With $4.1 Bn, Bengaluru Emerged As Top City In India To Attract Funding in the Startups Category

Earlier this month, a recent report by realty consultancy firm Knight Frank ranked Bengaluru as World's most affordable tech hub [Read Here]. Now, according to a latest data from research firm Tracxn, Bengaluru has emerged as the top city in India to attract funding in the start-ups category.

Bengaluru has toppled Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune in harboring the attention of investors, in the first nine months of 2017, reported Financial Express.

Start-ups in Bengaluru attracted USD 4.1 billion in funding which was constituted more than half the total investment of USD 7.8 billion raised by Indian start-ups in the first three quarters, according to data from research firm Tracxn.

The Delhi-NCR region has been a strong rival to Bengaluru with the rise of companies like Paytm, Snapdeal, MakeMyTrip, Zomato, Ibibo, MobiKwik and others, which are based out of the capital region. In the first nine months of 2016, the Delhi NCR region was the number one region in attracting USD 1.2 billion out of the total USD 3.3 billion of total start-up funding.

Bengaluru, which came second to Delhi-NCR region in 2016, climbed past the same on the heavy infusion of funding into companies such as Flipkart and Ola.

The first nine months of 2017 saw a number of start-ups raise billion-dollar funds, starting with Flipkart, Ola and Paytm.

Others like Swiggy, BigBasket and Byju’s investment-raising stance upped the IT hub’s position.

To recall, according to research firm 2thinknow that specializes in analyzing innovative cities, Bengaluru stands at number 19 among the world’s top high tech cities -- the only Indian city to figure in the list.

In an another report from Tracxn, India’s internet companies attracted investments worth $7.4 billion in 2017's first three quarters alone.

The Indian subcontinent has built an impressive profile for itself in the global tech scene. To recall, New York-based global technology and innovation giant IBM now employs more people in India than in any other country, including its home country the US.

Netmeds Raises $14 Mn in Latest Funding Round From Investment Funds Sistema and Tanncam

Netmeds, India’s leading healthcare e-commerce portal closed its latest round of funding in which it has secured an investment of $14 million. The funding round was led by Tanncam, a Cambodian investment holding company, which was joined by Sistema Asia Fund, the India-centric venture fund, spun off by, Sistema, Russia's largest public investment holding company.

Commenting on the announcement, Pradeep Dadha, CEO, Netmeds said, “We believe that this round of funding reflects a renewed confidence in the industry and its future, brought about by both the GST and the government’s release of the draft of rules governing online pharmacies. This new seal of approval and legitimacy has reignited interest from both investors and consumers. We also believe that the investments, both made by international funds, demonstrate a healthy appetite for global investment in the Indian consumer products market and healthcare, in particular, owing to its massive potential.”

Pradeep Dadha added, “The investment will be used to continue to build upon our consumer base and expand our reach to more locations in the country. Awareness, accessibility and affordability are the key USPs of Netmeds that have made it a favourite among Indian consumers. This is reflected in our growing reach, especially in tier-2 and 3 cities, rural towns and villages which lack the options and choices that metro dwellers enjoy, and our platform brings medicines and healthcare within their reach digitally.

Tanncam Investment is an investment holding company incorporated under the laws of the Kingdom of Cambodia which invests globally in early-stage venture capital start-ups and strategic investment opportunities. Financial services company Cambodian Investment Management acted as Adviser on the transaction for Tanncam and it’s CEO Anthony Galliano commented “Cambodian Investment Management was delighted to conduct the due diligence, valuation, and negotiations for this corporate finance transaction on behalf of Tanncam. Netmeds is changing the paradigm in the pharma market in India and we strongly believe in the merits of the investment”.

The other investor in this round, Sistema Asia Fund Private Ltd., is a venture firm specialising in start-ups, early stage, mid-stage, Series-A, Series-B, and Series-C investments. The fund was created by Russian conglomerate Sistema JSFC with the goal of increasing their engagement with the Indian start-up ecosystem and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

Kirill Kozhevnikov, Managing Director, Sistema Asia Fund said, “We work with many start-ups and young entrepreneurs, but Netmeds is unique among them because it is led by such a strong and seasoned leadership. We have been very impressed by the way Netmeds has been altering the scenario of healthcare accessibility in India and are delighted to be able to contribute towards its larger mission in the country.”

Tanncamm and Sistema will join early investors Investment Bank MAPE and OrbiMed Asia, along with Pradeep Dadha and his family as equity stakeholders in Netmeds.

Finally, A Professional Course For Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning In India

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are two hot technologies that's making its presence and importance felt across the globe. Now, finally an Indian institute -- International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) has launched a professional course on ‘Foundations for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning'.

“Every corporate, every company is investing very heavily into artificial intelligence and machine learning. You would have heard about the efforts by the big corporates. But, beyond that, every company, whether you are working in banking, whether you are working in manufacturing, whether you are working in services, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can do a lot for you, can make your work far more efficient,” said P J Narayanan, III-H director to Indian Express.

“It has been repeatedly said in the last year that AI/ML is the next industrial revolution. We believe this programme is a bridge that will help today’s technology professionals successfully cross over to the new era of automation and intelligent systems,” said Santanu Paul, co-founder and CEO of TalentSprint, which is the associated partner for the course.

IIIT-H will conduct two-day classes for four months for senior professionals in the industry with an aim to scale up efforts in light of the demand. The course has a hands-on teaching approach that would aid engineers to build “deep ML programming capabilities in their companies”.

IIIT-Hyderabad's Machine Learning Laboratory in partnership with TalentSprint will offer the four-month programme on foundations of AI and ML from January 2018 to address rising demand.

The programme fee will be between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. The institute expects 1,000 students for the specialised course in the first year.

American research and advisory firm Gartner Inc has forecast the creation of 2.3 million jobs in AI, ML, and Deep Learning (DL) within three years [Read Here].

Moreover, according to recent findings by KellyOCG India, a talent management solutions provider, the demand for AI and machine learning specialists in India is going to see an overwhelming increase -- around 60% by next year [Read Here].

Haryana Govt To Set Up 2 Entrepreneur Centres To Promote Startups

Just a couple of months after launching startup policy, Haryana government has announced setting up of two entrepreneur centres in the state aims at facilitating growth by promoting entrepreneurship among the youth of the region.

Vipul Goel, MLA in the Haryana government informed about the latest development through his official twitter handle.

To provide infrastructure support to start-ups, 2 Entrepreneur Centre will be developed in Haryana. pic.twitter.com/1QULqMPrqg

— Vipul Goel (@VipulGoelBJP) October 18, 2017

The Minister informed that the government is taking this initiative with the larger motive of promoting startup ecosystem in the region.

As a part of the initiative, one entrepreneur centre would be developed in Gurugram, spread over a land measuring 2 acres. The other centre is to be established in the Panchkula region spread over a land measuring 6.5 acres. The Minister further informed that these centres are being set up with an infrastructure that is well connected with other institutions including academia, corporate, research institutions as well as government sectors.

Earlier last month, the state govt had also announced setting up of first Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) in Gurugram under Haryana's new state startup policy.

India Is 2nd Largest Market Globaly For Investments In Fitness Tech Startups

From the year 2010 to now, the Indian technology startups landscape has seen a phenomenal growth towards creation of innovative startups. It now houses 4,750 tech startups — the highest number in the world after the United States and Britain [Read More]. Now according to a new study by CB Insights, India is the second largest market globally for investments in fitness tech startups, bagging $63 million.

US-based companies have received the highest funding with about 64% ($1.5 billion) of total global deal share $2.4 billion since 2013 from VCs.

After the US (64%), came in India with 7% deals, Canada with 5%, UK and China with 3% each, and Germany with 2%. Large deals above $1 million in India, include CureFit ($46 million), HealthifyMe ($7 million), HUG Innovations ($5 million), Boltt Sports Technologies ($1million), Fitternity ($1million), MobieFit Technologies ($1 million), Fitpass ($2 million). The largest fitness tech deal outside the US went to Munich-based fitness startup eGym, which produces cloud-connected gym equ ipment, in a $45 million series C round in the first quarter of 2016. The round saw participation from Bayern Kapital, High-Tech Grunderfonds, Highland Europe, and HPE Growth Capital.

The most well-funded fitness tech company outside of the US is also eGym, which has raised $60 million total in disclosed funding across two rounds a $15 million series A in the third quarter of 2014 and $45 million series C last year.

