by m4maths experts.

Tranzo: Tranzo is optimising Intra city bus travel by giving services for daily commute, by reducing travel time and making daily commute productive and hassle free. The venture was launched in 2015 by Mukesh Kumar, Aditya Shakya and Harish Tiwari.

Seven Startups That Have Graduated From STun’s Second Batch

New Delhi based Startup Tunnel (STun), an early stage incubator has announced seven startups that have graduated from its second batch. STun helps startups by  providing mentorship to passionate teams working on game changing ideas to enhance their capabilities in product development, marketing strategy, rapid prototyping, and design & user experience.

Here is a list of graduated startups:

Woobus: Founded in 2015 by Tushar Gagerna and Pariskshit Dutt, Bangalore-based Woobus is a premium budget bus service which provides plethora of features in the buses. It work on an aggregation model by tying up with bus operators and standardize their buses.

8Minutes: New Delhi based 8Minutes was founded in 2015 by Dev Arora. It helps homes and businesses reduce their energy costs by installing solar on their rooftop with little or no upfront cost.

Brevity: New Delhi based Brevity curates, summarises and distributes life enhancing content (lifehacks, how-to's, edutainment). With data-driven curation, semi-automated summarisation and approach of a distributive media company, Brevity helps people learn great things, be smarter everyday in minutes. It was founded in 2015 by Aditya Ganguly and Diksha.

ParQue: Started in 2015 by Vipin Goyal, ParQue  is a mobile app through which one can request valet on demand. Just enter your destination when you leave and you will find a professionally trained valet when you will reach there. The startup's valet will take your car and will park it into authorised parking lots. Once you are done, you can request back your car from the app itself anywhere in the same serviceable area and its valet will bring it back to you.

Medimojo: Delhi-based Medimojo is a cloud based digital assistant to store, track and manage health records. It provides convenience of storability accessibility & doctor connect for evidence based consultancy. The startup was founded in 2015 by Shikha Suman and Vikas Ranjan.

M4maths: M4maths is a community-driven Q&A site focused on Competitive exam, Mathematics , English and Programming Languages. The primary purpose of M4maths site is to enable users to post questions and answer them. Users can like, dislike on both answers and questions, and through this process users earn reputation points. M4maths publicly launched in June 2011 by Naveen Joshi and Madhukar Joshi. It released an associated mobile app, charging fee to users for curated question answer by m4maths experts.

Tranzo: Tranzo is optimising Intra city bus travel by giving services for daily commute, by reducing travel time and making daily commute productive and hassle free. The venture was launched in 2015 by Mukesh Kumar, Aditya Shakya and Harish Tiwari.

School Products Marketplace Schoolkart Gets $300K in Angel Round

Delhi-based an online school products marketplace, SchoolKart has raised $300,000 in an angel round of funding from 12 angel investors, some of whom are prominent angel investors, while the others are HNI’s.

Founded in 2015 by ISB alumnus and former Amazon employee Nikhil Sareen, Schoolkart is a one-stop shop for school uniform, books, sporting and stationery needs. The startup has school uniforms of over 500+ schools across Delhi/NCR and Pan India.

In addition to uniforms, it has other categories such as Shoes, Books, Stationery, Bags, Bottles, Lunch Boxes, Toys, Games, Accessories etc. As of total, across all categories together, the company has about 25,000+ products on the platform.

Schoolkart also run a program called Schoolkart Cares, which is a CSR initiative to give back to society whilst creating a meaningful impact. Customer who visit schoolkart are given an option to donate their old uniforms, shoes etc. These products are picked up from the customer location by Schoolkart's logistics partners. These products are then sanitized, refurbished (if needed) and then donated to its partner NGO's who in turn decide the best use and distribute them to underprivileged children.

The startup has raised about $500,000 so far. Currently, its team consists of 15 people across Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Service & Technology.

School Products Marketplace Schoolkart Gets $300K in Angel Round

Delhi-based an online school products marketplace, SchoolKart has raised $300,000 in an angel round of funding from 12 angel investors, some of whom are prominent angel investors, while the others are HNI’s.

Founded in 2015 by ISB alumnus and former Amazon employee Nikhil Sareen, Schoolkart is a one-stop shop for school uniform, books, sporting and stationery needs. The startup has school uniforms of over 500+ schools across Delhi/NCR and Pan India.

In addition to uniforms, it has other categories such as Shoes, Books, Stationery, Bags, Bottles, Lunch Boxes, Toys, Games, Accessories etc. As of total, across all categories together, the company has about 25,000+ products on the platform.

Schoolkart also run a program called Schoolkart Cares, which is a CSR initiative to give back to society whilst creating a meaningful impact. Customer who visit schoolkart are given an option to donate their old uniforms, shoes etc. These products are picked up from the customer location by Schoolkart's logistics partners. These products are then sanitized, refurbished (if needed) and then donated to its partner NGO's who in turn decide the best use and distribute them to underprivileged children.

The startup has raised about $500,000 so far. Currently, its team consists of 15 people across Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Service & Technology.

360 Nautica Launches New Seed Stage Fund for Middle East and India Startups

[caption id="attachment_104424" align="alignnone" width="700"] Dr Tejinder Singh, Founder and Managing Partner at 360 Nautica[/caption]

360 Nautica has announced the launch of a seed-stage venture capital fund with a focus on sustainable cross territories startups especially Middle East and India. The fund will support seed-stage venture investments as well as pre-seed investments through its incubation program.

