Telanagana Govt Launches Digital Platform for 2.3 Mn MSMEs in the State

The Telangana Government in partnership with GlobalLinker, a unique MSME enablement ecosystem, today announced the launch of a digital networking platform called ‘Telangana State GlobalLinker’, which will digitize and connect over 2.3 million MSMEs in Telangana to a global community of small and large businesses.

The initiative will help in putting Telangana MSMEs on the national and international map using the power of digital technology. GlobalLinker has alliances with leading corporates such as ICICI Bank, Jet Airways as well as industry bodies like Federation of Indian Exports Organization (FIEO) and Bombay Industries Association. Recently GlobalLinker was the only Indian company amongst a host of global entities selected by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to create ‘Business sans Borders’, a collaborative AI-driven global solutions hub to foster MSME digitization.

Telangana State GlobalLinker, will allow MSMEs to create a digital profile for their business, connect with other global MSMEs, enable them to find buyers and suppliers, gain visibility and receive up-to-date industry trends and news. Members will also enjoy exclusive offers on travel, legal services and loans, offered by both corporates and fellow SMEs.

Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce Department, Government of Telangana said: “Digitization is going to be one of game changers for MSME businesses as it helps them cater to customers beyond local boundaries, allows their profit to grow twice as fast and substantially increases their contribution to GDP. Industries Department of Telangana has collaborated with GlobalLinker to create Telangana State GlobalLinker, a digital SME Networking solution to address key challenges faced by MSMEs with the core objective of making the business growth of MSMEs – simpler, more profitable and enjoyable"

MSMEs on ‘Telangana State GlobalLinker ‘will also be able to create eBiz cards to share with other members and a digital catalogue of their products and services. An assisted e-commerce store creator will help MSMEs to expand their sales opportunities, manage inventory, payment gateways and logistics. The platform also provides several digital tools such as a business calendar and an eBriefcase for MSMEs to store and share documents.

Sameer Vakil, Co-founder & CEO, GlobalLinker said: “We are immensely proud to host the Telangana state government MSME network on the GlobalLinker platform. Digitization can truly catalyze growth for MSMEs, as it not only blurs borders but also provides greater access to clients. We look forward to assisting over 2.3 million MSME members to transform their business on the strength of our platform."

GlobalLinker, a unique MSME enablement ecosystem, focuses on connecting MSMEs with each other so that they can enjoy unhindered networking powered by an algorithm based 'match-making'. MSMEs on the platform also benefit from unparalleled economies of scale through collective purchasing power and superior access to business knowledge and skills. A number of growing business utilities are also offered to SME members of GlobalLinker - e.g. a free eCommerce store creator with payments gateway and logistics services pre-embedded. Currently, GlobalLinker hosts over 2,00,000 MSMEs on the platform. At the core, GlobalLinker digitizes and connects SMEs and is entirely freefor them. SME digitization happens through the creation of Digital Business Cards, Digital Business Profiles, and Digital Product Catalogs for SMEs. GlobalLinker is offered as a co-branded solution by Governments, Trade Bodies, and Corporations to their SME Clients and members. 

Reliance Industries to buy Majority Stake in Logistics Startup Grab

Reliance Industries (RIL) is in advanced discussions to buy a majority stake in Grab (Grab a Grub Services Pvt. Ltd) , a hyperlocal logistics startup backed by SIDBI Venture Capital, the venture capital arm of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), reported Times of India (TOI) citing sources familiar with the development.

According to the report, the deal could close within next few weeks and also involve an investment to scale up the Mumbai-based startup.  The size of the acquisition could not be ascertained however.

The development comes after the Mukesh Ambani-led company said earlier that it plans to enter the e-commerce segment.

Also in last month, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, announced that Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail, the subsidiaries of RIL, will launch a new e-commerce platform, which will initially be rolled for Gujarat retailers and brick & mortar store owners.

Founded in 2014, by Jignesh Patel, Nishant Vora and Pratish Sanghvi,
Grab has raised over Rs 30 crore from financial investors like Oliphans Capital, SIDBI and Sixth Sense Ventures, besides strategic backers like Zomato and Dubai-based logistics company Aramex. 

Grab provides third-party, last-mile logistics services for food delivery companies, online pharmacy and grocery delivery, among others. Its logistics service is used by businesses encompassing restaurants, e-commerce companies, retailers, grocers, pharmacies, food tech platforms and banks, among others.

Grab has been talking to potential suitors for the last six-seven months and had also held talks with Paytm for an acquisition, said the TOI report.

Reliance Industries has been acquiring new-age companies since a year and the acquisition activity spikes in last six months.

In December, RIL 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.

A month before that, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited (RIIHL) had picked up a controlling stake in New Emerging World of Journalism (NEWJ), a Mumbai-based digital media startup, with an initial investment of over ₹ 1 crore.

In the same month, RIHIL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL, acquired 88% stake in Kanoda Energy, an Ahmedabad-based renewable energy services firm, for ₹ 75 crore (about $10.7 million), in an all-cash deal.

Last year, the company acquired music-streaming service Saavn and merged it with its JioMusic, valuing the combined unit at $1 billion. It also acquired education tech startup Embibe and committed to invest another $180 million in the company.

Tech Mahindra Foundation Launches An “All Women” SMART Academy for Healthcare in Mumbai

Tech
Mahindra Foundation under its Employability vertical has launched Tech
Mahindra SMART Academy for Healthcare in Mumbai. Its third SMART Academy
is in association with Auxilium Convent School, Pali Hill, which was
conceptualized following the success of the first two healthcare
academies in New Delhi and Mohali.

Inspired with Tech Mahindra Foundation’s CSR mandate of benefiting over 50% women beneficiaries, the Mumbai Academy is an “All Women” Academy with both the staff and student being women. To strengthen the objectives of SMART Academies for Healthcare, Tech Mahindra Foundation recently launched the #MainBhiHero campaign that aims at creating awareness about the skill-gap of Paramedical Professionals in the country. This All Women SMART Mumbai Academy is a major step ahead in this direction.

Inaugurating
the new Academy in Mumbai, Mr. Anand G. Mahindra – Chairman, Mahindra
Group, said, “This All Women Healthcare Academy in Mumbai, will open new
doors for women and ensure that they get equal access to quality
education and career opportunities in the healthcare sector. Indian
women have made us proud in so many ways. Their nurturing hands will
make a big difference in our Healthcare Services.”

The
Mumbai Academy is a state-of-the-art institute envisaged to create
skilled Paramedic and Allied Healthcare professionals. It is equipped
with hospital simulated labs, industry-relevant study material, and
experienced faculty to help young women make a career in the noble
healthcare sector.

About Tech Mahindra Foundation

Tech Mahindra Foundation is the corporate social responsibility arm of Tech Mahindra Limited, a Mahindra Group Company. The Foundation set up in 2007, as a Section 25 Company (referred to as a Section 8 Company in the Companies Act, 2013), has been working tirelessly in the areas of education, employability and disability, with a keen focus on corporate volunteering.

Inauguration
picture:  From Left - Ulhas N. Yargop (Director, Tech Mahindra), Vineet
Nayyar (Former Executive Vice Chairman, Tech Mahindra), Chetan Kapoor
(COO, Tech Mahindra Foundation), Anand G. Mahindra (Chairman, Mahindra
Group), M Rajyalakshmi Rao (Independent Director, Tech Mahindra)

True Balance offering UPI Service as a New Payment method to Users in Collab with PayU India

Taking India one step closer to become a cashless economy, TrueBalance, Softbank-backed balance and data management mobile app has tied up with PayU to connect customers and merchants by enabling seamless payments through a digital platform. 