"Notable deals include Bengaluru-based CureFit's recent $25 million series B funding in the third quarter of 2017 and Malaysia-based fitness subscription startup KFit's $12 million Series A round in the first quarter of 2016," it added.

Founded by former Myntra and Flipkart executives -- Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori, CureFit is one of the better known startups in the industry and has signed on actor Hrithik Roshan in a Rs100-crore endorsement deal. The startup has both online and offline channels for healthcare.

To recall, CB Insights -- in a separate report also revealed that India is home to the second highest number of unicorn startups in the world, outside of the US [Read More Here].

Mumbai-based Ready-to-cook Brand Fingerlix Raises Rs 45-crore In Funding

Mumbai-based Fingerlix, a ready-to-cook (RTC) food brand targeted at homemakers, has raised a whopping Rs. 45 crore in funding from Accel Partners. The round also saw the participation of existing investor Zephyr Peacock.

The startup aims to use the money raised to aid its geographical expansion to other cities beyond NCR, Pune and Mumbai where it is currently operational. It is currently looking to expand its footprints to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai and increase its overall presence in the NCR region.

In total, Fingerlix has raised Rs. 63 crore so far. The 45 crore funding round, which was the largest ever, was the startup’s third round of funding.

"We have one kitchen in Mumbai, which covers the supply for Mumbai and Pune, another is coming up in Delhi and we will also have one in the south. Our sense is that the three facilities will cover the volume for all our cities going forward," said Shree Bharambe, CEO of Fingerlix in a statement to Economic Times (ET). Bharambe added this is a part of the startup’s strategy to expand to the top 10 Indian cities and then expand to international markets over the long term.

Accel Partners, which has over the year acquired a reputation for investing in consumer internet companies including Flipkart, BookMyShow, BlueStone among others, has been eyeing players in the consumer goods and FMCG space for quite sometime now.

"We have been looking at this category (of food) for sometime but for a slightly differentiated play. There are intellectual properties being built at Fingerlix that enable delivery of ready-to-cook foods with longer shelf lives even while maintaining quality and taste. The underlined product market fit is quite disruptive here as far as we are concerned," Prashanth Prakash, partner at Accel India said in a statement to ET.

A food startup, Fingerlix provides fresh ‘almost-ready’ food solutions like Batters, Mixes, Curries, Dals, Parathas and ‘fully-ready’ accompaniments to go with them. Their mission is to spread the joy of making great food at home - no matter who you are, where you’re from or what you do.

17-Year Old Delhi Boy’s Healthcare Startup OHM Healthcare Receives Pre-Series A Funding

Delhi-based 17 year old Vedaant Aggarwal’s healthcare startup, OHM Healthcare, announces that it has raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from a Healthcare organization. This is a part of the startup’s fund raising plan to expand its services and increase the team size. Established in early 2017, OHM Healthcare (Mitr Services) is an innovative healthcare solutions provider that uses a high-tech, high-touch approach to revolutionize home healthcare services.

In 2014, Vedaant began volunteering with the NGO, Earth Saviours Foundation, which cares for hundreds of senior citizens who have been abandoned by their families. There, he experienced first-hand how dedicated, personalized care can have a profound effect on patients. During the summer of 2016, he interned with the medtech company SNG Healthcare, where he observed how technology was revolutionizing the healthcare field by streamlining certain processes, and freeing up doctors and caretakers to devote more time to their patients.

Inspired by these two experiences, as well as the personal experience of seeing his family struggle to find reliable, high-quality in-home care for his grandfather who lived in Chandigarh, Vedaant formulated the idea for OHM Healthcare in early 2017. He continued to refine this idea into a formal business plan, and with this plan led his team to secure 3rd place in the prestigious The Indus Entrepreneurs- The Young Entrepreneurs Business Pitch competition in May 2017. Vedaant is currently building the app interface for OHM.

“We are happy to receive Pre- series A funding for our startup. This would definitely help us in further strengthening our capabilities and team-size. We are not just facilitators; we are enablers, and our clients are our utmost priority. We specialize in preventive healthcare, as well as swift response to emergency situations. We are also tech-enabled, allowing us to provide especially for elderly & lonely people who do not have in-house support. Our cloud-based platform also allows all stakeholders to access medical reports and records anytime, anywhere globally” says Vedaant Aggarwal, Co-Founder and COO, OHM Healthcare.

The startup is offering healthcare solutions like proactive healthcare for family, especially elderly & family of people working away; routine and emergency medical care services from trusted, highly-trained professionals; high tech & hi-touch approach; routine health checks; high-tech tracking of all health records and vitals; diligent and transparent record-keeping of all health checks, medical history, as a ready reckoner; 24×7 medical emergency services; and importantly, an emotional connect with family, especially lonely elders through its dedicated Health Mitrs and its one-of-a-kind social network.

Vedaant is at present studying in Modern School, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi and going to appear CBSE Grade 12 in Commerce Stream in 2018.

About OHM Healthcare:

OHM Healthcare specializes in preventive healthcare, as well as swift response to emergency situations. Its mission is to be the most trusted and passionate companion to elderly people & women living away from their core families, by providing holistic and sustainable healthcare support, which harnesses a high-tech & high-touch approach. They aim to revolutionise the home healthcare ecosystem and become an extended family to our clients.

Women Biotech Incubator Launched in Chennai

In a bid to encourage more women into taking the tech entrepreneurship route, Dr. Harshvardhan, Union Minister of Science and Technology recently inaugurated Women Bio-tech Incubator at Golden Jubilee Biotech Park for Women Society during the recently concluded International Science Congress, 2017 in Chennai.

The inauguration took place during the Women Scientists Conclave organised on the theme “Women Scientist and Entrepreneurs – Game Changers Driving Science for New India.” It was held as a part of India IISF.

Taking the podium at the conclave, Dr. Harshvardhan said, “In the field of Science and Technology and Entrepreneurship, Indian women have had a major presence over the last 100 years. The DST and DBT have special schemes to attract women scientists and to provide employment opportunities to the unemployed women scientists. Women Entrepreneurship is a very important activity that has been growing rapidly in last few years. “Start up India”and “Stand up India” announced by Hon’ble Prime Minister are initiatives which offer tremendous opportunities to the women entrepreneurs.”

Talking about the talented women at the incubator, he added, “The women scientists would contribute significantly to the growth of the country and fulfill the dream of Hon’ble Prime Minister of “Making a New India”. Women scientists and Entrepreneurs definitely are the Game Changers Driving Science for “Making a New India”

Despite being the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, the sorry state of gender equality in the Indian startup ecosystem reflects the ages old discrimination and backwardness that the South Asian country has been fighting since time immemorial now. The second report of “Startup India- Momentous rise of the Indian Startup ecosystem” presented by Nasscom along with Zinnov revealed that only 9 per cent of Indian founders or co-founders are women. In fact, the year saw 'Women Business Ownership' index by Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs ranking the Indian subcontinent among the lowest in the 54 economies it evaluated globally.

India, which has the second largest population in world out of which 48.17 per cent are women, scored a lowly 41.7 points on the index, which made it occupy the 49th rank among the 54 global economies that the index took into account.

The index explained India's poor performance by stating that the country presents much lesser opportunities to women to participate in the workforce, engage in entrepreneurial activities or even assume leadership roles in general.

This development was first reported in BioSpectrumIndia.

Snapdeal's CFO Anup Vikal Resigns

It seems, there’s no end to the road of troubles for Indian ecommerce firm Snapdeal. After going through a period of tiresome acquisition discussions with Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart, which eventually fell through, the firm has now seen a high profile exit.

Anup Vikal, the chief financial officer (CFO) and general counsel of Jasper Infotech, the parent company of Snapdeal, has put in his in papers and decided to leave the organisation for greener pastures after completing two years of employment with the firm.

Vikal's resignation comes at a time when several senior Snapdeal executives have either, already hung up their boots, or are currently serving their notice period. The high profile list includes names such as Viraj Chatterjee, VP of engineering; Srinivas Murthy, VP of marketing; Gaurav Gupta, head of IT and Pradeep Desai, vice-president of product, among several others.

"Anup has done sterling work at Snapdeal, building high levels of governance and helping structure various transactions of importance for the company. He has led the finance function with distinction, contributing immensely in furthering the profitability initiatives of Snapdeal, which the deep bench of Snapdeal' finance team will continue. I wish him the very best for his professional pursuits," Kunal Bahl, chief executive of Snapdeal, said in a statement to Economic Times.

