Bengaluru Gets First Incubation Centre for Women Entrepreneurs

Chennai-based shared workspace company for women, WSquare, has established first ever incubation center for women entrepreneurs in India's Silicon Valley Bengaluru, to help young women entrepreneurs network, provide mentorship, help them brand and ideate their startups.

The launch of WSquare was announced at sidelines of 'Digital Influencers Conclave for women' held in Bangalore, where about 100 women participated including Smitha Hemmigae, head of marketing of ThoughtWorks India, BigBasket HR head Hari T.N, Head of JobsforHer Foundation Neeraja Ganesh, Urbanladder's Director of customer experience Nandhini Vishwanath, stand-up comedian Rajesh Hinduja and WomensWeb founder Aparna Vedapuri.

Besides WSquare, Hyderabad'd T-Hub had also launched women-exclusive incubator called 'WE Hub' in March this year on Women's Day.

In December last year, Rajasthan state government had also launched startup incubator for women in the state in addition to special fund announced for women-led startups.

In October last year, Women Bio-tech Incubator was launched in Chennai, which is supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and the Centre's department of biotechnology.

About WSquare, it is itself a women-led facilities startup founded, by Vandhana Ramanathan and Jinal Patel in 2017, in order to provides a Working Desk for Women who are looking for an alternative to work from home or to just work independently.

[caption id="attachment_127061" align="aligncenter" width="750"] WSquare Co-working Centre in [/caption]

In March 2017, the duo bootstrapped and launched Wsquare, a women-only co-working space in Chennai that helps entrepreneurs and professionals focus on their work without having to worry too much about office-related or domestic chores.

It is one of a kind shared workspace ecosystem for women entrepreneurs that offers affordable yet professional and women friendly workspace. It also facilitate women consultants, budding architects, lawyers, chartered accountants, fashion designers, musicians and freelancers.

WSquare has its shared workspace center in Chennai and now in Bengaluru. It also plans to launch in Mumbai and Hyderabad soon. The price ranges from Rs. 500 to Rs. 12,000 for daily, monthly and flexi pass based to rental models.

[Top Featured Image - WSquare co-founder | Cedits - thenewsminute.com]

Bengaluru Gets First Incubation Centre for Women Entrepreneurs

Chennai-based shared workspace company for women, WSquare, has established first ever incubation center for women entrepreneurs in India's Silicon Valley Bengaluru, to help young women entrepreneurs network, provide mentorship, help them brand and ideate their startups.

The launch of WSquare was announced at sidelines of 'Digital Influencers Conclave for women' held in Bangalore, where about 100 women participated including Smitha Hemmigae, head of marketing of ThoughtWorks India, BigBasket HR head Hari T.N, Head of JobsforHer Foundation Neeraja Ganesh, Urbanladder's Director of customer experience Nandhini Vishwanath, stand-up comedian Rajesh Hinduja and WomensWeb founder Aparna Vedapuri.

Besides WSquare, Hyderabad'd T-Hub had also launched women-exclusive incubator called 'WE Hub' in March this year on Women's Day.

In December last year, Rajasthan state government had also launched startup incubator for women in the state in addition to special fund announced for women-led startups.

In October last year, Women Bio-tech Incubator was launched in Chennai, which is supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and the Centre's department of biotechnology.

About WSquare, it is itself a women-led facilities startup founded, by Vandhana Ramanathan and Jinal Patel in 2017, in order to provides a Working Desk for Women who are looking for an alternative to work from home or to just work independently.

[caption id="attachment_127061" align="aligncenter" width="750"] WSquare Co-working Centre in [/caption]

In March 2017, the duo bootstrapped and launched Wsquare, a women-only co-working space in Chennai that helps entrepreneurs and professionals focus on their work without having to worry too much about office-related or domestic chores.

It is one of a kind shared workspace ecosystem for women entrepreneurs that offers affordable yet professional and women friendly workspace. It also facilitate women consultants, budding architects, lawyers, chartered accountants, fashion designers, musicians and freelancers.

WSquare has its shared workspace center in Chennai and now in Bengaluru. It also plans to launch in Mumbai and Hyderabad soon. The price ranges from Rs. 500 to Rs. 12,000 for daily, monthly and flexi pass based to rental models.

[Top Featured Image - WSquare co-founder | Cedits - thenewsminute.com]

Fitness Brand 'MultiFit' Launches Startup Incubator Program for Business Ideas in Wellness Industry

India’s largest and fastest growing Functional Fitness Studio Brand ‘MultiFit Wellness Private Limited’, today announced India’s first Gym chain driven fitness incubator program, namely ‘MultiFit Fitness Incubator Program (MFIP)’.

To be housed out of its Bangalore and Pune facilities, the program will be a healthy mix of technology-based startups and ideas as well as conventional ones across sports, fitness, wellness and nutrition. MultiFit has already commenced incubation of a Fitness CRM, Nutrition program ‘Fitsperts’ and MMA Academy ‘MultiFit MMA Pro-Academy’ – all to be commercially launched over the next three-four months.

To apply for incubator one will have to send a mail at - info@multifit.co.in

Commenting on the Incubator Program, Dr. Samir Kapoor, Founder & MD, MultiFit said: “The fitness business is changing extremely rapidly, driven not just by technology but by the fast-changing socio-economic landscape of the country. It is a known fact that over 400 million will be added to our urban population count over the next decade, over 75-80% of all mortality in the country will be driven by NCDs by 2020 and technology will enter a Machine Learning / AI dominated space, transforming and disrupting everything in the process. If we are not prepared for this change, we will be left way behind. Having said that, while we understand the business of fitness and wellness extremely well we most definitely need to go the collaborative route for the rest.”

“Launching the fitness incubator program was thus imperative. Through this program we aim at tapping into all the brilliant ideas that come up on a day-to-day basis across the country but lack the financial and business experience to take it forward. Add to this the large rapidly growing organic community of fitness enthusiasts we have built over the last couple of years as a native market for these ideas, the probability of getting winners increases. While our program will largely focus on early stage ideas, we would not be averse to established entities coming up with new ideas in the space as well,” added Samir.

Assisting MultiFit in this endeavour would also be its newly inducted Technical Advisory Board comprising 11 International Olympic Athletes including Andy Turner, Marilyn Okoro, Chris Tomlinson, Sarah Stevenson, Mark Lewis Francis, Sebastian Rodger, Zoe Smith, Alyson Dixon, Georgina Cassar, Luke Lennon Ford and Manoj Pingle.

Having started off as a 3000 sq. ft. single studio in 2015, MultiFit currently operates a chain of over 32 large format multi-disciplinary Functional Fitness studios across India, UK & UAE marking a presence in 10 cities. Further it has another 20 more signed up gyms which are slated to go live over the next 4-5 months taking the total count to 52 fitness studios.

[caption id="attachment_127054" align="aligncenter" width="640"] MultiFit- Sally Jones Kapoor and Samir Kapoor[/caption]

MultiFit also has a very active Athlete adoption program which already boasts of a string of national and international athletes and coaches including Commonwealth Athlete Sally Jones (IronMan – Triathlete, BTEC in Sports and Exercise Science (UK) & Certified L3 Personal Trainer from REPS UK), Automatically Timed 200 metre Hurdles World record breaker and three-time Olympian Andy Turner, Mr. Manoj Pingle (Olympian & Arjuna Awardee), Mr. India Rahul Kadam, Chetanya Velhal (IronMan Coach, Triathlete, India’s Fastest Ultracyclist, RAAM qualified, MS Biotech), Kunal Mahour aka The Steele (India’s only representative at the World Street Workout & Callisthenic Championship), amongst others. Furthermore, MultiFit has also recently instituted an advisory board comprising 10 International Athletes and Olympians to advise on its growth.

Starting out with one MultiFit studio in Pune in 2015, Dr. Samir Kapoor has spearheaded the brand’s growth to enable a deeper penetration in Pune as well as take MultiFit’s concept of functional training across India. The functional fitness chain has 32 operational functional fitness studios across 10 cities (including its studio at Manchester, UK and Abu Dhabi, UAE), and 20 more set for launch over the next 5-6 months across India, UAE & UK. It has already built a community of more than 75000 Multi-Fitters (members), and has set a target of 100 fitness studios in India and 20 Fitness studios across the UK, Middle East and South Asia by end of next year. Additionally, MultiFit also runs India’s only Tri & Endurance Academy, namely MATES – MultiFit Academy for Triathlon & Endurance Sports.

MultiFit has been at the forefront of innovation and transformation in fitness. The brand has been a fitness and/or Strength & Conditioning partner for Pune FC, Premier Futsal, Basketball Federation of India (BFI) & Puneri Phaltans (Pro-Kabaddi League), sponsored International level athletes in major competitions such as IronMan, been the only gym in India to offer genetic-based nutrition mapping, and has its own trainer training institute - MESA (MultiFit Exercise Science Academy).

Over the last one year, MultiFit has also bagged three prestigious industry awards in India namely Fitness Excellence Award 2018 (Excellence in Multi-Discipline Training Fitness Club), India Business Award 2018 (Best Functional Fitness Studio Brand) and the Business Leaders’ Summit & Awards 2018 (Fastest Growing Fitness and Wellness Company of the year).

Fitness Brand 'MultiFit' Launches Startup Incubator Program for Business Ideas in Wellness Industry

India’s largest and fastest growing Functional Fitness Studio Brand ‘MultiFit Wellness Private Limited’, today announced India’s first Gym chain driven fitness incubator program, namely ‘MultiFit Fitness Incubator Program (MFIP)’.