TrueBalanceis on the verge of expanding its business by way of providing e-commerce platform enabling customers to have the benefits of EMI on payment, insurance, and purchase of products.

UPI
launched in India in 2016, allows bank-account holders to transact
using their smartphones by just feeding in their Aadhaar numbers or
mobile phone numbers instead of entering bank account details. PayU is a
Netherlands-based fintech company providing a safe payment technology
to online merchants. This True Balance-PayU tie-up strengthens the Digital India initiative through TrueBalance’s vision of targeting the untapped one billion mobile phone users without access to digital financial services.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Charlie Lee, CEO, True Balance said, “Foreseeing the announcement of the launch of 1 lakh Digital Village in India during the budget, UPI will play a key role in empowering the next Billion. We have recently launched our KYC compliance for customers, and I am extremely delighted to introduce our new fintech service in India in collaboration with PayU India.”

All True Balance app
users will be able to make safe and seamless payments of all the
existing products and utility bill payments using the UPI platform.

Further elaborating on the partnership with True Balance, Rahul Kothari, Chief Business Officer, Enterprise Business, PayU India, said,
“UPI clocked whooping 672 million transactions till last month. This
clearly indicates that UPI has changed the way people look at money. We
can see the paradigm shift in consumer behavior, moving towards digital
payment alternatives than cash-based transactions. Our partnership with True Balance will also open new opportunities for people in tier 2/3 regions and help them quickly stride on the UPI wave,”

In 2014, the mobile application True balance was launched in Korea by Mr. Cheolwon Lee (Charlie Lee), an alumnus of the University of Chicago. In 2016, True Balance was founded in India to empower the next billion and to enable seamless mobile bill recharges; which has garnered more than 70 million downloads so far. True balance is ‘One Stop Payment “solution for all utility bill payments and foresees to provide small loans for these services to its users.

In March 2016, True Balance raised an undisclosed amount from SoftBank Ventures Korea .

True Balance is aiming to serve India 2 and 3 with utility payment and providing financial platform for all. True Balance is
aligned with the mission of digital India and focus on providing the
rural population an experience for easy and safe utility bill management
and payments through use of mobile technology.

Build Your Business in Just 54 Hours. GetMentored, GetFunded

RevStart, promoted by Ishan Singh and a leading co-working and incubation centre based out of Noida will be organizing Techstars Start-up Weekend Noida - a 54 hours Start-up weekend, from March 8 to 10, where participants will learn from mentors how to take an idea to a business and get funded.

TechStars Start-up Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can validate their start-up ideas and learn to turn them into a real business. On an average, half of Start-up Weekend’s attendees have technical or design backgrounds, the other half have business backgrounds. It’s a great opportunity for those looking for co-founders or to work in a start-up. At Revstart’s event, mentors have been curated to include subject matter experts, recently funded founders and experienced investors.

Happening on 8 – 10th March’19, the event kicks off at 5 pm on Friday with a Keynote by Mr. Sanjiv Bikchandani, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India founder of Info Edge (the first Dot Com IPO) sharing his journey as an entrepreneur and a successful investor. This will be followed by open mic pitches, where attendees get one minute to introduce themselves, pitch their idea and name their ask. On Saturday teams will start working with mentors on their business plan, validating their ideas, practicing Lean Start-up Methodologies and building a minimal viable product. On Sunday there will be a Pitch Clinic to prepare for the final presentations. Participants will present the plan to marquee judges like Mr. Girish Shivani-Yournest, Ms. Padmaja Ruparel-IAN and Mr. Shailesh Vikram-Massive Fund, receiving valuable feedback, potential funding which can also include access to RevStart’s Incubation Programme.

Ishan Singh- Founder, Revstart Incubation Center says “I have been a part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem since 1998, built and exited from businesses in India and the US. Techstars have given us a globally recognised format to organize Start-up weekend Noida and I am grateful to my friends from the ecosystem like Mr. Ashish Kashyap- Ex-GoIbibo, Mr. Abhinav Mathur- Founder, Million Sparks Foundation, Ajay Rajgarhia- APM Fininvest, Anisha Singh- MyDala, Deep Bajaj- PeeBuddy / Sirona, Digvijay Singh- IAN, Pankaj Agrawal- Ex-CIO, CISO, Rahul Agarwala- Knimbus, Rahul Singh- The Beer Café,

Rohit Pateria- Placio, Rohan Mahajan- LawRato, Sanjiv Bajaj- Bajaj Capital, Saurabh Arora- University Living, Siddharth Vij- ShoeKonnect, Shikha Mehra- Mainchain, Vikas Kuthiala- Parriez, Vivek Agarwal-  CEO, Liqvid and Yogesh Bansal- Angel Investor, who are participating in this event as mentors. Thank you for the support form partners like Indian Angel Network, Miraaya Ventures, MyHQ, Startup Delhi and TiE New Delhi.

About  Techstars
Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Techstars founders connect with other entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders, and corporations to grow their companies. Techstars operates three divisions: Techstars Start-up Programs, Techstars. Mentorship-Driven Accelerator Programs, and Techstars Corporate Innovation Partnerships. Techstars accelerator portfolio includes more than 1,400 companies with a market cap of $15.9 Billion.

About RevStart
RevStart, Co-work. Incubate. Accelerate, is an ecosystem to support entrepreneurs, Start-ups and small business by quality services like co-working, incubation and acceleration. It is a brand founded & promoted by Mr. Ishan Singh, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor. In his personal capacity, through our investment arm, Re Capital.

Early Childhood Edu App ‘Bulbul Apps’ Raises ₹3.26 Cr in Funding from Xseed Partners, Others

Hyderabad-based Early Childhood Learning App developer for pre-schoolers ‘Bulbul Apps’, announced today it has attracted (USD 500K) ₹3.26 crore in a fresh round of funding. Bulbul Apps builds for pre-school students - innovative, multimedia, interactive apps for tablets, smartphones, and other touchscreen devices.

Xseed Partners, Operator VC, Anblicks and Infoblob took part in this round. Bulbul Apps will use proceeds
from the round of investment to build its B2B2C market that is showing
tremendous promise with an aim to serve a
growing number of paid parents, subscribers.

Prakash
Dantuluri, Founder and CEO of
Bulbulapps.com says “It is an exciting phase of
growth as we discover new segments to grow our
business, strong sales of smartphones mean there is a sizable number of
parents looking for kid-apps on those devices too.”

“We have signed half a dozen franchisors and have a strong
pipeline of clients with Kangaroo kids as the biggest customer. Our target is
to go live in 300 plus schools this academic year with close to 50,000 parent
subscriptions. We are also working with a leading vernacular organization in
the US”, Prakash stated.

Ajay Jain, Principal CoFounder of Xseed
Partners says, "Early childhood education is crucial
& it is nice that both parents & Governments are waking up to it. This
creates a huge untapped market potential. Bulbul is in a unique position to serve
this market given its strength to create easy to absorb stories for the child.
Bulbul has demonstrated how both parents & kids love its narratives and other
cool features such as parent-teacher engagement. I am positive that Bulbul is
poised to become the leading apps in the early learning space in India and in
other countries."