“Most of our advisors have been founders and would like to serve like entrepreneurs”, said Dr Tejinder Singh, Founder and Managing Partner at 360 Nautica.

The firm has already invested in around 10 startups in Qatar and India across verticals. Most of its investments have been disruptive category leaders built with efficient capital business models. It also run an incubation program for pre seed level startups to help them get accustomed with the valuations, exits, fund raising and more importantly get them off the ground.

“We’re not the kind of investors who are passive in nature and would just go through sessions and tweet but we roll up our sleeve and work alongside the companies with invest in to ensure we take them to the next level” said Dr Tejinder Singh. Some of the prominent investments include QTickets, Qatar Day in Doha and Pin Click, Body Balance in India.

360 Nautica is a venture and a growth capital fund with a focus on helping companies from idea stage to IPO. It focus on startups across verticals - Social Media, Education, FinTech, Retail, Health & Fitness and Real Estate.

360 Nautica Launches New Seed Stage Fund for Middle East and India Startups

[caption id="attachment_104424" align="alignnone" width="700"] Dr Tejinder Singh, Founder and Managing Partner at 360 Nautica[/caption]

360 Nautica has announced the launch of a seed-stage venture capital fund with a focus on sustainable cross territories startups especially Middle East and India. The fund will support seed-stage venture investments as well as pre-seed investments through its incubation program.

“Most of our advisors have been founders and would like to serve like entrepreneurs”, said Dr Tejinder Singh, Founder and Managing Partner at 360 Nautica.

The firm has already invested in around 10 startups in Qatar and India across verticals. Most of its investments have been disruptive category leaders built with efficient capital business models. It also run an incubation program for pre seed level startups to help them get accustomed with the valuations, exits, fund raising and more importantly get them off the ground.

“We’re not the kind of investors who are passive in nature and would just go through sessions and tweet but we roll up our sleeve and work alongside the companies with invest in to ensure we take them to the next level” said Dr Tejinder Singh. Some of the prominent investments include QTickets, Qatar Day in Doha and Pin Click, Body Balance in India.

360 Nautica is a venture and a growth capital fund with a focus on helping companies from idea stage to IPO. It focus on startups across verticals - Social Media, Education, FinTech, Retail, Health & Fitness and Real Estate.

Vista Rooms Expanding Internationally, Launches In Sri Lanka With 200 Hotels

Mumbai-based branded accomodation aggregator Vista Rooms has announced their foray into Sri Lanka. They have partnered with 200+ hotels in 25+ cities in Sri Lanka. Following the ‘luxury at low budget’ model, average room prices range around INR 2,500 which includes amenities such as complimentary breakfast, free wi-fi and concierge services for booking flights and sightseeing tours. The properties under Vista Rooms' network includes include boutique hotels, guesthouses, service apartments, private villas and home stays. This is one of four other countries they will be launching in by the end of the year.

All Sri Lankan properties can be viewed on www.vistarooms.lk.

Vista Rooms has been expanding aggressively and in under 10 months since their inception, has covered 800+ properties in 80+ cities in India. It now aims to establish the largest branded network of travel accommodations in Sri Lanka. Tourism in Sri Lankan has seen a rapid rise in the past couple of years, with a staggering increase in demand for budgeted accommodation in particular. Last year alone, more then 80% of guest stays have taken place in 2-Star and below category. Sri Lanka is very similar to India and English is widely accepted language, which makes for a perfect fit for Vista Rooms. The negligible difference between Indian and Sri Lankan currency and the amount of travel time also helps Vista Rooms expand aggressively.

Commenting on the development, Amit Damani, Co-Founder & Head of Growth at Vista Rooms said that “We are happy that Sri Lanka has warmly received Vista Rooms and the response we have received from hotel owners and customers has been very positive. Our expansion plans have been driven by our customer needs who have reached out to us expressing interest in certain international destinations. The past long weekend itself we received over 25 bookings through an emailer we sent to a select group of prior customers."

Vista Rooms gets involved in knowledge sharing with partner hotels to ensure standardization. As part of this exercise, Vista Rooms even shares proprietary technology which helps hotels to manage their property and customer relations.

Ankita Sheth, Co –Founder and Head of Alliances & Partnerships said “We are working with our hand-picked hotels to change the perception of budget hotels. We want travelers, coming to Sri Lanka, from all across the world to no longer worry whether their bathroom will be hygienic or whether the AC will be working when they stay at a budget hotel."

Vista Rooms follows an asset and people-light model and looks to venture into 5 other countries by the end of 2016. The rapid growth in Sri Lanka is an apt testimonial to Vista Rooms aggressive growth plans.

Vista Rooms Expanding Internationally, Launches In Sri Lanka With 200 Hotels

Mumbai-based branded accomodation aggregator Vista Rooms has announced their foray into Sri Lanka. They have partnered with 200+ hotels in 25+ cities in Sri Lanka. Following the ‘luxury at low budget’ model, average room prices range around INR 2,500 which includes amenities such as complimentary breakfast, free wi-fi and concierge services for booking flights and sightseeing tours. The properties under Vista Rooms' network includes include boutique hotels, guesthouses, service apartments, private villas and home stays. This is one of four other countries they will be launching in by the end of the year.

All Sri Lankan properties can be viewed on www.vistarooms.lk.

