Insurtech Startup Kruzr Raises $1.3 Mn from Saama Capital and Better Capital

InsurTech startup Kruzr has raised 1.3 Million USD (Rs. 9.5 Cr) for its seed round led by Saama Capital with participation from Better Capital. Kruzr is a preventive motor insurance technology which helps insurance companies personalize policy premiums & improve their risk model by delivering an engaging preventative driving assistant to their customers. Kruzr is founded by Pallav Singh, Ayan, and Jasmeet Singh Sethi.

Kruzr blends the power of voice technology and artificial intelligence in its personal driving assistant that helps drivers minimize mobile distractions, drowsy driving, speeding and external risks like weather and accident-prone zones. In pilots with insurers, Kruzr managed to cut down distracted driving by 80%. Kruzr is working with motor insurance companies in Europe, UK and India to bring its technology to their customers to prevent accidents & improve claims.

“Road accidents cause over 1.3 million deaths globally every year, and motor insurance companies lose billions of dollars due to these. However, more than 75% of accidents are actually preventable with timely driver assistance. We at Kruzr are building technology to minimize these accidents and help make motor insurance truly preventive and customer-centric.” says Pallav, co-founder and CEO.

The funds raised will be utilized to grow the technology team, scale the product, and expand the business in Europe and UK.

“We were very impressed by the founding team’s vision for Kruzr and their significant customer progress in the European automobile insurance market. We believe Pallav, Ayan and Jasmeet can build a world-class product company out of India serving this sizeable and growing global market,” said Suresh Shanmugham, Managing Partner, Saama Capital.

“Kruzr is leveraging the latest advances in mobile, big data, and AI to build a unique preventive driving technology that will save lives and help motor insurance companies design personalized policies. I’ve watched the Kruzr team learn and iterate to build traction with the world top insurers & am excited about the future ahead”, said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital.

Kruzr is positioned as the world’s first technology powered smart driving assistant and is designed to automate driver safety. The mobile app automatically detects driving and begins to play the role of your driving assistant. It filters out all important calls and messages, thus reducing distraction while driving, one of the major causes for road traffic incidents across the globe.

Blockchain-based Loan Marketplace Streamsource Raises $1 Mn Seed Funding from Accel India

Gurgaon-based StreamSource Technologies, a decentralized marketplace for loans, has raised $1 million in seed funding from Accel India, making it Accel’s first local investment in the blockchain sector.

Interestingly, StreamSource was founded in 2018 by a former Uber and an Ola executive -- Mayank Tewari and Prerit Srivastava, respectively. While Mayank was General Manager of Products at Uber, Prerit was CEO of Qarth Technologies, which was aquired by Ola in 2016 and he was at Products team at Ola.

The startup will utilize the funds raised in further developing its product, while also growing its sales team in the US and hiring local resources in markets such as Australia and UK where it plans to go next. The startup also is working to expand the product bring in merchants, apart from just lenders, who will be able to sell leads to the lenders on its platform.

StreamSource, a Quorum based private blockchain platform, is a decentralized marketplace where lenders and debt buyers can initiate and settle transactions that includes buying and selling of credit approved leads and whole loan transactions.

Quorum is an enterprise-focused version of variant of the Ethereum blockchain, developed by J.P. Morgan.

Streamsource is currently working with a few mid-size lenders in the US, the names of which it did not disclose.

The company said it picked the US as it first market as the decision making for processing of unsecured loans in India is far deeper, more complex and requires manual intervention.

“The problem has been known for years, but it hasn’t been solved because traditional technologies are generally very inefficient in transactions like this where both parties do not want data to be shared but they want to collaborate,” said Prerit Srivastava, co-founder of Streamsource.

Prayank Swaroop, Principal at Accel Partners, said, “We’ve been trying to do investments in this space for the longest time, but what we found was people were artificially trying to create blockchain use cases. Here we found that this is a business need and that gave us confidence to invest in them."

Source - Economic Times - ET Tech

Hyderabad's Ignis Careers Raises $150k Funding from Gray Matters Capital to Digitally Train 1 lakh Students in 500 Schools

Ignis Careers, a Hyderabad-based social enterprise providing capacity-building programs for teachers in government and affordable private schools, has today announced that it has developed a digital platform for imparting its Life Skills training program targeting first generation learners from low income communities.

This comes on the back of the funding of $ 150,000 it received from Atlanta headquartered education sector focused impact investor Gray Matters Capital through its edLABS initiative, paving the way for it to digitize the teacher manuals for improving classroom delivery efficiency.

Using customized content and interactive technology to teach English integrated Life skills

The Life Skills curriculum offered by Ignis Careers is unique in the sense that it integrates English language learning to help students not just get acquainted with the language but to also prepare them for employment opportunities in the future.

The digital platform developed by it will serve as an interactive multi-media enabled instruction manual that will help teachers understand instructions clearly and help them to enable a more interactive learning atmosphere in classrooms.

“We aim at breathing purpose into the Indian education system, weaning it away from practices of rote learning and mindless focus on marks. Our life skills focus would empower students with critical thinking, advocacy skills, situation adaptability skills and self-management skills so that the students would go on to build a purposeful life. By improving their English skills along with life skills, they learn to seek and access information for themselves, and eventually learn to make informed decisions in life,” said Rennis Joseph, Co-Founder and CEO, Ignis Careers.

Expansion Plans

Currently present in 9 centres in the states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Delhi, Ignis Careers’ curriculum has been adopted by more than 200 schools benefiting nearly 57,000 students through capacity building of 1788 teachers.

Post the funding and the development of the digital platform, Ignis Careers will look to expand its presence to 16 more centres in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra by FY 2021, catering to 1.08 lakh students through 4400 teachers across 400 schools in the Affordable Private School (APS) segment and 100 government schools.

The funding would also be used to strengthen the leadership team by recruiting senior administrative personnel.

Rural Teacher Fellowship

Ignis Careers runs a Rural Teacher Fellowship program in partnership with Venture Capital Fund -Acumen and HDFC Bank, wherein teachers are recruited from the communities targeted for impact and trained in English skills and best-in-class teaching practices. These teachers then return to government schools in their communities to improve the skills of the students attending, thus creating a sustainable model of simultaneous teacher and student training.

Ignis Careers is a social enterprise that develops capacities in English and life skills through its programs with the teachers for the children of first generation learners from low income communities. Since its inception in 2009, Ignis has impacted over 10,000 teachers and 250,000 underserved children across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and New Delhi through a wide range of customised learning programs. Its engagements are guided by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that emphasise the importance of all children and young people receiving a purposeful basic education by 2030. Over the years, through their flagship program Rural Teacher Fellowship program, Ignis has designed and delivered a culturally relevant age and level appropriate context based curriculum in sixteen villages in Khammam district, Telangana and three schools in Aya Nagar, New Delhi. The program has involved multiple stakeholders at the community level and resulted in improved skills, reduction in attrition and gradual change in the mind-set of under-served communities towards education.

The prime focus of the programme is to develop the language skills of the students in an interactive and joyful manner where language acquisition becomes a part of the lived experience. The programme builds capacities of teachers along with their children in improving their language and child-centric teaching skills. Year-long training support for teachers at their school campus to help them break away from practices focussed on rote learning and adopt activity based participatory methodologies that ensure quick internalisation and constant practice of concepts.

AI Startup Clootrack Raises $500K Funding from Indian Angel Network

Bangalore based, Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up Clootrack Software Labs Private Limited (“Clootrack”) has announced raising $500K in seed funding round from Indian Angel Network, country’s largest horizontal seed stage funding platform. Led by IAN, the round also saw participation from IAN Fund, Unicorn India Ventures (existing investor), SEA Fund and Malabar Angel Network. Anthony Thomas, Global CIO, Nissan Motors and Salliel Gupta have led the round on behalf of IAN with Anthony joining the company board. IAN investor group also includes Kris Gopalakrishnan (Co Founder, Infosys).

Founded in April 2017 by Subbakrishna Rao and Shameel Abdulla [in Pic above], Clootrack is the first of its kind AI driven data analytics platform that discovers and measures brand perceptions in real time. Clootrack does this based on analysis of customer conversations in various online media and customer care tickets. Clootrack discovers brand perception elements in an unsupervised manner from text conversations. The company runs on proprietary deep learning algorithms based on proven mathematical models and has two pending patents.

Shameel Abdulla, Co-founder CEO, Clootrack says, “It is encouraging to see top tier investors continually backing our vision and trusting in our business. We are glad to have kept our burn ratio low and built the business where healthy traction, better algorithms and deeper use of Machine Learning is showing near real time results to our customers.”

Brainchild of Shameel Abdulla and Subbakrishna Rao, CTO, Clootrack, both the founders bring serial entrepreneurship experience to the table. Shameel, an ISB drop out, holds 2 patents and has founded Jiffstore which was acquired by PepperTap and Kode Blink, a mobile app company with apps topping Appstore charts. Subbakrishna Rao, also a serial entrepreneur, has close two decades of experience in the tech sector.