Bharat Ram, Partner at OperatorVC says, "We
are very excited about the India Preschool market. We firmly believe that
Bulbul Apps is in the right place, tech and talent to establish leadership in
this space."

Stating about Bulbulapps expansion plans
Prakash says “We are combining our content strength with
our preschool deployment experience to launch India’s first One Stop solution
for Preschools called ‘My Preschool App’. We built the app using Bulbul Apps’
legacy interactive digital curriculum along with administrative, communication,
safety and security features that are standard preschool requirements,",
says, Prakash.

Each topic in the Bulbulapps digital learning curriculum offers,
on average, 30 minutes of engagement and repeat interaction ranges from kids
that come every single day, week and month. The app also has a parent’s feature
which will offer insights into their child’s progress with specific login
provided by the school. 

What’s interesting is the focussed approach the company has taken.
Bulbul Apps only offers content for children between two and seven years of
age. It is currently focussed in India with plans to enter the US market in FY 2020.

Founded in 2015 by Prakash Dantuluri with a seed capital of $200k has
raised another $1 Million USD so far. Bulbulapps, has its own proprietary mobile
first content creation engine and has
created all the characters, voices, art, and the animation itself in its Hyderabad app studio consisting a team of
16 developers and 10 artists from around the world.

Bulbulapps platform allows storytellers, artists, and academicians to converge and create
high-quality cost-efficient content for children.
In the future, the company wants to expand its reach to the home learning
market and preschools around the world.

Here're Top 10 Innovative Indian Companies by Fast Company

Last week, Fast Company, a monthly American business magazine published its list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2019. JioSaavn along with other Indian companies such as Dream 11, Chai Point, Ola have made it to the list.

The list honours the businesses making the most profound impact on both industry and culture, showcasing a variety of ways to thrive in today’s volatile world. Half of the companies on this year’s MIC 50 list are appearing for the first time.

#1 Jio Saavn

Jio Saavn is a music streaming app formed post merger of Jio Music and Saavn and offers more than 40 million tracks in 15 regional languages for 38 million monthly active users, has been ranked 1st in the list of top 10 Indian firms in Most Innovative Company on a country basis.

#2 OYO

Gurgaon-headquartered budget accommodation firm OYO, which recently got a Unicorn stats, has got the 2nd position in the list. Fast Company chose OYO for its coveted place for expanding its hotel options to appeal to business travellers. Oyo, which resembles US-based Airbnb, is a network of properties that include free Wi-Fi, free breakfast, white linens, and other hotel features for a fraction of the cost of a normal hotel.

#3 Saathi

Amedabad-based Saathi Eco Innovations  [Feature Story] makes biodegradable sanitary napkins for rural women in India and has coveted the 3rd position for the most innovative companies from India.

Last year, in Cleantech Open Global Forum held in Los Angeles Saathi was announced winner for developing a technology to make fully biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads made from waste banana tree fibre.

#4 RupeeCoin

Hyderabad-based RupeeCoin, the first entry in the list has secured the 4th position. It is a blockchain solution startup which allows people without a bank account or a credit card to engage in the digital economy.

#5 OLA

Bangalore-based cab-hailing firm Ola, which recently got massive $900 million investment from Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, grabbed the 5th rank. It has expanded to a network of more than 1 million vehicles--cabs and autorickshaws--across 169 cities.

#6 Chakr Innovation

Delhi-based Chakr Innovation has secured the 6th position. The innovative startup has developed the world’s first retro-fit emission control device for diesel generators. It uses technology to reduce emissions from diesel generators and bring down air pollution levels.

#7 ShareChat

Bangalore-based ShareChat is a social networking and regional content platform for the fast growing Internet users in India. With ShareChat one can share videos, jokes, GIFs, audio songs and funny images from India in Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Marathi, and Malayalam.

#8 Swiggy

The food delivery company that recently raised $1 billion infunding has got 8th position for excellent food delivery service.

#9 Chai Point

A Harvard alumnus founded company, ChaiPoint made the entry for the first time and received the 9th position. It is India’s largest organized Chai retailer and caters to corporations with a cloud-based beverage service called BoxC, an IoT-enabled automatic tea dispenser.

#10 Dream11

Mumbai-based Dream11 made its entry for the first time and got the 10th rank. It offers Indian sports fans a platform to showcase their sports knowledge. Fans can create their own team of real-life players from upcoming matches, score points based on their on-field performance and compete with other fans.

Recently, International Council of Cricket (ICC) has signed a deal with Dream11, India's biggest sports gaming platform, to make it its "Official Fantasy Game Partner" till 2023.

Top Featured Image by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash.com

IIM Calcutta and TalentSprint Join Hands to Develop FinTech & Blockchain Talent

The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM Calcutta) has announced an Advanced Programme in FinTech and Financial Blockchain for the benefit of management and finance professionals.

The programme will help participants appreciate the explosive growth of FinTech and its increasingly disruptive impact on the banking and financial ecosystem. In addition, it will prepare them to exploit the immense potential of FinTech to design and drive new product strategies for their organizations. The programme will be offered in association with TalentSprint starting May 2019.

To recall, in this month TalenSprint along with International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) have completed the first anniversary of their AI/ML Executive Program that saw 10,000+ applicants and 1000+ graduates in 2018 alone.

With over 50 years of academic excellence, IIM Calcutta is the only management institution in India with triple accreditation from AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. In 2018, the Financial Times ranked IIM Calcutta as a Top 25 Global Business School and 3rd in Asia.

In addition, its highly-regarded Financial Research and Trading Lab does pioneering research on global financial markets and is uniquely positioned to bring world-class FinTech expertise to the participants of this programme.

On the global stage, FinTech is attracting significant investments with over 1000 companies raising in excess of $100 billion in the recent past. India is now a leading contender to become the FinTech capital of the world. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) reported a total of 2.45 billion digital payments in August 2018. NASSCOM estimates Indian FinTech will double in size every three years. Gartner predicts that within a decade, 80% of financial firms will lose their relevance because of the threats posed by new FinTech advancements, unforeseen competition, and altered customer preferences.

This IIM Calcutta FinTech programme will be delivered in a hybrid executive format with onsite visits to the IIM Calcutta campus and live online sessions via the TalentSprint digital platform. In addition, TalentSprint will use its knowledge and network within the FinTech sector to curate and offer start-of-art capstone projects for programme participants, and actively leverage its digital platform for the purpose of accelerated experiential learning. 

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Indranil Bose, one of the Programme Directors, said: “A vast majority of firms in the banking and financial sector believe that the lack of adequate FinTech talent is an existential threat to their future. Our FinTech programme, designed with today’s management and finance professionals in mind, will leverage the deep research and consulting expertise of IIM Calcutta faculty and our state-of-art Finance Lab. We plan to equip and enable 2000 FinTech professionals in the next few years and our association with TalentSprint will help us achieve this objective."

Dr. Santanu Paul, Co-Founder and CEO of TalentSprint, said: “It has been said that FinTech is the new E-commerce. The current growth rate of FinTech is phenomenal and a large amount of funding in India is aggressively chasing the sector.  We are very pleased to partner with IIM Calcutta to bring this world-class programme to the market. It is our belief that this programme, with its innovative curriculum and networking opportunities, will serve as a major launchpad for the best FinTech professionals of tomorrow."