Vista Rooms has been expanding aggressively and in under 10 months since their inception, has covered 800+ properties in 80+ cities in India. It now aims to establish the largest branded network of travel accommodations in Sri Lanka. Tourism in Sri Lankan has seen a rapid rise in the past couple of years, with a staggering increase in demand for budgeted accommodation in particular. Last year alone, more then 80% of guest stays have taken place in 2-Star and below category. Sri Lanka is very similar to India and English is widely accepted language, which makes for a perfect fit for Vista Rooms. The negligible difference between Indian and Sri Lankan currency and the amount of travel time also helps Vista Rooms expand aggressively.

Commenting on the development, Amit Damani, Co-Founder & Head of Growth at Vista Rooms said that “We are happy that Sri Lanka has warmly received Vista Rooms and the response we have received from hotel owners and customers has been very positive. Our expansion plans have been driven by our customer needs who have reached out to us expressing interest in certain international destinations. The past long weekend itself we received over 25 bookings through an emailer we sent to a select group of prior customers."

Vista Rooms gets involved in knowledge sharing with partner hotels to ensure standardization. As part of this exercise, Vista Rooms even shares proprietary technology which helps hotels to manage their property and customer relations.

Ankita Sheth, Co –Founder and Head of Alliances & Partnerships said “We are working with our hand-picked hotels to change the perception of budget hotels. We want travelers, coming to Sri Lanka, from all across the world to no longer worry whether their bathroom will be hygienic or whether the AC will be working when they stay at a budget hotel."

Vista Rooms follows an asset and people-light model and looks to venture into 5 other countries by the end of 2016. The rapid growth in Sri Lanka is an apt testimonial to Vista Rooms aggressive growth plans.

Autoload appoints ex-Mahindra & Mahindra exec Mr. Vatan Vindal as National Sales Head

Gurgaon-based Autoload, a tech driven truck and load booking services platform for finding loads and hiring trucks, today has appointed former Mahindra & Mahindra executive Mr. Vatan Vindal as its National Sales Head. He will be responsible for overall company’s marketing, strategic business partnerships and sales.

Mr. Vindal comes with a strong experience of 8 years in sales marketing and had been associated with Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Hitachi, Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) and AstraZeneca. A graduate from IIM-Ahmedabad, his expertise lies in the strategizing of sales & marketing initiatives and account management of Commercial Vehicles.

[caption id="attachment_104417" align="alignleft" width="295"]Vatan Vindal[/caption]

Expressing his happiness on the association, Mr. Vatan Vindal, National Sales Head, Autoload said, “It feels great to be associated with platform like Autoload, which is aiming to transform the fragmented transport sector with their technologically advanced proposition. Our strategic approach to sales & marketing initiatives will help the transporters and truck owners increase their business manifold with more transparency and faster connectivity in the transport ecosystem.

Commenting on the new appointment, Mr. Navin Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Autoload, said, “Mr. Vindal brings valuable know-how to Autoload and will be an asset to the management team. His strong experience in sales and marketing will be invaluable, as we are moving forward with expanding Autoload’s business tremendously and leveraging our relationships with transporters and truck owners.”

The entire system is designed to facilitate the aggregation of loads and vehicles in a fast, transparent and efficient manner and is beneficial for both, the transporters as well as the truck owners.

Autoload appoints ex-Mahindra & Mahindra exec Mr. Vatan Vindal as National Sales Head

Gurgaon-based Autoload, a tech driven truck and load booking services platform for finding loads and hiring trucks, today has appointed former Mahindra & Mahindra executive Mr. Vatan Vindal as its National Sales Head. He will be responsible for overall company’s marketing, strategic business partnerships and sales.

Mr. Vindal comes with a strong experience of 8 years in sales marketing and had been associated with Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Hitachi, Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL) and AstraZeneca. A graduate from IIM-Ahmedabad, his expertise lies in the strategizing of sales & marketing initiatives and account management of Commercial Vehicles.

[caption id="attachment_104417" align="alignleft" width="295"]Vatan Vindal[/caption]

Expressing his happiness on the association, Mr. Vatan Vindal, National Sales Head, Autoload said, “It feels great to be associated with platform like Autoload, which is aiming to transform the fragmented transport sector with their technologically advanced proposition. Our strategic approach to sales & marketing initiatives will help the transporters and truck owners increase their business manifold with more transparency and faster connectivity in the transport ecosystem.

Commenting on the new appointment, Mr. Navin Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Autoload, said, “Mr. Vindal brings valuable know-how to Autoload and will be an asset to the management team. His strong experience in sales and marketing will be invaluable, as we are moving forward with expanding Autoload’s business tremendously and leveraging our relationships with transporters and truck owners.”

The entire system is designed to facilitate the aggregation of loads and vehicles in a fast, transparent and efficient manner and is beneficial for both, the transporters as well as the truck owners.

EasyMeat to share revenue for each Venky's product sold

According to Economic Times report ,EasyMeat, a Pune based meat delivery startup has signed  a one year revenue sharing concord with VH Group's subsidiary Venky's ,that specialises in processed chicken meat products.

The startup will take about 15% commission for each Venky's product sold through its online portal, besides an upfront listing fee payment from Venky's. "We have focussed on sourcing raw, fresh meat until now.

Shiva Sharan, cofounder of EasyMeat says Through the partnership with Venky's, we will get the opportunity to explore the processed and frozen food section as well as receive guidance on these aspects,".

Venky's spokesperson says ,The partnership was established after a thorough checkup of the cold chain process at the startup. "After guiding them on certain aspects, we felt it is a good partnership to go ahead to increase our online presence. It will provide our customers the convenience of Venky's products delivered at their doorstep," the spokesperson said.