To be housed out of its Bangalore and Pune facilities, the program will be a healthy mix of technology-based startups and ideas as well as conventional ones across sports, fitness, wellness and nutrition. MultiFit has already commenced incubation of a Fitness CRM, Nutrition program ‘Fitsperts’ and MMA Academy ‘MultiFit MMA Pro-Academy’ – all to be commercially launched over the next three-four months.

To apply for incubator one will have to send a mail at - info@multifit.co.in

Commenting on the Incubator Program, Dr. Samir Kapoor, Founder & MD, MultiFit said: “The fitness business is changing extremely rapidly, driven not just by technology but by the fast-changing socio-economic landscape of the country. It is a known fact that over 400 million will be added to our urban population count over the next decade, over 75-80% of all mortality in the country will be driven by NCDs by 2020 and technology will enter a Machine Learning / AI dominated space, transforming and disrupting everything in the process. If we are not prepared for this change, we will be left way behind. Having said that, while we understand the business of fitness and wellness extremely well we most definitely need to go the collaborative route for the rest.”

“Launching the fitness incubator program was thus imperative. Through this program we aim at tapping into all the brilliant ideas that come up on a day-to-day basis across the country but lack the financial and business experience to take it forward. Add to this the large rapidly growing organic community of fitness enthusiasts we have built over the last couple of years as a native market for these ideas, the probability of getting winners increases. While our program will largely focus on early stage ideas, we would not be averse to established entities coming up with new ideas in the space as well,” added Samir.

Assisting MultiFit in this endeavour would also be its newly inducted Technical Advisory Board comprising 11 International Olympic Athletes including Andy Turner, Marilyn Okoro, Chris Tomlinson, Sarah Stevenson, Mark Lewis Francis, Sebastian Rodger, Zoe Smith, Alyson Dixon, Georgina Cassar, Luke Lennon Ford and Manoj Pingle.

Having started off as a 3000 sq. ft. single studio in 2015, MultiFit currently operates a chain of over 32 large format multi-disciplinary Functional Fitness studios across India, UK & UAE marking a presence in 10 cities. Further it has another 20 more signed up gyms which are slated to go live over the next 4-5 months taking the total count to 52 fitness studios.

[caption id="attachment_127054" align="aligncenter" width="640"] MultiFit- Sally Jones Kapoor and Samir Kapoor[/caption]

MultiFit also has a very active Athlete adoption program which already boasts of a string of national and international athletes and coaches including Commonwealth Athlete Sally Jones (IronMan – Triathlete, BTEC in Sports and Exercise Science (UK) & Certified L3 Personal Trainer from REPS UK), Automatically Timed 200 metre Hurdles World record breaker and three-time Olympian Andy Turner, Mr. Manoj Pingle (Olympian & Arjuna Awardee), Mr. India Rahul Kadam, Chetanya Velhal (IronMan Coach, Triathlete, India’s Fastest Ultracyclist, RAAM qualified, MS Biotech), Kunal Mahour aka The Steele (India’s only representative at the World Street Workout & Callisthenic Championship), amongst others. Furthermore, MultiFit has also recently instituted an advisory board comprising 10 International Athletes and Olympians to advise on its growth.

Starting out with one MultiFit studio in Pune in 2015, Dr. Samir Kapoor has spearheaded the brand’s growth to enable a deeper penetration in Pune as well as take MultiFit’s concept of functional training across India. The functional fitness chain has 32 operational functional fitness studios across 10 cities (including its studio at Manchester, UK and Abu Dhabi, UAE), and 20 more set for launch over the next 5-6 months across India, UAE & UK. It has already built a community of more than 75000 Multi-Fitters (members), and has set a target of 100 fitness studios in India and 20 Fitness studios across the UK, Middle East and South Asia by end of next year. Additionally, MultiFit also runs India’s only Tri & Endurance Academy, namely MATES – MultiFit Academy for Triathlon & Endurance Sports.

MultiFit has been at the forefront of innovation and transformation in fitness. The brand has been a fitness and/or Strength & Conditioning partner for Pune FC, Premier Futsal, Basketball Federation of India (BFI) & Puneri Phaltans (Pro-Kabaddi League), sponsored International level athletes in major competitions such as IronMan, been the only gym in India to offer genetic-based nutrition mapping, and has its own trainer training institute - MESA (MultiFit Exercise Science Academy).

Over the last one year, MultiFit has also bagged three prestigious industry awards in India namely Fitness Excellence Award 2018 (Excellence in Multi-Discipline Training Fitness Club), India Business Award 2018 (Best Functional Fitness Studio Brand) and the Business Leaders’ Summit & Awards 2018 (Fastest Growing Fitness and Wellness Company of the year).

WhatsApp Announces Startup Challenge to Invest $0.5 Mn in Indian Startups

Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has announced its partnership with India's official investment promotion agency, Invest India, to launch 'WhatsApp Startup Challenge' to help the growth of startups and SMBs in India. The program will focus on the proliferation of startups, promoting economic growth and generating employment opportunities in India, announced Ministry of Commerce & Industry, today.

According to Startup India, this is one of the largest partnerships Invest India has made till date.

WhatsApp will invest quarter of a million dollars ($250,000) as seed funding to the top 5 winners of the 'WhatsApp Startup Challenge' and an additional $250,000 will be directed to a select few from the entrepreneurial community to promote their WhatsApp business number on Facebook and drive discovery of their businesses. This way customers will be able to find the business and start talking to them on that WhatsApp number.Invest India is also working with WhatsApp to drive awareness about its business tools in around 15 states impacting over 60,000 businesses in the coming months through tools such as Startup India 'Yatra' program and other in-person training events.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Chris Daniels, Vice President, WhatsApp said that India has a great ecosystem of startups which are making huge impact in all sectors of the Indian economy. Mr. Daniels further said that small and medium businesses are the back bone of India’s economy, employing 100 million people and contributing to a 3rd India’s GDP. WhatsApp cares deeply about helping businesses connect with customers and grow. The more opportunities that are given the more startups will become engines of India’s economic growth.

India's Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, who were also present in the launch, said that WhatsApp is a startup that has grown into a community and is an example of how an idea can grow to become an integral part of our day to day life. The Minister went on to say that Indian startups in order to be successful have to learn to convert an idea into a business plan. He further said that the Startup community is the future of India and will be the platform through which the millions of youth of this country will be gain fully employed.

Launched on 16th January 2016 by the Prime Minister of India, Startup India, set-up under Invest India, is a flagship initiative of the Government of India and is intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation & Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

In the last 2 years at the Startup India programme, there are over 13,000 startups registered with Startup India program that spread across 448 districts covering all 29 States and 6 Union Territories.

Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ramesh Abhishek and CEO & MD of Invest India, Deepak Bagla, were also present on the occasion.

Fintech Startup 'Open' Partners with ICICI Bank to Automate Accounting for SMEs

Imagine a world where your business current account was your accounting software. Imagine not having to chase payments with UTR numbers, where payments auto-reconcile, and accounting is something that happens automatically as you do your business. 

Open Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd (Open), a neobanking fintech startup has partnered with ICICI Bank to launch an integrated payments platform for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) customers. This integration enables ICICI Bank’s current account holders to securely connect their bank account with the ‘Open’ platform and undertake an array of digital transactions like invoicing, online payments, vendor payouts as well as accounting through a single platform. The integration also enables businesses to automatically reconcile banking and accounting entries to generate profit & loss statements, balance sheets and expense reports, thereby offering MSMEs with better insights into their financial transactions.

This partnership between ICICI Bank and ‘Open’ will enable MSME customers to experience ‘connected banking’ which helps businesses to eliminate the need for manual data entry, automate banking functions like invoicing, payments and reconciliation on a single platform as well as facilitate payments to vendors/suppliers directly through the accounting platform.

Talking about the partnership, Mr. Pankaj Gadgil, General Manager and Head of Business Banking, ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Bank has always pioneered in bringing digital innovations to provide world-class banking experience to its customers. In keeping with this legacy, we are delighted to partner with Open Financial Technologies to bring forth an integrated solution which aims to offer MSME customers with unparalleled convenience. This is a testament to our constant effort at promoting the concept of ‘connected banking’ wherein we aim to bring together various banking functions like raising invoices, making payments and reconciliation on a common platform. We believe, this proposition will help businesses to draw deeper insights about their financial transactions, thereby helping them take business decisions in a seamless manner.”

According to Anish Achuthan, Co-founder & CEO, Open Financial Technologies Pvt. Limited, “Banking and accounting is closely connected with each other; however, the current banking and accounting systems are separate resulting in business owners having to spend a lot of time and effort in getting their finances right. We are excited to partner with ICICI Bank, which is one of the leaders in  business banking, to tap on their expertise and wide network to helps thousands of small businesses automate their finances”.

As a part of the alliance, Open will create awareness about the integrated platform to prospective SMEs digitally. The service will also be available to existing current account customers of ICICI Bank who can access the platform through their Corporate Internet Banking portal. Businesses can access the platform by registering on the Open website, while existing ICICI Bank users can easily connect their bank account to the Open platform through their internet banking portal. 
 Benefits of the Open–ICICI Bank integration:

• Businesses can undertake banking transactions such as invoicing, payments and re-conciliation through a single platform



• Facilitates auto-reconciliation of bank transfers, cash and cheque payments



• Allows bulk pay-outs within a few minutes.



• Enables online payments through an integrated payment gateway



• It helps in automatically categorizing payments into income and expense categories



• Offers access to an integrated expense management tool that offers insights into financial transactions

Founded in 2017 the startup processes over 730 crores in transactions and adds about 7500 SMEs every month on the platform. Open aims to serve 1 lakh businesses and process USD1 Billion in transactions by 2019. The startup is founded by serial entrepreneurs Anish Achuthan, Mabel Annie Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan along with former TaxiForSure CFO, Deena Jacob.