Working professionals from Banking, Financial Services and Technology sectors interested in this programme should apply for selection at: https://www.iimcal.ac.in/ldp/APFFB  or https://iimcal.talentsprint.com/fintech/

Published via feed from Business Wire India

Amazon Inc appoints Indra Nooyi as Director

US tech giant Amazon Inc has appointed former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi in its board of directors. 

After serving as chairman of PepsiCo, the second largest food and beverage firm in the world by net revenue, and as CEO for 13 years from 2006-2019, Nooyi stepped down from Pepsico in October last year 

An Indian-American of Tamil origin, 63-year-old Nooyi is the second woman to be named to Amazon’s board in February. The move comes as part of the e-commerce giant's attempt to increase diversity.

With this appointment, Amazon’s 11-member board now has five women, including Nooyi, Brewer, Jamie Gorelick, Judith McGrath and Patricia Stonesifer.

Nooyi would also be a member of the Amazon's audit committee. 

A graduate from Madras Christian College, Chennai, Nooyi is an almnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.

In February 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that Nooyi would join the ICC Board as its first independent female director in June.

Top Image - www.icc-cricket.com

Venture Catalysts expands to UK, aims 500+ investors by 2020

Venture Catalysts (VCats), India’s first integrated incubator, recently announced its plans to expand in the epicenter of start-up activity in Europe, the UK. After registering its presence as the most prominent investment platform in India and amongst the top 5 platforms in Asia, VCats has entered into a partnership with JPIN, a Euro-Asia focused VC, a startup mentor and a global advisory, to build the largest Euro-Asia corridor for angels to invest and nurture early stage ventures. 

The third largest tech hub in the world, London provides the ideal ecosystem for VCats to spread out its robustly expanding network in a market with a high concentration of capital, international talent and innovative business ideas. With an impressive portfolio of some of the most successful start-ups in India, VCats wishes to replicate its success story across Europe, starting with the UK.

With abundant accelerators, government support and serving as an access point to other markets of the West, London offers the right conditions to build the largest community of angels focused on enabling both Asian startups to expand to Europe and vice versa. Considering the same, VCats has developed detailed blueprints for the year 2019 and 2020, enlisting its operational objectives to be achieved sequentially.  In 2019, VCats aims to develop a 150+ member strong investment network that includes HNI/Corporates as well as business families in the UK. It also aims to raise INR 60-75 crore for early stage deals and continue to increase the amount to INR 100 Crore + for subsequent rounds of promising start-ups in the portfolio.

In 2020, VCats aims to aggressively expand its investor community network to include more than 500 members. It will also help to raise the early stage and follow-up round funding capabilities significantly, with a range of INR 125-150 crore+ for early-stage deals and INR 250 crore+ allocate for subsequent rounds.

JPIN through its vast network of investors from diverse backgrounds, including angel investors, HNIs, family offices, VCs, corporates and Private equity firms, plans to create the first of its kind professional network for angel investing in the Euro-Asia corridor at a grand scale, something that has been missing and is a critical gap between two of the biggest startup economies.  

The Founders of JPIN, Nayan Gala and Gaurav Singh, will be the Managing Partners of JPIN Venture Catalysts UK, and oversee the expansion process to ensure seamless client acquisition, achieving swifter turnaround times and develop better business terms to develop a strong VCats community while providing access to exciting and promising startups across Europe. Both Nayan and Gaurav are recognized leaders in the UK-India corridor, growth strategists and startup mentors. Together, the aim is to reach out to potential businesses across various verticals.

Commenting on the current association, Nayan Gala, Managing Partner, JPIN Venture Catalysts, UK said, “We see the Euro-Asia corridor to be indispensable in providing start-ups and scale-ups collaboration and growth capital across the borders. There has been a significant increase in trade between India and UK in the last few years, currently estimated at £20Bn. We are very excited to partner with VCats to provide a credible platform to the Euro-Asia investor community, with vetted start-ups. VCats is well known for its unique early access to the most promising start-ups as well as a robust due diligence process. More importantly, VCATs’ clever model of leveraging its strong and vast network of investors, to grow its portfolio companies, has demonstrated a good growth trajectory to its existing portfolio companies while providing good investor returns. British-Indian and British-Asian diaspora in the UK are second wealthiest among British major ethnic groups. There is already strong interest from the community, amongst other established communities, to join this network and be part of the Euro-Asia growth story. JPIN has been very active in the UK to build a ‘capital without borders’ strategy in the Euro-Asia corridor via its advisory, mentoring and thought leadership. The vision of VCats & JPIN combined with the thriving start-up environment in these regions can only result in great opportunities for the start-up ecosystems across borders.”

In fact, the positive response from the existing community of investors and start-ups in London has also strengthened VCats’ resolve to enter London in a big way. Remarking on the same, Anuj Golecha, Co-Founder, Venture Catalysts said, “VCats already has a strong presence in Middle Eastern and South-East Asian business communities, and the current expansion to London is aimed at presenting a more comprehensive global presence while catering to the great business environment and opportunities present there. Apart from gaining access to the spirited start-up community in London, a big positive for us has been seeing the warm response from the expatriate and Euro-Asian business community here. The community has been proactive in enabling this expansion as they have struggled to get desired scale of access to the Indian startup community, due to dispersed and often softly advertised pitching events. Asians have been amongst the biggest investors in the UK over the past years, and UK has been a key investor into India for over a decade. JPIN-Venture Catalysts is looking forward to functioning as an efficient bridge between stakeholders in both regions to develop a cohesive and thriving start-up ecosystem that promises a steady exchange of ideas, opportunities and resources.”

Through its strategic partnership with JPIN, VCats has taken a strong step forward to initiate its operations in arguably the most important Western market. The London start-up community is teeming with businesses that project considerable value, and JPIN’s network of established facilitators can handhold them through business improvement, consolidation, foreign expansion, diversification and growth support.

IIT Delhi Alumni Launches Freemium-based AI Enabled Resume Builder

MyResumeFormat.com is a freemium resume builder with various contemporary resume templates that allows one to design his/her own CV in the displayed style. The Artificial Intelligence assists in suggesting responsibilities and duties, inspired by the said professional role. One is required to simply choose the template and add his/her personal information and effortlessly a beautiful resume is ready in minutes.

MyResumeFormat.com is a brainchild of IIT Delhi and Amity alumni. The founders of the company, having worked as developers and designers with HR collaborations, devised a simple but effective resume builder that is easy to use and equipped with AI assistance.

The
idea behind the MyResumeFormat is to build a simple but effective and
better resume than what’s in the market. The core vision is to enable
job seekers generate not just beautiful looking resume but also suggest
job responsibilities to ease up the resume making process.

On the occasion, the co-founder Tarun Kumar said “Having
worked in recruitment industry, we know that recruiters often receive a
stack of applications and give it a mere glance. A resume barely gets a
few seconds to impress and get the attention of the HR. To achieve
this, a professional design with highlighted job responsibilities is the
key. Our resume designs reflect the same.”

Our
competitive advantage is that MyResumeFormat is free, unlike other
resume building websites that lead the user to eventually pay in order
to download the final version of the resume. MyResumeFormat allows
job-seekers to actually download the design as shown in the preview in
PDF format for free. Pro features that enhance the Resume design are
available only to the paid users. The generated resume is also readable
by Applicant Tracking System (ATS) used by most HRs and employers.

Currently, over a few thousand resumes are generated and downloaded on a monthly basis. Given the ease and convenience that MyResumeFormat offers, the company aims to become the household name when it comes to resume building.

