P2P Lender LenDenClub Raises $1 Mn in Funding from Artha Venture Fund and Family Offices

Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart Foundation President and EVP, Chief Sustainability Officer of Walmart, today visited and interacted with farmers and leaders of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in Rariya and Bilouli Maharaj villages in the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. These farmers are part of a project supported by Walmart Foundation and managed and implemented by TechnoServe.

Tuesday, the Walmart Foundation announced a $3.5 million grant (approximately Rs 25.2 crores) to TechnoServe to help create more sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers. TechnoServe will help up to 30 FPOs in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh improve their access to markets and financing, and become stronger businesses with better accounting, governance and management systems. TechnoServe will also help build capability of smallholders in these FPOs by promoting sustainable agriculture practices, improving post-harvest and storage systems, and providing market access for smallholders. Through this grant, TechnoServe aims to boost incomes for 25,000 farmers (50% of whom will be women).

[caption id="attachment_134425" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart Foundation President and EVP, Chief Sustainability Officer of Walmart interacting with women farmers and leaders of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in Rariya and Bilouli Maharaj villages in the Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_134424" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

The Walmart Foundation announced a $3.5 million grant (approximately Rs 25.2 crores) to TechnoServe to help create more sustainable livelihoods for smallholder farmers. TechnoServe will help up to 30 FPOs in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh improve their access to markets and financing, and become stronger businesses with better accounting, governance and management systems. TechnoServe will also help build capability of smallholders in these FPOs by promoting sustainable agriculture practices, improving post-harvest and storage systems, and providing market access for smallholders. Through this grant, TechnoServe aims to boost incomes for 25,000 farmers (50% of whom will be women). The Walmart Foundation also announced this week a $1.3 million grant to Digital Green, an organization that seeks to provide data such as weather forecasts, market pricing, and growing advice to farmers directly on mobile devices.[/caption]

“This grant extends Walmart Foundation’s efforts to improve market access for smallholder farmers in India, with the aim of increasing their income while also contributing to a stronger and more sustainable agricultural sector in the country,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, Walmart Foundation President and EVP, Chief Sustainability Officer of Walmart.

The Walmart Foundation also announced this week a $1.3 million grant to Digital Green, an organization that seeks to provide data such as weather forecasts, market pricing, and growing advice to farmers directly on mobile devices.

These grants are part of Walmart Foundation’s five-year, $25 million (approximately Rs. 180 crores) commitment to improve smallholder farmer livelihoods in India. To date, including the grants announced this week, Walmart Foundation has made over $10 million (Rs. 71 crores) in grants that aim to benefit 81,000 farmers, including 29,030 women farmers.

Walmart the company has also committed to source up to 25% of its produce for the Best Price cash and carry format from local smallholders.

Beyond India, Walmart Foundation is also working in Mexico, Central America and South Africa to address systemic challenges faced by smallholder farmers and small producers related to sustainable production practices, access to finance, infrastructure and market access.

Google Cloud news Wipro

Wipro, Google Cloud Expand Partnership to Accelerate Digital Transformation for Enterprises

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Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, today announced the expansion of its strategic partnership with Google Cloud to accelerate cloud adoption and digital transformation for global enterprises. By collaborating with Google Cloud, Wipro will catalyse innovation for enterprises in industry verticals such as consumer goods, BFSI, semiconductor, and healthcare, through a ‘business-first’ strategy.

Wipro has a dedicated practice focused on Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The practice powers business and technology transformation for enterprises and helps them win in an ‘experience economy’ through differentiated offerings around application modernization, data, analytics, artificial intelligence, SAP workload migration, and industrialized cloud migration at scale. Wipro leverages GCP to build industry-leading solutions and capabilities to help companies embark on their cloud journey.

Wipro’s industry-focused solutions, with Google Cloud technologies embedded at their core, will enable enterprises to future-proof their IT investments. Wipro’s Insights-as-a-Service solution - Data Discovery Platform (DDP) is available on GCP. The Data Discovery Platform accelerates insight-driven decision making through pre-built applications for specific industries such as banking and financial services, retail, energy, education, and manufacturing. The platform has 70+ use cases that address industry-specific key performance indicators.