The startup sources the meat from nine national and international suppliers and offers up to 90 products. The meat-delivery startup, which depends on an inventory-based model, stores approximately 50 kg of meat on a daily basis.

The leftover meat is sold to restaurants at a 25% discount the original price, thereby bringing down its monthly waste to mere 0.2% in an industry that sees up to 15-20% wastage on a monthly basis, Sharan said.

What's your opinion about this agreement of Meat delivery startup with Venky's for processed meat? Do write us in comments.

Indian Cricketer Robin Uthappa Invests in Healthcare Startup Healtheminds

[caption id="attachment_104407" align="alignnone" width="700"] Indian Cricketer Robin Uthappa[/caption]

HealthEminds, a revolutionary healthcare startup that focuses on using technology to tackle mental and emotional health has closed a round of angel funding. Robin Uthappa, Indian cricketer through his fund Caffeine Ventures has invested into the startup.

Started in 2013 by Ankita Puri and Sunita Maheshwari, HealthEminds is an online venture providing Emotional and Mental Health counselling services through a secure and confidential online platform. In order to guarantee client’s privacy the company works in compliance with industry standard client anonymity and confidentiality policies to ensure that all personal and medical health information received is maintained and transmitted through a secure environment.

HealthEminds offers its clients from across the globe qualitative and transparent services by enforcing screening procedures while curating its panel of service providers who help clients resolve their emotional and behavioral concerns. The panel of service providers comprises of handpicked psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, life coaches and nutritionists. The healthcare professionals are equipped to help improve in personal and/or professional development.

There are currently 70 professionals across India on the platform and each of them have been handpicked, screened, certified and trained by HealthEminds.

Ankita Puri, Co-founder and CEO Healtheminds mentions “We are very excited to have Robin Uthappa and Arjun Goutham as investors into the business as they understand the vision and we will be using these funds to launch our new product, increase our reach across India, and expand our operations team.”

Previously, Uthappa has invested in online tiffin service venture iTiffin. Apart from Uthappa, other ace cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have also marked their presence in Indian startup ecosystem. Virat Kohli has invested in a social media startup Sport Convo while Sachin Tendulkar has invested in startups like Musafir, S Drive, Sach,Universal Collectabilia and Smartron India. While, Yuvraj has invested in over a dozen startups through his investment fund YouWeCan Ventures.

Indian Cricketer Robin Uthappa Invests in Healthcare Startup Healtheminds

[caption id="attachment_104407" align="alignnone" width="700"] Indian Cricketer Robin Uthappa[/caption]

HealthEminds, a revolutionary healthcare startup that focuses on using technology to tackle mental and emotional health has closed a round of angel funding. Robin Uthappa, Indian cricketer through his fund Caffeine Ventures has invested into the startup.

Started in 2013 by Ankita Puri and Sunita Maheshwari, HealthEminds is an online venture providing Emotional and Mental Health counselling services through a secure and confidential online platform. In order to guarantee client’s privacy the company works in compliance with industry standard client anonymity and confidentiality policies to ensure that all personal and medical health information received is maintained and transmitted through a secure environment.

HealthEminds offers its clients from across the globe qualitative and transparent services by enforcing screening procedures while curating its panel of service providers who help clients resolve their emotional and behavioral concerns. The panel of service providers comprises of handpicked psychiatrists, psychologists, counsellors, life coaches and nutritionists. The healthcare professionals are equipped to help improve in personal and/or professional development.

There are currently 70 professionals across India on the platform and each of them have been handpicked, screened, certified and trained by HealthEminds.

Ankita Puri, Co-founder and CEO Healtheminds mentions “We are very excited to have Robin Uthappa and Arjun Goutham as investors into the business as they understand the vision and we will be using these funds to launch our new product, increase our reach across India, and expand our operations team.”

Previously, Uthappa has invested in online tiffin service venture iTiffin. Apart from Uthappa, other ace cricketers like Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar have also marked their presence in Indian startup ecosystem. Virat Kohli has invested in a social media startup Sport Convo while Sachin Tendulkar has invested in startups like Musafir, S Drive, Sach,Universal Collectabilia and Smartron India. While, Yuvraj has invested in over a dozen startups through his investment fund YouWeCan Ventures.

Quikr Ties Up With Fixy to Boost its Home Services Vertical QuikrServices

[caption id="attachment_104402" align="alignnone" width="700"] Fixy Founders - Nabeel & Tufayl Merchant[/caption]

Fixy, an on demand home maintenance services startup from Mumbai, has tied up with QuikrServices, a services vertical of Quikr, Indian cross category classified business.

Through this partnership Fixy will exclusively facilitate on demand fixing services like plumbing, electrical and carpentry to Quikr’s consumers across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane region.

“Fixy is a rapidly growing home service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the on demand home services space,” added Tufayl Merchant, Co-founder, Fixy.

QuikrServices is aimed at bridging the gap between the offline local home services ecosystem and online demand for the same. It provides consumers easy access to reliable service providers across sub-categories such as home, travel, financial, health, fitness, beauty and event services.

Founded by twin co-founders Tufayl and Nabeel Merchant, Fixy helping customers find trusted professionals for household services, like electrician, carpenter, plumber or appliance care, Fixy offers its customers a holistic home maintenance experience. Additionally they also provide services like sanitisation of matress, sofa shampooing and deep cleaning of each room of the house.

In the month of August 2015, Fixy raised undisclosed amount of funding from the investors behind OYO rooms.