Anish and Mabel have previously built fintech startups Zwitch (Acquired by Citrus Pay), Neartivity Wireless and Cashnxt. They have also previously been a part of the senior management team at PayU India and Citrus Pay.

In May this year, Open raised Pre-Series A Funding from Recruit group Japan, Unicorn India Ventures, ISME ACE and the initial investors include Amrish Rau (CEO & MD, Payu India), Jitendra Gupta (MD, PayU India) and Apremaya Radhakrishnan (Co-founder, TaxiforSure).

Fintech Startup 'Open' Partners with ICICI Bank to Automate Accounting for SMEs

Imagine a world where your business current account was your accounting software. Imagine not having to chase payments with UTR numbers, where payments auto-reconcile, and accounting is something that happens automatically as you do your business. 

Open Financial Technologies Pvt. Ltd (Open), a neobanking fintech startup has partnered with ICICI Bank to launch an integrated payments platform for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) customers. This integration enables ICICI Bank’s current account holders to securely connect their bank account with the ‘Open’ platform and undertake an array of digital transactions like invoicing, online payments, vendor payouts as well as accounting through a single platform. The integration also enables businesses to automatically reconcile banking and accounting entries to generate profit & loss statements, balance sheets and expense reports, thereby offering MSMEs with better insights into their financial transactions.

This partnership between ICICI Bank and ‘Open’ will enable MSME customers to experience ‘connected banking’ which helps businesses to eliminate the need for manual data entry, automate banking functions like invoicing, payments and reconciliation on a single platform as well as facilitate payments to vendors/suppliers directly through the accounting platform.

Talking about the partnership, Mr. Pankaj Gadgil, General Manager and Head of Business Banking, ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Bank has always pioneered in bringing digital innovations to provide world-class banking experience to its customers. In keeping with this legacy, we are delighted to partner with Open Financial Technologies to bring forth an integrated solution which aims to offer MSME customers with unparalleled convenience. This is a testament to our constant effort at promoting the concept of ‘connected banking’ wherein we aim to bring together various banking functions like raising invoices, making payments and reconciliation on a common platform. We believe, this proposition will help businesses to draw deeper insights about their financial transactions, thereby helping them take business decisions in a seamless manner.”

According to Anish Achuthan, Co-founder & CEO, Open Financial Technologies Pvt. Limited, “Banking and accounting is closely connected with each other; however, the current banking and accounting systems are separate resulting in business owners having to spend a lot of time and effort in getting their finances right. We are excited to partner with ICICI Bank, which is one of the leaders in  business banking, to tap on their expertise and wide network to helps thousands of small businesses automate their finances”.

As a part of the alliance, Open will create awareness about the integrated platform to prospective SMEs digitally. The service will also be available to existing current account customers of ICICI Bank who can access the platform through their Corporate Internet Banking portal. Businesses can access the platform by registering on the Open website, while existing ICICI Bank users can easily connect their bank account to the Open platform through their internet banking portal. 
 Benefits of the Open–ICICI Bank integration:

• Businesses can undertake banking transactions such as invoicing, payments and re-conciliation through a single platform



• Facilitates auto-reconciliation of bank transfers, cash and cheque payments



• Allows bulk pay-outs within a few minutes.



• Enables online payments through an integrated payment gateway



• It helps in automatically categorizing payments into income and expense categories



• Offers access to an integrated expense management tool that offers insights into financial transactions

Founded in 2017 the startup processes over 730 crores in transactions and adds about 7500 SMEs every month on the platform. Open aims to serve 1 lakh businesses and process USD1 Billion in transactions by 2019. The startup is founded by serial entrepreneurs Anish Achuthan, Mabel Annie Chacko and Ajeesh Achuthan along with former TaxiForSure CFO, Deena Jacob.

Anish and Mabel have previously built fintech startups Zwitch (Acquired by Citrus Pay), Neartivity Wireless and Cashnxt. They have also previously been a part of the senior management team at PayU India and Citrus Pay.

In May this year, Open raised Pre-Series A Funding from Recruit group Japan, Unicorn India Ventures, ISME ACE and the initial investors include Amrish Rau (CEO & MD, Payu India), Jitendra Gupta (MD, PayU India) and Apremaya Radhakrishnan (Co-founder, TaxiforSure).

Nanotechnology-based Daily Wear Startup Turms Raises ₹6 Cr from Freshworks Founder, Others

Bangalore based apparel brand Turms, which manufactures stain repellent and odour resistant clothing via nanotechnology application, has raised ₹6.3 crore (~ US$855,000) from in angel round of funding led by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham, former Reliance Retail Lifestyle president Bijou Kurien, Pepperfry founder Ambareesh Murty, OneAssist founder Subrat Pani, and former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari along with angels from LetsVenture & AngelList India.

Other angel investors who participated in the round include Sumit Jain, co-founder Opentalk, Apollo Hospitals Group CFO Krishnan Akhileswaran, former CFO of Voonik & Myntra Prabhakar Sunder and Amit Lakhotia, formerly with Tokopedia & Paytm.

The startup will utilize these funds to expand its range, hire tech talent, launch experience centres in top cities, and further invest in research and development.

“Young brands like Turms are disrupting the apparel industry and creating a niche market for themselves with their unique offering of intelligent apparel,” said Freshworks founder Mathrubootham.

Turms is Girish's 21st investment so far. To date, he has made 21 investments in startups across different verticals. His last investment before Turms was Chennai-based Pando, which digitizes logistics operations for Fortune 500 companies, in April this year.

Turms was founded in 2016 by Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong alumni Rameswar Misra and Rohit Gupta. Misra had earlier worked at online women apparel store Voonik, while Gupta is a nanotechnology graduate from Amity University.

Unlike other stain repellent clothing available in market, which are made with petroleum-based synthetic materials (nylon, polyester, etc.), Turms apparel however are crafted with 100% natural premium cotton without any synthetics or nanoparticles.

The startup has its patent-pending technology that allows to create natural fabrics and clothing that repel stains, liquids and odors, and have them retain the natural feel, soft touch, and breathability. Turms apparel does not need to be washed as frequently as normal clothing and requires less water and detergent. The range includes jeans, t-shirts, shirts and track pants for men and t-shirts and leggings for women.

“We believe that the world is moving towards functional and low maintenance apparel that can simplify our daily lives. Turms is committed to pioneering that revolution and habit formation in Indian consumers,” said Rameswar Misra, CEO and co-founder Turms.

Source - Business Standard

Nanotechnology-based Daily Wear Startup Turms Raises ₹6 Cr from Freshworks Founder, Others

Bangalore based apparel brand Turms, which manufactures stain repellent and odour resistant clothing via nanotechnology application, has raised ₹6.3 crore (~ US$855,000) from in angel round of funding led by Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham, former Reliance Retail Lifestyle president Bijou Kurien, Pepperfry founder Ambareesh Murty, OneAssist founder Subrat Pani, and former Flipkart executive Mekin Maheshwari along with angels from LetsVenture & AngelList India.

Other angel investors who participated in the round include Sumit Jain, co-founder Opentalk, Apollo Hospitals Group CFO Krishnan Akhileswaran, former CFO of Voonik & Myntra Prabhakar Sunder and Amit Lakhotia, formerly with Tokopedia & Paytm.

The startup will utilize these funds to expand its range, hire tech talent, launch experience centres in top cities, and further invest in research and development.

“Young brands like Turms are disrupting the apparel industry and creating a niche market for themselves with their unique offering of intelligent apparel,” said Freshworks founder Mathrubootham.

Turms is Girish's 21st investment so far. To date, he has made 21 investments in startups across different verticals. His last investment before Turms was Chennai-based Pando, which digitizes logistics operations for Fortune 500 companies, in April this year.

Turms was founded in 2016 by Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong alumni Rameswar Misra and Rohit Gupta. Misra had earlier worked at online women apparel store Voonik, while Gupta is a nanotechnology graduate from Amity University.

Unlike other stain repellent clothing available in market, which are made with petroleum-based synthetic materials (nylon, polyester, etc.), Turms apparel however are crafted with 100% natural premium cotton without any synthetics or nanoparticles.

The startup has its patent-pending technology that allows to create natural fabrics and clothing that repel stains, liquids and odors, and have them retain the natural feel, soft touch, and breathability. Turms apparel does not need to be washed as frequently as normal clothing and requires less water and detergent. The range includes jeans, t-shirts, shirts and track pants for men and t-shirts and leggings for women.

“We believe that the world is moving towards functional and low maintenance apparel that can simplify our daily lives. Turms is committed to pioneering that revolution and habit formation in Indian consumers,” said Rameswar Misra, CEO and co-founder Turms.

Source - Business Standard

Industry Body IAMAI Forms Committee for Augmented and Virtual Reality

After setting up a new blockchain committee earlier this month, industry body, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), has formed an another new industry expert committee focused on Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR).

Formed under IAMAI's Emerging Technology Council, the new AR/VR committee will help India’s AR/VR ecosystem by evangelizing AR/VR technology in partnership with government, industry and startups and thereby driving economic growth, job creation, and skill development in the country.

On the agenda of this, committee will be -- a) nurturing India’s AR/VR technology and talent ecosystem, in particular by driving Skill Development; b) engaging with business, industry and government to evangelize acceptance of the technology; c) Help drive training workshops, to familiarize potential users with technology and build use cases, in key sectors.

The committee is chaired by Namrita Mahindro, Senior General Manager od Digital Transformation, Mahindra Group and co-chaired by Satyajeet Singh, Head of Facebook's Strategic Product Partnership, India & South Asia.

The committee would also closely work to develop potential sectors like Healthcare, Tourism, Auto, Agriculture, Education and Skill Development.

