Snapdeal To Layoff 80% of Its Employees After Calling Off Flipkart Deal

Soon after calling off the merger deal with Flipkart, Snapdeal has now made its next strategy to go through a massive resizing. The struggling online marketplace now wants to run a leaner, meaner version of the organization, and will lay off close to 80 percent of its workforce, ANI reports.

A top official told the news agency that department heads were instructed to prepare a list of people who would be asked to leave. At present, Snapdeal has about 1,200 employees. If the Gurgaon-based firm goes through with its decision, it would be left with about 200 employees only.

This would be Snapdeal’s second major layoff exercise. Last year in July, it had slashed its workforce from over 9,000 to under 2,000 [Read Here]. It was one of the biggest layoffs in the India's startup space. And earlier this year, it fired 600 more employees in a bid to cut costs; the founders as well as some top executives had to forego their salaries. “We believe that every resource of the company should be deployed for driving us towards profitable growth and with this announcement, both Rohit and I are taking a 100 percent salary cut,” Snapdeal founder & CEO, Kunal Bahl, wrote in an email to employees.

According to a senior executive who remain wants to be anonymous, the company has plan to retain around 300 odd employees in the company.

Snapdeal is technically the first Unicorpse Startup of India as the troubled start saw its valuation falling down from $6.5 billion to less than $1 billion in a year or so.

Snapdeal now has cash reserves of Rs 385 crore ($60 million) from Axis Bank to which it sold its payments unit, FreeCharge. It further looks to gain about Rs 100-120 crore from the sale of its logistics unit, Vulcan Express. There are no buyers yet. And given Snapdeal’s knack of dilly-dallying, that could take long as well.

Notably, the amount of mistakes founders of Snapdeal had made can possibly make them the 'Yahoo' of India as by rejecting the $900 million merger offer from Flipkart can cost them a more setback in terms of valuation in future.

Flipkart is Now Valued At $13.7 Bn and Ola At $3.4 Bn

According to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a mutual fund managed by US-based investment firm Vanguard Group has increased its stake in India's ecommerce firm Flipkart by 64 per cent and taxi-hailing company Ola by 14.6 per cent.

The filing revealed that Vanguard World Fund valued the shares of the homegrown ecommerce firm it picked as part of the company's Series H fundraising at $128 apiece and Series G at $107.7 for the three months that ended 31 May of this year, which marks a jump of 64.7% from $77.7 and 56.7% from $68.7 respectively. The mutual fund also ended up increasing the value of its investment in Uber rival Ola from $182.7 a share to $209.5 a share.

The increase in share price by Vanguard has ended up increasing Flipkart’s valuation to about $13.7 billion and Ola to $3.4 billion.

The development comes on the lines of the recent news of Snapdeal-Flipkart merger coming to a tragic close with the Snapdeal board passing on Flipkart's offer as the stakeholders cannot come to a united decision.

Snapdeal had received a total of two offers from the Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart for an all-stake acquisition in July. Snapdeal rejected Flipkart's initial $850 million buyout offer as Snapdeal’s board felt that the offer made by the ecommerce leader undervalued their company. But, Flipkart then made a second offer of around $900 million-$950 million.

The US-based mutual fund has a total of 473,745 shares in Flipkart and 166,185 in ANI Technologies, which is the parent company of Ola.

Two months ago, the Indian ecommerce leader had raised a whopping $1.4 billion in funding from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft at a valuation of $11.6 billion. According to reports, Ola is also in midst of discussions with Tencent to raise $400 million which is expected to push the company's current valuation from $3.4 billion to over $4 billion.

As opposed to the recent development, the US-based mutual fund had in fact decreased Ola's valuation by 41 percent in November last year, which ended up bringing down the valuation of the company to around $3 billion from its peak valuation of $5 billion between April and November in 2015. Prior to this, SoftBank had the value of its investments in Ola for the second time in November last year.

Flipkart is itself recuperating from seven successive markdowns in a row that it experienced in last couple of years. The company found some relief last year when two US-based mutual funds increased its valuation. After Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II marked up Flipkart's valuation in July last year, Valic Co had also increased the valuation of its share in the company by 10 per cent and brought the company's total value to $11.5 billion.

Flipkart is Now Valued At $13.7 Bn and Ola At $3.4 Bn

According to a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a mutual fund managed by US-based investment firm Vanguard Group has increased its stake in India's ecommerce firm Flipkart by 64 per cent and taxi-hailing company Ola by 14.6 per cent.

The filing revealed that Vanguard World Fund valued the shares of the homegrown ecommerce firm it picked as part of the company's Series H fundraising at $128 apiece and Series G at $107.7 for the three months that ended 31 May of this year, which marks a jump of 64.7% from $77.7 and 56.7% from $68.7 respectively. The mutual fund also ended up increasing the value of its investment in Uber rival Ola from $182.7 a share to $209.5 a share.

The increase in share price by Vanguard has ended up increasing Flipkart’s valuation to about $13.7 billion and Ola to $3.4 billion.

The development comes on the lines of the recent news of Snapdeal-Flipkart merger coming to a tragic close with the Snapdeal board passing on Flipkart's offer as the stakeholders cannot come to a united decision.

Snapdeal had received a total of two offers from the Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart for an all-stake acquisition in July. Snapdeal rejected Flipkart's initial $850 million buyout offer as Snapdeal’s board felt that the offer made by the ecommerce leader undervalued their company. But, Flipkart then made a second offer of around $900 million-$950 million.

The US-based mutual fund has a total of 473,745 shares in Flipkart and 166,185 in ANI Technologies, which is the parent company of Ola.

Two months ago, the Indian ecommerce leader had raised a whopping $1.4 billion in funding from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft at a valuation of $11.6 billion. According to reports, Ola is also in midst of discussions with Tencent to raise $400 million which is expected to push the company's current valuation from $3.4 billion to over $4 billion.

As opposed to the recent development, the US-based mutual fund had in fact decreased Ola's valuation by 41 percent in November last year, which ended up bringing down the valuation of the company to around $3 billion from its peak valuation of $5 billion between April and November in 2015. Prior to this, SoftBank had the value of its investments in Ola for the second time in November last year.

Flipkart is itself recuperating from seven successive markdowns in a row that it experienced in last couple of years. The company found some relief last year when two US-based mutual funds increased its valuation. After Fidelity Rutland Square Trust II marked up Flipkart's valuation in July last year, Valic Co had also increased the valuation of its share in the company by 10 per cent and brought the company's total value to $11.5 billion.

Aye Finance Raises Rs 10 Cr by Selling Its SME Portfolio to M&M Financial Services

Aye Finance has raised Rs 10 crore funds by selling part of its portfolio, under a securitization deal, to Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services. Through this deal, which was facilitated by IFMR Capital, Aye has further diversified its funding sources, having raised money last year through equity and more recently through debt from India’s biggest PSU Bank SBI and a leading global impact investment manager, Blue Orchard.

Aye Finance, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) licensed by RBI, is headquartered in Gurgaon and serves the credit worthy albeit the underserved MSME sector through a network of 67 branches in 10 Indian States. Founded by career bankers Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley in 2014, Aye has successfully made a ground level connect with India’s thriving MSME sector and offers customized and innovative financial products to match the sectors’ business needs. Since then, it has disbursed over INR 200 crores in loans and has enabled the financial inclusion of over 20,000 micro and small businesses

Commenting on this occasion Mr. Sanjay Sharma, Managing Director and Co-Founder, Aye Finance said “In the Year 2017 we will hit key business milestones, increasing our footprint and loan book to three times the size. As our business expands, we will be looking at diversified ways of raising funds. These additional funds have been raised on the backing of our robust underwriting and sound portfolio. By securitizing part of our loan book, we free up capital which in turn improves our capital adequacy.”

Aye Finance distinguishes itself by utilizing technology in mitigating the challenges faced by MSMEs in securing loans. By deploying a cloud-computing architecture and automating front-end (eCRM), Aye Finance is able to bring down the cost of delivery. It is part of Aye Finance’s vision to leverage technology prowess of today for improving the productivity of field force, detecting frauds and exercising dual control on processes.

With its consistent and organized efforts, the Organization aspires to be recognized as a leadership enterprise in the country.

Jugnoo Launches a Latest SaaS Based Product, FUGU

Jugnoo, India’s 3rd largest on-demand company, launches its new latest SaaS based product - ‘Fugu’ in the global market. Fugu, a new addition to Jugnoo’s B2B portfolio, is a proactive chat software that helps in handling customer requests and thus supports businesses of all types and sizes.

Fugu helps in real time query handling, channelising queries to the concerned department, analyzing the customer behaviors and increasing retention and engagements. Fugu chat forms a helpdesk software that ensures immediate responses leading to more customer satisfaction. It helps brands connect with customers instantly. It connects to all platforms as it is compatible with mobile as well as the web, making Jugnoo accessible to customers anywhere and anytime.