Speaking on the investment, Lead IAN investor Anthony Thomas commented, “Understanding customers fast is key in today’s rapidly changing markets. Clootrack depicts a unique combination of making this happen with superior technology and rapid adoption in enterprises with smart go to market.”
Unicorn India Ventures, which is the first institutional investor in the Company, seed funded them in 2017 and has been supportive and actively mentoring the founders to scale their business.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, says, “We decided to seed fund Clootrack in 2017 because their tech stack and a well articulated strategy to solve the brands’ need gap when it comes to understanding their customers, convinced us to back them. Two years later, we believe the Company is in a sweet spot and is providing the much needed brand perception solutions to its customers. With the use of AI and deep learning, they have proven how can brands stay close to their customers and this is what has kept us interested in the Company.”

With digitization and AI ruling pretty much every aspect of our lives, even today, most of the companies receive arbitary information about their products but are unable to make anything of it. Clootrack solves this problem with its unique AI driven solutions about customer preferences. In most of large companies, 50% of the advertising costs are going into digital channels. Such channels are quite flexible and one can change their strategy within a few hours and react as per customers’ feedback provided they have that data to make a quick turnaround on their campaigns.

Clootrack assists brand managers to not only achieve this but also discovers real time brand perceptions from end users’ perspective at 80% lower costs in comparison to closed surveys, which takes months and are sometimes biased due to the nature of closed questionnaire.
Clootrack currently operates a subscription model and operates in 6 domains – Pharma, FMCG, retail, finance, travel and automotive. The Company works with more than 150 enterprises including Fortune 500 companies.

Indian Angel Network has been a pioneer in the seed and early stage investing. It has now launched a ₹450 Crores VC fund making it now, the single largest platform for seed & early stage, where entrepreneurs can raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores (with co investors). Some of its marquee investee companies include, WebEngage, Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure amongst many others.

Unicorn India Ventures is a Mumbai based VC firm that invests in early age startups working on ideas business spanning sectors like consumer, healthcare, enterprise and deep technology domain. The Fund House has debt, equity and Indo UK cross border funds under its management. From the equity fund, Unicorn India has invested in close to 20 companies and have also done follow on investments in its portfolio companies.
The Managing partners at Unicorn Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar have a unique way of identifying innovative start-ups. The Fund will be investing solely or co-invests with another fund it institution in a startup with an innovative business idea, which can solve a real life problem. The deal size will vary from $ 1,00,000 to $ 2 million

T-Hub Appoints Ex-Microsoft Executive Ravi Narayan as CEO; To Grow Size by Four Times

Hyderabad-based T-Hub, which was India’s biggest startup incubator, has appointed former global Director of Microsoft, Ravi Narayan, as its new CEO.

Previously, Srinivas Kollipara was as an interim CEO after Jay Krishnan has resigned from his position of CEO in T-Hub in April 2018.

Ravi studied at IIT Madras and did his MBA from University of Southern California.

In addition, T-Hub also announced that it will be increasing its size more than fourfold under the phase-II project that is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019.

In a media statement, Ravi Narayan said, “We talk about innovation and ecosystem here and the programs here such as international relations, Corporate innovation have done very well. For me, the next level is bringing all of it togetherand creating an innovation ecosystem. We don't have to follow anyone's footsteps. We have to carve out our own path to create an innovation ecosystem.”

According to Narayan's LinkedIn profile, he had co-founded three companies in the US between 1992 and 2005 and exited all of them via M&A route. In 2013, he joined Microsoft where he was responsible for its startup growth programs that allow startups to co-sell with Microsoft.

Over 1,100 startups from India and outside have been incubated at T-Hub that spreads over 70,000 sq. ft space. With phase II coming up on a built-up area of 3-lakh sq. ft, T-Hub will regain the title of India’s biggest incubator in terms of sq. ft space.

The government had said the second phase would be taken up at an investment of Rs 150 crore on the built-up area of 3-lakh square feet, PTI reported.

The second phase of T-Hub was launched in 2017 and it was claimed that post completion of same T-Hubh will be the world's second largest incubator for startups.

T-Hub is a Public-Private Partnership between the Government of Telangana, three of India’s leading academic institutes (The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and The National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, Hyderabad) and the private sector. It bills itself as standing at the intersection of the start-up, academic, corporate, research and government sectors.

Source - Financial Express, News Minute

With Fresh Funding from Elevar Equity & TPG Rise, 'The Better India' Launches E-Commerce Platform

Bangalore-based online news & stories portal, The Better India, has raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round led by Elevar Equity with participation from TPG Rise (The Rise Fund). Additionally, the digital media startup has also launched an e-commerce platform for SMEs/MSMEs, NGOs and SHGs in India to sell their products, announced Dhimant Parekh, Founder of TheBetterIndia.com, in a blog post.

The e-commerce platform (shop.thebetterindia.com), which is still in early phase, will procure products from low-income groups and sell online. The products include clay water bottles, sustainable bamboo products, wallets from used tyres, footwear from discarded footwear and more.

"There are millions of micro/small/medium enterprises and NGOs and SHGs in the country that make great products — products that, if sold, generate income for low-income groups and/or are great for the environment. These particularly small enterprises lack access to consumer markets and hence do not have predictable income and growth," said Parekh in the blog post.

"Large horizontal e-commerce platforms struggle to help these small enterprises due to the ‘discovery of plenty’ issue. These platforms end up focusing on high-frequency high-demand items — mobile phones, fashion etc.," he said.

Touted as Asia’s largest content platform for impact, TheBetterIndia.com has won several awards in the past, including the Manthan Award for best alternative news site across South Asia.

Speaking on the company's future plans & vision, Parekh said, "‘Turning Inspiration into Impact’ has been our guiding force ever since we started. We will continue to leverage the internet and our community in innovative ways to help increase income-levels of low-income communities and marginalised communities. In this context, it is particularly important to note that the work of Elevar Equity and The Rise Fund is extremely relevant to our journey forward."

[caption id="attachment_128297" align="aligncenter" width="750"] 'The Better India' Husband-Wife Duo Founders[/caption]

Currently available in English, Hindi & Malayalam languages, TheBetterIndia.com was started in 2008 by Parekh along with his wife Anuradha Kedia, as a side-project to bring out "positive content" -based news & stories and mobilize people towards social causes.

In Mar 2015, had raised Rs 1 crore from Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N or I-cube-N) and others including Myntra Co-founder Raveen Sastry. Later in May of same year, it raised undisclosed capital from Mohandas Pai, former CFO of Infosys.

Elevar Equity, a human centered venture capital firm based out of Bangalore, has partnered with has also partnered with impact investor The Rise fund of TPG Growth and both are working closely in India. Elevar invests in transformative and scalable entrepreneurial ventures focused on communities in India and Latin America.

The Rise Fund is the world’s largest global fund committed to achieving measurable, positive social and environmental outcomes alongside competitive financial returns. In May 2017, The Rise fund made its first investment in India when it invested $50 million in Hyderabad-based Dodla Dairy.

IISc Incubated Simulation Tech Startup SimYog Raises ₹6.3 Crore from Robert Bosch, IdeaSpring

SimYog, a startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), has raised Rs 6.3 crore in the funding round led by Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) along with contribution from of Ideaspring Capital,

The Bangalore-based startup will utilize the funds to expand its product offering.

Founded in 2017, by former Intel engineer Dipanjan Gope, SimYog operates in the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) space and is focused on providing “Design and Sign-off tools for Automotive Electronics”. The startup's vision is a harmonious integration of physical science and data science to enable cost-effective and performance rich automotive hardware design saving time-to-market, reducing bill-of-material costs and improving yield-rate.

The startup’s deep-learning-based software solution allows hardware developers to test an electronic components’ resistance to electromagnetic interference (EMI) in the design stage. Typically, auto component makers develop multiple prototypes and test for EMI before mass production.

“Typically, a lab requires $4-5 million of investment and with the huge number of electronics being built, there’s also a significant wait time to use the lab. Instead, if every developer can test for EMIMC in the design stage, this was our interest,” said RK Shenoy, senior vice president at RBEI. “SimYog is using data analytics and machine learning to solve this problem and we believe this will reduce development time as well as cost for us. This is why we worked with them to bring this to the market and also invested in them.”

AS of now SimYog's solution only tests one parameter, with the second coming by the middle of 2019. The 5-people company intends to expand its team to 12 people over the next one year, as it adds customers and products.



“In the automotive sector 20 years ago, the bill of materials was largely mechanical, but now we’re seeing a transition, where a large portion of the cost of the vehicle is in electronic and electrical components,” said Dipanjan Gope, CEO of SimYog, who was an Assistant Professor at IISc in past.

"In electric vehicles, 50-70% of the bill of materials IS FOR electronics, and if we can help a company like Bosch reduce the number of prototypes in developing these components, it will greatly reduce their time to market and costs.”

The startup is also an example of collaboration between industry and academia, showcasing the power of programmes put in place by IISc, said CS Murali, chairman of STEM CELL, the deep-tech startup incubator at IISc. SimYog emerged out of collaborative research that began in 2012 between Bosch engineers who enrolled for a PhD programme at IISc and Gope. The intellectual property is jointly held by the institute and the company.