“Immersive technologies like AR/VR and Mixed Reality will become the new engines of values creation in the experience economy. They will enable far more effective story telling for brands and businesses, drive greater efficiencies with product prototyping in manufacturing & beyond, facilitate training at scale, anytime, anywhere, to name just a few use cases," Namrita Mahindro, Chairperson of AR/VR Committee, IAMAI, said in a media statement.

“However, in order to be more effective and scale AR/VR to become main-stream needs industry, government and academia working in synergy,” she said.

The IAMAI AR / VR committee will focus on fostering collaboration between industry demand and supply side in the digital reality ecosystem to enhance awareness, enable dialogue, knowledge sharing and access, accelerate growth, promote research and innovation, help develop industry standards and nurture talent to benefit all stakeholders in the community.

Satyajeet Singh, Co-Chairperson, AR/VR Committee, IAMAI, said, "AR and VR technologies are making their mark across domains and Indian startups’ foray in the space of emerging tech is only the beginning. This expert committee formed under the aegis of IAMAI is a much needed initiative which will further provide an impetus for the growth and expansion of emerging technologies across the length and breadth of our country."

“As a part of this committee, we want to fuel homegrown emerging technologies ecosystem; enabling AR/VR ventures with the knowledge and help them navigate and harvest the growing opportunities in this new age emerging tech ecosystem,” he said.

Notably, last year in November, Facebook has expanded its scope of operations in India by announcing India Innovation Hub Accelerator programme, for which Facebook will pick up Virtual Reality based startups in India. This might be one of the reason that IAMAI has chosen Satyajeet Singh from Facebook to co-chair the AR/VR committee.

Besides, Marks Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, in the annual F8 developer conference 2017 announced the social networking giant's ambitious plan of adapting and moving its wings to Virtual and Augmented Reality by launching a an augmented reality platform called Spaces.

Source - KNN India

eSports Gaming Startup GamingMonk Raises ₹4 Cr from Japan's Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan and Others

GamingMonk, an eSports gaming company based out of New Delhi, has raised ₹4 crore (~ US$543,000) in its second round of funding from Japan-based Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India & South East Asia, reported Gizbot.

Other investors which participated in this round include Stellaris Ventures, Smile Group, AdvantEdge and Samir Khurana. GamingMonk had earlier raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from AdvantEdge Partners, an early stage venture capital fund, in July 2017.

The new infusion of funds will help the startup to achieve its vision of providing a smooth, transparent and credible gaming platform for all the players.

Founded in 2014, by Abhay Sharma and Ashwin Haryani, GamingMonk is focused on online and offline tournaments of competitive games across platforms such as Mobile, Console and PC.

GamingMonk was initially started as an e-commerce marketplace for consoles, gaming titles and other accessories, thereafter in August 2017 the startup launched its online eSports Portal and eventually pivoted to become a leading online esports company with a focus on building a community and provide authentic and relevant content to gamers.

Abhay Sharma, Co-Founder of GamingMonk said in a statement, “India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and funding in this sector. We are focussed on building a top-notch gaming experience for the esports enthusiasts and the community, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level."

Ashwin Haryani, the other Co-Founder, said, "We want to focus on not just the enthusiast gamers but also build an ecosystem which brings more casual and semi-pro players on all three platforms - PC, console and mobile gaming. We are seeing a lot of interest from investors and are in discussions with some strategic players both in India and overseas for our next round of funding."

"A big announcement is expected in the coming few months," he said.

The GamingMonk platform currently have 2 verticals - Offline Tournaments & an Online eSports Portal. Offline tournaments are held across India covering 8 cities so far with an expansion plan of covering 16 cities by next year.

The company has organised more than 200 competitive tournaments across the country with 35000 participants. The platform hosts tournaments on games such as PUBG, CS: GO, DOTA 2, FIFA game series, Call of Duty Series, Clash Royale and many more.

The rise of smartphone users and wider consumer trends are contributing to the growth of online gaming trends in India. According to a study by KPMG, Indian online gaming industry will add 190 million gamers and become a US $1 billion opportunity by 2021.

In June this year, tech giant Google had launched a training programme for gaming startups and developers in South-East Asia including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to successfully build, scale, launch and market the next generation of hit mobile games.

Just today itself, global sports tech fund, ADvantage, has announced that it is looking out for startups in India for investment opportunities.

In August, former Indian cricket skipper MS Dhoni picked up 25% stake in Run Adam, a 360 degree sports Tech-Ecosystem. The platform has been created with a vision to help aspiring sportsperson to hone their talent and help them in their professional journey.

[Top Image - Facebook.com/GamingMonk]

eSports Gaming Startup GamingMonk Raises ₹4 Cr from Japan's Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan and Others

GamingMonk, an eSports gaming company based out of New Delhi, has raised ₹4 crore (~ US$543,000) in its second round of funding from Japan-based Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India & South East Asia, reported Gizbot.

Other investors which participated in this round include Stellaris Ventures, Smile Group, AdvantEdge and Samir Khurana. GamingMonk had earlier raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from AdvantEdge Partners, an early stage venture capital fund, in July 2017.

The new infusion of funds will help the startup to achieve its vision of providing a smooth, transparent and credible gaming platform for all the players.

Founded in 2014, by Abhay Sharma and Ashwin Haryani, GamingMonk is focused on online and offline tournaments of competitive games across platforms such as Mobile, Console and PC.

GamingMonk was initially started as an e-commerce marketplace for consoles, gaming titles and other accessories, thereafter in August 2017 the startup launched its online eSports Portal and eventually pivoted to become a leading online esports company with a focus on building a community and provide authentic and relevant content to gamers.

Abhay Sharma, Co-Founder of GamingMonk said in a statement, “India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and funding in this sector. We are focussed on building a top-notch gaming experience for the esports enthusiasts and the community, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level."

Ashwin Haryani, the other Co-Founder, said, "We want to focus on not just the enthusiast gamers but also build an ecosystem which brings more casual and semi-pro players on all three platforms - PC, console and mobile gaming. We are seeing a lot of interest from investors and are in discussions with some strategic players both in India and overseas for our next round of funding."

"A big announcement is expected in the coming few months," he said.

The GamingMonk platform currently have 2 verticals - Offline Tournaments & an Online eSports Portal. Offline tournaments are held across India covering 8 cities so far with an expansion plan of covering 16 cities by next year.

The company has organised more than 200 competitive tournaments across the country with 35000 participants. The platform hosts tournaments on games such as PUBG, CS: GO, DOTA 2, FIFA game series, Call of Duty Series, Clash Royale and many more.

The rise of smartphone users and wider consumer trends are contributing to the growth of online gaming trends in India. According to a study by KPMG, Indian online gaming industry will add 190 million gamers and become a US $1 billion opportunity by 2021.

In June this year, tech giant Google had launched a training programme for gaming startups and developers in South-East Asia including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to successfully build, scale, launch and market the next generation of hit mobile games.

Just today itself, global sports tech fund, ADvantage, has announced that it is looking out for startups in India for investment opportunities.

In August, former Indian cricket skipper MS Dhoni picked up 25% stake in Run Adam, a 360 degree sports Tech-Ecosystem. The platform has been created with a vision to help aspiring sportsperson to hone their talent and help them in their professional journey.

[Top Image - Facebook.com/GamingMonk]

Adidas Creator's Family Office-owned $70 Mn Sports Tech Fund to Invest in Indian Startups

ADvantage, a $70-million global sports tech fund, owned by family office of Adolf Dassler (better known as Adi Dassler), who was the founder of global sportswear firm Adidas, is on the lookout for Indian startups for investment opportunities, reported Gaurav Laghate of Economic Times.

ADvantage is a series-A fund co-owned by leAD Sports, a sports entrepreneurship and investment platform run by the Adi Dassler Family Office (ADFO), and global hybrid venture capital platform, OurCrowd.

Launched in 2017, by grandchildren of Adidas creator Adi Dassler, leAD (‘legacy of Adi Dassler’) is the seed accelerator for innovative products, services and business models in the realm of sports, which invest in visionary ventures around trendsetting sports technology, media, entertainment, management and lifestyle.

ADvantage and leAD will help Indian startups with global exposure with strong network in US and Europe that can help them expand business rapidly and with marketing, sales, legal and contractual assistance, apart from funds.

In February next year, leAD will be visiting Indian fan engagement start-up for the accelerator programme. As of now, leAD has picked up New Delhi-based Rooter, an online sports community and fan engagement startup, for its accelerator programme.

The fund has so far invested $10 million in sports tech startups, including Tappp, a New York-based startup founded by Mumbai-born entrepreneur Sandy Agarwal.

The fund is focusing on the India market as it has received the majority of funding applications from here.

Christoph Sonnen, who is leAD Sports CE0, has told ET assistant editor Gaurav Laghate, “India is a huge sports market, which goes far beyond cricket. As sports continue to gain space in the country, new opportunities in the ecosystem arise. We want to leverage this momentum and continue to nurture early-stage startups that can disrupt the mobile, tech-focused Indian market."

Apart from spearheading the accelerator programme of leAD, Christoph is a serial entrepreneur and accomplished venture builder.

As per Christoph, leAD has just started the second batch of its accelerator programme for pre-seed and seed funding. Between first and second batch it received 350 applications from Indian sports tech startup owners alone. This year the platform have picked up 9 out of a total of 600 applications for the programme, Rooter is the only Indian startup.

Moreover, the fund is also lookout for local investors in India and Christoph is scheduled to meet investors and business families in India to persuade them to co-invest. Christoph will be travelling to India with representatives of the ADFO.

“We have a network of 6,000 companies globally and we want to educate Indian VCs and family offices about this big opportunity in sports tech. We have seen that Indians have a deep-understanding of tech, but they all are investing into fintech or other established businesses. The disruption in sports tech is yet to come and can give 7-9X returns over 8 year investment,” Christoph said.