On the launch of Fugu, Samar Singla, CEO & Founder of Jugnoo said “The need of Fugu launch was initiated with a thought to shift to the on-demand platform for support services as well. And Fugu provides flexible and capable experience in real time to the customers.”
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Fugu, with its launch in less than 2 weeks has acquired 10 clients globally from countries like USA, UK, Australia, and Romania. Commenting on the future plans, Samar adds, “We are expanding Fugu to more countries and moving product to AI (Artificial Intelligence based proactive chat-based support framework.”

With Fugu, the standard ticketing process has been eliminated leading to quick responses and saving a lot of time, thus making customer service team productive. The chat software is unique because it offers three fold services - manual, personal and automated messaging services that handle standard queries with automated replies that work on AI BOT. Also, brands can customize according to their requirement and use it as their own live chat support solution.

Snapdeal-Flipkart Merger In Trouble As Stakeholders Can't Reach Consensus

If you're waiting for the Snapdeal-Flipkart merger to take place with bated breath, then there is a good chance that you might just run out of air. According to latest developments, the merger is most likely to fall apart as a crucial meeting between the representatives of the two parties was recently quashed at last minute.

The news comes just a few days after troubled e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal sold its digital payments platform Freecharge for a whopping Rs 385 crore. The cash inflow from the deal can give Snapdeal the much needed breather it required to survive on its own, at least for a while.

According to a July 28th Moneycontrol report, immediately after the Freecharge-Axis Bank came to a close, Snapdeal founder and chief executive officer Kunal Bahl made his mind clear to the employees that he was not in the favour of being acquired by Flipkart.

In a letter written to his employees, the Wharton graduate wrote that now that the Freecharge responsibility is off their shoulder, it is now time to "focus energy and passion on continuing the Snapdeal journey." The letter is testimonial that Bahl still has confidence in Snapdeal.

The Snapdeal-Flipkart deal is being enthusiastically pursued by Snapdeal investors, following the cut-throat competition the company is facing in the country from global ecommerce giant Amazon and its domestic rival Flipkart.

Taking into account the feelings of Snapdeal founders towards Flipkart's second offer term sheet clauses, the Snapdeal board has now decided to let the company's stakeholders take a decision on whether they want to accept Flipkart's merger offer or not. According to experts, it is unlikely for all the stakeholders to take a united decision as even the seven member board of the company hasn't been able to make a combined decision on the issue.

Snapdeal founders are in favour of sustaining the ecommerce company, either on its own or by entering into a strategic partnership with Infibeam.

Snapdeal currently also have a merger offer from Ahmedabad-based Indian internet and e-commerce conglomerate, Infibeam on the table. Though Infibeam founder and MD Vishal Mehta has denied that any offer has been made but as we know there's no smoke without fire. Reportedly, Infibeam has even furnished a term sheet, which has valued Snapdeal at USD 1billion, which was the initial asking price asked for the e-commerce marketplace.

The troubled e-commerce player received a total of two offers from the Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart for an all-stake acquisition in July. Snapdeal rejected Flipkart's initial $850 million buyout offer as Snapdeal’s board felt that the offer made by the ecommerce leader undervalued their company. But, now it seems the board is not happy with Flipkart's second offer of around $900 million-$950 million as well that came around last week as they think it is still below their expectation of $1 billion.

It was also revealed that it is not a negotiation on just the financials of the deal anymore, Snapdeal isn't happy with the term sheet furnished by Flipkart as well as they think it is laced with a lot of 'hold backs' and 'clauses.'

According to a source close to Snapdeal, the ecommerce founders are currently leaning more towards the Infibeam merger offer as not only is the price good but they will also get to retain their positions even post the acquisition which is something Flipkart isn't open to negotiating.

Snapdeal-Flipkart Merger In Trouble As Stakeholders Can't Reach Consensus

If you're waiting for the Snapdeal-Flipkart merger to take place with bated breath, then there is a good chance that you might just run out of air. According to latest developments, the merger is most likely to fall apart as a crucial meeting between the representatives of the two parties was recently quashed at last minute.

The news comes just a few days after troubled e-commerce marketplace Snapdeal sold its digital payments platform Freecharge for a whopping Rs 385 crore. The cash inflow from the deal can give Snapdeal the much needed breather it required to survive on its own, at least for a while.

According to a July 28th Moneycontrol report, immediately after the Freecharge-Axis Bank came to a close, Snapdeal founder and chief executive officer Kunal Bahl made his mind clear to the employees that he was not in the favour of being acquired by Flipkart.

In a letter written to his employees, the Wharton graduate wrote that now that the Freecharge responsibility is off their shoulder, it is now time to "focus energy and passion on continuing the Snapdeal journey." The letter is testimonial that Bahl still has confidence in Snapdeal.

The Snapdeal-Flipkart deal is being enthusiastically pursued by Snapdeal investors, following the cut-throat competition the company is facing in the country from global ecommerce giant Amazon and its domestic rival Flipkart.

Taking into account the feelings of Snapdeal founders towards Flipkart's second offer term sheet clauses, the Snapdeal board has now decided to let the company's stakeholders take a decision on whether they want to accept Flipkart's merger offer or not. According to experts, it is unlikely for all the stakeholders to take a united decision as even the seven member board of the company hasn't been able to make a combined decision on the issue.

Snapdeal founders are in favour of sustaining the ecommerce company, either on its own or by entering into a strategic partnership with Infibeam.

Snapdeal currently also have a merger offer from Ahmedabad-based Indian internet and e-commerce conglomerate, Infibeam on the table. Though Infibeam founder and MD Vishal Mehta has denied that any offer has been made but as we know there's no smoke without fire. Reportedly, Infibeam has even furnished a term sheet, which has valued Snapdeal at USD 1billion, which was the initial asking price asked for the e-commerce marketplace.

The troubled e-commerce player received a total of two offers from the Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart for an all-stake acquisition in July. Snapdeal rejected Flipkart's initial $850 million buyout offer as Snapdeal’s board felt that the offer made by the ecommerce leader undervalued their company. But, now it seems the board is not happy with Flipkart's second offer of around $900 million-$950 million as well that came around last week as they think it is still below their expectation of $1 billion.

It was also revealed that it is not a negotiation on just the financials of the deal anymore, Snapdeal isn't happy with the term sheet furnished by Flipkart as well as they think it is laced with a lot of 'hold backs' and 'clauses.'

According to a source close to Snapdeal, the ecommerce founders are currently leaning more towards the Infibeam merger offer as not only is the price good but they will also get to retain their positions even post the acquisition which is something Flipkart isn't open to negotiating.

INVECAS Acquires Lattice’s HDMI Design Team And Simplay Labs Subsidiary

INVECAS, a leading provider of silicon proven IP Solutions and ASIC Design Services optimized for Advanced Process Technologies, Embedded Software and System-level Solutions headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement, pursuant to which INVECAS will acquire Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC) HDMI design team and Simplay Labs subsidiary, which oversees standards compliance and interoperability testing services.

Commenting on the development, Darin G. Billerbeck, Lattice Semiconductor’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “This strategic transaction is good for Lattice, INVECAS, and the HDMI ecosystem. It not only helps us to support our existing HDMI ASSP business but also fosters a collaboration between the companies to speed the development and adoption of both existing and new HDMI standards. We are confident that Invecas will continue to pioneer HDMI by providing world class IP and services. Lattice customers should feel confident discussing any HDMI 2.1 IP opportunities directly with INVECAS.”

This transaction will include the transfer of approximately 150 research and development (R&D) staff, labs and other assets from Lattice’s operations in San Jose, CA, Hillsboro, OR, Hyderabad, India, as well as Shanghai and Shenzhen, China.

The transaction has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in August 2017.

“This transaction will be a tremendous addition to our technical capabilities as well as to our IP, advanced SERDES and product portfolios. We are fully committed to continue investing in the Lattice team’s strong track record of helping to establish industry standards and new technologies, and driving them to market. This transaction will enable us to broadly influence our customers’ Standards Connectivity roadmaps and will provide better insight into their product development. We share the team’s commitment to building upon its proven success of standards creation and the development of new connectivity innovations,” said Gude.

This Indian Startup Founder Is Touted As India's 'Interstellar Woman' By Fortune Magazine

“Every great story happened when someone decided not to give up.” -Spryte Loriano

Standing testimonial to the above quote is Odia girl and entrepreneur Sushmita Mohanty. Recently anointed as ‘Interstellar Indian’ by Fortune magazine, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was latest in the line of VIPs and dignitaries who congratulated Mohanty on this stellar recognition.

“She is more than a role model. She is the real epitome of talent and capabilities of the ‘Odia jhia (girl)’. The prestigious Fortune magazine calls her a Global Indian and has featured her in its cover. I congratulate her and wish her all success in her dreams and pursuits. I am sure she will continue traverse the infinite boundaries of space with her acumen,” said CM Naveen Patnaik.

Mohanty earned the honour for her celebratory contribution in revolutionising India’s space programme and transforming it into a commercially profitable enterprise. In her path to achieve the same, the high achiever has founded three space related ventures on the way. Her latest venture that is currently gaining major traction all around the world is Earth2Orbit [E2O]. India's first private space startup, E2O facilitates satellite launches for various countries, international organisations and companies using Indian launch vehicles such as PSLV of ISRO.