Source - Economic Times | Images - Simyog.com

Student Accommodation Firm Stanza Living Launches App for Real-Estate Owners

World-class student residence provider, Stanza Living, launched Stanza Estate app, designed to enable quick and efficient listing of properties. The app was launched as part of its growth strategy to reach one lakh bed-capacity by 2021. The app will allow property owners, brokers, real estate consultants and developers, to partner with Stanza Living in an effective manner, to create bespoke, high-quality student accommodations. It will help create an ecosystem of property owners across the country, to launch student accommodations in key educational hubs like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Indore, Ahmedabad, among others.

Stanza Living operates a full-stack business model that transforms properties into student-friendly residences, provides a wide array of amenities for a hassle-free living experience and ensures end-to-end service delivery management. The company has recently received a fresh funding of $10 million, from marquee global investors like Sequoia Capital, Matrix and Accel Partners.

Speaking about the launch Anindya Dutta and Sandeep Dalmia, Co-founders, Stanza Living, said “We are on an aggressive growth path and have an ambition to target a capacity of over one lakh beds by 2021. Our intent is to create a pan-India student housing brand so that the millions of migrating students in the country can be assured of a high-quality residential experience. The Stanza Estate App is the first step to engage like-minded property owners, brokers and consultants and work together to create a high-yield proposition. We will be launching a series of outreach programmes to engage potential partners and find synergies, as we build a world-class student brand.”

Speaking about the impact on business efficiencies, they said “Launched as a pure listing platform, future updates of the app will have powerful data analytics engines and property evaluation algorithms to allow real-time evaluation of the viability of a property as a student living asset. This will create an efficient information exchange and operational liaison between our business teams, allow real-time updates to our potential partners and faster sourcing of property supply to grow our footprint."

The Stanza Estate App provides:

• An intuitive interface and easy navigation enabling the user to share a repository of comprehensive property details




• Real-time update on property assessment, shortlisting and selection

The Stanza Living team will subsequently partner to transform selected properties into student accommodations and take care of complete everyday operations.

Student housing is a largely unorganized market, which suffers significant infrastructure and service quality gaps. Despite being a high-demand sector generating revenues of over $15 billion, there has been no significant disruption in the sector to deliver a high-quality student community-living product. Stanza Living is focusing on reimagining the student living experience in India, to ensure that the over 11 million migrant students in the country can enjoy global standard housing solutions.

First National Conference on Technology in Interiors of Maharashtra

Maulana Mukhtar Ahmed Nadvi Technical Campus (MMANTC) to organize and host their 1st National Conference on Technology (official website) to promote the innovation, entrepreneurship, and awareness especially amongst female students and rural students at MMANTC, Mansoora Malegaon on 23rd & 24th Feb 2019. The conference aims to bring together researchers, scientists, industry experts, academicians and policy makers to promote STEM, and specially promote & encourage women’s participation in STEM.



Honorable Rashid Mukhtar, Secretary JMES, said that “Our founder’s vision was to empower the youth of India through quality technical education. Through our conferences such as 1st National Conference on Technology we want to connect our students with Industry and skilled masters of the industry for their professional career and entrepreneurship journey.”

As one of the aims of the conference is to promote women’s participation in STEM, the organizers have invited Ainul Attar who is Former, Deputy Director DTE, Former, Joint Secretary of Minority Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, Ex-Executive council member of I.S.T.E., New Delhi as a Chief Guest to inspire the rural girl students.

MMANTC have also invited Dr. Tausif Malik, Treasurer, Democrats Abroad India (Democratic Party USA’s International chapter), Founder MAHAbfic.com (Maharashtra Blockchain Fintech ICO Crypto currency) Pune, GCCStartup.News, All India Muslim Business Startup Network (AIMBSN), IndiaStartupFest.com, Muslim Spelling Bee, USA, Chicago as Chief Guest. He believes in the Gandhian Philosophy of empowerment of Rural India through sustainable development through Future Technologies. The sole objective is to promote and create a talent pool in Future Technologies creating sustainable development through “Reverse Migration”. He is a legend in his field and students will surely be benefited with his presence.

The MMANTC has also invited dignitaries such as Prof. (Dr.) N. B. Pasalkar Sahab, Dr. A. K. Kureshi, Dr. Neha Dand, Shahzed Lehry and Altaf Pirjade.



Dr. Munnazza Afreen, Chief Convener & Head, Faculty Training & Development; said that “Females participation in Technology and entrepreneurship is very low and through the conference we want to promote the same to our students, attendees and well-wishers."

Dr. Munnazza Afreen further added that we want our students to benefit from the Government of India schemes such as Make in India, Digital India, and Skill India & Startup India.

Conference specifically focuses on publication with our publication partner IOSR Journal, JMES Startup Showcase, JMES Hackathon, networking, branding and most importantly campus recruitment of college students.

For Registration - https://www.onlinesbi.com/sbicollect/icollecthome.htm?corpID=934644

The conference organizers are seeking Sponsorship, Media Partnership, Applications & Judges for JMES Hackathon, Applications, Investors & Judges for JMES Startups Showcase, Strategic Partnerships for Recruitment & Internship opportunities. They can contact me via Email facultydevelopment.jmes@gmail.com.
About MMANTC

Maulana Mukhtar Ahmed Nadvi Technical Campus (MMANTC) is located at the outskirts of Malegaon, the textile township of northern Maharashtra. The college offers Degree and Diploma courses in Mechanical, Civil, Electrical and Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering since 2012.

The Technical Campus has been a dream project of the Society’s President, Maulana Arshad Mukhtar, a great visionary, philanthropist, industrialist, educationist, and a worthy son of a worthy father, Maulana Mukhtar Ahmad Nadvi, who founded Jamia Mohammediya Education Society (JMES) in the year 1978. JMES has twelve institutions running in various parts of the country. Maulana Mukhtar Ahmad Nadvi strongly believed that only through education would the people of India, gain the vision of the future while preserving their timeless cultural values. Maulana Arshad Mukhtar, having taken the mantle from him in the year 2007, has been painting the canvas with such elegance that Jamia Mohammediya Education Society is now a name in the country to reckon with.

Kolkata-based Edutech Startup Notebook Launches their Platform Nationwide

Kolkata based Edutech startup, Notebook officially announced the launch of their platform nationwide. The company’s initiative allows children and parents to learn topics of their respective school syllabi through audio-visual content, text notes, and an exhaustive question bank. Going forward, the platform shall provide education aids designed for dyslexic and visually challenged students. It aims to articulate the gaps in the school education system in India and address them across all major boards and subjects.

Notebook will reach out to those desirous of such an education aid in the urban and rural sections of the country at affordable pricing. As an introductory offer, the platform has been kept free of cost at launch. The platform imparts education in an augmented storytelling format which mixes teacher-led and visual-led learning audio-visual content, complemented by in-depth text content.

Founded last year, by Achin Bhattacharya and Subhayu Roy, Notebook is a mobile-first product that combines video and text content to deliver best in class education according to the school curriculum. With productive engagement in mind, visuals and audio are used in a way to create maximum impact through short-form content.

Speaking at the launch of the platform, Mr Achin Bhattacharyya, Founder & CEO, Notebook said, “We are delighted to share the launch of our unique platform. With a responsibility to let every child learn, our product converts each and every topic into concise audio-visual form and delivers through cloud-based architecture that can be streamed on any personal devices.

“It will also include vernacular languages to overcome regional barriers to make learning easier and efficient. Our vision is to provide affordable access to the high-quality education system in India” He added.

Mr. Subhayu Roy, Co-Founder, Notebook said, “It is exciting to see the fruits of our labour finally reach the students. We believe we have developed an instruction design that engages, educates and aids recall. We have set out to make a difference in the way every student perceives education, and nothing would make us happier than to see students finding this helpful and relevant. We have been extremely lucky to find great people all along our journey and have a great team. For this, I am truly grateful.”

Also present at the launch was Mr Ashok Ganguly, who Notebook has roped in as a Senior Advisor. Mr. Ganguly was Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and was instrumental in various significant improvements in India’s school education system. As a member of the National Steering Committee and the Central Advisory Board of Education, he played an important role in the development of the National Curriculum Framework 2005.

Citykart Raises ₹100 Crore from IDFC Alternatives and India SME Investments

New Delhi headqartered value retail chain Citykart has raised Rs 100 crore from private equity fund IDFC Alternatives and India SME Investment for a significant minority stake. This was first external round of funding for Citykart.

The fresh funding will help the retail startup to add 100 stores in the Northern and Eastern markets and grow revenue by fourfold in the next few years, an reported Financial Express.

The fund infusion will be done by parting a “significant minority stake” in the company. The company has opened 40 stores on an asset light model in large retail malls across various small towns and cities in UP and Bihar during the past two years. Its revenue has grown by an average of 32 percent over the last two years, the statement said without giving the absolute number.

Founded in 2016, by Sudhanshu Agarwal, CityKart is one of the largest family stores chain in North and North East India and operates 15 retail outlets that are currently present at states like Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Nagaland.

Prior to launching Citykart, Agarwal was Vice President.at TPG Wholesale (Vishal Mega Mart) and Vishal Retail Ltd., which are retail businesses owned by private equity fund TPG Capital.