In order to accelerate Google Cloud adoption across enterprises at scale, Wipro’s Cloud Studio and Enterprise Digital Operations Center have been integrated with Velostrata, Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and other Google Cloud services to bring a DevOps-oriented pipeline approach to industrialized migration. Wipro will also integrate Anthos, Google’s open platform for managing applications in a multi-cloud world into these offerings to enable hybrid cloud deployments for its customers.

Naidu Annamaneni, CIO and VP - Global IT, eSilicon Corporation said, “Wipro’s in-depth domain knowledge and cloud migration expertise is helping us to seamlessly move all our semiconductor design workloads that have been running on-premises to Google Cloud Platform. This is one of the first cloud migrations that will support semiconductor design with a full range of best-in-class design tools from multiple vendors. When complete, we expect to have a highly agile and scalable environment to deliver top-quality designs, improve time-to-market and enhance customer experience.”

Ramesh Nagarajan, Senior Vice President & Head – Cloud Services, Wipro Limited said, “Wipro’s comprehensive portfolio of offerings on Google Cloud is futuristic and innovation-focused. We equip our customers with the right tools to operate on a modern IT infrastructure, adopt a ‘business-first’ approach and be future-ready. In collaboration with Google, we aim to enable our customers to migrate faster, enhance their digital experiences and optimize business outcomes.”

Kevin Ichhpurani, Corporate Vice President, Global Ecosystem at Google Cloud said, “We’re excited that Wipro continues to invest in and grow its Google Cloud Practice. Wipro’s expertise in digital transformation solutions will be an asset for enterprise customers as they increasingly look to move critical workloads to Google Cloud.”
About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company. We harness the power of cognitive computing, hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. A company recognized globally for its comprehensive portfolio of services, strong commitment to sustainability and good corporate citizenship, we have over 175,000 dedicated employees serving clients across six continents. Together, we discover ideas and connect the dots to build a better and a bold new future.

Business Vernacular Platforms WinZO

WinZO aims to bring 500 Mn People of Vernacular Bharat to use Digital Payments

IndianWeb2

WinZO, India’s largest vernacular arcade gaming platform, today announced that 30% of its users on the platform are making their first-ever digital entertainment transaction through WinZO. 80% of these players are using the platform in a non-English language, and playing from 1500+ cities, towns, villages across India. This number is set to increase as the gaming platform reaches to more users in Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 and 5 cities in India. India is already a global number one in terms of mobile gaming installs.

Gaming in India is witnessing noteworthy transition, owing to the digital revolution and a multitude of other factors like increasing mobile phone penetration with bigger screen size and storage facility, low-cost data, growth in Micropayments and rise in disposable income.

WinZO, backed by Kaalari Capital, offers 30+ games on its App-based platform in 10 languages, namely English, Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi and Bhojpuri. WinZO Games is offering games in multiple formats like 24*7 Tournaments, Real-time multiplayer format - WinZO Baazi, and the Versus mode. The ticket for games varies from Rs. 2 to Rs. 25 with the average time spent on the platform is more than 55 minutes and with more than 90% of users are using the app from non-metro cities of the country.

Commenting on strengthening the online gaming ecosystem Mr. Paavan Nanda, Co-Founder WinZO Games said: ‘As Mobile gaming ecosystem consolidates in India, it is important for the industry to focus on the quality of content and at the same time improve the monetization to expedite the growth. With WinZO, we are bringing the much-enjoyed off-line experience of arcade gaming to the digital grid, promoting social gaming and bite-sized entertainment in India. Many WinZO users are making their very first entertainment and media transaction on the platform and we aim to strengthen this confidence by adopting a more social and customized content creation for our users.’