E2O belongs to a new generation of companies worldwide that are spearheading a New Space revolution. Empowered by advances in payload and transport technologies, New Space entrepreneurs are exploring opportunities with new launch vehicles, affordable small satellites, and taking initial steps to realize "out there" frontiers of space-based power generation and extraterrestrial mining.

Mohanty launched her first company MoonFront, an aerospace consulting firm in San Francisco, USA in 2001. Her second company, LIQUIFER, an aerospace architecture and design firm, came three years later in 2004. She came back to India with her third venture, Earth2Orbit. Before taking the entrepreneur route, Susmita worked in business development for the International Space Station program at Boeing in California. She has also worked on Shuttle-Mir missions at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Educated in India, France and Sweden, Susmita holds multiple degrees. She has a Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering from Gujarat University and a Master's in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. She has a Master's in Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France and a PhD in Aerospace Architecture from the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Susmita got a job with NASA after graduating from ISU.

Mohanty has a vision of unlocking the unexplored potential of the Indian space sector so that the country with the second largest population in the world can get at least a quarter of the $300 billion global space market.

Post Acquisition, FreeCharge Employees To Get Retention Bonus

Here comes the another development from the Snapdeal’s digital payments platform, FreeCharge. According to the media sources, FreeCharge employees are being given a six-month retention bonus. Recently, IndianWeb2 reported that Snapdeal board has given a green signal for FreeCharge sale to Axis Bank for Rs 385 crore. The acquisition marks the end of a two-year long process where numerous buyers came forward to pitch their bid for FreeCharge.

Following the recent announcement, Freecharge employees are now being handed over a letter for the retention bonus. The retention bonus being given to employees is for a period of six months and those choosing to leave the company after a month or so will be only be given part of the bonus.

The firm is taking this step to ensure that employees don't quit the company while Axis Bank takes over FreeCharge. The retention bonuses will be given to the employees on the basis of their seniority and the time spent in the organisation.

According to the people aware of the retention bonus being handed out the move is linked to employees stock ownership plan (ESOPs) since FreeCharge's valuation eroded significantly over the last one year.

Jasper Infotech, FreeCharge’s parent company which also owns and operates Snapdeal, had also been on a lookout to raise fresh funds for the payments provider so as to compete head-to-head with the growing popularity of Paytm in the country.

On the other hand, Snapdeal's largest investor SoftBank has been orchestrating its merger with bigger rival Flipkart. But the process which is still under way with multiple hurdles has restricted the completion of the deal.

How A European Startup in India Can Change the Course of Paytm Revolution

While the rest of the world is going the smartphone way, two-thirds of the mobile devices sold in the Indian subcontinent are still feature phones. Two of the main reasons for the trend are financial inadequacy and illiteracy to afford and understand the technology respectively. This feature phones trend acts as a major deterrent in the Indian government's ambition to make in India into a digital economy where its citizens have minimum dependence on physical cash and carry out a majority of their transactions online. But, a Slovenian company named Margento might have just cracked the code for the Indian government's this problem.

Margento is an innovative global provider of powerful mobile transactions and payment solutions. At the core of their technology, is the ability to turn any mobile phone into an easy-to-use, convenient, and secure payment and transaction instrument. And, the company has now decided to bring the technology to India. Margento's technology will allow low-cost feature phones users in India to make mobile payments without internet. If and when the technology comes to India, it could pose a major threat to paytm's status quo of number one digital payments provider in the country.

The Slovenian company has joined hands with a Mohali-based company called Masterline Telebiz for the project. Founded in 1994, the company makes recharge cards and other telecom devices and solutions for mobile transactions and has catered to over 20 million mobile users in the world since its inception.

Margento’s patented Data Over Voice (DOV) solution makes it possible to send encrypted audio signals between two face-to-face phones to complete a payment. Margento solutions and services have been successfully implemented and utilized by many prominent financial institutions, mobile operators, retailers and other businesses worldwide.

Masterline will take on the duty of being the reseller of the Margento’s DOV technology products in India.

According to a recent report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market researcher IMRB International, the overall internet penetration in India stands at a disappointing 31 per cent. When this is combined with the feature phones trend in India, Margento’s DOV technology has the potential of becoming a huge success in the country.

In order to tie up with some banks in India, a team of Margento is coming down to India in August. In addition to Indian banks, the company is also engaged in talks with several e-commerce companies operating in the country to add to their cash-on-delivery payment.

Margento isn't the first company that would allow people to make payments through feature phones. Unstructured Supplementary Service Data or USSD already the service in India. All a user has to do is check account balance, generate mini-statements and transfer funds via mobile IDs allotted by banks or IFSC code or Aadhaar number. Similarly, even banks in India allow credit and debit card payments to be made through an interactive voice response feature where a merchant or the receiver is required to make a call.

The advantage that Margento’s DOV technology has over the aforementioned two technologies is that unlike them it doesn't require a user go through multiple steps to make one payment. A user just needs to dial a code once to make a payment through Margento. In fact, Margento's process is quite simple. The first step entails the sender and receiver of the payment dialling a short code on their phones followed by a pin to initiate a payment. The second step requires the receiver to add the amount, in case of any merchant payment. The third step entails an encrypted audio signal being generated on the sender's phone. The fourth steps sees the payment being completed when the two phones are planted face-to-face.

Once a bank in India agrees to adopts Margento’s DOV technology, its users will be able to purchase products and services, pay utility and other bills, recharge prepaid accounts, receive and use loyalty bonuses, purchase, send and redeem mobile gifts, coupons and tickets, and transfer money etc.

After the sudden demonetisation drive in India last year when the citizens of the country had to turn to alternative methods to quench their cash thirst, several companies and banks tried their hand at ran pilots to make payments through voice in India but no one has been able to taste success so far.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [24-29 July]

The tech world had a busy six days. In order to kept you adept with all the important things that happened in the tech world this week, we bring to you the top 10 tech news.

1) Google Launches AI Studios To Nurture Machine Learning Startups; To Host Event In Bangalore

Tech giant Google is called a tech giant for a reason. After making its presence felt in almost all tech segments, the company is now focused on getting its AI game right and rule the segment in the coming years. It was only recently that the company had unveiled to the world its upcoming AI attraction Gradient Ventures, Google’s on-balance sheet AI investment vehicle. And now, Google’s Launchpad has announced a new hands-on Studio program that would help AI startups with resources that would help them kickstart their company’s journey to success and scale to new heights.

The idea behind having a separate AI studio is quite simple. Google understand that the anatomy of every type of startup is different from another and they cannot be fed with the same resources to achieve success. This especially makes sense when it comes to AI startups, who are heavily dependent on data and often struggle to get enough of it. Often these startups have to go to market in phases, making their way as new data comes into the picture. Also, it has been observed that AI startups all around the world boost of having highly technical teams but not enough product talent.

2) Qualcomm’s Mobile Chip Deep Learning Framework Is Now Open To All

American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company, Qualcomm, gave birth to the Neural Processing Engine (NPE) for its Snapdragon-series mobile processors with an aim of enabling deep learning-based software development on all kinds of devices. And now, the company, which is considered as a world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies, has made the NPE software development kit finally available to the world via its Qualcomm Developer Network.

The latest development marks the first public release of the SDK. According to tech experts, the kit can open a lot of great opportunities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing on a range of devices, right from mobile phones to in-car platforms and many more. This means, it could serve as a key to unlock a whole new world altogether.

3) Autonomous Cars Will Not Be Allowed In India At The Cost Of Jobs, Says India’s Road Transport Minister

If you were expecting to ride a driverless car in India anytime soon, then your expectation is most likely to be never fulfilled, at least till the time the Modi government is at the centre. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari recently addressed the media and made it clear that the government won’t be allowing driverless cars in the South Asian country as they’re not interested in promoting any technology or policy that has a potential of making a large number of hardworking people jobless.

He said, “No driverless cars will be allowed in India. The government is not going to promote any technology or policy that will make people jobless.”

Backing his statement with facts, Gadkari revealed that as of today India is running on a shortage of 2.2 million drivers. He further added that driving skills have a potential of creating employment for a whopping five million people in the second-largest population on Earth. Hence, the government isn’t in favour of erasing these high employment numbers by green lighting driverless cars.

4) Disappointed Indian Bitcoin Industry Poised For Self Regulation

Seeing Bitcoins increasing value and usage in the country, the government recently launched on a mission to regulate the cryptocurrency. But, according to latest updates, the talks have hit a standstill for now due to a difference of opinion between the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding the nature of categorisation of the cryptocurrency. The matter was uncovered during a finance ministry organised stakeholder meeting to discuss the regulatory framework of the virtual currency in the country.