After reviewing thousands of applications since its launch, leAD has turned its focus to three sports tech sub-sectors primed for dynamic growth. One of these sub-sectors is fan engagement, which is why the company picked up Rooter for the accelerator platform.

Led by Christoph and venture investor and professional athlete Jeremy Pressman, ADvantage is targeting a diversified portfolio of 15 startups from around the world.

Adidas founder, Dassler, was an innovator in athletic shoe design and one of the early promoters who obtained endorsements from athletes to drive sale of his products. As a result of his concepts, Adi Dassler built the largest manufacturer of sportswear and equipment. At the time of his death in 1978, Adidas had 17 factories and annual sales of one billion.

For high-tech boost sole shoes, one can visit - yeezy adidas shoes

O2O Grocery Platform Kirana11 Re-brands to Avenue11 to Become A Virtual Shopping Street

Kirana11, a Bengaluru-based online-to-offline (O2O) grocery platform, has changed to Avenue11 to reposition itself in the e-grocery segment. As an O2O marketing platform, Kirana11 leveraged the offline presence of local stores in an area to serve customers better while reducing the delivery cost at the same time. As Avenue11, the startup aspires to deliver a better O2O experience to consumers by temporarily shifting away from tie-ups with local stores.

“Transition from Kirana11 to Avenue11 is a strategic rebranding move that represents our shift from a hyperlocal model to an inventory based model that will also allow us to offer premium products to consumers," says Nakkyun Chong, CEO of Avenue11.

Avenue11 is an e-grocery platform which aims at redefining the grocery space in the Indian market. Founded by Korean expat and serial entrepreneur Nakkyun Chong, Avenue11 is owned by Planet11 E-commerce Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. Currently operational only in select parts of Bengaluru, Avenue 11 claims to have a monthly GMV of INR 2 Crores. As of today, the company is reported to have raised funds amounting to $9 million from various South-Asian investors.

Kirana11 to Avenue11:

As Kirana11, the company was helping kirana stores connect with the digital community. Over the last year of its operation, the company realized that not all local stores are ready to cater to online consumers today. They aren't willing to invest in technology and in improving customer service quality - keys to an excellent consumer-experience. The company has now decided to first build a strong base of online consumers before approaching select kirana stores. The strategy will help in increasing market share and strengthening Avenue11’s brand recognition among consumers and businesses alike.

Avenue11 provides doorstep delivery of a wide range of products from world-renowned brands. Kirana11’s makeover to Avenue11 will make the grocery shopping experience more exciting and hassle-free for its customers. Avenue11 has a user-friendly interface, offers a variety of payment options and allows customers to choose convenient delivery slots.

The e-grocery market in India:

The online market for grocery and food items is becoming one of the fastest-growing segments in India. As per reports, only around 2 million people in India are currently using e-grocery platforms. The compound annual growth rate is expected to have a 141% growth by the year 2020 according to a report by Morgan Stanley. Market leaders, like Big Basket, and Grofers are tapping the growing potential of the segment with their entry into Tier II and Tier III cities.

Targeting Bengaluru first, Avenue11 plans to expand its online as well as the offline presence in the food and grocery segment. Avenue11’s future strategy is to establish a unique O2O, Online-to-offline, model. The online orders will be serviced by offline partner stores which will help cut down the current logistic cost to almost half. To cater to the continuous customer demand, Avenue11 will associate only with local stores that meet key criteria such as floor space and number of stock keeping units sold.

Avenue11 is continuously innovating to enhance their customers’ shopping experience. The Avenue11 app comes with exciting features and experimental discount methods. The company is ready to operate through an omnichannel system and is ready to launch around 100 offline stores of Avenue11 in the near future. Avenue11 also plans to bring the quality and infrastructure of Korean standards to the Indian grocery shoppers.

Formerly named as Kirana11, Avenue11 is an O2O grocery platform. It has a total backing of $9 million from various angel & institutional investors from India & abroad. Avenue11 sells high-quality fresh produce and grocery to online customers, while its B2B arm supplies fruits and vegetables to merchants and institutions. Currently operational only in Bengaluru, Avenue11 already has a pool of about 60,000 customers. For more information, please visit, https://www.avenue11.com

Nakkyun Chong is the founder and CEO of Planet11 eCommerce Solutions, the parent company of Avenue11. Mr.Chong, a Korean expat, has around 28 years of global experience in e-commerce and telecom industry. He is a serial entrepreneur and has founded 8 companies with a total investment of nearly USD 1 billion. With his South Korean expertise in e-Grocery shopping, Mr. Chong aims to redefine the Indian way of grocery shopping.

Digital Lending Startup NIRA Raises $1 Mn in Seed Funding from Angel in India and UK

Bangalore-based NIRA, a consumer finance fintech venture focused on financial inclusion, has raised $1 million seed funding from angel investors in the UK and India. Launched last year, NIRA provides small credit to consumers with limited access to traditional avenues of finance,

NIRA will use the latest funding to accelerate building out the core team and technology to drive the initial growth of the business.

Founded in 2017, by former Goldman Sachs colleagues Rohit Sen and Nupur Gupta (IIT Delhi), NIRA went live in May and focuses on promoting financial inclusion by providing small credit of up to ₹1 lakh for up to one year through transparent products that empower individuals to live a life of choice and freedom. Delivery will be via a mobile app and webpage. The core proposition is that it allows users credit anytime, anywhere.

NIRA is aimed at solving a major consumer finance issue in India wherein banks typically require credit scores, thereby precluding over 80% of the Indian population immediately. NIRA, as a digital consumer lender has envisaged a method by combining new types of digital data with traditional forms which then allows to do assessment of a user's credit worthiness even if they don't have a credit score.

The startup has partnered with Federal Bank to provide loans to consumers at interest rates ranging from 1.5% cent to 2.25% a month, depending on the consumer's risk score. Loans are repayable over 3-12 months.

In a statement, Rohit Sen, co-founder and CEO, NIRA told, “The need of the hour is small sized loans because consumers who earn ₹20,000 –30,000 a month find it very difficult to get loans from banks which expect a good CIBIL score and collateral. We are targeting consumers who are in the early part of their careers who earn modest salaries.".

To apply for credit, the consumer needs to be an Indian citizen, have a college degree, be working for a minimum of six months and earn a salary of ₹20,000 a month. To get started, the required details have to be filled on the NIRA app or website. Once the consumer has qualified for credit, the required documents - most recent payslip, bank statements for the last six months and Aadhaar number - can be uploaded. After the documents are verified, they can get the loan.

“We have been refining our product and strategy over the past few months and our focus will now be on executing our strategy and scaling the size and reach of our operations” said Sen.

Earlier this month, an another digital lending startup, RevFin, had raised an undisclosed amount in the seed funding round from a group of angel investors. RevFin was founded by former HSBC executive Sameer Aggarwal.

Last Month, Mumbai headquartered micro-lending platform Upwards Fintech Pvt. Ltd. had raised $5 million in series A round of funding led by China's ShunWei Capital.

Source - Business Line

Digital Lending Startup NIRA Raises $1 Mn in Seed Funding from Angel in India and UK

Bangalore-based NIRA, a consumer finance fintech venture focused on financial inclusion, has raised $1 million seed funding from angel investors in the UK and India. Launched last year, NIRA provides small credit to consumers with limited access to traditional avenues of finance,

NIRA will use the latest funding to accelerate building out the core team and technology to drive the initial growth of the business.

Founded in 2017, by former Goldman Sachs colleagues Rohit Sen and Nupur Gupta (IIT Delhi), NIRA went live in May and focuses on promoting financial inclusion by providing small credit of up to ₹1 lakh for up to one year through transparent products that empower individuals to live a life of choice and freedom. Delivery will be via a mobile app and webpage. The core proposition is that it allows users credit anytime, anywhere.

NIRA is aimed at solving a major consumer finance issue in India wherein banks typically require credit scores, thereby precluding over 80% of the Indian population immediately. NIRA, as a digital consumer lender has envisaged a method by combining new types of digital data with traditional forms which then allows to do assessment of a user's credit worthiness even if they don't have a credit score.

The startup has partnered with Federal Bank to provide loans to consumers at interest rates ranging from 1.5% cent to 2.25% a month, depending on the consumer's risk score. Loans are repayable over 3-12 months.

In a statement, Rohit Sen, co-founder and CEO, NIRA told, “The need of the hour is small sized loans because consumers who earn ₹20,000 –30,000 a month find it very difficult to get loans from banks which expect a good CIBIL score and collateral. We are targeting consumers who are in the early part of their careers who earn modest salaries.".

To apply for credit, the consumer needs to be an Indian citizen, have a college degree, be working for a minimum of six months and earn a salary of ₹20,000 a month. To get started, the required details have to be filled on the NIRA app or website. Once the consumer has qualified for credit, the required documents - most recent payslip, bank statements for the last six months and Aadhaar number - can be uploaded. After the documents are verified, they can get the loan.

“We have been refining our product and strategy over the past few months and our focus will now be on executing our strategy and scaling the size and reach of our operations” said Sen.

Earlier this month, an another digital lending startup, RevFin, had raised an undisclosed amount in the seed funding round from a group of angel investors. RevFin was founded by former HSBC executive Sameer Aggarwal.

Last Month, Mumbai headquartered micro-lending platform Upwards Fintech Pvt. Ltd. had raised $5 million in series A round of funding led by China's ShunWei Capital.

Source - Business Line

Cisco Chairman John Chambers Invests in Delhi-based Cybersecurity Startup Lucideus

Delhi-based and IIT Bombay incubated cybersecurity startup Lucideus has raised US$5 million (~ Rs 36 crore) in Series A round of funding, led by Cisco Chairman Emeritus John Chambers. John has infused funding in Lucideus through his recently launched JC2 Ventures, reported Fortune India.