He further added ‘Typically a user makes 8 transactions on the platform in a month. These are all bite-sized transactions. As the audience is maturing the gaming industry is likely to dominate the market as more opportunities open up for gaming platforms and game developers. It is notable that the industry now is also attracting talents across the value chain like data scientist, designers, a behavioral psychologist and programmers’

WinZO is designed to bring about a stable monetization model in the Indian gaming ecosystem, which experiences one of the highest engagements globally. There are 400 MM internet users who spend on an average over 45 minutes daily playing games on their smartphones. These users hardly make in-app purchases and Advertisement revenues for some of these Digital Assets are abysmally low vis-a-vis some of its global counterparts.

According to the recent Media and Entertainment report by KPMG Mobile Gaming is set to grow at a CAGR of 32.2% from FY19 to FY24, user’s engagement especially among a younger audience, gaining further tractions.

The average mobile device user spends 3-4 hours every day watching OTT, playing games and music or on online shopping. Mobile gaming, however, is the fastest-growing source of entertainment for Indian users. This upsurge will create immense opportunities in the gaming ecosystem, leading to employment generation, entertainment, engagement, and market growth.

Entrepreneurship nexford university scholarship startup funding startups

Nexford University launches $200K Funding Opportunity for Entrepreneurs across the World

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The world needs more entrepreneurs. But millions of people struggle to get the education and skills they need. Nexford University plans to change that.

Today the university has announced its 'Entrepreneurship Scholarship' and $200,000 startup funding, with a mission to empower next-generation leaders across the world.

"The world needs more doers," said Fadl Al Tarzi, Nexford's CEO. "We thought about what we can do to help them. If you're a doer, you won't let anything stop you, be it your physical location, lack of experience or even lack of funding. Having said that, we want everyone to succeed – we want to empower people with the tools they need to increase their chances of success.

"Through this initiative, we're providing entrepreneurs with the skills they need to move forward in life, and we're not stopping there. While we believe skills are the most valuable currency, you can't buy ads or hire people with skills alone. So we're taking it one step further and funding the most promising startup ideas we'll receive."

Entrepreneurs play a key role in the economy. The US Small Business Administration reported that small business added 1.9 million net new jobs in 2018. The 30.2 million small businesses in the US employ 47.5 percent of the state's private workforce. Forbes found that the global startup economy also generated $2.8 trillion in economic value since 2017.

With this opportunity, entrepreneurs can launch their business idea, get ahead in their career, improve their prospects and influence those around them.

100 scholarships, $200k startup funding opportunity

There will be 100 BBA or MBA scholarships announced as part of Nexford's push to support more entrepreneurs. Scholarship recipients will practice real-world business concepts that act as a bridge to entrepreneurship. Specializations learners can choose from include Building a Tech Startup, 360° Marketing, Enabling E-Commerce, and Doing Business Across the World.

Scholarship graduates will have the chance to pitch their startup idea. Every year, Nexford will fund five scholarship graduates at $10,000 each.

Nexford offers 100% online, globally affordable education through a next-generation learning experience. While many universities offer education that is heavily theoretical, Nexford believes in a different approach – education is important not only for startup success but as a foundation on which learners will build on for years to come. Along with applicable skills, learning how to learn is essential regardless of one's career path.

Rebecca Ebokpo, MBA 2019, said: “I’m going to use my MBA to support managing my own law practice and advise clients on business-related issues. I’m happy to be part of the movement to the next generation of education. And I encourage others to come join the movement."

Nexford Entrepreneurship Scholarship applications are open until September 15.

Startup Investment startups Venture Catalysts

Venture Catalysts launches 'FamilyOffice' Initiative to Facilitate Startup Investments for Family owned Biz and Corporate Houses

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Family businesses are the oldest and most recognized model of economic organization. Some of the biggest business houses and corporations today started out as family run enterprises which went on to become highly successful and diverse economic giants.

In order to facilitate these businesses enter the start-up ecosystem and presenting start-up investment as a high potential asset class, Venture Catalysts, India’s first, largest and pioneering integrated incubator and accelerator platform, recently launched the FamilyOffice initiative, a network to connect family owned business houses and big corporates with the most promising start-ups. The event was held recently in Mumbai and was attended by leading business figures such as Family Office of Marico and Promoters of Family owned businesses of Ddecor, UB Cotton, RAS Group and Donear Industries.