While RBI considers Bitcoins as a security matter and wants SEBI to take charge to regulate it as commodity derivative in the same way as Gold and Silver, SEBI has conflicting views to offer and doesn’t agree with RBI’s interpretation of Bitcoins. According to SEBI, without the presence of any proper legal terminology and other legal gray areas surrounding the cryptocurrency, they
cannot consider it as a commodity.

While the government is still contemplating on the whole Bitcoin regulation debate, the Bitcoin industry in the country has made up its mind for a self-regulatory body. Talking to Bitcoinist, Zebpay co-founder Sandeep Goenka said that the creation of a self-regulatory body is not just the preference of the Indian Bitcoin Industry, but is also the best solution possible to tackle the problem of regulating virtual currencies in the Indian subcontinent. According to him, since the industry experiences constant evolution and changes, it might become a little difficult for the government to keep a track of all these adjustments and developments. Hence, a self-regulatory organization makes much more sense.

5) How IoT Will Improve Quality of Life in Indian Cities

The idea of smart cities have been fed into our minds for quite a long time now. So, this week, we at IndianWeb2 take a moment to analyse what exactly are the IoT centred initiatives that the Indian government has planned to improve the quality of life of its citizens and how far along are the Indian cities on their Smart cities trajectory.

The following data has been extracted from a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HP) sponsored podcast carried out by Dana Gardner Principal analyst, Interarbor Solutions, where he interviewed VS Shridhar, senior vice president and head of the Internet of Things (IoT) business unit at Tata Communications in Chennai area, India and Nigel Upton, general manager of the Universal IoT Platform and global connectivity platform and communications solutions business at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

According to Shridhar, the Indian government for now has decided to focus largely on the Smart Cities initiative to improve the quality of life of its citizens. Considering the famous saying that “sailing in two boats” never gets anyone anywhere, we’re glad that the government has managed to keep itself focused on just one aim when it comes to its urbanisation plans. The government considers that the Smart Cities initiative will not only help them in improving the quality of living for its citizens, but it will also help in generating employment and take the country as a whole a step forward towards accepting technology and incorporating it in various dimensions of their lives.

While Shridhar accepted that currently there is a whole lot of curiosity, excitement and action happening in the 100 Smart Cities project, but it is still a slow process for which we will have to wait a couple of more years to witness progress from our own eyes. Read More

6) OLX Scouts for India’s Top Talent In Machine Learning and AI

OLX, India’s largest online classifieds, has kicked off its “Code and the Curious” Hackathon to recruit India’s best coding talent, skilled in emerging and disruptive technologies across Machine learning, AI, and Data Science. The hackathon has already received more than 10,000 registrations so far.

Organized in partnership with leading online technology and programming platform HackerRank, the recruitment drive consists of two parts – an online assessment challenge from July 22nd to July 27th 2017 followed by a live two-day hackathon session in Gurugram and Bengaluru on 5th and 12th August respectively.

7) Facebook Acquires Startup Source3 to Fight Pirated Content

Social networking giant Facebook which recently celebrated having 2 billion monthly users has decided to take the matter of piracy on its platform very seriously. The Mark Zuckerberg led firm recently acquired US-based startup Source3 to help the tech giant in its battle against pirated content on its social networking platform.

The New York-headquartered startup claims to be the world’s first platform for end-to-end management of intellectual property in user-generated content (UGC). It provides IP recognition, licensing and rights administration services to connect creators, marketplaces and brands and enable monetization of user content across physical and digital products.

Reportedly, Facebook has decided to acquire both Source3’s technology and some of its core team members. A report in ReCode regarding the acquisition quoted a Facebook spokesperson, “We’re excited to work with the Source3 team and learn from the expertise they’ve built in intellectual property, trademarks and copyright. As always, we are focused on ensuring we serve our partners well.”

8) Karnataka, Nasscom To Setup Centre of Excellence Exclusively for AI; To Invest in Startups

The week saw the Karnataka government announcing the launch of a first-of-its kind initiative, an all exclusive Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Bengaluru.

Expected to go live early next month, industry body Nasscom has been assigned the duty of managing the programme. It will be bringing together industries, tech players, entrepreneurs, among others to work on the project. The funds for the projects are being provided by the Karnataka government, which has also taken the additional duty of getting some of the startups that it has already funded onboard for the project.

Speaking with Deccan Herald, Priyank Kharge, Karnataka Minister for IT and BT divulged that the CoE for AI will give a major push to the state government’s ambition of transforming Karnataka, particularly Bengaluru, into a hub of next-gen technologies such as AI, machine learning, robotics and neuroscience etc.

9) Scientists Just Made Food From Electricity- Solution To World Hunger?

Proving that nothing is impossible, researchers in Finland have successfully made food from electricity. Yes, you read that absolutely right. The discovery, which is being helmed as the future of food, saw Finnish researchers producing a single-cell protein using a system powered by renewable energy.

The synthetic food, which is nutritious enough to be served for dinner, was made as part of the Food From Electricity project, which is a collaboration between the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). The entire food production process required only water, microbes, carbon dioxide and the most important ingredient, electricity.

The process entailed exposing the aforementioned raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, which lead to formation of a powder that consists of more than 50 per cent protein and 25 per cent carbohydrates. According to the researchers, the texture of the powder can also be changed by doing some alterations in the microbes being used in the production process.

10) Revealed: Facebook’s Free Basics Violates Net Neutrality and Isn’t Even Helpful, Says Report

It’s been two years since Facebook’s Free Basics has been in the public domain and ever since then it has been at the centre of constant debate. While India has already banned the app stating its net neutrality defying nature, a recent report by activist group Global Voices has found out that not only does Facebook’s Free Basics violate net neutrality principles, it’s not proving that helpful to even those who are using it.

People using the Free Basics app have to survive with a basic Bing search engine, a Johnson & Johnson-sponsored baby advice app, and a number of other sponsored apps. In fact, Facebook is the only popular social media app accessible on the Free Basics app. The app in question here doesn’t even come with an email platform support.

The app also comes with certain language and content limitations that doesn’t make its case stronger either. For instance, if you access Free Basics in Pakistan, you would only be able to access it in English and Urdu. Thus, leaving out other major languages spoken in the country like Punjabi, Pashto etc. Further, most of the apps featured inside are US and UK-based, with only a few local options available.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [24-29 July]

The tech world had a busy six days. In order to kept you adept with all the important things that happened in the tech world this week, we bring to you the top 10 tech news.

1) Google Launches AI Studios To Nurture Machine Learning Startups; To Host Event In Bangalore

Tech giant Google is called a tech giant for a reason. After making its presence felt in almost all tech segments, the company is now focused on getting its AI game right and rule the segment in the coming years. It was only recently that the company had unveiled to the world its upcoming AI attraction Gradient Ventures, Google’s on-balance sheet AI investment vehicle. And now, Google’s Launchpad has announced a new hands-on Studio program that would help AI startups with resources that would help them kickstart their company’s journey to success and scale to new heights.

The idea behind having a separate AI studio is quite simple. Google understand that the anatomy of every type of startup is different from another and they cannot be fed with the same resources to achieve success. This especially makes sense when it comes to AI startups, who are heavily dependent on data and often struggle to get enough of it. Often these startups have to go to market in phases, making their way as new data comes into the picture. Also, it has been observed that AI startups all around the world boost of having highly technical teams but not enough product talent.

2) Qualcomm’s Mobile Chip Deep Learning Framework Is Now Open To All

American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company, Qualcomm, gave birth to the Neural Processing Engine (NPE) for its Snapdragon-series mobile processors with an aim of enabling deep learning-based software development on all kinds of devices. And now, the company, which is considered as a world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies, has made the NPE software development kit finally available to the world via its Qualcomm Developer Network.

The latest development marks the first public release of the SDK. According to tech experts, the kit can open a lot of great opportunities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) computing on a range of devices, right from mobile phones to in-car platforms and many more. This means, it could serve as a key to unlock a whole new world altogether.

3) Autonomous Cars Will Not Be Allowed In India At The Cost Of Jobs, Says India’s Road Transport Minister

If you were expecting to ride a driverless car in India anytime soon, then your expectation is most likely to be never fulfilled, at least till the time the Modi government is at the centre. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari recently addressed the media and made it clear that the government won’t be allowing driverless cars in the South Asian country as they’re not interested in promoting any technology or policy that has a potential of making a large number of hardworking people jobless.

He said, “No driverless cars will be allowed in India. The government is not going to promote any technology or policy that will make people jobless.”

Backing his statement with facts, Gadkari revealed that as of today India is running on a shortage of 2.2 million drivers. He further added that driving skills have a potential of creating employment for a whopping five million people in the second-largest population on Earth. Hence, the government isn’t in favour of erasing these high employment numbers by green lighting driverless cars.

4) Disappointed Indian Bitcoin Industry Poised For Self Regulation

Seeing Bitcoins increasing value and usage in the country, the government recently launched on a mission to regulate the cryptocurrency. But, according to latest updates, the talks have hit a standstill for now due to a difference of opinion between the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding the nature of categorisation of the cryptocurrency. The matter was uncovered during a finance ministry organised stakeholder meeting to discuss the regulatory framework of the virtual currency in the country.