Vikal had joined Snapdeal in October 2015 from Aircel, where he was also given the responsibility of heading the telecom operator's finance operations. He is now reportedly planning to join Essar Oil, which was acquired Russian energy behemoth Rosneft, global commodity trading and logistics giant Trafigura and United Capital Partners in 2016 for a gigantic amount of $12.9 billion.

Immediately after the Rs 385 crore Freecharge-Axks Bank deal 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 was considered testimonial of the fact that Bahl still had confidence in Snapdeal.

The Snapdeal-Flipkart merger deal was 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. However, after inflow of cash from FreeCharge sale, Snapdeal decided to give independent run another chance.

This development was first reported in Economic Times.

(Image: The Indian Wire)

Snapdeal's CFO Anup Vikal Resigns

It seems, there’s no end to the road of troubles for Indian ecommerce firm Snapdeal. After going through a period of tiresome acquisition discussions with Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart, which eventually fell through, the firm has now seen a high profile exit.

Anup Vikal, the chief financial officer (CFO) and general counsel of Jasper Infotech, the parent company of Snapdeal, has put in his in papers and decided to leave the organisation for greener pastures after completing two years of employment with the firm.

Vikal's resignation comes at a time when several senior Snapdeal executives have either, already hung up their boots, or are currently serving their notice period. The high profile list includes names such as Viraj Chatterjee, VP of engineering; Srinivas Murthy, VP of marketing; Gaurav Gupta, head of IT and Pradeep Desai, vice-president of product, among several others.

"Anup has done sterling work at Snapdeal, building high levels of governance and helping structure various transactions of importance for the company. He has led the finance function with distinction, contributing immensely in furthering the profitability initiatives of Snapdeal, which the deep bench of Snapdeal' finance team will continue. I wish him the very best for his professional pursuits," Kunal Bahl, chief executive of Snapdeal, said in a statement to Economic Times.

Vikal had joined Snapdeal in October 2015 from Aircel, where he was also given the responsibility of heading the telecom operator's finance operations. He is now reportedly planning to join Essar Oil, which was acquired Russian energy behemoth Rosneft, global commodity trading and logistics giant Trafigura and United Capital Partners in 2016 for a gigantic amount of $12.9 billion.

Immediately after the Rs 385 crore Freecharge-Axks Bank deal 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 was considered testimonial of the fact that Bahl still had confidence in Snapdeal.

The Snapdeal-Flipkart merger deal was 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. However, after inflow of cash from FreeCharge sale, Snapdeal decided to give independent run another chance.

This development was first reported in Economic Times.

(Image: The Indian Wire)

Microlending Startup KrazyBee Raises $8 mn In Series A

Bengaluru-based online instalment store for young adults, KrazyBee, has raised a whopping $8 million (around Rs 51.7 crore) in its Series A funding round, according to a media report.

The firm, which is operated by Bengaluru-based Finovation Tech Solutions Pvt. Ltd, saw its latest funding round being led by Shunwei Capital and popular Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Technologies. The round, which was a mix of equity and debt, also witnessed the participation of RK Group and E-city Ventures, which is part of Essel Group.

Founded in 2015 by Wan Hong and Madhusudan E, KrazyBee has till date raised a total funding of $13 million. Last year, the firm raised a $2 million seed funding round from Chinese micro-lending platform for young adults, Fenqile, and venture capital firm, YeahMobi. It then raised a pre-Series A funding round of $3 million VC firm Plum Ventures and its existing investors.

Currently operating in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Mysore, Vellore, Mumbai, Chennai, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Nashik and Manipal, the startup plans to use the capital raised to expand further to other cities, strengthen its risk model and algorithm, cater to new market segments and focus on product diversification.

Commenting on his company’s latest investment, Shirley Mao, investment director at Xiaomi Technologies, said, “The Indian demography has a large population of urban young adults that spends a lot online and offline. For such an enormous ecosystem, the need for urgent personal finance for purchase requirements is underserved. A focus on tech-based credit evaluation and compliant sourcing of funds can help capture and penetrate this market.”

KrazyBee’s mission is to be the convenient connecting bridge between the college-going youth of this country, and their wonderful dreams and aspirations. Its prime focus is to be the source of hassle-free financing for college students to pursue their passion, who are certainly creditworthy but don’t have any convenient options in the market to support them currently.

KrazyBee offers flexible installment-based purchases to young professionals and college students with no credit history or credit cards. It allows e-commerce purchase, cash credit, two-wheeler credit, college semester/tuition fee credit, among others.

(Image: YourStory)

Amazon Infuses Rs 1,620 crore In Its India-based Seller Operations Arm

According to recent filings received with the Registrar of Companies, American global giant Amazon has decided to infuse $250.3 million (Rs 1,620 crore) in its India-based seller operations Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd.

The filings revealed that the ecommerce biggie was able to raise the capital from its Mauritius-based group entity Amazon.com.incs Limited and Singapore-based group entity Amazon Corporate Holdings. The filing also highlighted that the investment was raised on September 15 this year by allocating 162 crore equity shares with the face value of Rs 10 apiece.

The latest investment infusion came just three months after Amazon India’s seller services raised $260 million (Rs 1,680 crore) in July, 2017.

The funding has come in Amazon’s way when it is in the midst of carrying out the third leg of its festive season sales.

In June, it was revealed that the US e-commerce biggie Amazon now has more sellers on its Indian e-commerce site than the country’s homegrown e-commerce giant, Flipkart. According to latest figures released by Amazon, it has doubled the number of merchants on its e-commerce platform from one lakh to two lakhs in less than a years period.

The global e-commerce major took a total of four years to reach the two lakhs merchants milestone in India.

In the past four years that Amazon has been India, it has made it quite clear that the Indian subcontinent is its most important market outside the US. This is mainly due to the fact that it lost out on a chance to make a mark in China courtesy its homegrown e-commerce giant Alibaba driving it out of its country. This is why the online retail giant turned to Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing e-commerce market, India.

If one would think rationally, one would observe that even though Flipkart is currently number one in Indian e-commerce market, it is Amazon which has a broader ecosystem in the country when it comes to the various ways people interact with it. For instance, Flipkart has nothing to offer to compete with Amazon’s Prime Video service. This is not to say that Flipkart has never tried. The homegrown giant did launch a music download service with its digital store Flyte a few years ago but ended up shutting it down within a year of its operations.

Amazon, which now boosts of having more sellers on its Indian e-commerce site than the country’s homegrown e-commerce giant, had recently announced that it would continue its investment streak in the Indian subcontinent in expanding infrastructure and bringing in innovative solutions to better consumer and seller experience as it aims to overthrow Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart from its throne and become the number one e-commerce website in the South Asian country. The giant has committed a whopping US $5 billion in investments in the Indian subcontinent.

This development was first reported in VCCircle.

Amazon Infuses Rs 1,620 crore In Its India-based Seller Operations Arm

According to recent filings received with the Registrar of Companies, American global giant Amazon has decided to infuse $250.3 million (Rs 1,620 crore) in its India-based seller operations Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd.

The filings revealed that the ecommerce biggie was able to raise the capital from its Mauritius-based group entity Amazon.com.incs Limited and Singapore-based group entity Amazon Corporate Holdings. The filing also highlighted that the investment was raised on September 15 this year by allocating 162 crore equity shares with the face value of Rs 10 apiece.

The latest investment infusion came just three months after Amazon India’s seller services raised $260 million (Rs 1,680 crore) in July, 2017.

The funding has come in Amazon’s way when it is in the midst of carrying out the third leg of its festive season sales.

In June, it was revealed that the US e-commerce biggie Amazon now has more sellers on its Indian e-commerce site than the country’s homegrown e-commerce giant, Flipkart. According to latest figures released by Amazon, it has doubled the number of merchants on its e-commerce platform from one lakh to two lakhs in less than a years period.

The global e-commerce major took a total of four years to reach the two lakhs merchants milestone in India.

In the past four years that Amazon has been India, it has made it quite clear that the Indian subcontinent is its most important market outside the US. This is mainly due to the fact that it lost out on a chance to make a mark in China courtesy its homegrown e-commerce giant Alibaba driving it out of its country. This is why the online retail giant turned to Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing e-commerce market, India.