In its capacity, Venture Catalysts will be playing the role of a facilitator, extending complete support in identification, curation, diligence and post investment procedures leveraging its massive expertise in the domain.

FamilyOffice will serve as the one-stop enabler for its network members to invest in the most promising start-ups across sectors from Angel stage of funding to Series B. The initiative aims to significantly boost the prospects of India’s thriving start-up ecosystem by bringing more funding opportunities and projecting the segment as a lucrative investment alternative and an ideal way to diversify enterprise portfolio.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, President and Co-founder, Venture Catalysts said, “The FamilyOffice network is the first-of-its-kind network dedicated at integrating family owned business houses and big corporate houses into India’s start-up fabric. Through our business interactions, we realized a large number of legacy business houses wanted to take an active part in the start-up ecosystem, but were unsure where to start from. FamilyOffice will fill this need gap, guiding them in a sustained manner to ensure their investment decisions are optimized. FamilyOffice’s operations will be spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, London, Dubai and Singapore, anchoring the best deals involving both national and international stakeholders.”

Highlighting the need for such initiatives, Atul Nishar, Founder and Chairman of Hexaware Technologies and a member of the NASSCOM Executive Council, said “For a family office right asset allocation is very important to maximise returns & reduce risk. Investing in the exciting new world of startups upto certain % of wealth - say 5 % to 15 % can improve overall returns.”

Amit Patni, Director of Campden Family Connect, a JV between Amit’s family office RAAY Global Investments and UK based Campden Wealth added, “Family Offices represent some of the long-term capital in today’s markets. However, the investment process varies depending on the vintage, experience, and maturity of the office. A Family Office generally has a large quantum of wealth and prefers long-term investments as every Family invests with an aim to not just grow but also preserve wealth across generations. Hence, deals are evaluated not only from a profit-making perspective but also in alignment with a family’s value system. Having a platform that can assist in identifying a fine-tuned and a well-researched pitch that aligns with the value framework will help family offices a lot. At the same time, entrepreneurs and start-ups can tap into this pool of funds and leverage on the entrepreneurial DNA running in the family.”

Venture Catalysts has established itself as the single most dedicated platform aimed at taking the Indian start-up ecosystem from strength to strength. It has empowered start-ups as well as investors throughout the country through its massive, streamlined and highly transparent network aimed at offering promising ideas and talented teams the best ecosystem to grow their businesses in. Recently, Venture Catalysts also started 9Unicorns, India’s first accelerated VC programme aimed at finding the next ‘unicorn’ businesses emerging from India.

Venture Catalysts is India’s first integrated incubator. It invests $250K – $1.5 Million in early stage startups that has potential to create enduring value for over a long period of time. Venture Catalysts brings lethal combination of Capital, Mentoring and Business Network to help investee companies to succeed. Our innovation provides value to startups through its angel network, funding, community, services and co-working facility.

Business Namaste Credit Neobanking SME / MSMEs

Namaste Credit Consolidates Offerings for MSMEs as a Neobank

IndianWeb2

Online lending marketplace Namaste Credit today said that it is launching its Neobanking solutions for MSMEs, becoming a full-fledged "Digital-Only Bank" with a foundational SaaS play. As a Neobank, Namaste Credit aims to become the first Neobank to offer a one- stop financial services provider for MSMEs, offering automated credit, banking and accounting solutions.

Namaste Credit Neobank will offer numerous tailor-made products via a soon-to-be-launched “Namaste Biz” app to address multiple, inter-related financial needs of MSMEs, including centralizing their cash flow and banking and credit management.

“We believe a technology-based integrated platform that can bring together banks, NBFCs and other stakeholders can completely transform the financial services industry, specially from a B2B perspective. As a Neobank, we are confident to achieve precisely that, which will ultimately put us in a unique position to serve the MSME banking needs end-to-end, and at lower costs,” says Lucas Bianchi, the co-founder and Director of Namaste Credit.