While RBI considers Bitcoins as a security matter and wants SEBI to take charge to regulate it as commodity derivative in the same way as Gold and Silver, SEBI has conflicting views to offer and doesn’t agree with RBI’s interpretation of Bitcoins. According to SEBI, without the presence of any proper legal terminology and other legal gray areas surrounding the cryptocurrency, they
cannot consider it as a commodity.

While the government is still contemplating on the whole Bitcoin regulation debate, the Bitcoin industry in the country has made up its mind for a self-regulatory body. Talking to Bitcoinist, Zebpay co-founder Sandeep Goenka said that the creation of a self-regulatory body is not just the preference of the Indian Bitcoin Industry, but is also the best solution possible to tackle the problem of regulating virtual currencies in the Indian subcontinent. According to him, since the industry experiences constant evolution and changes, it might become a little difficult for the government to keep a track of all these adjustments and developments. Hence, a self-regulatory organization makes much more sense.

5) How IoT Will Improve Quality of Life in Indian Cities

The idea of smart cities have been fed into our minds for quite a long time now. So, this week, we at IndianWeb2 take a moment to analyse what exactly are the IoT centred initiatives that the Indian government has planned to improve the quality of life of its citizens and how far along are the Indian cities on their Smart cities trajectory.

The following data has been extracted from a Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HP) sponsored podcast carried out by Dana Gardner Principal analyst, Interarbor Solutions, where he interviewed VS Shridhar, senior vice president and head of the Internet of Things (IoT) business unit at Tata Communications in Chennai area, India and Nigel Upton, general manager of the Universal IoT Platform and global connectivity platform and communications solutions business at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

According to Shridhar, the Indian government for now has decided to focus largely on the Smart Cities initiative to improve the quality of life of its citizens. Considering the famous saying that “sailing in two boats” never gets anyone anywhere, we’re glad that the government has managed to keep itself focused on just one aim when it comes to its urbanisation plans. The government considers that the Smart Cities initiative will not only help them in improving the quality of living for its citizens, but it will also help in generating employment and take the country as a whole a step forward towards accepting technology and incorporating it in various dimensions of their lives.

While Shridhar accepted that currently there is a whole lot of curiosity, excitement and action happening in the 100 Smart Cities project, but it is still a slow process for which we will have to wait a couple of more years to witness progress from our own eyes. Read More

6) OLX Scouts for India’s Top Talent In Machine Learning and AI

OLX, India’s largest online classifieds, has kicked off its “Code and the Curious” Hackathon to recruit India’s best coding talent, skilled in emerging and disruptive technologies across Machine learning, AI, and Data Science. The hackathon has already received more than 10,000 registrations so far.

Organized in partnership with leading online technology and programming platform HackerRank, the recruitment drive consists of two parts – an online assessment challenge from July 22nd to July 27th 2017 followed by a live two-day hackathon session in Gurugram and Bengaluru on 5th and 12th August respectively.

7) Facebook Acquires Startup Source3 to Fight Pirated Content

Social networking giant Facebook which recently celebrated having 2 billion monthly users has decided to take the matter of piracy on its platform very seriously. The Mark Zuckerberg led firm recently acquired US-based startup Source3 to help the tech giant in its battle against pirated content on its social networking platform.

The New York-headquartered startup claims to be the world’s first platform for end-to-end management of intellectual property in user-generated content (UGC). It provides IP recognition, licensing and rights administration services to connect creators, marketplaces and brands and enable monetization of user content across physical and digital products.

Reportedly, Facebook has decided to acquire both Source3’s technology and some of its core team members. A report in ReCode regarding the acquisition quoted a Facebook spokesperson, “We’re excited to work with the Source3 team and learn from the expertise they’ve built in intellectual property, trademarks and copyright. As always, we are focused on ensuring we serve our partners well.”

8) Karnataka, Nasscom To Setup Centre of Excellence Exclusively for AI; To Invest in Startups

The week saw the Karnataka government announcing the launch of a first-of-its kind initiative, an all exclusive Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Bengaluru.

Expected to go live early next month, industry body Nasscom has been assigned the duty of managing the programme. It will be bringing together industries, tech players, entrepreneurs, among others to work on the project. The funds for the projects are being provided by the Karnataka government, which has also taken the additional duty of getting some of the startups that it has already funded onboard for the project.

Speaking with Deccan Herald, Priyank Kharge, Karnataka Minister for IT and BT divulged that the CoE for AI will give a major push to the state government’s ambition of transforming Karnataka, particularly Bengaluru, into a hub of next-gen technologies such as AI, machine learning, robotics and neuroscience etc.

9) Scientists Just Made Food From Electricity- Solution To World Hunger?

Proving that nothing is impossible, researchers in Finland have successfully made food from electricity. Yes, you read that absolutely right. The discovery, which is being helmed as the future of food, saw Finnish researchers producing a single-cell protein using a system powered by renewable energy.

The synthetic food, which is nutritious enough to be served for dinner, was made as part of the Food From Electricity project, which is a collaboration between the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT). The entire food production process required only water, microbes, carbon dioxide and the most important ingredient, electricity.

The process entailed exposing the aforementioned raw materials to electrolysis in a bioreactor, which lead to formation of a powder that consists of more than 50 per cent protein and 25 per cent carbohydrates. According to the researchers, the texture of the powder can also be changed by doing some alterations in the microbes being used in the production process.

10) Revealed: Facebook’s Free Basics Violates Net Neutrality and Isn’t Even Helpful, Says Report

It’s been two years since Facebook’s Free Basics has been in the public domain and ever since then it has been at the centre of constant debate. While India has already banned the app stating its net neutrality defying nature, a recent report by activist group Global Voices has found out that not only does Facebook’s Free Basics violate net neutrality principles, it’s not proving that helpful to even those who are using it.

People using the Free Basics app have to survive with a basic Bing search engine, a Johnson & Johnson-sponsored baby advice app, and a number of other sponsored apps. In fact, Facebook is the only popular social media app accessible on the Free Basics app. The app in question here doesn’t even come with an email platform support.

The app also comes with certain language and content limitations that doesn’t make its case stronger either. For instance, if you access Free Basics in Pakistan, you would only be able to access it in English and Urdu. Thus, leaving out other major languages spoken in the country like Punjabi, Pashto etc. Further, most of the apps featured inside are US and UK-based, with only a few local options available.

Promising Fintech Startup Finomena Shuts Down Amid Funding Crunch

Bangalore-based fintech startup Finomena has shuts its shops after it failed to raise series-A funding and now it is no longer accepting new users on its website. The startup was funded by notable private equity firm Matrix Partners.

One can get an idea that how promising the startup was with the very fact that it is the only fintech company from India to have made it to "International Innovator of the Year award" by LendIt USA 2017, the world’s largest show in lending and fintech.

Launched in 2015 by IIT-Delhi graduate Abhishek Garg and Stanford graduate Ridhi Mittal, Finomena used to facilitate small ticket loans to students and young professionals for buying electronic devices and appliances and for same it had inculcated data and machine learning to reassess the creditworthiness of borrowers for the disbursal of loans.

Before starting finomena, both the co-founders were previously worked at places like Facebook, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Bain Capital.

NOtably, Flipkart and other e-commerce firms also have a partnership with Finomena where the startup allows loan seekers to key in links of items on the e-commerce marketplace they want to buy with a loan.

"The company was in the market to raise series A funding since early this year, but that didn’t materialize. There were two buyout offers too. That failed because of valuation,” said a report by Moneycontrol.

The startup had raised its seed round from Matrix Partners and angel investors in March 2016.

The primary reasons for shut down of the startup is said to be high cash burn and moreover cost of acquisition was high for any plausible buy out.

"The startup managed to bring down the costs, but it wasn’t enough to bring up the average ticket size. Now in the second phase of expansion they need funds, but the cash burn makes it difficult," said an analyst.

The startup was addressing loan market for young professionals and self-employed people which has market size of around $50-60 Bn.

Finomena was different from P2P lending firms but was in competition with rivals such as ZestMoney, CashCare, Capital Float, and Lendingkart, among dozen other alternate loans startups that have cropped up in the country.

Last two years have saw a lot of early stage startups shutting their shops including some heavily funded as well like Stayzilla and Askme.

The year 2017 saw a serious funding crunch for young startups as according to a latest report by Tracxn, a startup analytics firm, the number of angel and seed investments made in the first half of 2017 (January to June) is down to 260, indicating a drastic drop from 419 in the first half of 2016. Whereas, Seed funding has seen a steep decline from 278 to 152.

Earlier in May 2017, News Corp, had released Startup Deal Report Q1 CY2017. According to this report, investors prefers late stage funding. The report states, angel and seed investments fell both in volume and value terms with deal volumes reduced to half with 120 deals in Q1 CY2017 in comparison to 245 deals in the same period last year.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [24 – 29 July]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Chinese Internet Conglomerate Tencent In Talks To Infuse $400 Mn In Ola

The homegrown cab hailing firm, Ola is again in news. The Bengaluru-based firm is in talks with Tencent, the Chinese internet conglomerate to raise next round of funding, according to the media reports. If everything goes well, it could result in an investment of $400 million.