“Citykart is addressing a large and untapped opportunity of providing fast fashion apparel at affordable prices to its customers in smaller towns and rural areas. We are delighted to partner with Citykart to fulfil its vision,” IDFC Alternatives’ partner Girish Nadkarni said.

This is the fourth investment from IDFC Private Equity Fund IV and the first investment from this fund in the retail segment, the statement said, adding the company has done 45 investments till now across funds.

Earlier this month, IDFC Alternatives has led the $30 million funding of Zolo, a Bangalore-based startup that offers managed co-living spaces to students and professionals.

TRAI Launches Web App to Let You Select TV Channels and Compute Monthly Rental

From February 1, watching TV is going to get cheaper as the new Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) rules will come into effect. This new Regulation for the Television and Broadcasting Sector will allow Consumers have the freedom to select Television (TV) Channels they want to watch.

Prior to the new rule coming into force, consumers need to know about the channels that are being offered, their individual prices, as well as channel bouquet pricing etc. To troubleshoot this confusion among TV consumers, TRAI has come up with a simple solution. The regulatory authority has launched a new web application which will help the subscribers to compute the monthly rental of their selected channels once the new rule comes into effect.

The new web application from the TRAI will simplify the channel selection process for DTH and cable users. The Channel Selector application will help the user optimize the selection of their choice and also inform them about the MRP (Maximum Retail Price) of their selection. The application navigates you through several simple steps and presents a list of channels based on the selections made by you. Once the selection of channels is done, the application will present you the monthly rental. The last date to move to the new DTH bouquet is January 31.

"With TRAI's New Regulation for the Television and Broadcasting Sector having come into force, Consumers have the freedom to select Television (TV) Channels they want to watch. This Application will help you optimize the selection of your choice and also inform you about the MRP (Maximum Retail Price) of your selection. However, for exercising the choice of your favourite channels, kindly visit the website of your TV service provider or get in touch with your cable operator," TRAI said on its website.

To use this application, visit this webpage of TRAI Website. Click on the 'Get Started' button at the bottom of the page, and simply reply to few questions to enter the channel selection page. Give TRAI your name, your state of residence, your TV viewing preferences, and then its presents a list of channels for you. Users can select the channels they want in their monthly plan here. TRAI will calculate your monthly rental based on your selection.

TRAI's web based Channel Selector application offers filters including price, HD/SD, genre, broadcaster, and language. You can modify your filter based on your requirements. The web application, on the View Selection page, also presents an Optimise button that will auto curate the channels and offer you the cheaper package.

8 Out of 10 Indians are Researching for Smartphones Priced under Rs 20k

Riding on the wave of mobile internet revolution and e-commerce boom in recent years, India is witnessing an exponential growth in the smartphone category across geographies. With deeper penetration of telecom services both at the urban and grassroot levels, the market has spurred a lot of smartphone brands to cater to the price-sensitive Indian consumer with affordable devices.

91mobiles.com has analysed the research habits of consumers on its platform to draw up insights on how Indians bought smartphones in 2018. With 25 million monthly visitors, averaging more than 800,000 people daily who visit the platform to decide which phone to buy, 91mobiles has seen that Xiaomi is the most popular brand in terms of search volumes, followed by Samsung and OPPO.

Here are some of the key insights pertaining to 2018, drawn from the consumer research behaviour on 91mobiles:

• Of the top 10 smartphone brands, Xiaomi tops the list with over 25% users searching for its devices on 91mobiles in 2018. The next on the list is Samsung with a share of 17%, followed by OPPO with a share of almost 12% and Vivo with 11%. Honor, Realme and Nokia are tied at 8% each.
  
  
  
  




• As far as the most popular smartphones based on number of user searches are concerned, Xiaomi’s Mi A2 and Redmi Note 5 Pro topped the list, but the surprise entry came in at number three in the form of the Realme 2 Pro. The Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro and the Redmi Note 5 were also quite popular, seated at the fourth and fifth spots respectively.
  
  
  



• About 30% searches were made for affordable smartphones, as many tended to gravitate towards devices priced below Rs 10k. However, the mid-budget segment saw the highest volumes, with over 50% searches going in favour of handsets priced between Rs 10k-20k. About 11% users searched for smartphones priced between Rs 20k and Rs 30k, while over 9% searched for premium devices priced upwards of Rs 30k.
  
  
  
  




• Breaking up the data on user searches on smartphones by quarter, it’s evident that the sub-Rs 10k price segment saw a steady decline, starting from 34% in Q1 to 23% in Q4. The price bands (above Rs 20k) remained stable for the most part, but the number of user searches on smartphones in the Rs 10k to Rs 20k segment witnessed significant growth across quarters, jumping from 49% in Q1 to 57% in Q4.
  
  
  
  




• In terms of features, RAM size, display attributes (size and resolution) and battery capacity were the most searched aspects in 2018. Searches around RAM accounted for almost 22% of the total number of user searches on 91mobiles, and both display (18%) and battery (18%) also turned out to be crucial parameters for users looking to buy a new smartphone.
  
  
  
  




• 91mobiles’ site data also revealed that folks looking to buy a premium smartphone made about 4.5 searches per user on an average by product name, versus 0.5 searches done by buyers in the affordable segment… a difference of 9x. This is because premium phones usually have higher name recall, as compared to smartphones in the budget and mid-range segments. On the other hand, users looking for affordable devices chose to search by price or feature, making 12 searches per users on an average using this method. In comparison, those looking for premium smartphones searched 8 times on an average using price or features as a parameter.
  
  
  




• The average time taken by potential buyers of affordable smartphone to make up their minds was 2.5 weeks, while those in the market for premium smartphones took about 4.5 weeks to zero in on a specific device. Buyers in the affordable segment clicked out to an eCommerce store 3.5 times on an average, with the same number being 5 times for buyers of premium phones. However, buyers of affordable phones who did click out to an eCommerce store were 3 times more likely to purchase online, as compared to those searching for premium smartphones. The latter seemed to prefer the ‘research online, buy offline’ technique more in comparison.

“As features like multiple cameras, in-screen fingerprint scanners and punch-hole displays become more commonplace in mid-range devices, consumers would increasingly look for more points of differentiation in their next smartphone purchase. 91mobiles is uniquely positioned to capture and analyse user behaviour, and our data indicates that 2019 could mark an inflection point for the features and capability one can expect from smartphones across price bands.” said Nitin Mathur, Co-founder of 91mobiles.com.

With four minutes average time spent per visitor on the platform, 91mobiles.com has driven USD 100 million plus in sales (in 2018) through various e-commerce stores from people who researched their purchases on 91mobiles site.

Xiaomi Launches its Cross-Border E-Commerce Platform 'ShareSave' in India

Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi has introduced a new e-commerce platform called ShareSave, which is currently limited to India only. Xiaomi ShareSave aims to offers a quick and efficient way to order Xiaomi-ecosystem products that have not been released outside China. The company is using social e-commerce as the core model for the platform, which will allow the users to make outright purchases or pair their orders with friends and family to get discounts.

Currently, ShareSave is only available as an Android app and there is no mention by Xiaomi if it will also launch web version and iOS app, or not.

According to an official blog post of Xiaomi, the company is hoping to provide its fans with a convenient and affordable way to order Mi ecosystem devices that have just been released in China with the Xiaomi ShareSave. It is a global initiative with India being the launch market. The company has plans to expand it to other markets in the future.

ShareSave has three kinds of purchase modes as below:

1. Pair-up – Buy with a friend to get an exclusive discount for both.



2. Drop – Up to 100% price drop when enough friends and family join the drop group.



3. Kickstart – Contribute $0.2 to back your favorite products and get up to 10 times the reward.

Xiaomi, which had launched its crowdfunding programme ‘Mi Crowdfunding’ in India, last year, has incubated and partnered with more than 100 Internet of Things (IoT) and lifestyle companies. With more than 132 million connected devices (excluding smartphones and laptops), Xiaomi has the world’s largest consumer IoT platform.

Some of the currently available products on Xiaomi ShareSave are Mi x Wiha Precision Screwdriver, Yeelight LED Light Bulb (Color), and Soocas Sonic Electric Toothbrush X1 Lite. The company promises to provide full local support for all the products purchased through the platform and a doorstep delivery.

As we mentioned earlier, Xiaomi ShareSave is only available as an Android app right now. You can head over to Google Play to download the official app.

“Xiaomi strongly believes in the power of communities and Mi Fans, and the social aspect of ShareSave is a perfect reflection of this. ShareSave allows for a place where Mi Fans connect, enjoy and share a unique #SharetoSave shopping experience. It also serves as a testing ground for key markets, allowing Xiaomi to learn more about the local demand for various types of product,” the company wrote in the blog post.

Last year in April, Xiaomi

Co-Working Space Startup iKeva to Set Up 15 New Co-Working Centers post Raising Fresh Funds

Hyderabad based workspace provider, iKeva has raised an undisclosed amount from Meenakshi Group to fund its aggressive expansion plans across Major Metros in India. The co-working space provider plans to use the funds to expand and set up 15 new centers in the next 12 months and strengthen its robust back-end processes and technology.