Two months ago, Quikr had also announced its plans to invest about $37.5 million in its home services category. It competes with players like Findyahan, Housejoy, Urbanclap, Timesaverz, and Zimmber among others.

Quikr Ties Up With Fixy to Boost its Home Services Vertical QuikrServices

[caption id="attachment_104402" align="alignnone" width="700"] Fixy Founders - Nabeel & Tufayl Merchant[/caption]

Fixy, an on demand home maintenance services startup from Mumbai, has tied up with QuikrServices, a services vertical of Quikr, Indian cross category classified business.

Through this partnership Fixy will exclusively facilitate on demand fixing services like plumbing, electrical and carpentry to Quikr’s consumers across Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane region.

“Fixy is a rapidly growing home service provider while Quikr is a market leading brand, through this partnership we are excited to share our expertise with Quikr consumers in the on demand home services space,” added Tufayl Merchant, Co-founder, Fixy.

QuikrServices is aimed at bridging the gap between the offline local home services ecosystem and online demand for the same. It provides consumers easy access to reliable service providers across sub-categories such as home, travel, financial, health, fitness, beauty and event services.

Founded by twin co-founders Tufayl and Nabeel Merchant, Fixy helping customers find trusted professionals for household services, like electrician, carpenter, plumber or appliance care, Fixy offers its customers a holistic home maintenance experience. Additionally they also provide services like sanitisation of matress, sofa shampooing and deep cleaning of each room of the house.

In the month of August 2015, Fixy raised undisclosed amount of funding from the investors behind OYO rooms.

Two months ago, Quikr had also announced its plans to invest about $37.5 million in its home services category. It competes with players like Findyahan, Housejoy, Urbanclap, Timesaverz, and Zimmber among others.

Horntell Gets $150k from Angels to Reinvent Notifications into Actionable Cards

Horntell, a Gurgaon based tech company has raised their angel funding of $150,000. The round was led by Bharani (CEO at 91mobiles.com). Other major participating angels include Sanjiv Mital (CEO at NISG), Shobhit Shukla (Chief Revenue Officer at Near) and Rahul Agarwal (VP of Finance at Near). The company is valued at just under $2 million at the moment.

The startup is building an unified platform that allows user to use any app/website through one single feed containing small actionable notifications. Horntell has came out with a product that can make almost anything possible (including payments) with just a couple of taps within the notification itself. Because everything happens inside the boundaries of the notification, user does not need to shuffle between various apps to ‘catch up’ on everything happening.

The company began by tackling the small part of the problem by offering actionable notifications for the websites. Today, Horntell is a budding platform that can unify the notifications across multiple devices for an individual.

One of the biggest challenge for an internet business is to make their users act with minimum efforts. Horntell made that possible. It started as a Chrome Extension and got opportunity to validate its fundamental hypothesis about the product at lightning speed. The startup has now launched its Android application as well which will increase the reach on to mobile, and thus unifying the platforms.

After the initial launch in March 2015, Horntell is currently integrated with 400+ internet products including ProductHunt, Shopify, Basecamp, Github, Trello, Mailchimp, Stripe and Zapier and are in talks with many others (including Indian internet businesses). On average, every month the startup is pushing actionable cards to 200k+ people through its platform, of which about 40% are acted upon.

Talking about their future plans, Mohit Memoria, Horntell's Founder, said, "we are already on web and Android and we will be able to make the platform available on iOS soon, and onboard bigger internet businesses in times to come.

Horntell is currently a team of 7 people.

"We’ve witnessed two disruptions in the software industry. First, transition from native apps to web apps and second, transition from web apps to mobile apps. Actionable cards will be the third disruption which makes people transition from mobile apps to actionable cards that can be consumed on any device or platform," added Mohit.

Also, web is largely dominated by search and the pull‐driven model (and Google is the mammoth in the space). Search is the entry‐point to the internet. And notifications are the entry point in the mobile ecosystem. Anyone who makes a solid entry point in to the ecosystem will be the leader in the next revolution.

There are two more products that are striving to achieve the same goal of “making apps consumable through a single platform”. These are Facebook M and Google Now. Facebook does this through messaging, Google Now through contextual information, whereas Horntell through notifications.

“It is funny how we need to constantly keep our mobile’s hardware and software up to date to use the apps to their fullest. We don’t need to do this on desktop. I can use anything that I want through my browser. Why isn’t there something similar for mobiles?,” asks Bharani, the lead investor in Horntell.

Check out this video to know more about Horntell:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhc4IneI6LQ]

Horntell Gets $150k from Angels to Reinvent Notifications into Actionable Cards

Horntell, a Gurgaon based tech company has raised their angel funding of $150,000. The round was led by Bharani (CEO at 91mobiles.com). Other major participating angels include Sanjiv Mital (CEO at NISG), Shobhit Shukla (Chief Revenue Officer at Near) and Rahul Agarwal (VP of Finance at Near). The company is valued at just under $2 million at the moment.

The startup is building an unified platform that allows user to use any app/website through one single feed containing small actionable notifications. Horntell has came out with a product that can make almost anything possible (including payments) with just a couple of taps within the notification itself. Because everything happens inside the boundaries of the notification, user does not need to shuffle between various apps to ‘catch up’ on everything happening.

The company began by tackling the small part of the problem by offering actionable notifications for the websites. Today, Horntell is a budding platform that can unify the notifications across multiple devices for an individual.