Out of $5 million, John Chambers has pumped in $4 million, while a handful of angel investors infused the rest of the money.

The latest funding is a result of interesting interaction between John Chambers and CEO of Lucideus, Saket Modi, wherein Chambers asked Modi to explain his business in 15 seconds, and Modi did, and Chambers was stumped.

While the ticket size isn't huge, the investment is crucial as it highlights the potential that investors like Chambers see in cybersecurity in India, and the opportunity that may exist for enterprise service and product providers like Lucideus globally.

[caption id="attachment_127020" align="aligncenter" width="699"] John Chambers and Saket Modi [Image - Tom Upton Studio
/ Fortuneindia.com][/caption]

The startup will be use the freshly raised capital to expand its presence in the US as well as existing markets like India, and also to further strengthen its platform to provide more robust security to the startup's enterprise customers that span across banking and financial services, retail and others.

According to Saket Modi, CEO of Lucideus, the company has seen its revenues growing in triple digits year-on-year and has been cash flow positive for the last few years.

Earlier in May 2017, the startup had raised funding from a clutch of global executives like Google's Rajan Anandan, Facebook Messenger executive Anand Chandrasekaran and FreeCharge's ex-CEO Govind Rajan.

This is Cisco Chairman's second investment in India after he had invested in Chennai-based Uniphore Software Systems, a speech recognition solutions company. In May last year, Chamber had announced the launch of US$70 million fund dedicated exclusively for Indian startups.

Founded in 2012 by by Saket Modi, Vidit Baxi and Rahul Tyagi, Lucideus is a pure play Cybersecurity company, providing Cyber Security platforms to enterprise and governments across the globe. It is empanelled in CERT India, India'a nodal agency to deal with cybersecurity, as one of the certified cyber security auditors by Government of India.

Notably, Lucideus is also the cybersecurity firm behind the end-to-end cybersecurity assessment of the BHIM payments application as well as UPI (Unified Payments Interface) library that is today embedded into the mobile banking applications of almost all banks in the country that have a mobile banking facility for transfer of money.

Besides Lucideus, other cybersuecurity startup from India which has raised funding most recently is Mumbai headquartered Sequretek, which had raised US$3.7 million in a bridge round led by Unicorn India Ventures and other investors including GVFL and Sharad Sanghi, MD & CEO, Netmagic.

According to Nasscom, the Indian IT industry is set to reach a size of $350-400 billion by 2025. The country can build a cybersecurity products and services industry of $35 billion by 2025 and generate a skilled workforce of one million in the security sector.

Globally, the cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $152.71 billion in 2018 to $248.26 billion by 2023, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2% during 2018-23, according to a new market research report by MarketsandMarkets. The major forces driving the growth in the space are strict data protection directives and rising cyberterrorism. The cybersecurity market is growing rapidly because of the rising need for cloud-based cybersecurity solutions among enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) alike.

Online Medical Supplies Aggregator Medikabazaar Raises $5 Mn in Funding led by HealthQuad

Mumbai-based online medical supplies aggregator Medikabazaar has raised $5 million in in the Series A round of funding led by HealthQuad, a healthcare focused venture capital fund investing in early stage healthcare companies in India.

The startup plans to use this funding to strengthen technology and increase its team size including senior leadership, according to an official statement.

Other investors who participated in this round include Elan Corporation, Sasaki Foods, CBCCo. Ltd, Kois Invest, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital and its existing investors Sunil Kalra, Arun Venkatachalam & Rebright Partners II Investment Partnership.

Medikabazaar had earlier raised $1 million in pre-series A round of funding by Rebright Partners II Investment Partnership, Sunil Kalra and Arun Venkatachalam and another angel investor from Japan.

Founded in 2014 by Vivek Tiwari, who is also the present CEO of the company, Medikabazaar is an online aggregator of medical devices, medical equipment, and supplies, providing B2B services to hospitals and medical establishments.

With over 100,000 products listed its website, Medikabazaar claims to be the largest B2B online marketplace for medical equipment and medical supplies offering last mile delivery of anything under the gamut of medical equipment and consumables across 16000+ pin-codes in India.

With the infusion of fresh capital, Medikabazaar plans to to use this money to streamline its supply chain and logistics capability to reach 50,000 hospitals and clinics by the end of next financial year, as well as increase its fulfillment centres to over 20 from seven now.

“In a price sensitive healthcare environment, cost optimization and quality delivery will become critical success factors for any healthcare provider. Medikabazaar has disrupted the entire supply chain model, to directly reach hospitals and clinics across metros and smaller towns, offering competitively priced quality products in desired time-frame through its technology platform,” said HealthQuad founder Amit Varma.

Headquartered in New Delhi, VC fund HealthQuad was founded in 2016 by Amit Varma and Abrar Mir, who are also the co-founders of Singapore-based healthcare-focused private equity firm Quadria Capital. HealthQuad was spun-off from Qaudrio as its venture capital arm to capture opportunities in the healthcare sector at an early stage.

Besides Medikabazaar, HealthQuad had earlier invested in Gurgaon-based health tech firm The Healthy Billion (THB) and Bangalore-based Neurosynaptic, a turnkey telemedicine solution provider.

In healthcare and related aggregator space, Mumbai-based home healthcare services aggregator HealWell24 had raised $200,000, in May this year, from bunch of angel investors including Prashant Mehta, Mitali Pawar, Nikhil G and Bhavesh P, members of Indian Cooperative Oncology Network (ICON), and R Ranganathan.

In December last year, Kolkata-bassd healthcare services aggregator-marketplace EasyBuyHealth had raised seed funding of $350,000.

Source - Economic Times,

Discovery Channel to Air Story of Indian Spacetech Startup Team Indus that Aimed for the Moon

Discovery, the leading infotainment television channel, will premiere a one-hour special show titled MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON based on the exciting journey of Bangalore-based space tech startup TeamIndus on 30th October at 9 PM.

The show captures the best of this eventful and enlightening seven-year journey of a team which germinated with a group of friends coming together and went on to become TeamIndus.

[caption id="attachment_127011" align="aligncenter" width="800"] MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON will be premiered on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel[/caption]

Team Indus, which had become a poster boy for local Spacetech enthusiasts in India, had hit a major roadblock in December last year after India's space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), cancelled the its contract with the startup as Team Indus could not raise sufficient funds.

It started in 2007 when The Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced—the largest incentivized space exploration challenge in human history. A small group of friends came together and coughed up personal resources to register last minute as the only Indian team in the global contest. This young enthusiast team, with no aerospace background, had the grit, the tenacity to take on the best in the world in their endeavor to win the $30 million, Google Lunar XPRIZE.

MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON has garnered huge traction from marquee advertisers. The on-air broadcast of the show is Co-Presented by Amazon Echo and Co-Powered by Levi Strauss and PUBG, Nokia as the Mobile Partner. Sony Bravia, ForeverMark, Idea 4G, Honda Motorcycles and Phillips Trimmer have come on board as Associate sponsors.

Conceived in a server room in Noida, near India’s capital, Rahul Narayan helmed the whole challenge and took the first step of deciding to participate in this global lunar race. He started looking out for people who would join him out of sheer passion unaware about the challenges the team would face as the race would progress. An inhouse robotic rover named ‘Ek Choti si Asha’ was designed with the Ackerman steering concept and a deployable masthead.

What happened next? Don’t miss to watch MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON that brings to you a spectacular journey of an aerospace startup that came together, to reach for the moon! Can they possibly meet the harsh technical demands of a lunar mission? And even so, from where will they raise the enormous amount needed to get to the moon! Pitted against several resourceful teams from across the globe, does TeamIndus stand a chance to win this race for space?

Watch one-hour special series MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel.

Discovery Channel to Air Story of Indian Spacetech Startup Team Indus that Aimed for the Moon

Discovery, the leading infotainment television channel, will premiere a one-hour special show titled MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON based on the exciting journey of Bangalore-based space tech startup TeamIndus on 30th October at 9 PM.

The show captures the best of this eventful and enlightening seven-year journey of a team which germinated with a group of friends coming together and went on to become TeamIndus.

[caption id="attachment_127011" align="aligncenter" width="800"] MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON will be premiered on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel[/caption]

Team Indus, which had become a poster boy for local Spacetech enthusiasts in India, had hit a major roadblock in December last year after India's space agency, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), cancelled the its contract with the startup as Team Indus could not raise sufficient funds.

It started in 2007 when The Google Lunar XPRIZE was announced—the largest incentivized space exploration challenge in human history. A small group of friends came together and coughed up personal resources to register last minute as the only Indian team in the global contest. This young enthusiast team, with no aerospace background, had the grit, the tenacity to take on the best in the world in their endeavor to win the $30 million, Google Lunar XPRIZE.

MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON has garnered huge traction from marquee advertisers. The on-air broadcast of the show is Co-Presented by Amazon Echo and Co-Powered by Levi Strauss and PUBG, Nokia as the Mobile Partner. Sony Bravia, ForeverMark, Idea 4G, Honda Motorcycles and Phillips Trimmer have come on board as Associate sponsors.

Conceived in a server room in Noida, near India’s capital, Rahul Narayan helmed the whole challenge and took the first step of deciding to participate in this global lunar race. He started looking out for people who would join him out of sheer passion unaware about the challenges the team would face as the race would progress. An inhouse robotic rover named ‘Ek Choti si Asha’ was designed with the Ackerman steering concept and a deployable masthead.

What happened next? Don’t miss to watch MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON that brings to you a spectacular journey of an aerospace startup that came together, to reach for the moon! Can they possibly meet the harsh technical demands of a lunar mission? And even so, from where will they raise the enormous amount needed to get to the moon! Pitted against several resourceful teams from across the globe, does TeamIndus stand a chance to win this race for space?