Cyber Security Startup CloudSEK Raises Fresh Funding from IDFC-Parampara

Artificial Intelligence based Digital Risk Management and cybersecurity platform provider CloudSEK has raised further funding from IDFC Parampara. Founded in 2015 by renowned cyber security expert Rahul Sasi, the company had raised  2.5 M USD in pre-series A till date.

Currently it has investors like Exfinity Ventures, former Infosys board member V Balakrishnan, StartupXseed Ventures (who recently exited their Cyber-security investment, ShieldSquare), ME Meeran trust.

CloudSEK will leverage the freshly raised funds to evolve its product Xvigil. Furthermore, it will also use the funds to expand its footprints in India and South East Asia. After establishing itself as a preferred cybersecurity solution in the financial, e-commerce and transportation sector, CloudSEK now plans to target the pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and retail industry. Axis Bank, Federal Bank, NPCI, OLAM,  L&T, Go-Jek, HDFC Bank, Bank Bazaar are in CloudSEK’s client list.

CloudSEK is the brainchild of Rahul Sasi and was founded in 2015 with its headquarter in Singapore and an operational center in Bengaluru, India. The Brand offers cybersecurity platform powered by machine learning and promises to build a risk-free digital security ecosystem. It has been helping organizations by providing them timely, specific and actionable intelligence, thereby preventing digital security infractions. The start-up promises to build a risk-free cyber security ecosystem in Asia. The exclusive gamut of cyber security tools offered by CloudSEK is all set to make India ready for what is being assumed to be the next phase of the digital revolution. The client tail includes leading banks, e-commerce and technology organizations in its clientele. Federal Bank, Go-Jek, Bank Bazaar, HDFC Bank and Grab Taxi are in CloudSEK’s client list, five of which are unicorns.

“Cloudsek has developed a much needed product to scan and monitor the dark web, deep web and surface web threats. They provide actionable intelligence leveraging their AI/ML based deep technology and domain expertise, that helps protect the digital assets of any enterprise, including the infrastructure. This fits in very well with IDFC-Parampara’s fund theme of technology IP/innovation based investments.” said Jatin Desai, General Partner of IDFC-Parampara Fund.

CloudSEK’s founder Rahul Sasi and CEO Sourabh Issar spoke about the funding, and the company’s plans going forward:

With the increasing awareness about CyberSecurity, we are seeing urgency in the demand, which has translated into us doubling our revenues in the last 4 months. This vote of confidence from IDFC Parampara is a welcome validation of this momentum and acceleration that we have been witnessing – said CloudSEK CEO, Sourabh Issar.

CloudSEK offers cybersecurity platform powered by machine learning and promises to build a risk-free digital security ecosystem. X-Vigil, CloudSEK’s SaaS-based flagship product is an outcome of the company’s 4 years of diligent research and development efforts.

Zomato Launches Experience Center for its Delivery Fleet in partnership with BetterPlace

Zomato announces the launch of its first experience center in Bangalore for providing a uniquely differentiated experience to its delivery partners right from their sourcing and on boarding to various benefits. The center expects to on-board ~200 delivery executives per day.  

Zomato engages over 1.5 lakhs delivery partners and this particular development throws light on the necessity of streamlining the fleet in terms of on-boarding and training.

Team Zomato and Team BetterPlace

The Bangalore-based center will be managed by BetterPlace, India's largest technology platform for life cycle management of blue collar workforce. They will be directly responsible for managing several delivery fleet-related activities like getting the candidates to the Centre, educating them about the job and earnings, verification of documents, interviewing, on-boarding them, and getting them ready for the job with Zomato app installation, training to use the app, bag, uniform, grooming, etiquette and soft skills training, and much more.

The Centre will also partner with players that provide loans and offers for getting a smartphone or a bike, exclusively designed only for Delivery Partners.

“We firmly believe that our delivery fleet is the backbone of Zomato’s online ordering business and our partnership with BetterPlace is a factor of our core beliefs. With the experience centre in picture, we expect to not only enable our delivery partners to benefit heavily from it but, also hope to see an improvement in end user experience,” said Mohit Kumar, COO, Food Delivery at Zomato.

AI based Healthtech Startup NIRAMAI Raises $6 Mn from Dream Incubator, Others

Artificial intelligence (AI) based healthtech startup NIRAMAI Health Analytix, has announced that it has closed $6 mn in a Series A round of funding led by Dream Incubator, a Japanese VC firm, with participation from BEENEXT and other investors.

Earlier investors pi Ventures, Ankur Capital, Axilor Ventures, and Binny Bansal also participated in the round. The funds will be used for scaling in India, hiring top talent and getting additional regulatory approvals for international expansion.

The fresh funding comes within three months after NIRAMAI had raised about US$6-7 million from its existing investors Pi Ventures, Axilor, Ankur Capital and Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, in November last year.

NIRAMAI is creating a revolution in breast
health screening with its patented technology called Thermalytix™ which is a
non-contact, non-invasive and radiation-free solution for early stage breast
cancer detection. The solution is clinically proven to be accurate for women of
all age groups. This affordable and portable solution is completely privacy
conscious. Thermalytix can be applied to other areas of diagnostics as well.
This innovation has led to NIRAMAI being selected as the only Indian company
listed on 2019 cohort of AI 100 startups in the world by global business data
intelligence platform CB Insights.

Dr. Geetha Manjunath, CEO & CTO of NIRAMAI, says, “NIRAMAI helps to bridge the gap in
our healthcare delivery systems by providing an AI tool that is
accurate, affordable and accessible to all. If institutionalised as regular
screening method, NIRAMAI Thermalytix has the potential to save many lives not
just from breast cancer deaths but eventually other diseases as well. We are
thankful to the continued support and mentorship provided by our seed investors
and are excited to join hands with our new investors to propel us to next level
of growth.”

Eto Munehiko, Managing
Director, Dream Incubator Advisory and Investment India, who will join
Niramai board, says,
“We are excited about partnering with Niramai that is building a truly deep-tech
solution out of India. We also believe in the potential of their technology to
solve global health problems at scale. The disruptive AI based technology is
key to early detection of disease and saving lives especially where there is a
shortage of skilled medical professionals and dense breast ratio is high. Dream Incubator would support Niramai’s
international expansion including Japan.” Dream Incubator has invested
in more than 160 companies across 8 countries and supported 28 IPOs.

Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi
Ventures added, “We believe that Niramai’s team and technology will create
a significant difference in early detection of breast cancer and are happy to
continue backing them in their journey. AI diagnostic tools are helping doctors
scour through data to better diagnose a variety of abnormal conditions and is
the only way to bridge the huge demand and supply gap when it comes to quality
healthcare.”

NIRAMAI
has made excellent progress in 2018 showing clinical validation with multiple
trials published in international forums, market validation with 20+
installations in hospitals and diagnostic centres across 9 cities in India and
receiving excellent user feedback from women.  

NIRAMAI was founded in July 2016 by serial
intrapreneur Dr. Geetha Manjunath who comes with 25 years of expertise in research
and innovation leadership, and Nidhi Mathur with rich experience in business
planning, strategy and product management. Both women co-founders have
previously worked with companies like Xerox Research and Hewlett Packard Labs. Niramai has previously raised a seed round of $1mn in April
2017.