If one would think rationally, one would observe that even though Flipkart is currently number one in Indian e-commerce market, it is Amazon which has a broader ecosystem in the country when it comes to the various ways people interact with it. For instance, Flipkart has nothing to offer to compete with Amazon’s Prime Video service. This is not to say that Flipkart has never tried. The homegrown giant did launch a music download service with its digital store Flyte a few years ago but ended up shutting it down within a year of its operations.

Amazon, which now boosts of having more sellers on its Indian e-commerce site than the country’s homegrown e-commerce giant, had recently announced that it would continue its investment streak in the Indian subcontinent in expanding infrastructure and bringing in innovative solutions to better consumer and seller experience as it aims to overthrow Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart from its throne and become the number one e-commerce website in the South Asian country. The giant has committed a whopping US $5 billion in investments in the Indian subcontinent.

This development was first reported in VCCircle.

IAMAI, Napino Ties Up To Launch India’s First IoT Based Startup Incubator "iot.IN"

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) today launched a landmark initiative to bring together startup entrepreneurs so that they can realise their true potential and evolve Internet of Things (IoT)-based ecosystem in the country.

Iot.IN is one-of-its-kind initiative and will invite nominations from IoT startups based in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore and Mumbai. It will provide mentorship, investment and partnership opportunities to the select startups. The focus of this initiative is to encourage young aspiring entrepreneurs to create innovative and disruptive solutions around the IoT, which will eventually align the government’s Smart India initiative with the vision of Digital India.

IAMAI has teamed up with Mobile10X and Napino Auto & Electronics Limited for the venture. In the past two years, Napino has invested Rs 30 crore in technology companies at different stages of business cycles. In the next two years, it will invest Rs 60 crore and focus on next-generation tech companies in IoT, Blockchain, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.

Talking about the initiative, Mr. Jitender Minhas, Chief Executive Officer of IAMAI Startup Foundation’s Mobile 10X programme, said: “The Mobile10X programme has been striving relentlessly to provide a robust support system for app developers and young startups. I believe this joint effort will be a perfect complement and give a fillip to nurture dynamic startups. With many more such initiatives, we will see great products emerging from such programmes.”

Mr. Vaibhav Raheja, Director of Napino Auto & Electronics Limited, said: “We want to be at the forefront of innovation and have been continuously supporting entrepreneurs by providing business expertise, engineering and manufacturing support and industry connects. Napino is pleased to collaborate with Mobile10X to mentor entrepreneurs and be part of their success through this incubation programme.”

Mr. Raheja said despite a high rating on innovation and entrepreneurship, India attracts a meager share of VC funding in the world because of gaps in skills, scaling and business development models that entrepreneurs follow. The amount to be invested, for developing entrepreneurship businesses was estimated at Rs. 30 crore in 2016. “We plan to pump in double the amount in 2017 to upscale the ecosystem for IoT-based startup ecosystem in India.”

As a part of the programme, startups will be provided technical, marketing and leadership skills along with financial support to build applications and businesses. They will also network with industry leaders, thought leaders, VCs, ecosystem evangelists and funders.

Start-ups who wish to be part of this programme, can register online by clicking https://goo.gl/forms/An9F9L6TUdyE3AaW2

Speed-dating App NearGroup Raises $1.6 million In Seed Funding; Plans To Expand Its User Base In India

Speed-dating app NearGroup, which has millions of users in Philippines, India and Vietnam, has raised a whopping $1.6 million in a seed funding round led by Helsinki-headquartered venture capital firm Open Ocean, backer of startups such as Truecaller and EyeEm. The round also saw participation from other firms including Neotribe and BoostVC.

Starting its journey as a bot-based neighbourhood connect service that worked on FB Messenger, the firm changed its focus to being an online speed dating service in February this year.

Speaking to Economic Times at that time, Prashant Pitti, founder of Neargroup, discussed the reason for the big shift and revealed when he witnessed that the chat-based dating feature was becoming hugely popular, he decided to make the big move.

After witnessing a good traction in users from the US, Philippines and Vietnam, NearGroup now plans to focus its significant attention on building its reputation in the Indian market. The firm, which currently has about 34 lakh users, claims that it is seeing about 5 to 6 lakh new users coming on the platform every month.

In order to gain a major portion of the Indian dating market, the firm has launched a new feature.

"There is a social stigma which comes upon using a dating app and women do not wish to have an open dating profile which both their friends and relatives can see, so when a guy makes his profile on NearGroup messenger, his interests and thoughts can be viewed by women for them to send a chat request to, but the woman's profile details can't be viewed by guys, it is sort of a swayamvar for women," Prashant Pitti, CEO of NearGroup told ET.

In addition to this new feature, Neargroup has also got an India-specific marketing team onboard. It plans on increasing the team size as its Indian user base grows. The firm claims that it has already tested out this India specific feature among 15,000 users and have witnessed an increase in usage.

Flipkart In Talks To Buy Minority Stake In BookMyShow

Two Indian startup giants are gearing to join forces in order to give third one a fierce fight. The two startups in question are India’s ecommerce giant, Flipkart and country’s famous movies and events ticketing platform, BookMyShow.

According to a media report, Flipkart is currently contemplating forging a strategic partnership by picking up a minority stake in BookMyShow, the name which over the years has become synonymous with entertainment in India. The report claims that with this investment, the company, which is considered as one of the most successful startups to ever come out of India, aims to build out its services and transaction offering against Paytm, a mobile wallet and ecommerce company.

Quoting two people aware of the development, the report claims that the talks, which are still in the preliminary stage might witness the numero uno Indian ecommerce company picking up a significant minority stake in BookMyShow.

Industry experts believe that building a strategic partnership with market leader BookMyShow will end up giving the Bengaluru-based ecommerce giant, which is currently also working on building out its own payments platform called PhonePe, a major stake in India’s ticketing market and a more frequent use case for its services to its over 100 million customers.

A Flipkart group company, PhonePe is a Fin-Tech company headquartered in Bangalore founded in December 2015, that provides online payment system based on UPI, which is a process in electronic funds transfer launched by National Payments Corporation of India.

If the Flipkart and BookMyShow deal goes through, it will be the latest amongst the country’s top three ecommerce firms moves to branch out and build integrated service verticals beyond their central offering of an ecommerce marketplace.

Paytm’s recent purchase of deals and discovery platforms Little and Nearbuy hints a journey in a similar direction. The company is reportedly also in talks to buy travel platform Via.com.

On the other hand, through Local Finds, Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Now, global ecommerce giant Amazon has been slowly but steadily building out its hyperlocal and services offerings to its customers all around the globe, including India.

If one looks carefully, one would notice that Indian ecommerce firms are aping the service vertical model that China’s ecommerce biggie Alibaba has been following for quite sometime now. The Chinese ecommerce player and its payments arm Ant Financial have invested capital in Chinese online to offline platform for services Meituan-Dianping

Flipkart has acquired a unique status in the $30 billion Indian e-commerce market. The company, which is currently in its tenth year of operation and enjoys a customer base of 100 million users has built the reputation of being an Indian e-commerce major by being customer centric and providing them with stupendous discounts and offers year after year.

In August, Flipkart raised the second portion of its Series J funding from SoftBank Group. The $2.5B investment by the Japanese telecom and internet giant was a part of its $93 billion Vision Tech Fund, which is considered as the world's biggest private equity fund.

BookMyShow is also doing quite good for itself and is focusing its attention on building original content offering on both its video and audio platform. The firm recently unveiled an audio entertainment platform called JukeBox. In a bid to reach to The company has decided to tier 2 and 3 towns of the country, the firm has decided to focus on local language content for both its video and audio platforms. This particular move can end up proving vastly beneficial for Flipkart given its repeated attempts and sayings wanting to serve deeper in the smaller towns of the country.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [09-14 October]

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

1) Bengaluru-based Home Décor And Furnishing Start-up Mygubbi.com Raises $2.7 Million Funding

Bengaluru-based home décor and furnishing start-up Mygubbi.com, which went live in October 2015, has raised $2.7 million in its pre-series A funding round.

The round was led by the family office of Firoze Irani; Vipul Parekh, cofounder of Big Basket; Ananda Kallugadde, cofounder of NeoBytes; and Rajesh K Murthy, president of Infosys, among others.