Commenting on the development, Monika Misra, Co-founder and General Manager, iKeva said, “This industry has tremendous room for growth, the fresh infusion of funds will help us speed up our business expansion this year, and foray into new fast growing cities. Our revenues recorded an increase by 40% in the last fiscal and the target is to double this growth.”

iKeva opened its 1st center in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad in 2013 and rapidly added 8 centres across 5 major metro cities- - Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Mumbai, with 2 new centres set to open in Hyderabad in the next three months.

Investment by Meenakshi Group validates the trust leading real-estate players are now placing on the co-working/ flexible work-spaces as a business model. According to CBRE, the co-working/ shared office industry in India has shown a yearly growth of 23% since 2013 and by 2025, 40% of the overall workforce is predicted to work from co-working spaces. This trend has garnered keen interests from the investor community.

“Collaborative work-spaces are displaying remarkable growth and we recognise strong synergies between the co-working model and traditional real estate. As a strategic investor, iKeva’s business model and the sustained growth achieved over the years, combined with a focus to tap into lucrative millennial-driven sharing economy hold great promise.” Mahesh Katragadda, Director of Meenakshi Group said.

Meenakshi Group is one of India’s leading IT Park developers and has an impressive presence in real estate, power, highway projects and property management verticals. Its real estate portfolio includes over 12 million sqft delivered space, about 6 million sqft under delivery, and another 6 million in the pipeline. 26-year-old Meenakshi Group has a venture funding initiative with $10 million commitment meant to encourage new-age enterprises, innovative processes, and promising businesses.

“The strategic equity investment by Meenakshi Group is built on a deeply aligned vision about the future of iKeva brand. The Group’s expertise and experience will add substantial value to our brand as we grow exponentially. Misra added.

iKeva’s co-working spaces range from 10,000- 15,000 sq. ft., and offer a bevy of services and amenities including flexible fully furnished workspaces, high- speed internet, professional team, reprographics, high end IT, and more. With special focus to service delivery and hospitality, these co-working centers foster a community-based environment that promotes productivity and growth.

The spaces at iKeva are available for flexible usage - on a per-seat per-month basis and the packages are customizable to match specific requirements for large teams. The seat prices start from Rs 4000 under flexible plans and start from Rs 8,500 for a dedicated desk space. Options for booking a meeting room or a conference room on an hourly basis are also available. Currently, iKeva boasts 8 live centers and 3000+ members.

Agrifood Tech Accelerator Gastrotope Announces 5 Startups for its 1st Cohort

Gastrotope, the agrifood tech accelerator launched in September last year by Taizo Son’s Mistletoe, GSF, and Infobridge, today announced the names of five startups in the very first cohort of its program.

Over 150 applications were received for the program, and the following five startups have been shortlisted :

1. Brown Foods by Lifenectar Health Care Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in 2017 by Stanford, IIT Delhi and IIT Roorkee Alumni, Brown Foods is creating next-generation packaged food products. Using data analytics and AI, they make personalized packaged food products, using the healthiest ingredients sourced directly from farmers and deliver fresh at doorsteps, with complete transparency across the supply chain. 

2. Credible by Agzaken Risk Management (OPC) Pvt. Ltd.

Established in 2018, Credible has created agriculture specific risk management tools (AI-driven) for financial institutions and policy makers. It combines various data sources such as remote sensing, Agri-commodities pricing and transactions data to provide unique insights at a farm or farmer level. Its innovative approach was acknowledged and awarded the special jury prize at the Mumbai FinTech festival, and as one of the top25 InsureTech startups by HDFC Ergo.

3. Fasal by Wolkus Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd.:

Established in January 2018, Fasal is an agri-tech platform, developed by Wolkus Technology Solutions. It is an AI-powered IoT platform for agriculture ecosystem that records a variety of growing conditions on the farms, makes on-farm predictions and delivers actionable insights and recommendations to farmers, thereby helping them in increasing productivity.

4. Occipital Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Occipital Tech automates the grading and sorting process of fruits and vegetables by using computer vision. Occipital Tech's technology grades fruits and vegetables based on shape, size, color and surface patterns. The startup was established in the year 2017 with an aim to redefine the grading processes, to increase the transparency in trade and improve the marketability of the produce. 

5. Triton Foodworks Pvt. Ltd.

Founded in 2014, Triton Foodworks is a new age, precision farming company, which creates ideal conditions for growing pesticide free fruits and vegetables. Precise monitoring and adjustments of every input from light intensity to individual ions in nutrient mixes allows Triton to grow up to 15 times more produce in the same footprint, using almost 95% less water and absolutely zero chemical pesticides. Triton grows food that demands less and delivers more.



The Gastrotope accelerator program has helped these start-ups to optimise their business model, achieve product-market fit, and execute a scalable growth strategy. The program included 1 on 1 mentoring session with 30 mentors, provided networking opportunity, funding investment advice, strategy-and-skill development.

Gastrotope is a catalyst in the formation of ‘Farm to Fork’ ecosystem that is not only sustainable but also enriches the lives of billions.

Rajesh Sawhney, CEO and founder of GSF India said, “The five shortlisted startups embody our intent to create and nurture a true ‘Farm to Fork’ ecosystem in India. All of them share two common threads: an exceptional leadership team and a focused and scalable business idea, which we believe are vital ingredients necessary to make a meaningful impact in a sector as huge and diverse as agriculture.” Naho Shigeta, CEO of Infobridge Holdings said, “The overwhelming response to our accelerator program demonstrates the keen interest of Indian startup community in making a difference to agriculture in the country. The Gastrotope team is now looking forward to working with and enabling these five startups in building a strong and sustainable business."

Post $125K Funding by Gray Matters Capital, Edu-Finance Platform GyanDhan to Diversify into Loans for Skill Building

Delhi-based Online Education Financing platform, GyanDhan, which has since 2016 enabled over 2,000 loans via banks to students in India to pursue higher studies abroad, has today announced that it will create a ranking of vocational training institutes in India using data insights to tailor loan offerings for individuals taking up reskilling, upskilling and vocational training courses.

The education loan lending platform will be diversifying its loan portfolio to include loans for skill building courses besides study abroad financing offerings.

The piloting of this new loan offering comes on the back of the $125,000 funding by Gray Matters Capital via its edLABS initiative. The US based impact investor had led the $110 million funding round of Washington based overseas higher education loan provider MPower Financing in December 2018, making GyanDhan its second such enterprise in its portfolio.

The funding was made with the objective of GyanDhan plugging skill gaps prevalent in India’s workforce by making access to hassle free and affordable loans for vocational training courses a possibility.

Founded in 2015 by IIT alumni Ankit Mehra and Jainesh Sinha, GyanDhan had earlier raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding, in 2016, from Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs with participation from Harvard Angels, and other individual investors including Pravin Gandhi, Partner- Seedfund Advisors in his personal capacity. Prior to that, the startup had received angel funding from Satyen Kothari, founder of Cube and Citrus Pay, to fund operations from the concept phase to their first loan disbursal.

Speaking about this business development, Ankit Mehra, Co-Founder and CEO, GyanDhan said, “As per the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, the number of individuals requiring training across 34 sectors is estimated at 126.87 million for the period 2017-2022. Loans for skill-building courses not only opens a new revenue stream for us, but also helps us impact more lives through gainful employment.” He went on to add, “GyanDhan will be looking at disbursing over 45000 skill-building loans within the next three years."

“Data science is at the core of what we are building at GyanDhan. Our target for the domestic segment is to create a ranking of training institutes basis the quality of education, placement statistics, and future demand for such training. Higher the rank, better will be the terms of the skill building loan sanctioned.”, outlined Jainesh Sinha, Co-Founder and COO, GyanDhan.

The fintech start-up will use its proprietary student employability assessment framework – GyanDhan Score, to help its partner NBFCs and banks to structure skill building loan offerings linked to employability-based outcomes. It aims to make it the de-facto standard for originating and pricing student loans in India. In addition, GyanDhan is also developing behavioral scorecards to assess the loan applicant’s willingness to pay.

To recall, in August last year, an another student education financing platform, Propelld, had raised $250,000 in seed funding from Indian Angel Network and IAN Fund. Propelld is also an IIT alumni founded startup.

SoftBank Commits $400 Mn in FirstCry with First Tranche of $150 Mn Already In

Japanese internet and telecom giant SoftBank's $100-billion Vision Fund is investing $400 million in India's largest online baby-care store FirstCry and out of this total $400 million, $150 million has already been infused into Firstcry. according to various media reports.

The resolution for the same was passed on January 18, regulatory documents show. After this investment, the company is estimated to be valued at around $850 million according to initial calculations by business intelligence platform Paper.vc.

It is to be noted that, as of now there is no official confirmation about fund raise from either Softbank or Firstcry.

If this funding materialize, FirstCry would then have raised a total of $268.4 million in funding over 7 rounds from multiple investors including Chiratae Ventures (formerly known as IDG Ventures India), SAIF Partners and Vertex Ventures are some of the existing investors. For SoftBank, the investment comes at a time when it is seeking Competition Commission of India (CCI) approval for an investment in logistics player Delhivery. Last year, it invested $1 billion in Gurugram-based hotel brand Oyo.