Nestaway to Launch 'Startup Lab' - An Equity-Free Startup Incubation Programme

Bangalore-based Nestaway, a managed home-rental marketplace is all set to launch "Nestaway Startup Lab", a 6-month equity-free startup incubation programme for bootstrapped startups to test products and services, announced the company in a blog post.

Touted as a first-of-a-kind initiative by an Indian startup, the incubation programme is in partnership with Excubator, a startup incubator and venture capital firm by Tiger Global and Goldman Sachs backed company to enable early stage founders get access to customers.

"We’ve absolutely no monetary expectations,”" Nestaway said on its blog post.

“In our experience, one of the largest determinants of startup success is early access to willing customers to test, fail and learn what works. Unfortunately, getting access to them, to even learn, is expensive. Today, we have the customer base that we’d like our fellow entrepreneurs to have access to,” said Amarendra Sahu, CEO, Nestaway Technologies.

Nestaway Startup Lab, in its first batch, aims to host 3-4 shortlisted startups from March onwards.

Founded in 2015, by Amarendra Sahu, Deepak Dhar, Jitendra Jagadev and Smruti Parida, NestAway is backed by high profile investors includinh Tiger Global, Goldman Sachs and Ratan Tata, among others. 

Assam's Numaligarh Refinery Ties with IIT-Guwahati for Startup Incubation

Startup revolution in north east India seems to have begun and Assam is likely to lead the torch of "Start-up India Stand-up India" initiative once set by PM Modi in 2016.

Assam-based Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has signed a MoU with IIT Guwahati (IIT-G) for incubation of Startups under its Startup funding initiative ‘iDEATION’.

https://twitter.com/NRL_MoPNG/status/1099254641705897984

With this partnership, NRL will facilitate incubation facility and mentoring to the Startups sponsored and selected by NRL through iDEATION at the established Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) of IIT-Guwahati.

Notably, it was in 2016 when the IIT-G had decided to throw open its state-of-the-art incubation centre to students from other educational institutions in the region.

The development comes within a month after Assam's Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had inaugurated a state-owned incubator initiative called 'Assam Startup The Nest' in Guwahati, which will facilitate growth of at least 1,000 startups over the next five years.

Related - How A Guwahati Startup Is Creating Jobs In Secluded North-East India

iDEATION was launched by NRL in July 2017 for nurturing and boosting a startup ecosystem in the North East and had also launched an initial fund of Rs 10 Crore as a grant for startup ventures in the region.

The first edition of the initiative saw funding to the tune of Rs. 1.29 crore being allotted to four selected startup projects as seed funding and scale-up funding.

The 2nd edition launched in February 2018, too, garnered a huge response from the intrepid entrepreneurs of the northeast.

Numaligarh Refinery is located at Morangi, Golaghat district, Assam in India is a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum, Oil India and Government of Assam.

Source - NorthEast Now

 

OYO forms JV with Yahoo to Launch Operations in Japan

Gurgaon-headquartered budget accomodation company, OYO has commenced of its operations in Japan, through a joint venture (JV) with Yahoo Japan Corporation to form OYO Technology & Hospitality Company, Japan.

With this new entity, OYO will bring its successful housing rental product from India, OYO Living, re-christened as OYO LIFE to Japan in beginning of March 2019. Geared to provide upgraded living experiences at an affordable price, OYO LIFE aims to enter the housing rental segment in the country, targeting the young and growing population of Japan, starting with students and young professionals.

Japanese entrepreneur and former Japan market leader for Handy and Booking.com, Hiro Katsuse, has been appointed as the CEO of the newly formed joint venture company.

Ritesh Agarwal, CEO & Founder, OYO Hotels and Homes said, "After successfully growing our business in our home markets, India and China, and expanding our presence to nine countries, we are really excited about commencing our operations in our third and potentially the largest home market - Japan, through a joint venture with Yahoo! Japan to form OYO Technology & Hospitality Company, Japan. This new entity will be focused on creating unique living experiences for the Japanese citizens, students, and young professionals, looking for good quality affordable accommodations, starting with our fully managed homes brand - OYO LIFE."

OYO LIFE offers a new housing rental solution - ready to move in beautifully designed homes, that eliminates the hassles of finding, accessing and managing everyday housing. This is one of OYO LIFE’s biggest advantages. Customers can now choose a lifestyle which gives them the freedom to live their life their own way - financial freedom with minimal deposits and no lock-in periods and privacy so that they can save and spend the way they like.  These accommodations - apartments, homes, and shared spaces are easy to find, easier to move in,  and easiest to live in as they can enjoy essential amenities which include furniture, Wi-Fi connectivity, television, electronic household appliances, regular housekeeping, CCTV surveillance, digitally enabled locks for additional security and 24/7 assistance, at no extra costs.

To recall, a recent report revealed that OYO is in talks to acquire India business of Keys Hotels, a brand of full-service hotels in India that operates under its parent chain of Berggruen Hotels.

"We are really happy to partner with OYO, through this joint venture and are certain to deliver good quality fully managed homes at affordable prices. With our local know-how, online distribution network and marketing support, OYO LIFE will soon emerge as the most preferred abode for the Japanese citizens and visitors in the country," said Kentaro Kawabe, CEO, Yahoo! Japan.

Earlier this week, Softbank backed startup kicked launched its services in Saudi Arabia by signing pact with 50 hotel having more than 3,000 rooms across seven cities.

Prior to this, Oyo had just raised $100 million from Star Virtue Investment, an entity controlled by the Chinese cab-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.

Source - The News Minute

Swiggy to Acquire Uber Eats' India Business worth $330 Mn

Uber Eats, the food delivery business of cab hailing firm Uber, was launched nearly two years ago in India, however established local brands like Zomato and Swiggy have not allowed Uber to make its own space among the Indian customers and now, according to ET report, Uber's food delivery business 'UberEats' is all set make a tactical exit by selling its India business worth $330 million to its local rival Swiggy.

Uber is selling its food business of India in order to push down its losses and help the company go for IPO with targeted valuation.

The acquisition is likely to be a share swap i.e. -- Uber would pay with stocks rather than with cash -- giving Uber around 10% stake in Swiggy, which was last valued at $3.3 billion.

In March last year, Uber did exactly the same when its exited its transport and food delivery businesses by selling it to deal with Singapore-based Grab. Uber closed that deal in exchange for a 27.5% in Grab .

Touted as a major revenue generator for Uber,  Uber Eats was reported to be valued at over $20 billion and grossed $1.5 billion in sales in the first quarter of 2018 alone.

Expected to close by March, the acquisition -- if happens -- will be Swiggy's largest acquisition till date, and Uber's first divestment of its food business globally.

Uber's move to sell its business in one of Asian countries is in line with it's global strategy to cut down on losses as it prepares for a public offering (IPO) at a possible valuation of $120-150 billion.

Notably, Uber Eats had also held discussions with Zomato, but those talks fell through, said the ET report.

It may noteworthy that Swiggy's last fund-raise, which made it to valued at $3.3 billion, was led by Naspers including new backers Tencent and Coatue and Coatue is an investor in Uber too.

Coatue is a technology sector hedge fund that invests in public and private equity markets. It is led by Philippe Laffont, who founded the hedge fund after leaving Tiger Management in 1999.

This month, Swiggy acqui-hired Kint.io, a Bangalore-based
Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup, for an undisclosed amount. Kint.io, which was Swiggy's third acquisition, applies deep learning and computer vision for object recognition in video.