Talking to Economic times, Sangurmath revealed that the startup plans to use the funds primarily to grow their business.”We would look at going deeper into existing markets, as well as strengthen our backend. We are also setting up a design centre of excellence in Bengaluru, which is where these funds would be deployed,” Sangurmath said.

2) After Raising $1.1 Bn, Ola To Raise $1 Billion More

India’s homegrown ride-hailing giant Ola today officially confirmed that it has raised a whopping $1.1 billion funding in a round led by Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent. Reportedly, the talks for the same have been in the works for over a year now.

According to media reports, the Bengaluru-based startup is also in “advanced talks with other investors to close an additional $1 billion as part of the current financing round.” This will take the the total amount raised by the cab-hailing company to over $2 billion.

In a statement announcing the funding, the company also revealed that its existing investor SoftBank besides “other new US-based financial investors” also participated in this round.

3) Social E-Commerce Startup Meesho Raises $3.1 Mn From Investors Led By SAIF Partners

Bengaluru-based social e-commerce startup Meesho has raised $3.1 million from investors led by SAIF Partners in a fresh round of funding. Existing investors Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds to hire for its tech and business operation teams, CEO Vidit Aatrey said. The company is also looking to scale up its platform by bringing in more resellers though community engagement and referrals.

This funding has made startup’s total funding to $3.7 million. In May 2016 Meesho had raised $350,000 from angel investorsincluding in convertible debt.

4) VR/AR Startup GridRaster Raises $2 Million Seed Funding

Palo Alto and Bengaluru-based virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) firm GridRaster has a raised a whopping $2 million in seed funding.

The funds were raised from a group of venture capital firms, which included Exfinity Ventures, Lumia Capital, Pipeline Capital, NexStar Partners, Unshackled Ventures and Explorer Group.

The capital raised will be used by the firm for product development and marketing.

“With new capital, we will work towards maturing the product for specific enterprise and customer use cases as we continue to establish GridRaster as a standard platform of choice for cloud-powered high-end VR/AR. We will also look towards strengthening our development team,” said Rishi Ranjan, founder, GridRaster, in a statement.

5) B2B Automobile Service Startup LetsService Raises Its Pre Series A Round

Bengaluru-based B2B automobile service startup LetsService raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Pre Series A round led by Aequs Group. The capital raised will be used by the startup to expand into multiple cities, enhance its technology and strengthen its team. The funding marks the startups baby steps into expanding into the digital space.

6) New Delhi-based ThirdWatch Raises Undisclosed Angel funding

The week saw Artificial Intelligence startup ThirdWatch raising an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Indian Angel Network and IAN Fund led by lead investor Rahul Agarwalla. The round also saw participation from Keshav Sanghi, former MD of Goldman Sachs India & founder of VentureWorks India along with Batlivala & Karani Securities.

7) IvyCap Ventures To Raise Rs500 Crore Venture Debt Fund To Invest In Mid-Stage Startups

Mumbai-based venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures is planning to launch a Rs500 crore venture debt fund in the next three months.

The VC firm typically invests in early-to-growth stage companies. It raised its first fund of Rs240 crore in 2012 which is now fully deployed across 10 investments which includes Purplle.com, Clovia and Bluestone, among others. IvyCap is currently in the process of deploying its second fund of Rs600 crore raised in 2015.

IvyCap is also likely to start raising its third venture capital fund by the middle of 2018, said Vikram to Livemint. The firm is currently planning to raise around $300-400 million for the third fund, which will make it the firm’s largest till date.

8) Online Insurance Policy Aggregator PolicyBazaar raising $77 Mn In Equity Funding

PolicyBazaar raised a whopping $77 Mn (INR 500 Cr) in equity funding in a round led by global asset management firm, Wellington Management. The startup plans to use the capital raised in bettering its customer service, technology and towards going for a geographical expansion across the Indian subcontinent.

9) AI And Deep Learning Solutions Provider ParallelDots Raises $1.4 Mn

Gurugram-based AI and deep learning solutions provider ParallelDots raised $1.4 Mn in an additional funding round from U.S. based investment firm Multipoint Capital. The latest round takes Multipoint’s total funding in the startup to a whopping $2 Mn. The money raised will be used by the startup to support its expansion, look after general operational expenses and widen the horizons of its technological team.

10) Online Restaurant Reservation Platform EazyDiner Raises $4.5 Mn

Gurugram-based EazyDiner raised $4.5 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in a Series B funding round, which was reportedly secured at a pre-investment valuation of $38.2 Mn (INR 250 Cr). The round which saw the participation of two new investors, Singapore-based VC firm Beenext and a Middle Eastern family office, was led by EaszyDiner’s existing investors, including Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners.

Top 10 Startup Funding This Week [09-14 October]

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

1) Bengaluru-based Home Décor And Furnishing Start-up Mygubbi.com Raises $2.7 Million Funding

Bengaluru-based home décor and furnishing start-up Mygubbi.com, which went live in October 2015, has raised $2.7 million in its pre-series A funding round.

The round was led by the family office of Firoze Irani; Vipul Parekh, cofounder of Big Basket; Ananda Kallugadde, cofounder of NeoBytes; and Rajesh K Murthy, president of Infosys, among others.

Talking to Economic times, Sangurmath revealed that the startup plans to use the funds primarily to grow their business.”We would look at going deeper into existing markets, as well as strengthen our backend. We are also setting up a design centre of excellence in Bengaluru, which is where these funds would be deployed,” Sangurmath said.

2) After Raising $1.1 Bn, Ola To Raise $1 Billion More

India’s homegrown ride-hailing giant Ola today officially confirmed that it has raised a whopping $1.1 billion funding in a round led by Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent. Reportedly, the talks for the same have been in the works for over a year now.

According to media reports, the Bengaluru-based startup is also in “advanced talks with other investors to close an additional $1 billion as part of the current financing round.” This will take the the total amount raised by the cab-hailing company to over $2 billion.

In a statement announcing the funding, the company also revealed that its existing investor SoftBank besides “other new US-based financial investors” also participated in this round.

3) Social E-Commerce Startup Meesho Raises $3.1 Mn From Investors Led By SAIF Partners

Bengaluru-based social e-commerce startup Meesho has raised $3.1 million from investors led by SAIF Partners in a fresh round of funding. Existing investors Y Combinator and Venture Highway also participated in the round.

The startup will use the freshly raised funds to hire for its tech and business operation teams, CEO Vidit Aatrey said. The company is also looking to scale up its platform by bringing in more resellers though community engagement and referrals.

This funding has made startup’s total funding to $3.7 million. In May 2016 Meesho had raised $350,000 from angel investorsincluding in convertible debt.

4) VR/AR Startup GridRaster Raises $2 Million Seed Funding

Palo Alto and Bengaluru-based virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) firm GridRaster has a raised a whopping $2 million in seed funding.

The funds were raised from a group of venture capital firms, which included Exfinity Ventures, Lumia Capital, Pipeline Capital, NexStar Partners, Unshackled Ventures and Explorer Group.

The capital raised will be used by the firm for product development and marketing.

“With new capital, we will work towards maturing the product for specific enterprise and customer use cases as we continue to establish GridRaster as a standard platform of choice for cloud-powered high-end VR/AR. We will also look towards strengthening our development team,” said Rishi Ranjan, founder, GridRaster, in a statement.

5) B2B Automobile Service Startup LetsService Raises Its Pre Series A Round

Bengaluru-based B2B automobile service startup LetsService raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Pre Series A round led by Aequs Group. The capital raised will be used by the startup to expand into multiple cities, enhance its technology and strengthen its team. The funding marks the startups baby steps into expanding into the digital space.

6) New Delhi-based ThirdWatch Raises Undisclosed Angel funding

The week saw Artificial Intelligence startup ThirdWatch raising an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Indian Angel Network and IAN Fund led by lead investor Rahul Agarwalla. The round also saw participation from Keshav Sanghi, former MD of Goldman Sachs India & founder of VentureWorks India along with Batlivala & Karani Securities.

7) IvyCap Ventures To Raise Rs500 Crore Venture Debt Fund To Invest In Mid-Stage Startups

Mumbai-based venture capital firm IvyCap Ventures is planning to launch a Rs500 crore venture debt fund in the next three months.

The VC firm typically invests in early-to-growth stage companies. It raised its first fund of Rs240 crore in 2012 which is now fully deployed across 10 investments which includes Purplle.com, Clovia and Bluestone, among others. IvyCap is currently in the process of deploying its second fund of Rs600 crore raised in 2015.