According to the media reports, “Tencent executives were in Bangalore last week and they met the Ola management team to discuss the transaction.”

According to the media reports, “Tencent executives were in Bangalore last week and they met the Ola management team to discuss the transaction.”

Healthcare Firm Portea Medical To Raise $25 Mn From Sabre Capital, Accel

Portea Medical, a home healthcare company is in advanced talks to secure $25 million (Rs 160 crore) in its Series C round of funding. If sources to be believed, Sabre Capital, an India-focused mid-market private equity firm is leading the round. Accel Partners is also participating in the round, as per the sources.

Commenting on the development, Meena Ganesh, CEO, Portea Medical told ET, “Portea is in talks with three investors to raise $25 million. I can’t elaborate further at this point.”

As per the sources, Portea is reportedly raising the capital at a valuation lower than that during the previous investment round in 2015.

FabHotels Raises $25M in Series B Round from Goldman Sachs and Accel Partners

FabHotels, a technology-driven budget hotel franchise, announced today that it has raised $25 million in a Series B investment led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Accel Partners, an existing investor, also participated in the round. The funds will further accelerate the nationwide expansion of FabHotels.

FabHotels’ franchise model focuses on partnering with 20 – 40 rooms capacity budget hotels. Such unbranded budget hotels, with over one million rooms of capacity, make up the largest and most fragmented hospitality segment in India today. The company uses its proprietary technology platform to deliver superior yields to franchisees and assists in property operations for the delivery of best-in-segment stay experiences to travelers. FabHotels also operates a professional training academy for hotel staff and on the ground quality control teams.

1mg Raises Additional $15M Funding Led by HBM Healthcare Investments With Participation from Existing Investors

1mg Technologies Pvt Ltd, India’s largest digital health platform which operates mobile app “1mg” on Android/ iOS and the web platform, today announced that it has closed a financing round of ~$15M, led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation from other existing investors Maverick, Sequoia India, Omidyar & Kae Capital.

HBM had made its first investment in 1mg last year in May 2016, as a part of a top-up round following the Series B financing that was led by Maverick Capital Ventures.

HBM is among the global leaders in healthcare-focused investing with around USD 1.5 billion under management. HBM focuses on development stage, growth and buy-out financings of private companies, as well as investments in public companies.

Hero Enterprise Invests $10M in Consumer Lighting Firm Corvi LED Light

Sunil Kant Munjal led Hero Enterprise has committed a strategic stake and shall invest $10 Mn in Corvi LED Light, a pioneering and technology-reshaping consumer lighting firm based in Mumbai that already has over ten Red Dot Design Award winning products under its belt. The addition of Corvi to the investment portfolio of Hero Enterprise reinforces Sunil Kant Munjal’s vision to empower entrepreneurship built around innovation, plus the ability to deliver value globally.

Edtech Startup BYJU’S Raises Investment from Tencent

BYJU’S, India’s largest education company announced a new round of funding from Tencent Holdings Limited (Tencent), a leading provider of Internet value added services in China. This latest round of funding will help BYJU’S accelerate product development for new markets and enable inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Launched in 2015, BYJU’S Learning App has pioneered the personalised learning space for school students across the country. With 9 million students learning from the app and over 450,000 annual paid subscribers, BYJU’S has seen more than 100% growth, with revenue growing from Rs. 115 crores (FY 15-16) to Rs. 260 (FY 16-17) crores. The company also turned profitable last quarter.

Beauty Services Marketplace Bigstylist Raises $1.2M From Info Edge

Online beauty services provider BigStylist has raised $1.2 Mn (INR 8 Cr) in a fresh funding round led by Info Edge. As per BSE filings, the amount has been invested via compulsorily convertible debentures (CCD).

In September 2016, BigStylist secured $900K from the Delhi-based company. This increases Info Edge’s stake in the startup to around 49.37%, from the earlier 39%.

With the newly-secured funding, BigStylist is looking to set up shop in Delhi NCR, and is also hoping to break even in the two cities it currently operations in, Mumbai and Pune.

Communication Platform Noticeboard Raises $1.2M Led by Stellaris Venture Partners

Noticeboard, Bengaluru-based communication platform for frontline staff, has raised its first round of $1.2 million led by Stellaris Venture Partners.

The funds will be used to strengthen the technology, product and design teams. Noticeboard is focused on leveraging the power of the mobile phone to make information more accessible, and will be looking for top talent that understands the nuances of the small screen deeply.

“At Noticeboard, we believe organizational communication has to be more inclusive. Noticeboard aims to empower frontline staff with real time communication and make them participants of the knowledge economy, much like email did for the desk workers.” says Vishal Gahlaut, CEO, Noticeboard.

Assistive Tech and EdTech Startup Thinkerbell Labs Raises Rs 1.3 Cr in Angel Round from IAN & Others

Thinkerbell Labs, which builds literacy devices for the visually impaired has raised an angel investment of Rs 1.3 Crore from Indian Angel Network and Mr Anand Mahindra. The angel round was led by Mr. Rajesh Navaneetham and Mr. Manjunath Nayak. Mr. Anand Mahindra, Chairman and Managing Director at Mahindra Group invested in the company in his personal capacity. Mr.Rajesh Navaneetham will sit on the board of ThinkerBell Labs representing IAN. The startup will be utilizing the funds to run pilots in the UK, setting up product, sales and content teams.

Technology Platform Jhakaas Raises Pre-Series A Funding from a USA Based Investor

Jhakaas Technologies, a technology-driven platform that “Enables local businesses” to create a presence online, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A funding from a USA based investor Mr Amen Dhyllon. The motive of the fund raise is for technological enhancement and up-gradation of the application and expansion of the network throughout India.

The next generation mobile app facilitates for the day-to-day needs of the consumer entailing services such as grocery shopping, restaurant hunting, on call cakes and sweet delivery, vegetable shopping, wine shops, ordering medicines and much more. The app includes more than 300 categories. Currently, the company has over 1,00,000 merchants, and the plan is to add 5,00,000 merchants by year end March 2018.Jhakaas is currently operating in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad and Pune.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Mumbai Based legal SaaS Startup IPHawk Raises Funding At Tie Mumbai SmashUp 7.0

Gaja Capital-backed CL Educate Ltd, the parent of test-preparation platform Career Launcher, has further invested in Threesixtyone Degree Minds Consulting Pvt. Ltd, which runs online higher education brand 361minds (361 Degree Minds).

Fitness aggregator Gympik raises money from existing investor

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [24 – 29 July]

Here is a list of top funding deals that happened in Indian Startup Ecosystem this week. Check out the brief description about all of them.

Chinese Internet Conglomerate Tencent In Talks To Infuse $400 Mn In Ola

The homegrown cab hailing firm, Ola is again in news. The Bengaluru-based firm is in talks with Tencent, the Chinese internet conglomerate to raise next round of funding, according to the media reports. If everything goes well, it could result in an investment of $400 million.

According to the media reports, “Tencent executives were in Bangalore last week and they met the Ola management team to discuss the transaction.”

According to the media reports, “Tencent executives were in Bangalore last week and they met the Ola management team to discuss the transaction.”

Healthcare Firm Portea Medical To Raise $25 Mn From Sabre Capital, Accel

Portea Medical, a home healthcare company is in advanced talks to secure $25 million (Rs 160 crore) in its Series C round of funding. If sources to be believed, Sabre Capital, an India-focused mid-market private equity firm is leading the round. Accel Partners is also participating in the round, as per the sources.

Commenting on the development, Meena Ganesh, CEO, Portea Medical told ET, “Portea is in talks with three investors to raise $25 million. I can’t elaborate further at this point.”

As per the sources, Portea is reportedly raising the capital at a valuation lower than that during the previous investment round in 2015.

FabHotels Raises $25M in Series B Round from Goldman Sachs and Accel Partners

FabHotels, a technology-driven budget hotel franchise, announced today that it has raised $25 million in a Series B investment led by Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Accel Partners, an existing investor, also participated in the round. The funds will further accelerate the nationwide expansion of FabHotels.

FabHotels’ franchise model focuses on partnering with 20 – 40 rooms capacity budget hotels. Such unbranded budget hotels, with over one million rooms of capacity, make up the largest and most fragmented hospitality segment in India today. The company uses its proprietary technology platform to deliver superior yields to franchisees and assists in property operations for the delivery of best-in-segment stay experiences to travelers. FabHotels also operates a professional training academy for hotel staff and on the ground quality control teams.

1mg Raises Additional $15M Funding Led by HBM Healthcare Investments With Participation from Existing Investors

1mg Technologies Pvt Ltd, India’s largest digital health platform which operates mobile app “1mg” on Android/ iOS and the web platform, today announced that it has closed a financing round of ~$15M, led by HBM Healthcare Investments with participation from other existing investors Maverick, Sequoia India, Omidyar & Kae Capital.