Pharma Major AstraZeneca and NASSCOM tie-up to Launch Accelerator for Healthcare Startups

Global biopharmaceutical major AstraZeneca and Indian IT industry body Nasscom have joined hands to set up an accelerator programme to support Indian startups in healthcare space.

Headquartered in Cambridge, U.K. AstraZeneca has launched a strategic partnership with the Nasscom IoT Centre of Excellence to set up an accelerator programme to support Indian startups develop innovative solutions to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) care in India.

AstraZeneca also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with NASSCOM

AstraZeneca PLC Chairman of the Board Leif Johansson told PTI: “Best healthcare that can be provided and developed comes from cooperation across borders between industry, government and academia in a such way that we, with the help of technology, can provide a higher-quality service at a lower cost.” AstraZeneca is committed to strengthening innovation in healthcare in India, he added.

In a statement, Johansson said: “We are pleased to collaborate with the government, start-up eco-system and industry partners to achieve the shared vision of making meaningful interventions in improving the lives of patients impacted by non-communicable diseases in India.” Highlighting the Unnati initiative, Sweden’s Trade Commissioner to India Carsten Grönblad said: “Unnati is a model for co-innovation allowing industry, start-ups and the civil society to jointly develop solutions addressing global social needs.” This challenge calls for collaboration to implement early and remote screening as well as efficient AI-based patient management, he added.

NASSCOM – CoE IoT was launched as part of Government of India’s Digital India Initiative to help the country achieve a leadership role in the convergent areas of hardware and software. Under this collaboration, AstraZeneca and NASSCOM will incubate start-ups in bringing innovative and frugal solutions that can help in the management of NCDs. 

Source - Financial Express

Top Featured Image - WSJ.com

3 Things to Consider when working with BlueHost

Bluehost is one of the biggest web hosting companies on the market. It is also one of the most popular, because it is cheap, and very efficient. Their client-base speaks volumes about their capabilities in the web hosting space. When you choose to work with BlueHost, you have the option to choose a plan that best fits your budget. That’s part of the reason why it is so popular on the market. However, before you move to host your website with them, here are 3 things to consider when working with BlueHost.

1.    Their competitiveness in the market

Before you start working with BlueHost, compare their services to other web hosting companies.  A quick BlueHost comparison with other companies will help you appreciate their services, especially in terms of quality. For instance, when you compare it to GoDaddy, another industry leader, you will realize that BlueHost is much cheaper. It also has more resources for single site hosting. These are things you wouldn’t be aware of, without a comprehensive understanding of where BlueHost stands, relative to other companies in the market.

2.    Their pros and cons

Before you move to work with BlueHost, look at its pros and cons, just like you would do with any other company.  By doing this, you will be more aware of what to expect from their service. For instance, by reviewing them, you will quickly realize that one of the best aspects of this company is security. BlueHost is a large company, and has been in existence for a very long time. This means that you can count on its stability, which makes it reliable for hosting websites that handle sensitive data. With such knowledge, you are better positioned to use BlueHost for maximum benefit for your online business. Understanding its pros and cons can help you in creating websites that have a high ROI.

3.    Your knowledge level in matters to do with websites

Unlike in the past when creating and hosting a website was a complicated process, nowadays the process is pretty straightforward. However, there are aspects to it that might still need a professional. Nonetheless, if you don’t have that skill, or the money to pay a developer, then it would be prudent to put this into consideration when choosing this web host. That’s because, one of the best aspects of this company is its education center. This center is quite helpful, and can save you the money of having to go hire someone else to do the job for you. Besides, even when things get tough, and you don’t understand the process, you can count on their customer service for help. The BlueHost customer service is one of the best, and they have customer representatives who are always ready to help you out. But, even before you get to this stage, you will realize that, you can resolve most issues by yourself at the education center.

When you put these factors into consideration, you are unlikely to go wrong with web hosting.

India Korea Startup Hub Launched by PM Modi in Seoul

Prime Minister Narendra Modi lhas aunched India Korea startup hub in Seoul. Delivering keynote address at India-Korea Business Symposium Mr Modi said India has emerged as a land of opportunity and no other large economy in the world is growing at over 7 per cent year after year. 

The India-Korea Startup Hub is a one-stop platform to bring the Indian and Korean start-up ecosystems closer and to facilitate joint innovation between the two economies.

https://twitter.com/startupindia/status/1098546189790633984

The Hub was conceptualized as part of a joint statement signed between the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and Invest India on 9^th July 2018. The Hub will enable collaborations between startups, investors, incubators, & aspiring entrepreneurs of both countries and provide them requisite resources for market entry & global expansion.

Prime Minister said, his government has introduced flagship program Start-up India with 1.4 billion dollars fund for four years to create a startup eco-system in India. He said India is one of the most open countries for FDI today and more than 90 per cent of its sectors are now on automatic route for approval. 

S. Korea, which is world's leading market for blockchain, has consistently shown interest in Indian startup ecosystem especially in last 3-4 years.

In 2016, Korean investor KTB Network had led the $7 million (Rs. 50 crores) funding round of Bangalore based NoBroker.com.

In May of same year, SoftBank Ventures Korea had made an investment of an undisclosed amount in True Balance, one of India’s integrated, one touch prepaid mobile balance manager app. This was followed by selection of
Kerala-based hyperlocal e-commerce firm Buyfie in S. Korea's highly prestigious and popular acceleration programme, in2Korea,

Odisha-based ThinkZone Raises $104K from Gray Matters Capital to Create Jobs for Women Micro-Entrepreneurs

ThinkZone, an award winning social impact start-up from Cuttack providing high quality, low-cost education to under-served children in low resource communities, has today announced its plans of expanding its footprint in the state of Odisha by creating jobs for 300 women micro-entrepreneurs.

The startup currently employs 100+ women catering to over 2,800 children in 375 villages across nine blocks of the districts of Cuttack, Kendrapara and Bhadrak will be looking to deepen its engagement in the most backward districts of the state, besides expanding into coastal Odisha through these women.

Using an innovative ‘School-in-a-Box’ education solution, offline technology, proprietary teaching activities and class management tools, these local women would deliver quality early-grade education programs following the Teaching-at-the-Right-Level approach (an MIT evidence-based pedagogy) to improve learning outcomes of 10,000 children in the state by 2020.

This plan for expansion comes on the back of it closing post seed stage round of funding of $ 104,000 from education sector focused impact investor Gray Matters Capital under its edLABS initiative.

The prospect of ThinkZone empowering women entrepreneurs as teachers to impart quality education using innovative low cost and scalable technology which can potentially benefit nearly 2 million students in the next five years is outlined as the rationale behind the gender-lens investor’s bet on this Odisha based start-up.

ThinkZone will use the funding towards 4 key strategic initiatives of automating teacher training, refining curriculum, improving performance monitoring by integrating analytics with technology and forging partnerships with the objective to scale.

The World Bank awarded start-up had previously raised funds from BPCL, UnLtd India, D-Prize (US Distribution Inc), INVENT(Villgro) and Startup Odisha.

Throwing light on the expansion plans, Binayak Acharya, Founder – ThinkZone said, “The work we do at ThinkZone is unique because we are developing a tech-based pedagogy for first generation learners and empowering women entrepreneurs who come from a limited education backgrounds with facilitation skills to provide tech-driven quality education in rural India. We’re creating a scalable model of technology and local community interventions that can be adapted to the local context. We plan to scale our expansion through greater decentralization and partner with select public sector organizations and private MNCs to implement our early-grade learning enhancement and teacher-training programs.”