IvyCap is also likely to start raising its third venture capital fund by the middle of 2018, said Vikram to Livemint. The firm is currently planning to raise around $300-400 million for the third fund, which will make it the firm’s largest till date.

8) Online Insurance Policy Aggregator PolicyBazaar raising $77 Mn In Equity Funding

PolicyBazaar raised a whopping $77 Mn (INR 500 Cr) in equity funding in a round led by global asset management firm, Wellington Management. The startup plans to use the capital raised in bettering its customer service, technology and towards going for a geographical expansion across the Indian subcontinent.

9) AI And Deep Learning Solutions Provider ParallelDots Raises $1.4 Mn

Gurugram-based AI and deep learning solutions provider ParallelDots raised $1.4 Mn in an additional funding round from U.S. based investment firm Multipoint Capital. The latest round takes Multipoint’s total funding in the startup to a whopping $2 Mn. The money raised will be used by the startup to support its expansion, look after general operational expenses and widen the horizons of its technological team.

10) Online Restaurant Reservation Platform EazyDiner Raises $4.5 Mn

Gurugram-based EazyDiner raised $4.5 Mn (INR 30 Cr) in a Series B funding round, which was reportedly secured at a pre-investment valuation of $38.2 Mn (INR 250 Cr). The round which saw the participation of two new investors, Singapore-based VC firm Beenext and a Middle Eastern family office, was led by EaszyDiner’s existing investors, including Saama Capital and DSG Consumer Partners.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [09-14 October]

If you had a busy week on your hands, which didn't leave you much time to remain updated with the things happening in the world of tech, don't you worry, we have got you covered. IndianWeb2.com brings to you the tech wrap up of this week.

1) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U

While Steve Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.

Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.

The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.

2) Facebook To Sell Virtual Reality Headset

In what could be seen as a real gift of innovation for Virtual Reality lovers from the house of Facebook, the social media networking giant will soon launch a new virtual reality headset that won’t require a separate computer to operate.

Taking the podium at a conference for virtual reality developers in America, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset, which is called Oculus Go, will allow more mobile uses than the company’s existing Oculus Rift product.

Priced at $199, Oculus Go will be shipped early next year, too late for this year’s holiday season but likely to stay ahead of rivals.

3) Chinese E-Commerce Giant Builds The World’s Biggest Delivery Drone

China has once again done it. While others are still simply talking about it, China’s JD.com, also called Jingdong, is soon going to have super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China’s largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global ecommerce giant Amazon.

Being pitched as world’s largest civilian delivery drone, JD.com’s robots are going to be three-engine, autonomous, vertical-takeoff drones that will be capable of carrying a payload of over 1 ton up to 186 miles. Considering it will be delivering retail packages, the weight bracket seems practical.

4) Learn Basic AI With Google’s Latest Tool

While the jury is still out if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a good thing or bad thing for humanity, one thing that we have all wondered is how exactly does the whole thing work? If you’re one of those who has always been curious about understanding the way machine learning works, Google might have something interesting to offer.

Introducing Google’s in-browser experiment called Teachable Machine. Being considered a simple two-minute summary of what a lot of modern AI can or can’t do, Google’s new browser experiment lets one use their webcam to train an extremely basic AI program.

This experiment lets anyone explore how machine learning works, in a fun, hands-on way. One can teach a machine to use their camera, live in the browser– with absolutely no coding required whatsoever. It basically involves training a neural network locally on your device, without sending any images to a server. That’s how it responds so quickly.

5) Mastercard Sets Up Its First Innovation Lab In India; To Work Alongside Local Fintech Industry

American multinational financial services corporation Mastercard unveiled its first innovation lab in Pune, India this week. Mastercard Labs, Pune, is the ninth such lab established by the company globally, and the second one in Asia Pacific after Singapore.

By opening a lab in the country, the leader in global payments is hoping to forge relationships in the country’s local fintech industry on future technology breakthroughs in digital payments, data manipulation, financial inclusion and fraud prevention.

According to Microsoft, the plan for the new Pune lab is to ensure that it not only acts as an incubation hub for experimenting with new payment related technologies but also double up as a support base for startup partnerships through the card scheme’s Start Path programme. The lab will exclusively work on collaborating and co-creating with India-based fintech experts, technologists, developers and academia.

6) Amazon Files Patent For Deploying Delivery Drones in India

Global ecommerce player Amazon is certain on firming its ground in Indian subcontinent as just after months of filing a patent in India for drone technology with respect to propeller safety, the American company has now filed papers for another patent application in India.

This time Amazon has filed patent for exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the unmanned aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances, according to a media report.

As per the patent application, the aerial vehicles would also be capable of identifying aircrafts and other objects flying in the Indian skies.


If the patent comes through, the America ecommerce biggie will be able to use the drones for localisation, tracking and detecting orientation of objects, identifying the target. Another usage could be identifying other drones and UAVs.

7) Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online

Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.

Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.

Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.

8) India No.2 Source Country in IoT Attacks Globally

While there are people excited about the rise of IoT and its devices, there are others who are a little overwhelmed thinking about the havoc that can be created if botnet building attackers end up choosing unregulated IoT devices as their cyber weapon delivery system of choice.

According to the report by the American firm, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 attack source countries of 2017.

Apart from attack vectors originating from the Indian subcontinent, the report also highlighted the presence of Persirai-infected IP cameras across the country.

For the uninitiated, Persirai is a malware which attacks IP cameras with DDoS attacks.

9) Artificial Intelligence To Add 2.3 Mn Jobs By 2020: Gartner

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an intrusive part of our lives. From aviation to writing to shopping, AI has slowly entered various verticals of our lives and made them faster and better. But, at what cost?

According to U.S.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, while AI will add 2.3 million jobs globally to become a positive ‘net job motivator’ by the year 2020, but it will also end up eliminating more jobs than it creates through 2019. However, here’s the silver line. The firm predicts that the number of jobs created due to AI in 2020 will be able to overcome the deficit. The predictions were revealed during Gartner’s top ten predictions for next year.

The firm further highlighted that the net job creation or elimination will vary greatly industry to industry. While some industries might have to go through overall job loss, others might have to face net job loss for only a few years; and some others, such as healthcare and education, might not have to experience net job loss at all.

10) Global IoT Market To Hit $1.29 Trillion By 2020: Report

Digital technology like Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform the way businesses generate and consume data and the worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report.

The report highlighted that the worldwide IoT market spend will grow from USD 625.2 billion in 2015 to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent.

The report further noted that the installed base of IoT end points will grow to more than 30 billion by 2020, from 12.1 billion at 2015-end.

10 Things in Tech You Need To Know Today [09-14 October]

If you had a busy week on your hands, which didn't leave you much time to remain updated with the things happening in the world of tech, don't you worry, we have got you covered. www.indianweb2.com brings to you the tech wrap up of this week.

1) Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U

While Steve Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.

Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.

The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.

2) Facebook To Sell Virtual Reality Headset

In what could be seen as a real gift of innovation for Virtual Reality lovers from the house of Facebook, the social media networking giant will soon launch a new virtual reality headset that won’t require a separate computer to operate.

Taking the podium at a conference for virtual reality developers in America, Facebook’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the new headset, which is called Oculus Go, will allow more mobile uses than the company’s existing Oculus Rift product.

Priced at $199, Oculus Go will be shipped early next year, too late for this year’s holiday season but likely to stay ahead of rivals.

3) Chinese E-Commerce Giant Builds The World’s Biggest Delivery Drone

China has once again done it. While others are still simply talking about it, China’s JD.com, also called Jingdong, is soon going to have super-sized delivery drones at the service of its customers. Considered China’s largest online retailer, JD.com has a national distribution network that matches the coverage of global ecommerce giant Amazon.

Being pitched as world’s largest civilian delivery drone, JD.com’s robots are going to be three-engine, autonomous, vertical-takeoff drones that will be capable of carrying a payload of over 1 ton up to 186 miles. Considering it will be delivering retail packages, the weight bracket seems practical.

4) Learn Basic AI With Google’s Latest Tool

While the jury is still out if Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a good thing or bad thing for humanity, one thing that we have all wondered is how exactly does the whole thing work? If you’re one of those who has always been curious about understanding the way machine learning works, Google might have something interesting to offer.