HBM had made its first investment in 1mg last year in May 2016, as a part of a top-up round following the Series B financing that was led by Maverick Capital Ventures.

HBM is among the global leaders in healthcare-focused investing with around USD 1.5 billion under management. HBM focuses on development stage, growth and buy-out financings of private companies, as well as investments in public companies.

Hero Enterprise Invests $10M in Consumer Lighting Firm Corvi LED Light

Sunil Kant Munjal led Hero Enterprise has committed a strategic stake and shall invest $10 Mn in Corvi LED Light, a pioneering and technology-reshaping consumer lighting firm based in Mumbai that already has over ten Red Dot Design Award winning products under its belt. The addition of Corvi to the investment portfolio of Hero Enterprise reinforces Sunil Kant Munjal’s vision to empower entrepreneurship built around innovation, plus the ability to deliver value globally.

Edtech Startup BYJU’S Raises Investment from Tencent

BYJU’S, India’s largest education company announced a new round of funding from Tencent Holdings Limited (Tencent), a leading provider of Internet value added services in China. This latest round of funding will help BYJU’S accelerate product development for new markets and enable inorganic growth through acquisitions.

Launched in 2015, BYJU’S Learning App has pioneered the personalised learning space for school students across the country. With 9 million students learning from the app and over 450,000 annual paid subscribers, BYJU’S has seen more than 100% growth, with revenue growing from Rs. 115 crores (FY 15-16) to Rs. 260 (FY 16-17) crores. The company also turned profitable last quarter.

Beauty Services Marketplace Bigstylist Raises $1.2M From Info Edge

Online beauty services provider BigStylist has raised $1.2 Mn (INR 8 Cr) in a fresh funding round led by Info Edge. As per BSE filings, the amount has been invested via compulsorily convertible debentures (CCD).

In September 2016, BigStylist secured $900K from the Delhi-based company. This increases Info Edge’s stake in the startup to around 49.37%, from the earlier 39%.

With the newly-secured funding, BigStylist is looking to set up shop in Delhi NCR, and is also hoping to break even in the two cities it currently operations in, Mumbai and Pune.

Communication Platform Noticeboard Raises $1.2M Led by Stellaris Venture Partners

Noticeboard, Bengaluru-based communication platform for frontline staff, has raised its first round of $1.2 million led by Stellaris Venture Partners.

The funds will be used to strengthen the technology, product and design teams. Noticeboard is focused on leveraging the power of the mobile phone to make information more accessible, and will be looking for top talent that understands the nuances of the small screen deeply.

“At Noticeboard, we believe organizational communication has to be more inclusive. Noticeboard aims to empower frontline staff with real time communication and make them participants of the knowledge economy, much like email did for the desk workers.” says Vishal Gahlaut, CEO, Noticeboard.

Assistive Tech and EdTech Startup Thinkerbell Labs Raises Rs 1.3 Cr in Angel Round from IAN & Others

Thinkerbell Labs, which builds literacy devices for the visually impaired has raised an angel investment of Rs 1.3 Crore from Indian Angel Network and Mr Anand Mahindra. The angel round was led by Mr. Rajesh Navaneetham and Mr. Manjunath Nayak. Mr. Anand Mahindra, Chairman and Managing Director at Mahindra Group invested in the company in his personal capacity. Mr.Rajesh Navaneetham will sit on the board of ThinkerBell Labs representing IAN. The startup will be utilizing the funds to run pilots in the UK, setting up product, sales and content teams.

Technology Platform Jhakaas Raises Pre-Series A Funding from a USA Based Investor

Jhakaas Technologies, a technology-driven platform that “Enables local businesses” to create a presence online, has raised an undisclosed amount in a pre-series A funding from a USA based investor Mr Amen Dhyllon. The motive of the fund raise is for technological enhancement and up-gradation of the application and expansion of the network throughout India.

The next generation mobile app facilitates for the day-to-day needs of the consumer entailing services such as grocery shopping, restaurant hunting, on call cakes and sweet delivery, vegetable shopping, wine shops, ordering medicines and much more. The app includes more than 300 categories. Currently, the company has over 1,00,000 merchants, and the plan is to add 5,00,000 merchants by year end March 2018.Jhakaas is currently operating in Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Indore, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad and Pune.

Apart from these top 10 funding deals, here are a few startups which have also secured funding for their growth and expansion:

Mumbai Based legal SaaS Startup IPHawk Raises Funding At Tie Mumbai SmashUp 7.0

Gaja Capital-backed CL Educate Ltd, the parent of test-preparation platform Career Launcher, has further invested in Threesixtyone Degree Minds Consulting Pvt. Ltd, which runs online higher education brand 361minds (361 Degree Minds).

Fitness aggregator Gympik raises money from existing investor

India Responsible For Amazon's 77% Loss in Q2-2017 But Still It Will Continue To Invest

Global e-commerce player Amazon has registered a jaw-dropping 77 per cent decrease in its profits to $197 million from $857 million a year ago in the second quarter. According to a Reuters report, this disappointing decline in profits is courtesy the company's growing investments in developing economies like India and in video content. The report also noted that the company could end up losing up to $400 million more in operating profit during the current quarter.

Even though the company's profits dived tragically, the week saw Amazon founder Jeff Bezos displacing Bill Gates as the world's richest man on real-time billionaires index compiled by Forbes, even though the glory was only for a brief period. Within a day, Gates won back the spot fair and square after Amazon shares pared their gains in a reaction to the results. According to analysts, this is a testimonial of investors' undivided confidence in Bezos and his business strategy.

While Amazon might be experiencing a sharp cut in its riches, it is still focused on continuing its investment spree in India. According to Harish HV, Partner, India Leadership Team, Grant Thornton India LLP, Amazon, whose valuation currently stands at a strong $500 billion, is in India for a long haul as it considers the country has a huge potential.

Considering Amazon has less than 1 per cent market share in China's $378 billion e-commerce business, the company has its eyes set on India as it is the only market that is capable of matching China in size. Not only can India match China, the country even has the potential of racing past China as it doesn't have cultural and linguistic biases similar to China.

According to experts, e-commerce in India is still in its nascent stage when compared to the industry in China. Further, the country is currently undergoing a consolidation phase when it comes to e-commerce and Amazon wants to take advantage of this situation and firm its feet further in the country.

If and when the Snapdeal-Flipkart merger goes through, one can expect to have only three big e-commerce players in the country: Flipkart, Amazon and Alibaba via Paytm.

Bezos' has recently decided to spend a whopping amount of $5 billion in India to gain significant share as the e-commerce market surges in the Indian subcontinent. The company is working hard to get a larger share of the $30 billion Indian e-commerce market.

Flipkart, which currently enjoys a customer base of 100 million users plans on increasing the number to 500 million customers in the coming years. The company, which is in its tenth year of operation, is currently hosting a number of activities to celebrate the joyous occasion.

However, unlike Flipkart, Amazon is a veteran in the e-commerce space as it has been operating in the US for 23 years now.

But, it is not just Amazon that is experiencing a cut in its profits. According to Kotak Institutional Equities, the e-commerce sector on the whole is currently reeling Rs 10,670 crore in losses.

Amazon does have an upper hand over Flipkart because of its deep pockets as unlike the latter it doesn't need to run to its investors for their approval every time it wants to push forward and scale up. Though Flipkart is currently the reigning king of the ecommerce market with a 57 per cent share in the market, one can expect Amazon to take over the numero uno position in no time if it keeps at its pace in the country.

India Responsible For Amazon's 77% Loss in Q2-2017 But Still It Will Continue To Invest

Global e-commerce player Amazon has registered a jaw-dropping 77 per cent decrease in its profits to $197 million from $857 million a year ago in the second quarter. According to a Reuters report, this disappointing decline in profits is courtesy the company's growing investments in developing economies like India and in video content. The report also noted that the company could end up losing up to $400 million more in operating profit during the current quarter.

Even though the company's profits dived tragically, the week saw Amazon founder Jeff Bezos displacing Bill Gates as the world's richest man on real-time billionaires index compiled by Forbes, even though the glory was only for a brief period. Within a day, Gates won back the spot fair and square after Amazon shares pared their gains in a reaction to the results. According to analysts, this is a testimonial of investors' undivided confidence in Bezos and his business strategy.

While Amazon might be experiencing a sharp cut in its riches, it is still focused on continuing its investment spree in India. According to Harish HV, Partner, India Leadership Team, Grant Thornton India LLP, Amazon, whose valuation currently stands at a strong $500 billion, is in India for a long haul as it considers the country has a huge potential.

Considering Amazon has less than 1 per cent market share in China's $378 billion e-commerce business, the company has its eyes set on India as it is the only market that is capable of matching China in size. Not only can India match China, the country even has the potential of racing past China as it doesn't have cultural and linguistic biases similar to China.

According to experts, e-commerce in India is still in its nascent stage when compared to the industry in China. Further, the country is currently undergoing a consolidation phase when it comes to e-commerce and Amazon wants to take advantage of this situation and firm its feet further in the country.