In October, it was reported that Firstcry was in talks to raise $100-150 million from China's Alibaba oand Softbank. Prior to this, in September last year, it was reported that the startup was raising equity financing of about $100 million from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings but eventully this too did not materialize.

According to Times of India, a company official privy to the developemt said that FirstCry plans to use the new capital to expand its online and offline presence as well as to strengthen its technology platform. At the end of 2018, FirstCry had 330-350 offline stores. The company, one of the largest in its space, sells just about everything a child and a new mother needs - apparel, footwear, toys, books, feeding & nursing products, soaps, oils, powders, baby monitors, strollers and baby bedding.

In 2016, it bought Mahindra group's babycare business BabyOye for over Rs 360 crore in a mixed cash-and-equity transaction. Hopscotch, The Moms Co and TinyStep are some of the other companies operating in the space. Started in 2010, the company is said to have one of the largest parent communities in the country. "They are looking to leverage that community in a big way this year. There will be lot of content that will be created to target this base of parents," a person aware of the plans said.

DST-backed SRI-TBI and Polyplex Launch Startup Accelerator for Environmental Sustainability, Waste Management & Renewable

Polyplex Corporation Limited, one of world's largest manufacturers of packaging film, and Shriram Institute - Technology Business Incubator (SRI-TBI), a Delhi-based business incubator of Shriram Institute for Industrial Research and supported by Department of science & technology (DST), Government of India, have announced that they have joined hands to run an Accelerator Program - 'CleanEdge' for Environmental Sustainability, Waste Management & Renewables. This is a four month program and will run from February 2019 till May 2019.

CleanEdge Accelerator program has started accepting applications. With rigorous evaluation 15 startups will be shortlisted to participate in this program.

Key offerings under this program are 1) High quality intensive mentorship by Startup Experts, Functional Strategy Experts, domain related technical & sector specific experts. 2) Access to State-of-the-Art pilot lab facility at SRI-TBI in Delhi & Co-working facility at Aspirelabs. 3) Access to 'Appropriate' Technology, Opportunity to raise Seed-Capital upto 25 lakhs. 4) Access to Impact investors and Potential Customers. 5) Post acceleration support.

With Polyplex and SRI-TBI as anchors, this program is also being significantly supported by Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India under its umbrella of National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI) scheme launched in 2016.

Who can apply - Startups working in Clean technology but not limited to -- Circular Economy, Waste Management, Recycling & Up-cycling, Plastic & Rubber, Clean water & Clean air Technologies, Renewables, 3D Printing, Smart City Solutions, Environment Sustainability.

Polyplex Corporation Limited is among the world's largest manufacturers of packaging film with manufacturing facilities in five countries and employs over 2000 people globally. Apart from Infrastructural support, Polyplex through its network brings a high-quality business mentor pool, global linkages and market access for young startups.

Shriram Institute for Industrial Research is an organization providing research and testing services in the field of plastics, rubbers, specialty chemicals and waste management. It also helps startups grow through nurturing innovative ideas into technologies and incubating entrepreneurs through its Technology Business Incubator.

This program would be executed by Aspirelabs Accelerator - founded by Ranjit Singh - Director at Polyplex Corporation Limited and an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and BITS Pilani. Applications for CleanEdge Accelerator are now open. Program details are accessible at https://aspirelabs.com/clean-tech. Also anyone can share this article with budding entrepreneurs working in clean-tech areas in their network to help drive innovation, growth and collaboration in a socially impactful field.

Aspirelabs is a starup accelerator centrally located in Delhi-NCR with ten thousand square feet of premium office space and having access to high quality business and startup mentors. It is designed to foster entrepreneurship and innovation, and has a range of customized programs to enable young businesses and startups scale up to large profitable businesses. Aspirelabs is closely associated with Startup Oasis - a Jaipur based incubation centre of Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) which is India's leading incubator operating under the aegis of IIM Ahmedabad.

In last few years there have been number of initiatives and programs launched by organizations, young businesses, startups and even by Government of India to tackle challenges in area of environmental sustainability, Waste Management and renewable energy.

In June last year, India's Union science & technology minister Harsh Vardhan had announced that India will soon have its first international incubator to promote innovation in the field of clean energy and stimulate research, innovation, and entrepreneurship for the global initiative on clean energy. With a total investment of around $5 million, the incubator is being set up in a public-private partnership.

At the same time, Yes Bank has also launched multi sector accelerator program called YES SCALE which offers a 15 week program for startups in the areas of clean tech and Agritech, among others.

[Top Image Source - Aspire Labs@Facebook.com]

Truebil Raises ₹100 Crore in Series B Round Led By Japan's Joe Hirao

Mumbai-based Truebil, India’s leading omni-channel platform for buying and selling of pre-owned cars has announced its series B funding round and has raised 100 Cr (~ US $14 million) in a mix of equity & debt. The round was led by Japanese investor Joe Hirao. With this latest round of funding, the company has so far raised a total of INR 160 cr.

Hirao is the founder of ZIGExN which is a Tokyo-headquartered company that owns and operates a number of classified websites, ranging from Automobile, jobs, real estate. Existing investors Kalari, Inventus, Kae, Shunwei, and Tekton have also participated in this round. Merisis Advisors were the investment bankers for this round of funding.

This is just another step forward in furthering the company’s vision of becoming India’s largest used car market aggregator.

Founded in 2015, Truebil has raised a total of about $27 million in funding over seven rounds including the latest one. The startup last raised $1.4 million from a debt financing round led by Trifecta Capital in November last year. Prior to which it has raised $2 million in Series A round led by Inventus Capital Partners. In February 2017, Truebil has got an investment of $3 million from China’s leading Venture Capital Fund Shunwei Capital.

Suraj Kalwani, CEO of Truebil, said, “I am pleased to announce our newest funding at this stage of operational profitability which reflects the success of our efforts in bringing trust and assurance in the used car industry. We are currently selling over 600 cars per month and with our strong tech backbone we are making aggressive strides towards becoming the numero uno used car retailer platform in India. We are extremely happy about the confidence investors have shown in us and the continued trust and support of our customers. We are all set to bring in more value added services aimed at providing the best in class customer experience.

Shubh Bansal, Co-Founder, Truebil, said, “The funding will not only boost the brand’s status as a leading used car platform, but also help us take it to the next level of growth. We will be using these funds to expand the business in other geographies and strengthen our technology stack which is the backbone of the consumer-focused retail business."

Truebil provides innovative services for used car buyers solving the problem of trust and assurance for the customers. Truebil is the largest online used car retailer offering unique services like comprehensive warranty and assured buy-back to end consumers through its full stack offering, Truebil Direct.

Realty Developer Meenakshi Group Sets $10 Mn Startup Fund; Invests in Co-Working Firm 'iKeva'

Hyderabad headquartered Real estate developer, Meenakshi Group, which is one of India’s leading IT Park developers, today announced the creation of $10 Million Startup fund called ‘Meenakshi Multiples’ to invest in promising startups.

Announcing the launch of the fund Mahesh Katragadda, Director of Meenakshi Group stated: “Over the next three years, our target is to invest around $10 Million through our new startup Fund. We’re going to look at startups solving very specific problems, with potential to scale in the future.”

‘Meenakshi Multiples’ announced its first investment; by picking up a 6% equity in Hyderabad based co-working venture ‘iKeva’ for an undisclosed sum.

Revealing the first investment Mahesh said “Co-working space is interesting. It’s probably got a lot of attention recently, but what we like to seek out is the startup abilities such as iKeva to create the real value, and solve real specific wants or problems for customers.”

“We chose to invest in iKeva because of their ethos on building a sustainable business model, with the single focus on Customers and Service Delivery, which they have demonstrated consistently and have systems in place to ensure continuity.” Mahesh added.

To tap business opportunities, Meenakshi Multiples has in place a dedicated investment team comprising finance and legal professionals along with analysts. The group has already made investments in a few startups.

“The investment team will take up due diligence of startups including scaled-up businesses. Proptech and Co-Working hold a lot of promise, and is worth exploring among the scaled-up new-age businesses,” Mahesh stated.

The size of investments made in specific companies is not revealed, however, it is learned that Meenakshi Multiples’ is open to make investments of any sizes within their overall fund target.

The 25-year-old Group celebrated its silver jubilee last year and has a steady year-on-year growth in revenues. Till date, Meenakshi Group has developed over 12 million square foot of commercial and residential space. The power projects owned by the group has produced 11,500 million units of electricity and holds a portfolio of 400 MW Hydro projects in various stages of execution. The highway division of the group completed 200 Kilometres of road and highway projects up till now.

The group’s rationale to set up the fund is to encourage new-age businesses, processes, and technology ventures, and providing new strategic capabilities.

Dubai’s Biggest Startup Investment Fest Now Open for Indian Startups to Participate

Dubai AIM Startups, one of the biggest Startup Investment event in the region organised by UAE Ministry of Economy, now open for Indian Startups to participate. The UAE has been hosting this Annual Investment Meeting for few years now, however this will be the first time Indian startups will get an opportunity to participate in this international mega investment summit. The India leg of the summit will be organised by GREX through an MoU between the parties.