Introducing Google’s in-browser experiment called Teachable Machine. Being considered a simple two-minute summary of what a lot of modern AI can or can’t do, Google’s new browser experiment lets one use their webcam to train an extremely basic AI program.

This experiment lets anyone explore how machine learning works, in a fun, hands-on way. One can teach a machine to use their camera, live in the browser– with absolutely no coding required whatsoever. It basically involves training a neural network locally on your device, without sending any images to a server. That’s how it responds so quickly.

5) Mastercard Sets Up Its First Innovation Lab In India; To Work Alongside Local Fintech Industry

American multinational financial services corporation Mastercard unveiled its first innovation lab in Pune, India this week. Mastercard Labs, Pune, is the ninth such lab established by the company globally, and the second one in Asia Pacific after Singapore.

By opening a lab in the country, the leader in global payments is hoping to forge relationships in the country’s local fintech industry on future technology breakthroughs in digital payments, data manipulation, financial inclusion and fraud prevention.

According to Microsoft, the plan for the new Pune lab is to ensure that it not only acts as an incubation hub for experimenting with new payment related technologies but also double up as a support base for startup partnerships through the card scheme’s Start Path programme. The lab will exclusively work on collaborating and co-creating with India-based fintech experts, technologists, developers and academia.

6) Amazon Files Patent For Deploying Delivery Drones in India

Global ecommerce player Amazon is certain on firming its ground in Indian subcontinent as just after months of filing a patent in India for drone technology with respect to propeller safety, the American company has now filed papers for another patent application in India.

This time Amazon has filed patent for exclusive rights on multi-scale fiducials, black and white marks on any object for the unmanned aerial vehicles to identify them from different distances, according to a media report.

As per the patent application, the aerial vehicles would also be capable of identifying aircrafts and other objects flying in the Indian skies.


If the patent comes through, the America ecommerce biggie will be able to use the drones for localisation, tracking and detecting orientation of objects, identifying the target. Another usage could be identifying other drones and UAVs.

7) Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online

Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.

Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.

Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.

8) India No.2 Source Country in IoT Attacks Globally

While there are people excited about the rise of IoT and its devices, there are others who are a little overwhelmed thinking about the havoc that can be created if botnet building attackers end up choosing unregulated IoT devices as their cyber weapon delivery system of choice.

According to the report by the American firm, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 attack source countries of 2017.

Apart from attack vectors originating from the Indian subcontinent, the report also highlighted the presence of Persirai-infected IP cameras across the country.

For the uninitiated, Persirai is a malware which attacks IP cameras with DDoS attacks.

9) Artificial Intelligence To Add 2.3 Mn Jobs By 2020: Gartner

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an intrusive part of our lives. From aviation to writing to shopping, AI has slowly entered various verticals of our lives and made them faster and better. But, at what cost?

According to U.S.-based research and advisory firm Gartner, while AI will add 2.3 million jobs globally to become a positive ‘net job motivator’ by the year 2020, but it will also end up eliminating more jobs than it creates through 2019. However, here’s the silver line. The firm predicts that the number of jobs created due to AI in 2020 will be able to overcome the deficit. The predictions were revealed during Gartner’s top ten predictions for next year.

The firm further highlighted that the net job creation or elimination will vary greatly industry to industry. While some industries might have to go through overall job loss, others might have to face net job loss for only a few years; and some others, such as healthcare and education, might not have to experience net job loss at all.

10) Global IoT Market To Hit $1.29 Trillion By 2020: Report

Digital technology like Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to transform the way businesses generate and consume data and the worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report.

The report highlighted that the worldwide IoT market spend will grow from USD 625.2 billion in 2015 to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6 per cent.

The report further noted that the installed base of IoT end points will grow to more than 30 billion by 2020, from 12.1 billion at 2015-end.

60-65% Startups in India Working On Internet of Things: Aeris' President

Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big thing that is expected to completely change the way humans live, just the way internet did a few decades back. Gartner predicts that there will be about 8.4 billion connected devices by the end of this year, a figure which is up by a whopping 31% in 2016. In fact, according to a recent report by F5 Networks, this figure will rise to reach 20.4 billion by 2020.

So, it comes as no surprise that if the technology grows and its users swells in number, so will the jobs in the field. In a recent interview with ETTelecom, Rishi Mohan Bhatnagar, President, Aeris Communications highlighted that IoT is expected to generate huge amount of jobs in India with about 60-65% startups in India currently working on the technology.

He further added, “There’s a different kind of skill-set required which will generate huge amount of jobs. On one side IoT will reduce certain jobs but it will increase so many other jobs which are required for future.”

A while back, India’s telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan also voiced similar opinion and stated that new technologies such as IoT have the latent potential of giving birth to 10–15 million jobs in the country even though currently the IT services sector is finding it hard to open any new job avenues for the Indian workforce.

Speaking at the recently held IoT India Congress 2017, Sundararajan took the podium and said, “In other places including Bengaluru, there have been worries about how IT sector in India will deal with new technologies and new challenges. We think, or rather it is guessed, that India can receive 10–15 Million new jobs made in IoT alone.”

Talking about IoT and Trends, Aeris’ Bhatnagar in his interview shared that IoT trends are currently on the improvement side and the current major investor and user of this technology is the central government. He believes, if the government gets behind the technology, the trends can witness a much faster adoption.

For the uninitiated, Aeris is an IoT solutions provider with a complete technology stack—from an online management portal to an application enablement platform. They expertise with the technology and services needs of IoT / M2M helps improve business dramatically by reducing costs, improving operational efficiency, reducing time-to-market, and enabling new revenue streams.

In his interview, Bhatnagar also talked about the need for IoT policy in the country. He shared that once the IoT technology gets matured, then there will be a need to regulate and see what is not required to be done and what is required to be done. He believes that the government should provide a policy which will help in accelerating the growth of that particular technology.

Industry players wants a policy that can make adoption of IoT much faster. Not only this, they also want the policy makers to work on reducing the licensing fee for M2M kind of services which can act as an encouragement for the industry, and if not, then it might be a hindrance.

Worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report. A key factor driving its adoption is the increasing realisation of the value that IoT brings along improving customer experience.

In addition, most businesses today are either at a starting point in their IoT journey or are at some stage considering an IoT deployment which in turn will lead to significant uptrend in the adoption of IoT.

While IoT is slowly coming out of its cocoon, the one thing that has got everyone worried are the recent cases that have emerged regarding IoT devices security and privacy. For example, last year, Mirai, the malware, had single-handedly caused one of the worst distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyberattacks that the world had experienced in the last few years, and had managed to spread and infect internet-connected devices in over 177 countries all around the world.

According to a report by American firm F5 Networks, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 IoT attacks source countries of 2017.

[Image: IoT India Congress]

60-65% Startups in India Working On Internet of Things: Aeris' President

Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big thing that is expected to completely change the way humans live, just the way internet did a few decades back. Gartner predicts that there will be about 8.4 billion connected devices by the end of this year, a figure which is up by a whopping 31% in 2016. In fact, according to a recent report by F5 Networks, this figure will rise to reach 20.4 billion by 2020.

So, it comes as no surprise that if the technology grows and its users swells in number, so will the jobs in the field. In a recent interview with ETTelecom, Rishi Mohan Bhatnagar, President, Aeris Communications highlighted that IoT is expected to generate huge amount of jobs in India with about 60-65% startups in India currently working on the technology.

He further added, “There’s a different kind of skill-set required which will generate huge amount of jobs. On one side IoT will reduce certain jobs but it will increase so many other jobs which are required for future.”

A while back, India’s telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan also voiced similar opinion and stated that new technologies such as IoT have the latent potential of giving birth to 10–15 million jobs in the country even though currently the IT services sector is finding it hard to open any new job avenues for the Indian workforce.

Speaking at the recently held IoT India Congress 2017, Sundararajan took the podium and said, “In other places including Bengaluru, there have been worries about how IT sector in India will deal with new technologies and new challenges. We think, or rather it is guessed, that India can receive 10–15 Million new jobs made in IoT alone.”

Talking about IoT and Trends, Aeris’ Bhatnagar in his interview shared that IoT trends are currently on the improvement side and the current major investor and user of this technology is the central government. He believes, if the government gets behind the technology, the trends can witness a much faster adoption.