If and when the Snapdeal-Flipkart merger goes through, one can expect to have only three big e-commerce players in the country: Flipkart, Amazon and Alibaba via Paytm.

Bezos' has recently decided to spend a whopping amount of $5 billion in India to gain significant share as the e-commerce market surges in the Indian subcontinent. The company is working hard to get a larger share of the $30 billion Indian e-commerce market.

Flipkart, which currently enjoys a customer base of 100 million users plans on increasing the number to 500 million customers in the coming years. The company, which is in its tenth year of operation, is currently hosting a number of activities to celebrate the joyous occasion.

However, unlike Flipkart, Amazon is a veteran in the e-commerce space as it has been operating in the US for 23 years now.

But, it is not just Amazon that is experiencing a cut in its profits. According to Kotak Institutional Equities, the e-commerce sector on the whole is currently reeling Rs 10,670 crore in losses.

Amazon does have an upper hand over Flipkart because of its deep pockets as unlike the latter it doesn't need to run to its investors for their approval every time it wants to push forward and scale up. Though Flipkart is currently the reigning king of the ecommerce market with a 57 per cent share in the market, one can expect Amazon to take over the numero uno position in no time if it keeps at its pace in the country.

10 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [24 - 29 July]

Missed the happening of startup world? Here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 10 news which made headlines this week:

Snapdeal Board Gives Green Signal For FreeCharge Sale To Axis Bank

This week finally saw the sale of FreeCharge, Snapdeal’s digital payments platform to country’s third-largest private sector lender, Axis Bank. The sale marks the end of a two-year long process where numerous buyers came forward to pitch their bid for FreeCharge. According to a media report, the deal could end up valuing FreeCharge somewhere between Rs 385 crore-Rs 390 crores, which would be a steep plunge from the Rs 2,400 crore figure that Jasper Infotech paid in the year 2015 to acquire the company. The report further revealed that an official announcement on the sale could be made anytime now.

If sources to be believed, the Snapdeal board has also given a go ahead to Flipkart’s revised offer for Snapdeal and an official announcement on the same can also be made within the upcoming week.

FIR Filed Against Startup Founder For Misusing Aadhaar

The organisation administering Aadhaar, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has recently filed an official police complaint against the Abhinav Srivastava, co-founder of a mobile payment startup, Qarth Technologies accusing him of misusing Aadhaar data from its website. According to the FIR, Srivastava is accused of giving out e-KYC and misusing data from the Aadhaar’s official website via a mobile application that he had created.

According to a report in the Hindu, the complaint filed with the Bengaluru Police was registered by Ashok Lenin the Deputy Director at the UIDAI Regional Office in Bengaluru. According to the FIR, Srivastava has been booked under Section 29(2) of the Aadhaar act which restricts sharing Aadhaar data with others. In addition to that, he has also been booked under Sections 65 and 66 of the IT act and Sections 468 and 471 for forgery with Section 120(B) for conspiracy.

Google Launches AI Studios For Startups

The Google’s Launchpad has announced a new hands-on studio program that would help AI startups with resources that would help them kickstart their company’s journey to success and scale to new heights. Launchpad with its AI studio aims to solve all the problems for AI Startups and provide them with a level field with other startups to progress and achieve momentum success. It plans to achieve this by making them available with specialized data sets, prototyping assistance and simulation tools. Another major attraction of the Launchpad Studio is that the selected AI startups will get unlimited access to Google’s top notch talent, including IP experts, product specialists and engineers.

Nemo Care Ends Israel’s Search For Women-Led Tech Startups In India

Hyderabad-based Nemo Care, the winner of the fifth edition of the Start TLV Competition along with the five women-led startups will represent India at Start Tel Aviv workshop in Israel this year.
At the Start TLV ‘boost camp’, Pratyusha Pareddy, co-founder, Nemo Care will join local Israeli entrepreneurs and participate in lectures, workshops, and meetings with leading Israeli and international investors and professionals.

Start TLV is a global annual event organised by Israeli MFA and Tel Aviv Municipality. The competition is the platform to support women entrepreneurs in the country to accelerate their startup growth. In order to search India’s upcoming women-led tech startups with a social impact, the Embassy of Israel had joined hands with the Indian government’s Startup India programme, TiE-NCR, YES Bank, YES Global Institute and CNBC-TV18.

Facebook Acquires US Based Startup Source3

Social networking giant Facebook has recently acquired US-based startup Source3 to help the tech giant in its battle against pirated content on its social networking platform. Source3 has built successful licensing platforms powering digital music, user-generated videos and 3D printing. It offers scalable, turnkey solutions for today’s global licensing challenges.

The New York-headquartered startup claims to be the world’s first platform for end-to-end management of intellectual property in user-generated content (UGC). It provides IP recognition, licensing and rights administration services to connect creators, marketplaces and brands and enable monetization of user content across physical and digital products.

Paytm Mall Limits Delivery To 17k Pin Codes; Delists 50% Logistic Partners

Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt Ltd has delisted 50% logistics partners, stopping deliveries to more than 9,000 pin codes out of 26,000 were guaranteed assistance in returns and replacements was not assured. Based on this audit, the company has delisted 6 out of 14 logistic partners and 30 courier aggregation centres, as they were unable to offer a consistently superior consumer experience. The company aims to establish a reliable logistics ecosystem with greater transparency in delivery and replacement timelines while ensuring that exact products are delivered in a good condition.

In another development, Indian e-wallet giant Paytm has recently revealed that it has joined hands with online lottery company AGTech Media, which has the backing of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, to make mobile games in the Indian subcontinent.
According to information available, both the companies have decided to jointly put in about $16 million capital in the new company.

Not IITs, Zoho Is Massively Hiring High School Graduates

Zoho, a Chennai-based software firm founded the Zoho University (ZU) initiative. The University, which took birth 12 years ago in 2005, trains turns software programmers out of high-school graduates and then hires them for roles at salaries on par with engineering graduates. The initiative’s more than a decade old life is the testimonial of its success and popularity among the Indian youth.

In today’s times, when India is finally waking up to the fact of shortage of quality engineering talent in the country, accompanied by the proliferation of automation and advanced technologies, Zoho’s University model is gaining a lot of traction.

Lendingkart Group Appoints Two New Vice Presidents

Lendingkart Group has made two significant appointments to strengthen its leadership team. Utsav Mehrotra, formerly an investment banker with Axis Capital, has joined as Vice President of Capital Markets taking charge of fundraising and marketplace initiatives. Abhishek Arora, who was earlier heading the seller management & growth vertical at e-commerce unicorn in Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region – Souq.com, has come on board as Vice President of Revenue & Operations.

MTV To Air India’s First Reality Show For College Dropouts

Finally, here is the announcement of the reality show by veterans Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman which will help the truants of the country to achieve their startup dreams. The show called Droom.in presents MTV Dropout Pvt. Ltd. will premiere on July 29 at 7 pm on MTV and next day onwards on VOOT. The show has been created by Monozygotic and co-developed by MTV and Monozygotic. The show will help in identifying college ‘dropouts’ with real entrepreneurial potential and transform their lives forever by helping them setup their own startup journey.

The shortlisted talents will be groomed and mentored by some of the biggest names in the industry through a trials-by-fire method where the contestants will have to solve their way out of real-world business problems in a short span of time and prove their hunger for their entrepreneurial dream.

Singapore’s Prestellar Ventures Launches $100 Mn VC Fund

Prestellar Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, launched a $100 million venture capital fund backed by four general partners (‘GPs’) – CG Corp Global (Nepal’s sole Forbes-listed billion-dollar enterprise), Satin Creditcare (the third largest Microfinance Institution in India), Frontline Strategy (a private-equity firm in Mauritius) and N.E. Group (a family conglomerate in Nepal).

The fund seeks to partner with passionate entrepreneurs and disruptive startups across South Asia and ASEAN in the Hospitality, Consumer, Financial Services, Rural Product and Services sectors, typically in ‘Pre-Series A’ deals with a cheque size of approximately $2-3 million. The firm is seeking to raise and deploy country specific sub-funds across the South Asia region-more specifically India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Other Important News

Apart from these startups news, there were other important headlines which grabbed the eyeballs of the readers. Paytm has appointed Kiran Vasireddy as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for its payments business. Going forward, Kiran will be overseeing all product and business functions for the payments division in line with its growth plan for bringing 500 million Indians into the mainstream economy.

On the other hand, Capillary Technologies, the Omni channel customer engagement and commerce platform, has appointed Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as the new COO of the company.

Jugnoo, hyperlocal startup, is all set to create its footprints in the South Korean market. The B2B offering of the company, Tookan has been selected as one of the top three finalists to participate in K-Startup Grand Challenge – a 4 month accelerator programme, organised by the Korean government.  Jugnoo is selected from the 70 Indian Startups that auditioned for the challenge becoming 1 of the top 3 finalists making it a big achievement for the team.

Lastly,  Awfis Space Solutions has launched its first community workplace in Pune at Baner.