To recall, GREX and AIM Startup, an initiative of UAE Government, have signed an MoU, in September last year, to provide better access for Indian companies to the markets in MENA region (Middle East and North Africa region), and forge meaningful relations with business leaders, investors and international Government entities.

GREX has connected with various ecosystem partners like IIT campuses (Mumbai, Kanpur, Madras & Guwahati), T-Hub, CIE-IIIT, 91Springboard etc. and various State Government projects like Kerala Startup Mission, Rajasthan iStart etc to partner and host these events in their respective regions. Even some domestic VC Funds have joined this initiative and will look at possible investment opportunities through the competition for Startups.

Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary Industries & Commerce & IT, Government of Telangana quoted “Government of Telangana has always been on the forefront of providing various opportunities for startups to grow. We congratulate UAE Ministry of Economy for this wonderful initiative i.e. Dubai AIM Startup and are happy that GREX is bringing this international program to India. I am confident this program will give valuable international exposure and access to global investors to our startups. And therefore, encourage our startups to participate.”.

Dr Saji Gopinath, CEO, Kerala Startup Mission quoted “Kerala has long standing business relationship with Arab Nations. The Dubai AIM Startup Summit is a great opportunity for the new generation startup entrepreneurs from the State to explore the avenues in MENA region and to Foster meaningful business linkages. It is heartening to see the good efforts of GREX for being a great catalyst in linking startups from India with burgeoning investment opportunities in the GCC countries. Such international exposure and linkages would go a long way in further strengthening competitiveness of our startup ecosystem.”

“We at Cornerstone Venture Partners are excited to participate in the AIM Startup’s Annual Innovation Showcase and Pitch Competition, brought to India by GREX. We look forward to meet and interact with startup founders who are focusing on digital technologies that will drive the future growth. Keeping in mind Opportunity Size, Ease of Scale, Team's Capability, and Monetizability / Ease of Exits.  
We wish the GREX and Dubai AIM Startup event all the success. Let’s AIM Winning Together!”, thoughts shared by Mr. Rajiv Vaishnav, Managing Partner, Cornerstone Venture Partners.

Mr. Dawood Al Shezawi, Chairman, Organizing Committee AIM Startup 2019 said, “Disruptive ideas have turned thousands of Indians to be passionate innovators. This is evident with the impressive number of startups formed in India in 2018. We have to match their passion with a platform that will encourage and support their ideas to become a reality. This is exactly what AIM Startup has been committed to since its inception in 2017.
For its third edition, AIM Startup 2019 will once again welcome the most brilliant minds and link their ideas with genuine investors. We look forward to see amazing ideas from Indian innovators.”

Explaining the advantages participating startups would benefit from this Summit, he added that “AIM Startup 2019 will give 20,000 expected visitors in-depth sector knowledge and coaching through specialized workshops by international professionals from the industry. Investors, startups, SMEs and policy makers will be able to meet and explore potential investment projects in an arena conducive to such discussions as will be provided at the global event.”

Maruti Suzuki Launches Accelerator for Early-Age Startups in Mobility & Automobile Sector

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car manufacturer, has announced the launch of Mobility & Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL), its flagship innovation/acceleration program for early-stage startups in the automobile and mobility space, which allows the auto major to tap on innovative startups with solutions that it believes are futuristic and customer oriented, reported NDTV Auto.

 

Through this initiative, Maruti, which is also gearing up to deliver a fleet of electric cars in India by 2020, will provide a platform to the budding talent in India to showcase their entrepreneurial capabilities at a national level.

For same, Maruti Suzuki has partnered with Gurugram-based startup accelerator GHV Accelerator, an Indo-Japanese early-stage seed fund with proprietary accelerator program and industry co-creation program.

MAIL will allow startups with ideas in the areas of connected cars, shared mobility, autonomous cars, electric vehicle and its infrastructure etc. The startups should have a business plan, first feasibility concepts and market understanding.

Explaining about the program, Mr. Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India said, "The Indian Automobile industry is constantly evolving. The need of the hour is to have a relentless approach towards promoting a culture of innovation. This initiative will help Maruti Suzuki leverage the innovation capability of startups to provide unique solutions in the mobility and automobile space."

The Proof of Concept (PoC) of selected startups would be monitored for 4 months along with their business models being optimized, pain points evaluated and their innovation specific strategies would be built across, according to MAIL’s website.

Startups with innovations in these fields would be offered an opportunity by Maruti Suzuki to turn their ideas into reality, the company said in a statement. The Indian automobile industry is currently undergoing a transformation and requires unique solutions in the mobility and automobile space, it said.

Maruti Suzuki has roped in Germany-based corporate innovation expert and startup mentor Tanja Kufner, German Autolabs founder Holger G. Weiss, Panasonic’s energy systems division head Atul Arya, prolific angel investor Sanjay Mehta etc.

From the cohort, the winning startups would be eligible for prize money or an opportunity to do a paid POC with Maruti Suzuki.

While startups that are already funded can also apply for the program, the company hasn’t disclosed whether the equity stake will be involved in its portfolio startups.

Corporates supporting startups in mentoring and capital support has been a rising trend among the startup ecosystems globally. In India, multinational giants and software powerhouses including Google, Microsoft, Target, Cisco, Pitney Bowes, Reliance, Tata, Oracle, SAP, etc., have been running incubation or accelerator programs to capture innovative startups.

Additionally, Suzuki, the parent of Maruti Suzuki Ltd, would start production of lithium-ion batteries for automobiles at its plant in western India from 2020. Suzuki said that EVs are expensive due to the high cost of batteries which are still not manufactured in India.

To recall, Hyundai Motors, which Maruti's top competitor in India, has already tapped into Indian Startup Ecosystem as in November last year, Hyundai led INR 100 Cr funding of Revv, a Delhi-NCR based shared mobility platform.

Also in this month, India's leading automotive R&D organization, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), has announced that it will set up a new mobility research center to test the futuristic vehicles like autonomous and connected or IoT-enabled vehicles. The announcement was made by Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director of ARAI.

Tamil Nadu to Set Up ₹250 Crore Startup Fund of Funds

The Tamil Nadu government will set up a startup fund of funds (FoF) with a corpus of Rs 250 crore for investments in startup ventures, said the new Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation policy 2018-2023 unveiled yesterday by the state Chief Minister K. Palaniswami.

Called as Tamil Nadu Startup Fund of Funds, the first tranche of Rs 25 crore will be allotted in the financial year 2019-2020 and the FoF will be managed by a professional financial agency like the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), said the policy, which aims to provide an enabling, innovative ecosystem in the state and hopes to support emergence of at least 5,000 technology startups.

According to the policy, "It will be registered as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) under Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) regulation, 2012. The fund will be invested in other SEBI registered AIFs for investment in Startups and MSMEs established in Tamil Nadu. Government of Tamil Nadu will invest Rs 75 crore in the fund."

In addition, a Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant Fund (TNSSGF) of Rs 50 crore with an allotment of Rs 5 crore in the first year shall be created in partnership with financial institutions and universities for supporting early stage financing requirements of the start-ups in the form of grants to fill the gap in fund requirement for research and innovations.

The TNSSGF would also provide funding for Idea-to-PoC (Proof of Concept) stages which are pre-startup activities.

According to the new policy, the state and central public sector undertakings (PSU) shall be encouraged to adopt incubators and channelize their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.

These incubators shall also serve as an innovation sandbox to solve problems faced by the state/central PSUs which, in turn, shall support start-ups with access to platform, test bed, data, hand-holdings and others.

Notably, Tamil Nadu has recently tied with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) to set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for FinTech startups at Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Chennai.

According to the policy, the following entities would not fall under the startup category -

1. Entities formed by splitting up or reconstruction of a business already in existence,




2. A subsidiary of a firm in the State, except subsidiary of a start-up itself which also qualifies as start-up and the combined entity also satisfies the start-up criteria,




3. A franchisee of an existing business in the state, (d) entities promoted or sponsored by or related to an industrial group in the state whose group turnover exceeds Rs 300 crore.

The policy also hopes to extend a dedicated support to at least 10 global high growth start-ups developing innovative technology solution for high social impact in sectors like sanitation, food, clean energy, healthcare, education and others.

Last month, Tamil Nadu's e-governance agency TNeGA collaborated with IIT-Madras to to contribute towards various aspects of governance, including (but not limited to) education, healthcare, and agriculture, says a press release from IIT-Madras. With this collaboration, the Tamil Nadu is aiming to tap the power of AI, Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain and drones in addressing the needs of their citizens.

Source - Business Standard (~ IANS)

Microsoft Launches E-Commerce Platform for Handloom Weavers to Sell Online

Microsoft India yesterday announced the launch of a new e-commerce platform re-weave.in, for handloom weavers under its Project ReWeave, part of its Philanthropies initiative. This e-commerce platform will help connect artisans to the buyers directly enabling them to expand to newer customers and markets.

The new e-commerce website hosts signature collections created by the weaver communities, showcase traditional designs and products created from natural dyes. This e-market place will help sell to a broad set of customers, supporting weavers increase their income and earning a sustainable livelihood while also reviving traditional forgotten Indian art.

Microsoft in association with National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) has also curated a special curriculum in ‘CAD and Color for Handloom Weaving’ to provide digital training in handloom design.