Team ThinkZone

The social enterprise is in talks to implement its pedagogy in government run primary schools as well the local Anganwadis (early-childcare centers) in the next one year.

“For any education model to be successful in India, it has to have four prerequisites: Low cost, high quality, scalability, and focus on barriers to education for poor. When I started working on ThinkZone, whoever I spoke to equated good teaching with good education. On the contrary, good education is about good learning. ThinkZone’s model emphasises learning-based education instead of teacher-centric learning. ThinkZone has a strong backend design and management team to support the relatively under-skilled community teachers. ThinkZone’s pedagogy, which is the core process of any education model, has undergone extensive reengineering to provide education delivery that is built on highly standardised elements”, Binayak said.

ThinkZone has recently partnered with Learning Equality for its Kolibiri Hardware Grants Program, which is a Google.org funded initiative. This will enable it to upskill teachers and help students learn at their own pace.

MobiKwik Offers Instant Life Insurance for Rs. 20 on Its App

MobiKwik, India’s largest digital financial services platform, today announced the launch of digital life insurance on its app to its users. MobiKwik in association with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has rolled out first-of-its-kind group micro insurance product. The offering begins with a life cover of Rs. 1 lakh available for a monthly premium as low as Rs. 20/-.

This is the second big announcement by MobiKwik in the digital insurance space, post the launch of accidental insurance in November 2018. The users have an option to choose from three sum assured policies: Rs. 1 lakh, 1.5 lakhs and 2 lakhs, available against monthly premiums of Rs. 20/-, 30/- and 40/- respectively.

Life insurance can be digitally purchased on the MobiKwik app, via a paperless, 2-step process that takes 10 seconds and the policy is issued instantly. MobiKwik will be extending its base of insurance providers in this category and is exploring associations with other leading insurance providers. Mobikwik will be adding curated products based on customer profile and will offer personalised products rather than ‘one size fits all’.

ommenting on the launch, Ms. Upasana Taku, Co-founder and Director, MobiKwik said, “Over the past 9 years, Mobikwik has designed products that are aimed at transforming the financial landscape and driving financial inclusion in India. Our foray into the life insurance category is in line with our vision to bring about an impactful change in the way financial services are distributed in India. The market is huge and expected to grow rapidly. As per a recent report by ASSOCHAM released in partnership with a research firm called APAS, the insurance industry in India is expected to reach USD 280 billion by 2020. The report also states that life insurance industry in the country is expected to grow by 12-15 percent annually for the next three to five years. Our innovative, curated offerings in the insurance domain aim to simplify the process of buying insurance and also make it affordable to a totally untapped set of customers.”

Added Ms. Taku, “Life insurance is very important for each and every individual. However, in India, it is an extremely under-penetrated category. With these micro insurance products and other personalised offerings in the future, we are confident of disrupting the life insurance market. We are digitally offering life insurance in association with ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, one of the renowned names in this domain. We intend to tap the mass market and emerging affluent customer base that has been ignored by the traditional banks and insurance providers, owing to the high distribution costs. We are also trying to address the challenges around product relevance for the customer, because of standard financial and health underwriting. MobiKwik will lead the way in driving adoption of life insurance products in the real India with its customized portfolio, intelligently designed to cater to the customers’ requirements. Digital offering is the key here as we are able to offer insurance products to millions of our users, irrespective of location, on our app. We envision a day when majority of India will have a life insurance policy.”

Mr. Puneet Nanda, Deputy Managing Director, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company said, “We are delighted to have associated with MobiKwik, one of India’s largest digital mobile wallet. The simple paperless on-boarding process paves the way for MobiKwik’s large user base to purchase life insurance. Simplicity, we believe is the biggest innovation in the life insurance industry. Customer centricity is the core philosophy of both organisations and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

MobiKwik user is suggested an appropriate insurance product, selected basis existing profile of the customer, advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence algorithm. The company had recently launched the accidental insurance product which has received a great response from its user base. It offers accidental insurance of Rs. 1 lakh for a year for as low as Rs. 20/-.

MobiKwik is India’s leading digital financial services platform, leveraging a sophisticated product and merchant acquisition capabilities. It is also the second largest mobile wallet player in India. It has a network of over 3 million direct merchants, 140+ billers and over 107 million users. It has ventured into credit with the launch of its instant credit product called ‘Boost’. MobiKwik has also announced its foray into wealth management with 100% acquisition of Clearfunds, one of India’s leading new age wealth management platforms.

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the company has raised four rounds of funding from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, MediaTek, GMO Payment Gateway, Cisco Investments Net1 and Bajaj Finance. The company has offices across many cities in India including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. It aspires to be the largest source of digital transactions in India and has a vision of enabling a billion Indians with one tap access to digital payments, loans, insurance and investments, by 2022.

MobiKwik is second largest mobile wallet player in India and has a network of over 3 million direct merchants, 140+ billers and over 107 million users. It has ventured into credit with the launch of its instant credit product called ‘Boost’. MobiKwik has also announced its foray into wealth management with 100% acquisition of Clearfunds, one of India’s leading new age wealth management platforms.

Founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the company has raised four rounds of funding from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, MediaTek, GMO Payment Gateway, Cisco Investments Net1 and Bajaj Finance. The company has offices across many cities in India including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Kolkata. It aspires to be the largest source of digital transactions in India and has a vision of enabling a billion Indians with one tap access to digital payments, loans, insurance and investments, by 2022.

Source - Feed via Business Wire India

QR Code-based Payment App BharatPe to Raise $17 Mn from Sequoia India

In one of the largest Series A round of funding in Indian Startup Ecosystem, Bangalore-based BharatPe is in the final stages of raising nearly $17 million (about Rs 120 crore) from investors led by Sequoia Capital India, valuing
the payments startup at $60-65 million, reported Economic Times.

Founded in April 2018, by former CFO of Grofers, Ashneer Grover (IIT Delhi 2004), and Shashvat Nakrani, BhratPe is a QR code-based payment app building the largest offline merchant network in India by making mobile payments acceptance free and ubiquitous.

BharatPe empower the merchants to accept UPI payments for ‘FREE’ through the BharatPe QR. Merchants can sign up instantly and start receiving the funds immediately in their bank account. BharatPe makes payment acceptance simple by offering merchants a single interface for all UPI apps such as PayTM, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, Mobikwik, Freecharge, True Caller and 100 other UPI apps. 

"BharatPe is a fin-tech company and not a re-seller. We are not an aggregator or payment gateway in the traditional sense. BharatPe works closely with our partner banks to develop custom APIs to enable an extremely simple product for the merchants. Our QR technology and deep integration at the bank end is our secret sauce," says the company website.

In February last year, ICICI Bank acquired a minority stake in payment startup, Tapits Technologies, a Mumbai-based early stage startup that helps merchants accept digital payments through Aadhaar biometrics.

In May last year, another new payment startup, ToneTag, had raised $8-10 million from a clutch of marquee, strategic investors led by Amazon Inc. and Mastercard,. ToneTag uses encrypted sound waves to make offline, proximity-based contact-less payments on any device.

In June, Chennai-based Hip Bar raised Rs 27 crore from alcoholic beverages company, United Spirits Ltd (USL). Hip Bar claims to be India's first drinks delivery app with an RBI-approved mobile wallet that enables customers browse adult beverages, order them and have them home-delivered.