One of the biggest challenge for an internet business is to make their users act with minimum efforts. Horntell made that possible. It started as a Chrome Extension and got opportunity to validate its fundamental hypothesis about the product at lightning speed. The startup has now launched its Android application as well which will increase the reach on to mobile, and thus unifying the platforms.

After the initial launch in March 2015, Horntell is currently integrated with 400+ internet products including ProductHunt, Shopify, Basecamp, Github, Trello, Mailchimp, Stripe and Zapier and are in talks with many others (including Indian internet businesses). On average, every month the startup is pushing actionable cards to 200k+ people through its platform, of which about 40% are acted upon.

Talking about their future plans, Mohit Memoria, Horntell's Founder, said, "we are already on web and Android and we will be able to make the platform available on iOS soon, and onboard bigger internet businesses in times to come.

Horntell is currently a team of 7 people.

"We’ve witnessed two disruptions in the software industry. First, transition from native apps to web apps and second, transition from web apps to mobile apps. Actionable cards will be the third disruption which makes people transition from mobile apps to actionable cards that can be consumed on any device or platform," added Mohit.

Also, web is largely dominated by search and the pull‐driven model (and Google is the mammoth in the space). Search is the entry‐point to the internet. And notifications are the entry point in the mobile ecosystem. Anyone who makes a solid entry point in to the ecosystem will be the leader in the next revolution.

There are two more products that are striving to achieve the same goal of “making apps consumable through a single platform”. These are Facebook M and Google Now. Facebook does this through messaging, Google Now through contextual information, whereas Horntell through notifications.

“It is funny how we need to constantly keep our mobile’s hardware and software up to date to use the apps to their fullest. We don’t need to do this on desktop. I can use anything that I want through my browser. Why isn’t there something similar for mobiles?,” asks Bharani, the lead investor in Horntell.

Check out this video to know more about Horntell:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhc4IneI6LQ]

Tech Enabled Logistics Startup Qikship Raises $200K in Angel Funding

Delhi-based on demand logistics startup Qikship has raised $200,000 in an angel round of funding. The raised funding will be used by the startup to build next generation technology for simplifying the logistics and create technology packed solutions, expansion to Gurgaon and Delhi, hiring people in sales & Operations, Tech and pickup agents.

The startup was founded by Vikrant Pathak, Ex IES (IIT Delhi & HEC Paris) and Gaurav Tyagi, Ex Zomato Sales head India in September 2015. It is an app/web based on-demand logistics platform enables users to ship anything anywhere from the comfort of home/office. Qikship provides free pick up and packaging to the customers.

The company claims that its logistics fleet is well equipped with technology and reaches user within 45 minutes. Once a customer places a shipment request, app gives the notification about the estimated delivery of the shipment to destinations with full point to point tracking on the app.

Currently the startup is doing 300-400 shipments per day with an average ticket size of Rs. 200/-. Major part of its business comes from online sellers and SMEs. Qikship has a team of 50 people that includes 30 pickup agents. It plans to hire 150 pickup agent in next two months to establish its operation in Delhi and Gurgaon initially and reach per day transaction of 3000- 3500.

Qikship's vision is to ensure a high quality service and build a loyal customer base. For that Pickup agents are selected based on strict background check to ensure the safety. The startup's Android and iOS apps solves daily courier problems for consumers and its in-house softwares does the same for enterprises.

Other players which operating in the space are Parcelled which raised $5 million from Delhivery and Tracxn Labs in October 2015 and Opinio had secured $7 million in its Series A funding from logistics company, Delhivery, Sands Capital and Accel Partners in the same month.

Tech Enabled Logistics Startup Qikship Raises $200K in Angel Funding

Delhi-based on demand logistics startup Qikship has raised $200,000 in an angel round of funding. The raised funding will be used by the startup to build next generation technology for simplifying the logistics and create technology packed solutions, expansion to Gurgaon and Delhi, hiring people in sales & Operations, Tech and pickup agents.

The startup was founded by Vikrant Pathak, Ex IES (IIT Delhi & HEC Paris) and Gaurav Tyagi, Ex Zomato Sales head India in September 2015. It is an app/web based on-demand logistics platform enables users to ship anything anywhere from the comfort of home/office. Qikship provides free pick up and packaging to the customers.

The company claims that its logistics fleet is well equipped with technology and reaches user within 45 minutes. Once a customer places a shipment request, app gives the notification about the estimated delivery of the shipment to destinations with full point to point tracking on the app.

Currently the startup is doing 300-400 shipments per day with an average ticket size of Rs. 200/-. Major part of its business comes from online sellers and SMEs. Qikship has a team of 50 people that includes 30 pickup agents. It plans to hire 150 pickup agent in next two months to establish its operation in Delhi and Gurgaon initially and reach per day transaction of 3000- 3500.

Qikship's vision is to ensure a high quality service and build a loyal customer base. For that Pickup agents are selected based on strict background check to ensure the safety. The startup's Android and iOS apps solves daily courier problems for consumers and its in-house softwares does the same for enterprises.

Other players which operating in the space are Parcelled which raised $5 million from Delhivery and Tracxn Labs in October 2015 and Opinio had secured $7 million in its Series A funding from logistics company, Delhivery, Sands Capital and Accel Partners in the same month.