Today, at a special ceremony hosted at NIFT, the first batch of 100 handloom weavers were awarded certificates for successful design course completion. Since its inception, special emphasis has been put on skill development using ICT and digital tools in critical aspects such as upskilling, design, marketing, and entrepreneurship, besides creating sustainable livelihood options through Project Sangam, a Microsoft Azure-based Community Training Platform.

Digital empowerment centers have been steadily expanding to more weaver clusters – Microsoft inaugurated two new digital empowerment centers in Rajoli, Choutuppal and will open another center shortly in Warangal and Siddipet clusters. The clusters of Pochampally, Gadwal and Narayanpet have been operational for some time now.

[tnm_video layout="mnmd-post-media"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2rga5OwUcQ[/tnm_video]

Speaking at the event, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & IT, Telangana said, “Digital technology is changing lives of Indians across every section of society. Working with global technology leaders like Microsoft has enabled us to bring technology to the doorsteps of our large weaver communities in the remotest districts of Telangana. These initiatives like ecommerce marketplace and design training will enable weaver communities to sustain themselves and provide livelihood to artisans. This also is a practical solution to motivate younger generation of weavers to continue with their traditions and not divert into other professions”

Speaking about the initiative, Anil Bhansali, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) said, “With the introduction of our new e-commerce platform, digital empowerment centers and the new design curriculum, the weavers will be able to build on the rich handloom heritage of India and also reach out to a wider customer base. ReWeave ties very well into Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and every organization in the communities we work in by using Project Sangam- our Azure based technology solution and expertise to democratize opportunities and bridge the digital divide.

Chitra Sood, Director, Business Management, Microsoft India (R&D) said, “The Indian handloom industry is the second-largest employment provider for rural population in India with almost 43 lakh weavers. Through ReWeave, we have extended support to handloom weavers and their families to optimize their operations, engage better with their customers and helping them transform their wares. These initial efforts have helped see a substantial rise in the annual income of the weavers in the three weaver clusters.”

Project ReWeave also aims to help the weavers with working capital support through non-profit organizations. Weavers are trained in the use of natural dyes to enable them to make newer and sustainable handwoven products to meet the demands of the socially and environmentally aware consumer.

Source - Microsoft News Center | Top Featured Image - Microsoft.com

Reliance Industries to Launch E-Commerce Platform for Retail Store Owners; Starting from Gujarat

Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail, the subsidiaries of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, will launch a new e-commerce platform in India, which will initially be rolled for Gujarat retailers and store-owners, announced Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries (RIL).

“The new e-commerce platform will empower and enrich our 12 lakh small retailers and shopkeepers in Gujarat,” Ambani said on Friday, while speaking at an inaugural ceremony of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019 in Gandhinagar.

It was in November 2017 when www.indianweb2.com reported that Reliance Jio is planning to make entry into India's online grocery market by linking manufacturers, kirana stores and corner shops to his Reliance Jio customers and mint money.

Reliance Jio currently has 280 million subscribers, while Ambani’s retail arm operates nearly 10,000 outlets across more than 6,500 Indian cities and towns. They’ll team up to bring merchants aboard through Jio’s apps and devices, V Subramaniam, a top executive at Reliance Retail, said on Thursday after the company put out quarterly numbers.

Last month, India tightened rules that will disallow foreign-owned online retailers from selling products via companies in which they own equity, and forbid them from pushing merchants to sell exclusively through their platforms. The rules are expected to affect the operations of both Amazon and Walmart, which acquired Flipkart Online Services Pvt in a $16 billion deal. They’re expected to benefit local enterprises such as Reliance.

Ambani has been gradually revealing details of his plans in e-commerce. In July, he said his platform would use augmented reality, holographs and virtual reality to create an “immersive shopping experience."

Reliance Industries, India’s largest company by market capitalization, wants to adopt an innovative online-to-offline (O2O) model, where a consumer is drawn into making online searches for purchases that are made in a physical store.

In August last year, a report supposedly said that Alibaba’s chairman Jack Ma had held talks with Mukesh Ambani, in July-2018 in Mumbai and discussed about plan to create a large omnichannel i.e. both online as well offline, retail entity through the proposed JV of RIL and Alibaba.

Last month, RIL also acquired 5.56% equity stake in VAKT Holdings Limited, a London-based technology startup, for $5 million (around ₹ 35 crore). VAKT uses Blockchain technology for oil & energy trading. And, Reliance has interests in the downstream oil business, with its arm Reliance Petroleum as one of the leading petroleum companies in the world.

3 Things That Make A VPN Network The Best

The purpose of VPN in this day and age has evolved from simply being used to connect to the network of your workplace while at home. This network helps in protecting yourself from hackers who snoop on your information while you surf online.

You may be considering using VPN but are unaware of the essential things to look out for in the network that will make the VPN you choose worthwhile. But not to worry. We’ve got you covered. Here are 3 things that make a VPN network the best:

1.    Good Access

Some VPN networks only provide a single access point to their service while others offer multiple simultaneous connections. The latter is better as you can be able to connect your phone, laptop, and Wi-Fi router.

Also Read - How A VPN Router Can Protect Your Physical Store Visitors

In addition to this, you’ll want a network with a lot of exit nodes. Exit nodes are servers existing in a different location from where you are which you can securely connect to. Once you’re connected to an exit node, the information other people will get is that you are using a device that’s on that server regardless of which part of the world it is situated.

You can connect to your VPN server in Germany and appear to be browsing the internet from there yet you are in Africa. The more exit nodes in different locations the network has, the more access you get to geo-blocked internet services.

2.    Secure Encryption

Encryption is converting data or information into a code with an aim of preventing unauthorized access to it. Encryption protects your sensitive information as you surf the internet. VPN uses encryption. There are different VPN encryption protocol types available and they differ in how they have been created.

It is advisable that you avoid a VPN network which only offers PPTP, the reason being that PPTP has been altered over the years and is not secure. The best VPN is the one that uses IPSec, L2TP, OpenSSH or OpenVPN.

3.    Ease Of Use And Speed

Speed is one major factor that sets the best VPN apart from all the other regular ones. It can be quite frustrating working with a slow connection more so if your work or internet needs demand higher speeds. Good VPN is one that offers fast, stable access and one that provides you with different options from which you can choose the speed that best suits your needs.

In addition to speed, the ease of use of the VPN is also of great importance. Even without having the technical expertise, you should be able to navigate through the network with no struggle in the least time possible.  

Conclusion

These three things set a VPN network apart from the rest. You need a VPN network that can unblock BBC, US Netflix, ITV Hub, and iPlayer for your entertainment, a network with superfast uploads and perfect streaming quality, a network with apps that are easy to use on all devices, a network with 24/7 live chat support, a network that’s available in countries that are highly censored and with a special API resolution feature.

That’s a VPN that can be crowned as the best. You need to have the best streaming vpn.  

Online Lending Startup LoanTap Raises Over $8 Mn from 3one4 Capital, Others

Mumbai-based LoanTap, an online platform that offers flexible loan products to salaried professionals, has raised over $8 million in a funding round led by 3one4 Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund based out of Bangalore, reported Financial Express.

The funds raised is a combination of equity and debt instruments, between October to December 2018. Existing investors including Shunwei Capital, Kae Capital, India Quotient, Tuscan Venture and angel investor Ashish Goenka also participated in the round.

LoanTap was started in 2016 by Satyam Kumar and Vikas Kumar, LoanTap claimed to have turned profitable within the first five quarters of operation even as its loan book is growing at 12% monthly.

To date, the startup has raised a total of about $21 million in funding over four rounds including the latest one. In August 2016, the startup had raised $3 Mn in a Series A investment round led by Mumbai-based HNIs including Abhishek Pandey and Jaysukh Sapra.

LoanTap competes with likes of Capital Float, Lendingkart, and InCred.

“3one4 Capital brings in a unique blend of expertise in core tech investing and a deep sectoral understanding along with an immense network that includes its marquee LPs,” said LoanTap CEO Satyam Kumar.

"By giving their customers more choice, better information, reduced complexity, and allowing for personalization, the LoanTap team has demonstrated a true understanding of the elements that go into building an institutional presence in their space,” said Pranav Pai, Founding Partner of 3one4 Capital.

3one4 Capital, which also counts P2P lending firm Faircent as its investee startup, has invested in startups like investments include Tracxn, Licious, DarwinBox, BetterPlace, Tonetag, Tripoto and Bugworks.

In October, Delhi based instant lending startup RevFin had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from a group of angel investors including Harash Jain (CEO, Litejoy International, and UK based businessperson), Anil K Goyal (Founder, Anil K Goyal, and Associates), Anil Lanba (Senior Technology Executive, EVP Pyramid Consulting) and Krishan B Singh (Investor based in New York).

In the same month, Bangalore-based NIRA, a consumer finance fintech venture focused on financial inclusion, had raised $1 million seed funding from angel investors in the UK and India.

Prior to this, Mumbai headquartered micro-lending platform Upwards raised $5 million in series A financing round led by China's ShunWei Capital.

[Top Image - LoanTap Team | Credit - YourStory.com]