For the uninitiated, Aeris is an IoT solutions provider with a complete technology stack—from an online management portal to an application enablement platform. They expertise with the technology and services needs of IoT / M2M helps improve business dramatically by reducing costs, improving operational efficiency, reducing time-to-market, and enabling new revenue streams.

In his interview, Bhatnagar also talked about the need for IoT policy in the country. He shared that once the IoT technology gets matured, then there will be a need to regulate and see what is not required to be done and what is required to be done. He believes that the government should provide a policy which will help in accelerating the growth of that particular technology.

Industry players wants a policy that can make adoption of IoT much faster. Not only this, they also want the policy makers to work on reducing the licensing fee for M2M kind of services which can act as an encouragement for the industry, and if not, then it might be a hindrance.

Worldwide IoT market spend is expected to grow to USD 1.29 trillion in 2020, says an IDC-Aeris report. A key factor driving its adoption is the increasing realisation of the value that IoT brings along improving customer experience.

In addition, most businesses today are either at a starting point in their IoT journey or are at some stage considering an IoT deployment which in turn will lead to significant uptrend in the adoption of IoT.

While IoT is slowly coming out of its cocoon, the one thing that has got everyone worried are the recent cases that have emerged regarding IoT devices security and privacy. For example, last year, Mirai, the malware, had single-handedly caused one of the worst distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyberattacks that the world had experienced in the last few years, and had managed to spread and infect internet-connected devices in over 177 countries all around the world.

According to a report by American firm F5 Networks, while Spain comes at the top with 25.5 million attacks, the Indian subcontinent occupies the second position globally in the top 20 IoT attacks source countries of 2017.

[Image: IoT India Congress]

India, Sweden Launch Initiative for Startups

Understanding the power of the quote two is better than one, India and Sweden have come together to work for the betterment of their respective startup industries. The two startup focused countries have collaborated to set up a mechanism in place that will work towards fostering greater cooperation among startups from each side and help them make way into each other’s markets.

“A Sweden-India ‘Startup Sambandh’ initiative has been launched by Invest India and Founders Alliance in Sweden for higher cooperation among start-ups,” revealed a government official speaking to BusinessLine.

The official also revealed that the initiative is a small part of a larger MoU signed between the two to promote startups in their respective countries.

Outside of the US and China, India’s ecommerce giant Flipkart at $11.6 billion is the the most valuable startup company. It is followed by Sweden’s $8.5 billion music streaming service Spotify in the second place and $7 billion Indian ecommerce site Snapdeal at the third place.

Startup Sambandh includes an online portal, which comes with a go-to-market guide for Swedish entrepreneurs looking to enter the India market. It will also include information on resources regarding the Indian startup ecosystem and a one-on-one facilitation programme through which dedicated sector experts will assist Swedish startups in their Indian foray.

Taking the podium at a Make in India show organised by India in Stockholm this week, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said, "Sweden is an old and trusted friend who came to invest in India when it was a tough time to do business, now it is the time of business oriented structural reforms and time is ripe for these partnerships."

He further added, “Swedish makers can be the mentors to India’s burgeoning good ideas.”

The minister also shared that, “India is working with all possible institutions in the country to provide the correct ecosystem for start-ups to boom.”

The ministry organised 'Make in India: Sweden 2017' in Stockholm to enhance Indo-Swedish cooperation and explore new areas of partnership. The Indian delegation for the 2-day event was led by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu.

While there, the minister also invited Sweden venture capitalists and angel investors to India to explore the wide opportunity presented by the Indian startup industry, the third largest ecosystem in the world.

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Launches Tech Education Platform Woz U

Apple is a name to reckon with in the tech world today. Their products are testimonial of quality, class, style and performance all packed into one sleek design. While we all know its founder Steve Jobs well enough, do you know there was another Steve who worked hard to get the Apple name where it is now. Yes, we’re talking about Steve Wozniak.

While Jobs went on to become the public face and showman of the company, Wozniak presumed the role of being the geek-behind-the-scenes. After building some of the most popular products for the company, the Silicon Valley legend left Apple on February 9, 1985 as a full-time employee to pursue outside interests. The week saw Wozniak launching his latest initiative, an online learning platform called Woz U.

Based out of Arizona, Woz U will initially start as an online learning platform that will focus on both students and companies that will eventually hire those students. Eventually, Wozniak aims to launch physical locations for learning in more than 30 cities globally. It also plans on introducing an accelerator program in 2019 “to identify and develop elite tech talent”.

The platform’s main aim is to provide you a personalized approach to coding and tech education designed to get you through the curriculum faster so that you can get into the workforce quicker, and start changing the world.

Woz U’s curriculum is mainly centred around computer support specialists and software developers, with well structured courses on mobile applications, data science and cyber security coming in the future.

Understanding the difficulty people face when choosing their curriculum, Woz U will offer its users an app which will help them understand which field of tech they’re best suited for, so that they can make their choice accordingly.

Commenting on his new initiative, Wozniak said, “Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt. People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can’t do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how. My entire life I have worked to build, develop and create a better world through technology and I have always respected education. Now is the time for Woz U, and we are only getting started.”

In addition to being an education platform, Woz U will also function as a platform for tech firms to recruit, train and retain talent through on-site customized programs and subscription-based curricula. It will also have a special platform for K-12 students, which will be especially made available to school districts, that will be offering STEAM programs to identify talent and encourage such individuals them to pursue a career in tech.

Students have 24/7 access to online programs with live access to instructors and mentors, high-quality video-based curriculum, and comprehensive career services. Their online program also offers flexibility for those currently working full-time, traveling or simply in need of a more adaptive approach to learning.

As of now, there’s no information on pricing for the different platforms and courses.

This development was first reported in Techcrunch.

[Image: Venture Beat]

Govt Planning To Sell Petrol, Diesel Online

Now here’s one government decision that all of us might be able to get behind. In its mission to give its Digital India initiative a much needed push, the government is contemplating putting petrol and diesel along with its various products on ecommerce platform.

Yes, this means, very soon you might no longer have to wait in those long, long petrol pump lines and waste your prestigious time. Just like online shopping for your clothes, electronics and grocery, you might soon be able to shop for petrol and diesel online.

Taking the podium at the recently concluded India Mobile Congress, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan revealed that his ministry plans on connecting oil with IT and telecommunications soon by putting all petroleum products on e-commerce platform.

It isn’t the first time that this particular idea was conceived. Media reports suggest that the idea was first shared by Pradhan at a consultative committee meeting of Members of Parliament in Srinagar on April 21st this year.

From statistics point of view, India is currently home to around 60,000 fuel retail outlets. The size of the entire petroleum industry comes out to be around a whopping Rs 6.5 lakh crore. On an average, 40 million consumers come to these retail outlets on a daily basis. If the government is successful in offering petrol and diesel online, it will ease a lot of daily pressure from these offline retail outlets.

But, is it feasible and safe to deliver popular fuels such as petrol and diesel via the internet? Number of industry weighed in on the issue and shared their viewpoints with IANS. While majority of them think that this is a highly feasible project, but all of them did point out their concern for safe handling of the liquids.

According to Deepak Mahurkar, leader, oil and gas at PricewaterhouseCoopers India, “It is technically feasible to offer petrol on e-commerce sites and later get it delivered at doorsteps. But it has to be sealed properly and should be handled in a delicate manner. The need for emergency supplies can be met through this channel. It may become a popular product in rural areas where for miles there are no fuel pumps.”

Not only rural areas, the move is expected to gain major traction in urban areas as well as currently there are few petrol pumps in the heart of many cities and urbanisation is taking place at a jet-speed rate.

Former ONGC Chairman and Managing Director R.S.Sharma, said, “It is a technically feasible project. It can become highly commercially scaleable model. But safety is a major concern.”



"Technically it is possible. But it has to have a proper dispensing norm. It needs to stick to the norms set by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) to meet safety. Given the way retailing space is becoming precious, e-commerce route can be an alternative route," said Anish De, Partner, infrastructure, government and healthcare and Leader, oil and gas, at KPMG in India.

In addition to the safety concerns pertaining to the mobility and delivery of the fuels, industry experts also expressed their concerns about the price at which these fuels will be sold on the ecommerce platforms. There are concerns that a service fee might be levied as fuel will be delivered to doorsteps. On the other hand, there’s also a possibility that big players in the fuel industry might even end up cutting the price, in hunger of grabbing a larger share of the market.

This development was first reported in the Business standard.