5 Features You Don't Get With The New iPhone SE

The wishes of thousands and thousands of wishful iPhone owners came true on Monday when Apple unveiled to the world its cheapest iPhone till date, iPhone SE. Since its much anticipated launch, the 4inch iPhone is being compared to the technology giant's flagship device iPhone 6S much to the delight of the future owners of the device and to the wrath of then present iPhone 6S owners. Both the models are said to have the same M9 and A9 processors, complimented with A Touch ID, 12-megapixel rear-facing camera, Hey Siri, NFC and Live Photos. But, here's where the similarities end. For the iPhone 6S owners thinking if they had pulled the trigger early by purchasing the device, here are 5 features that you don't get with the iPhone SE.

1) 3D Touch -

The master attraction of 3D Touch is missing in the recently launched device. The 3D touch on iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S plus allows people to make use of pressure-sensitive gestures in order to access the Peek and Pop previews and shortcut menus on the device. Apple has kept iPhone SE away from this luxury for now.

2) Contrast ratio -

When it comes to contrast ratio, iPhone SE is defeated plain and simple by its iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S plus counterparts. While the contrast ratio of iPhone 6S reads as 1,400:1, it is just 800:1 for the new iPhone SE. Further, the iPhone 6S Plus has a contrast ratio of 1,300:1.

3) Screen size -

The newly launched iPhone SE comes with a 4-inch screen, which is smaller than iPhone 6S' 4.7-inch screen and much smaller than iPhone 6S Plus' 5.5-inch screen. Further, a smaller screen also translates to fewer pixels. The iPhone SE has debuted with a 1,136x640-pixel screen resolution, compared with iPhone 6S' resolution at 1,334x750 pixels and iPhone 6S Plus resolution at 1,920x1,080 pixels. However, at 326ppi, the pixels-per-inch remains the same between both the iPhone SE and 6S models. But, the iPhone 6S Plus has a slight higher pixel-density at 401ppi.

4) High-resolution front-facing camera -

People planning to have their perfect selfies with their iPhone SE might be left disappointed. While, the 12-megapixel rear-facing camera is same in both iPhone SE and iPhone 6S, the new iPhone SE has a poor 1.2 megapixels front-facing camera which isn't good enough for for all the selfie addicts out there. This 1.2 megapixels is much less than iPhone 6S' 5-megapixel camera.

5) 128GB capacity -

Nowadays, the capacity of our phones matter a lot as most of us have practically replaced our laptops, computers with our iPhones. The iPhone SE has only two different storage capacity variants available in 16GB and 64GB. While the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models also have a third variant available in 128GB capacity.

5 Features You Don't Get With The New iPhone SE

The wishes of thousands and thousands of wishful iPhone owners came true on Monday when Apple unveiled to the world its cheapest iPhone till date, iPhone SE. Since its much anticipated launch, the 4inch iPhone is being compared to the technology giant's flagship device iPhone 6S much to the delight of the future owners of the device and to the wrath of then present iPhone 6S owners. Both the models are said to have the same M9 and A9 processors, complimented with A Touch ID, 12-megapixel rear-facing camera, Hey Siri, NFC and Live Photos. But, here's where the similarities end. For the iPhone 6S owners thinking if they had pulled the trigger early by purchasing the device, here are 5 features that you don't get with the iPhone SE.

1) 3D Touch -

The master attraction of 3D Touch is missing in the recently launched device. The 3D touch on iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S plus allows people to make use of pressure-sensitive gestures in order to access the Peek and Pop previews and shortcut menus on the device. Apple has kept iPhone SE away from this luxury for now.

2) Contrast ratio -

When it comes to contrast ratio, iPhone SE is defeated plain and simple by its iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S plus counterparts. While the contrast ratio of iPhone 6S reads as 1,400:1, it is just 800:1 for the new iPhone SE. Further, the iPhone 6S Plus has a contrast ratio of 1,300:1.

3) Screen size -

The newly launched iPhone SE comes with a 4-inch screen, which is smaller than iPhone 6S' 4.7-inch screen and much smaller than iPhone 6S Plus' 5.5-inch screen. Further, a smaller screen also translates to fewer pixels. The iPhone SE has debuted with a 1,136x640-pixel screen resolution, compared with iPhone 6S' resolution at 1,334x750 pixels and iPhone 6S Plus resolution at 1,920x1,080 pixels. However, at 326ppi, the pixels-per-inch remains the same between both the iPhone SE and 6S models. But, the iPhone 6S Plus has a slight higher pixel-density at 401ppi.

4) High-resolution front-facing camera -

People planning to have their perfect selfies with their iPhone SE might be left disappointed. While, the 12-megapixel rear-facing camera is same in both iPhone SE and iPhone 6S, the new iPhone SE has a poor 1.2 megapixels front-facing camera which isn't good enough for for all the selfie addicts out there. This 1.2 megapixels is much less than iPhone 6S' 5-megapixel camera.

5) 128GB capacity -

Nowadays, the capacity of our phones matter a lot as most of us have practically replaced our laptops, computers with our iPhones. The iPhone SE has only two different storage capacity variants available in 16GB and 64GB. While the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus models also have a third variant available in 128GB capacity.

After Uber,Jugnoo accuses Ola of sabotaging its business

Auto-booking app Jugnoo has also alleged Ola of using "unethical practices to sabotage" its business. Earlier taxi aggregator Uber had dragged Ola to court over similar alleged malpractices.

Jugnoo is a Chandigarh-based auto aggregator that competes directly with Ola, which also has its own auto booking service. It alleges that Ola employees have been creating fake accounts over the last 10 days to book and make cancellations on Jugnoo’s app leading to loss of revenue for the company and also affecting the income of auto-rickshaw drivers.