Watch one-hour special series MOONBOUND: INDIA’S RACE TO THE MOON on 30th October at 9 PM only on Discovery Channel.

Why New Entrepreneurs Go for Online Market Despite Offline Being A Big Market?

The question faced by most new entrepreneurs is whether to go for a fully online business or have online as well as offline presence too. There are several factors that go into deciding whether your new business should be fully online. Understandably, the biggest factor is infrastructure costs.

Getting venture capital, funds from crowdsourcing and bank loans can prove arduous and uphill task in India, despite the government implementing some initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship.

Most new entrepreneurs are fired by ambition while finances throw a wet blanket. Hence, they believe in online businesses more than offline ones.

Here are major reasons why new entrepreneurs believe in online trade rather than offline, which is also a big market.

Brick & Mortar Infrastructure

Take a realistic look at India’s real estate market. Buying or leasing an office is almost unaffordable for any new entrepreneur. Nor is it feasible to invest upon infrastructure such as warehousing and storage facilities. Setting up brick-and-mortar infrastructure is indeed expensive and can in some cases, even the capital set aside for opening a venture would not suffice.

Given this scenarios, online business is the best option. Setting up a website including buying a good domain name, hosting and other essentials costs a few thousand Rupees. Resources like Facebook Business are free. It is possible to set up an online store using e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, without much hassle or investment.

In stark contrast, setting up an offline business requires an office or store and warehouse, signboards, furniture and other paraphernalia that eats heavily into the capital earmarked for a venture.

Setting up a store or office also means hiring a good interior designer for proper layout and aesthetics. Modern day Indians shoppers are highly conscious ambience or a store or office. Hence, spending on creating such ambience is imminent. This can be avoided by online business.

Red Tape

[caption id="attachment_124725" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image - Newindianexpress.com[/caption]

Setting up an online business does not involve cutting through miles of red tape and overcoming bureaucratic hurdles to procure permits, licenses and other documents from government authorities. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has now simplified registration procedures for startup ventures. Several law firms provide the service for a few thousand Rupees. Under Indian laws, there are different types of registrations available for startup ventures.

Anyone looking for funding from Venture Capitalists (VCs), crowd sourcing platforms and other lenders needs to come up with excellent startup ideas that would attract investors. There are several such ideas available online that are relatively new and innovative.

Online businesses need not rush to get any registration, unless they are looking at some brick and mortar presence. New entrepreneurs can wait till their venture is successful and begins making profits before registering. Existing laws allow companies established less than seven years ago to be registered as startups. Hence, new entrepreneurs have plenty of time.

For brick-and-mortar businesses, an entrepreneur needs to get various clearances from the civic administration to register an office or store as well as those from local fire department. Plethora of licenses and permits cost a lot of money and eat heavily into the capital. These can simply be circumvented by opening an online enterprise.

Staffing & Payroll

Online businesses can operate be operated by entrepreneurs themselves or their close family members. At best, an online business can function efficiently with skeletal staff. These can be recruited locally if needed or hired on part-time basis. Online food ordering platforms recruit part-time delivery crew. Ditto with giant e-commerce companies like Amazon India that outsource deliveries to local agents that hire freelance staff that are paid on basis of number of packages delivered successfully.

Minimal staffing means a trim payroll. Rather than doling out fat pay packets to employees, new entrepreneurs can effectively utilize the money for expanding operations or launching new product and service lines.

Another advantage that new entrepreneurs can derive out of online business is by hiring staff at distant locations where they wish to expand. In such situations, it is possible to recruit part-time staff or freelancers till a new market becomes lucrative and starts paying adequate dividends to justify fulltime employees.

Business from Apps

Apps are the trendiest way for e-commerce in India. According to various reliable sources, over 23 percent of Indians bought stuff online using smartphone based apps. This amply proves that apps that work on mobile Internet are fast emerging as most preferred e-commerce channel in this country.

Nowadays, it costs a few thousand Rupees to have a customized app created for a new enterprise. These apps are accessed by potential customers during spare time, especially long commutes. Apps increase the probability of an interested person culminating as customer. App based business is something possible only if new entrepreneurs are online. They can display the app and provide link for its download through the website of their enterprise.

Market Realities

Another major reason why new entrepreneurs believe in online business is due to market growth. According to various projections, over 330 million women and men from different age groups will use e-commerce to buy stuff by the year 2020. This translates as whopping US$45 billion worth purchases. Numbers in terms of e-commerce users and total worth of purchases can be much higher. These figures are sufficient for any new entrepreneur to believe in online business.

Additionally, major e-commerce outlets in India including online retailers and Asset Management Companies (AMCs) are introducing newer, modern forms of payment for clients. These include payment through Unified Payment Interface (UPI) portal of National Payments Corporation of India, a government organization. Hence, new entrepreneurs can offer various channels to clients shopping for their goods or services.

In Conclusion

There are several more distinct advantages why new entrepreneurs believe in online business though offline is also a big market. The biggest benefit of offline shopping or buying at brick-and-mortar stores is the instant gratification. A consumer gets first-hand feel and look of the product. Yet online businesses score because they are able to ship goods swiftly, reducing delivery time. Secondly, customers get the option of choosing a delivery address and time. Online makes it possible to send gifts instantly- which is not possible with most offline ventures. These basic factors are why new entrepreneurs believe in online business despite offline ones also being profitable.

Ibibo Founder Launches AI-based FinTech Startup INDwealth; Raises $30 Mn from Steadview Capital

Two years after selling Ibibo to MakeMyTrip for an estimated $2 billion and making an exit from its first venture, Ibibo founder, Ashish Kashyap, has launched his second entrepreneurial venture called INDWealth, which is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered wealth management company.

Kashyap has co-founded INDwealth with three other co-founders namely Pratiksha D., Amrita Sirohia and Varun Bhatia. Pratiksha and Varun are former employees at Ibibo and were serving as Software Engineers at Kashyab founded Ibibo. Amrita Sirohia on other hand is former Vice President at HSBC.

The parent company of IndWealth is Finzoom Investments, which is registered in Gurgaon.

INDWealth, an AI and machine learning-based wealth management and advisory platform, will offer a slew of services to high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. Its a full stack personal finance platform that aims to provide solutions to investors ranging from wealth management, investments, micro-savings, taxation, lending, expense management, and portfolio management.

Moreover, the startup has raised an estimated $30 million (~ Rs 220 crore) in seed funding from UK and Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, which is possibly the largest funding round raised by a homegrown startup that is yet to be launched for public.

Ravi Mehta, managing director at Steadview Capital, said in a statement to Economic Times, “Globally, this space has seen some innovative applications of tech, especially artificial intelligence and machine learning, combined with human touch to change the way wealth is managed for individuals.”

With this fundraise, INDwealth has joined the league of very few Indian startups which has raised a handsome capital even before being launched and going live for public usage. Earlier in September last year, Mumbai-based InsurTech startup Acko General Insurance had raised $30 million in seed funding from many high profile investors.

INDwealth is expected to launch in January next year, for both Android and iOS users. The app will initially target HNIs and affluents with annual incomes starting from Rs 18-Rs 20 lakh and upwards and therafter it will eventually be rolled out for all.

In a statement given to Economic Times, Kashyap said, “The key learning is, managing money cannot be done through a single dimension. It can’t just be done through investments. It has to be done through a combination of investment, liabilities and taxation. We want to play a very important part of the consumer’s financial life."

“Everyone is developing products and solutions of various sub-categories, but they all intersect. We wanted to bring all of this under one roof, which is classic wealth management practice. This will enable consumers to plan their goals for the future,” he said.

Kashyap quit as president and co-founder of MakeMyTrip in September last year, a year after he, along with MakeMyTrip group chief executive Deep Kalra, had orchestrated, at the time, the largest internet merger in India—the $2 billion largely stock acquisition of Ibibo Group by the Nasdaq-listed Makemytrip.

Prior to founding "ibibo Group", Kshyap was had served as Country Head of Google India, where he set up the India facing operations from ground up. Prior to Google, he was also the head of E-Commerce businesses at Indiatimes.com (Online travel, Shopping and Payments).

Post his stint at Google, he set up Ibibo Group, which was initially created as a greenfield incubator, in partnership with Naspers, before evolving into an online travel business.

Ashish holds an Economics (Honors) from Kirori Mal College, University Of Delhi and a diploma in "International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM) from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.

Kashyap had also made a couple of investments in Indian startups - Betaout and Food delivery startup BiteClub.

Source - Economic Times

Ibibo Founder Launches AI-based FinTech Startup INDwealth; Raises $30 Mn from Steadview Capital

Two years after selling Ibibo to MakeMyTrip for an estimated $2 billion and making an exit from its first venture, Ibibo founder, Ashish Kashyap, has launched his second entrepreneurial venture called INDWealth, which is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered wealth management company.

Kashyap has co-founded INDwealth with three other co-founders namely Pratiksha D., Amrita Sirohia and Varun Bhatia. Pratiksha and Varun are former employees at Ibibo and were serving as Software Engineers at Kashyab founded Ibibo. Amrita Sirohia on other hand is former Vice President at HSBC.

The parent company of IndWealth is Finzoom Investments, which is registered in Gurgaon.

INDWealth, an AI and machine learning-based wealth management and advisory platform, will offer a slew of services to high net worth and ultra high net worth individuals. Its a full stack personal finance platform that aims to provide solutions to investors ranging from wealth management, investments, micro-savings, taxation, lending, expense management, and portfolio management.

Moreover, the startup has raised an estimated $30 million (~ Rs 220 crore) in seed funding from UK and Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital, which is possibly the largest funding round raised by a homegrown startup that is yet to be launched for public.