“Jugnoo accuses Ola of employing unethical practices to sabotage their business and aggravate the drivers who are trying to earn a decent living by plying auto rickshaws,”

"We witnessed this trend almost 10 days back when all of a sudden there was a surge in booking and the cancellation rate was equally high. We started mapping the areas where the bookings were being made from and invariably pointed at places close to Ola's office premise," Jugnoo co-founder and CEO Samar Singla said in a statement.

About 20,000 cancellations through 800 fake accounts have been reported to occur during this period, the statement said.

"We noticed this across three locations Gurgaon, Noida and Mysore where this activity was highly being employed.

We have evidence to support our claims and will be more than happy to furnish the details if required. We are planning to take suitable legal action against Gurgaon, Noida and Mysore where this activity was highly being employed. We have evidence to support our claims and will be more than happy to furnish the details if required. We are planning to take suitable legal action against Gurgaon, Noida and Mysore where this activity was highly being employed. We have evidence to support our claims and will be more than happy to furnish the details if required. We are planning to take suitable legal action against Ola for the same but will refrain from doing so if they cease to do this," Singla said.

This is not the first time Jugnoo has laid into Ola either. In December last year, the company had said that Ola of trying steal their employee database through bribes in a hard hitting blog post. But Jugnoo’s latest accusation seems to imply something quite extraordinary – that Ola employees are furiously ordering Jugnoos en masse while sitting in their offices.

What's your opinion on Ola's practices to sabotage other's business ?

BBC Launches Raspberry Pi-like Computer and You Can Soon Buy One

It's finally here! After months of anticipation and delay regarding the fate of the project, the BBC finally launched its Micro:bit programmable computer.

Aimed at encouraging the children all around the world to become more creative with technology and learn coding, BBC has decided to jet start the project by delivering about a million of these programmable computers to every child in year 7 (around 12 years old) across Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England absolutely free of cost.



One can use your BBC micro:bit for all sorts of cool creations, from robots to musical instruments – the possibilities are endless. The micro:bit is a handheld, fully programmable computer being given free to every Year 7 or equivalent child across the UK. It’s 70 times smaller and 18 times faster than the original BBC Micro computers used in schools in the early 1980s.



Once the rollout is successfully done and each of the kids has received their own Micro:bit programmable computer, the kids will be allowed to keep them and use them through their entire remaining tenure at school.

To make it easier for the kids to understand and get them more interested in programming, BBC has complimented the computers with configurable buttons, 25 LEDs, an accelerometer, compass, Bluetooth, and connections so the computer can be easily hooked to more sensors. According to experts, the Micro Bit can be used with devices like Arduino, Kano and Raspberry Pi to create devices like smartwatches and fitness trackers etc.

BBC is determined to make the project a success and hence it will also be investing the money it earns from its commercial sales into project so as to encourage more and more people to come forward and learn the art of coding. The company has made a strategical decision to open-source the Micro Bit's hardware and also most of its software.

A price for the device hasn't been announced by the company yet but it is soon expected to be unveiled when the device is available at retailers after the free rollout to the kids is completed.

Is Cellebrite ,an Israel's Mobile forensic software provider , helping FBI to unlock encrypted iPhone?

According to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reports ,Israel's Cellebrite, a provider of mobile forensic software, is helping the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation's attempt to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino.

The development could bring an abrupt end to the high-stakes legal showdown which has become a lightning rod for a broader debate on data privacy in the United States.

Apple has fought back, arguing that the order is an overreach by the government and would undermine computer security for everyone.

This led to widespread discussion in the US on whether the government should receive access to the personal and private information of its citizens, and if so, what should be the extent of such access.
On Monday, US prosecutors announced that a “non-governmental third party” had presented a possible method for opening an encrypted iPhone, noting they were “cautiously optimistic” it would work.

Cellebrite is a firm known for data extraction tools and skills that works with federal and local law enforcement in obtaining data from phones. Established in 1999, the firm produces mobile extraction software and data extraction devices that many law enforcement agencies use. It has been able to crack earlier editions of the software used on Apple iPhones. Cellebrite is a subsidiary of the Sun Corp of Japan but has a division in New Jersey.

Cellebrite’s technology is able to extract valuable information from cellular devices that could be used in criminal and intelligence investigations, even if the phone and the information it contains are locked and secure.

Of course, if the FBI was attempting to set a precedent for forcing tech companies to assist in investigations, this solution is a Pyrrhic victory for the Bureau.

What do you think about FBI's this break into user privacy through third party ??

Alibaba to lift up covers from Its First Internet-Connected Car in April

Chinese ecommerce giant, Alibaba is all set to take covers off from its first internet car in April. Informing about the technology used in the ‘Smart Car’, Wang Jian, Chief Technology Officer,internet character is one of the car’s technological innovations. However, he didn’t reveal the further details of the SUV and commented that the inside details will be revealed during the launch.

The car jointly developed by Alibaba and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) is equipped with real car-based smart operation system which has proprietary intellectual property rights.

This will be an energy-saving car whose battery will retain 80 percent of its storage capacity after running 160,000 km. Internet cars adopt technologies including computer, modern sensor, information fusion, telecommunication, artificial intelligence and automatic control.

Independent development of smart operation system plays a key role in the process to transform an ordinary car to an internet car. In order to fulfill this task, Alibaba arranged over 800 researchers for the project and invested billions of dollars into the project.

“The internet car will not only promote people-to-car communication, it will expand car-to-car, car-to-road, and car-to-infrastructure communication too,” adds Wang.

What's your opinion on this story of ours?Please let us know in comment section