Ravi Mehta, managing director at Steadview Capital, said in a statement to Economic Times, “Globally, this space has seen some innovative applications of tech, especially artificial intelligence and machine learning, combined with human touch to change the way wealth is managed for individuals.”

With this fundraise, INDwealth has joined the league of very few Indian startups which has raised a handsome capital even before being launched and going live for public usage. Earlier in September last year, Mumbai-based InsurTech startup Acko General Insurance had raised $30 million in seed funding from many high profile investors.

INDwealth is expected to launch in January next year, for both Android and iOS users. The app will initially target HNIs and affluents with annual incomes starting from Rs 18-Rs 20 lakh and upwards and therafter it will eventually be rolled out for all.

In a statement given to Economic Times, Kashyap said, “The key learning is, managing money cannot be done through a single dimension. It can’t just be done through investments. It has to be done through a combination of investment, liabilities and taxation. We want to play a very important part of the consumer’s financial life."

“Everyone is developing products and solutions of various sub-categories, but they all intersect. We wanted to bring all of this under one roof, which is classic wealth management practice. This will enable consumers to plan their goals for the future,” he said.

Kashyap quit as president and co-founder of MakeMyTrip in September last year, a year after he, along with MakeMyTrip group chief executive Deep Kalra, had orchestrated, at the time, the largest internet merger in India—the $2 billion largely stock acquisition of Ibibo Group by the Nasdaq-listed Makemytrip.

Prior to founding "ibibo Group", Kshyap was had served as Country Head of Google India, where he set up the India facing operations from ground up. Prior to Google, he was also the head of E-Commerce businesses at Indiatimes.com (Online travel, Shopping and Payments).

Post his stint at Google, he set up Ibibo Group, which was initially created as a greenfield incubator, in partnership with Naspers, before evolving into an online travel business.

Ashish holds an Economics (Honors) from Kirori Mal College, University Of Delhi and a diploma in "International Masters in Practicing Management (IMPM) from Insead, Fontainebleau, France.

Kashyap had also made a couple of investments in Indian startups - Betaout and Food delivery startup BiteClub.

Source - Economic Times

India Behind Only U.S. in Countries with Most No. of Blockchain Developers

In a business of software, Software engineers or developers are the builders of the digital world and just as traditional developers uses programming languages, blockchain developers too need to get comfortable with some different programming languages, such as Python and C++.

And, when it comes to Software and programming, India is undoubtedly the leader in producing large number of software engineers and developers. For emerging technologies like blockchain India is leading the race in this too.

According to Software developers market analysis, carried out by London-based blockchain consulting firm, Dappros, the United States and India are the leaders when it comes to absolute number of blockchain developers in the countries worldwide.

Top 10 countries by absolute number of blockchain developers

1. United States


2. India


3. United Kingdom


4. Canada


5. France


6. Germany


7. Netherlands


8. Australia


9. Spain


10. Brazil

Top 10 countries by relative number of blockchain developers (% of population)

1. Malta


2. Luxembourg


3. Singapore


4. Switzerland


5. Netherlands



6. Cyprus



7. Slovenia



8. Ireland



9. Estonia



10. Canada

However, it is to be noted that this does not mean that India & U.S. do not have skill shortage of blockchain developer because of very fact that these are absolute numbers and when one counts absolute number of something for a country it does not consider its proportion to its overall population size, or simply the saturation.

Thus, when it comes to how each country is saturated by blockchain developers in proportion to its overall population size, Malta, Luxembourg and Singapore are top three countries leading the list.

According to the report, while Malta has estimated 46 blockchain developers per 100,000 population, India on other hand has just 1 blockchain developer per 100,000 population.

The United States has 8 blockchain developer per 100,000 population while Singapore has 36, says the report.

Social networking and job website postings have been analysed for Blockchain, Ethereum, Solidity, Bitcoin and Hyperledger developer profiles.

The relative saturation of blockchain developers per country has also been analysed with a different set of countries taking leading positions in the ranking.

Full data and detailed report available here. The report provides further insights including full global ranking as well as heatmaps for world, Europe and Asia.

World's Most Advanced Robotics Factory to be Built in Shanghai, China

Pioneering digital technology company ABB today announced a major, new US$150 million investment in Shanghai, China to build the world’s most advanced, automated and flexible robotics factory - a cutting-edge center where robots make robots. The new Kangqiao manufacturing center, near ABB’s expansive China robotics campus, will combine the company’s connected digital technologies, including ABB Ability™ solutions, state-of-the-art collaborative robotics and innovative artificial intelligence research to create the most sophisticated and environmentally sustainable “factory of the future.” It is expected to begin operating by the end of 2020.

With this, it marks a significant milestone for ABB as China’s #1 robotics manufacturer as well as a critical global growth investment for the company in the world’s largest robotics market. In 2017, one of every three robots sold in the world went to China, which purchased nearly 138,000 units. Today, ABB employs approximately 5,000 people in Shanghai, and the company’s robotics businesses in China employ more than 2,000 engineers, technology experts and operational leaders in 20 locations across the country. ABB has invested more than US$2.4 billion in China since 1992, with over 18,000 employees in total.

[caption id="attachment_126994" align="aligncenter" width="800"] The new Shanghai factory will feature a number of machine learning, digital and collaborative solutions to make it the most advanced, automated and flexible factory in the robotics industry. (Photo: Business Wire)[/caption]

Related - ABB to Manufacture EV Chargers in India; To Set Up Production Facilities by Year-End

ABB and the Shanghai municipal government today also signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement focused on supporting industry, energy, transport and infrastructure in the region, and to support the “Made in Shanghai” manufacturing initiative. The agreement was signed by Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong and ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer.

“China’s commitment to transform its manufacturing is a torchlight for the rest of the world,” said Spiesshofer. “Its strategic embrace of the latest technologies for artificial intelligence, advanced robotics and cloud-based computing present a playbook for every country that wishes to have a globally competitive manufacturing base. Shanghai has become a vital center for advanced technology leadership – for ABB and the world. We look forward to working with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong, other community leaders and our customers as we launch this major expansion of ABB’s substantial presence in China, building on our journey to become China’s leading Robotics manufacturer that started in Shanghai over two decades ago.”

Leading the Way with a Digital Factory of the Future

The new Shanghai factory will feature a number of machine learning, digital and collaborative solutions to make it the most advanced, automated and flexible factory in the robotics industry, and an onsite R&D center will help accelerate innovations in artificial intelligence. Using a new, global design approach that ABB announced earlier this year, the factory will be able to dramatically increase both the breadth (type of robots) and depth (variants of each type) of robots that can be made onsite, allowing greater and faster customization to meet the needs of customers.

ABB will also be able to combine this expanded portfolio of robotics into an almost limitless number of tailored solutions. “The concept behind this factory is the same advice we give our customers every day: invest in automation solutions that provide flexibility and agility to grow in whichever direction the market goes,” said Sami Atiya, President of ABB’s Robotics and Motion division. “ABB is proud to help our customers in China and around the world with solutions that take full advantage of the latest technologies to meet the challenges of mass customization, faster cycles and constant change which have become the new normal – even in our own factories.”

The entire Shanghai factory will be modeled as a digital twin, which will provide intuitively tailored dashboards for management, engineers, operators and maintenance experts to make the best decisions. This includes gathering and analyzing intelligence through ABB Ability™ Connected Services on the health and performance of ABB robots in the factory to ensure early identification of potential anomalies. In addition to avoiding costly downtime, ABB Ability™ offers advanced digital solutions that can improve performance, reliability and energy usage, as well as providing access to the world’s best platforms, such as the Microsoft Azure enterprise cloud, which is the first international public cloud service operated in China.

An Innovative Design that Makes Better Use of Manufacturing Space

[tnm_video layout="mnmd-post-media"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSkjHCXbfg4[/tnm_video]

The new factory will have an innovative, flexible floor-plan based on interlinked islands of automation rather than fixed assembly lines. ABB logistics automation solutions will be used throughout the plant, including automatic guided vehicles that can autonomously follow robots as they move through production, supplying them with parts from localized stations. This will allow production to adapt and scale efficiently to changes in China’s robot market without additional capacity expansions.

Per Vegard Nerseth, Managing Director of ABB’s Robotics business, said “There’s a large shift away from looking at factory size and CAPEX investments as the way to meet future demand. The concept behind our new factory is to make the smartest and most flexible use of every meter of production. That comes from combining agile automation solutions with the great capabilities of our people.”

To aid the move to mass customization in manufacturing and to ensure the highest levels of productivity and flexibility, the new Shanghai factory will make extensive use of ABB’s SafeMove2 software, which allows people and robots to work safely in close proximity. In addition, ABB’s YuMi robots will allow close collaboration on many of the small parts assembly tasks needed to manufacture an ABB robot.

ABB was an early entrant in the China robotics market and the first global robot supplier in the country to have a complete local value chain, including R&D, manufacturing, system integration and service. Through close customer collaboration, ABB has helped introduce many “firsts” to local manufacturing including: China’s first automotive press, welding and painting lines; the first assembly line for mobile phones; and the first automated press line for white goods.

“2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy,” said Dr. Chunyuan Gu, Chairman of ABB China and President, AMEA region. “ABB was an early arriver in China and we now have a fully localized value chain, supported by China’s remarkable economic and social development. As the market leader in China’s robotics industry, we are glad to build on this success and continue our investment momentum.”

The new Shanghai factory – with a comprehensive R&D center onsite – will become a key part of ABB’s global robotics supply system, together with the company’s recently upgraded factory in Västerås, Sweden and its factory in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where ABB remains the only global robot supplier with a US manufacturing footprint.

Source - Business Wire India (Unedited)

[Top-most Featured Image ~ Jehyun Sung on Unsplash]