India has over 50 large banks and NBFCs, who use over 100,000 Direct Selling Agents (DSAs) and offline channels to reach the over 30 million MSMEs in India.

“Our transition to a Neobank will not only help the startup get a firmer grip into the Banking & NBFC ecosystem but also balance revenues with customer acquisition costs to maintain a profitable growth path,” Mr. Bianchi added.

Namaste Credit said it is growing 20% month-on-month in the SME credit segment, as more financial institutions are adopting the technology and

automation path. In less than 18 months, the startup has emerged as the largest SaaS automation provider for comprehensive credit underwriting for India's Financial Institutions.

The startup is leveraging its proprietary technology powered by AI, NLP and computer vision in SME credit application sourcing and processing, to solve real-world problems of SME credit.

Gaurav Anand, co-founder and director, Namaste Credit says, "This transition will help our partner Financial Institutions to get real-time insights into their lending customers, underwrite better and cross-sell other products. Cross-selling takes time, and if the revenue model is based on cross-sell commissions and SaaS fee from SMEs, it can take a long time to break-even. We saw this across many Neobanks globally and are looking to solve this problem by overlaying our Neobank over an existing business, which will allow us to be profitable from the start".

“This innovation in business model will create a substantial competitive advantage for us in three key aspects: accelerate customer and channel acquisition, reduce operational costs significantly, and finally, allow us to expand quickly to global markets,” Mr. Anand added.

Namaste Credit raised $3.8 million in Series-A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners in 2018. It also plans to grow the number of its technology licensing partnerships with leading lenders across the globe.

Augmented Reality Startups InGage news startup funding TNQ Technologies Virtual Reality Startups

TNQ Technologies Invests $2 Mn in Immersive Tech Firm InGage, Forms JV 'TNQ InGage'

IndianWeb2

CHennai-based TNQ Technologies on Wednesday said it has formed a joint venture with InGage, called 'TNQ InGage', and will invest USD 2 million (about Rs 14 crore) into the entity.

InGage will cease to exist as an entity, and its people, intellectual property and customer relationships will fold into this JV, a statement said.

"Apart from its USD 2mn investment, TNQ Technologies will provide management expertise and access to its sales channels for TNQ InGage's growth. TNQ Technologies will continue to focus on its existing publishing client base and will extend the AR/VR expertise of TNQ InGage to them as a new service line," it added.

The solutions will provide enterprises in the healthcare, manufacturing, and construction industries with services like immersive training simulators using Virtual Reality and Haptics, field service tools through Augmented Reality and Internet of Things (IoT) and digital experience centres for Industry 4.0.

InGage is a media creation studio providing creative, live action, motion design, animation and post-production services to entertainment studios, advertising agencies and corporations throughout the world.

According to InGage's LinkedIn company page, the company has launched an multi-brand Augmented Reality Mobile Platform/App called “InGage” on Apple itunes and Android Google Play designed for brands to engage with their customers in an interactive way for all their brand messaging, promotions and other communication.

Kolkata Startups Mitsubishi online pharmacy SastaSundar startup funding Startup Funding India

Online Healthcare Marketplace SastaSundar Raises Rs 100 Cr from Mitsubishi Corp

IndianWeb2

Kolkata-based SastaSundar.com, an online medicine and healthcare products marketplace has raised Rs 100 crore ( ~ US$ 14 Mn) from Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation. The Japenese will pick up an undisclosed stake in the startup, reported Times of India.

According to Times of India report, the Mitsubishi investment in SastaSundar will give the Kolkata-based startup a valuation of over Rs 500 crore ( ~ US$ 70 Mn). SastaSundar Healthbuddy has a revenue of over Rs 220 crore. “The company would cross Rs 300crore mark in the next one-two years,” an official added.

The fresh funding is a part of the fund raised for expansion of SastaSundar and is after the recent investments of Rs 70.49 crore by Rohto Pharmaceuticals, Japan. In May 2017, the startup had raised $5 million in funding from Rohto Pharmaceutica, which too is based out of Japan and a 70-year-old pharmaceutical manufacturer headquartered in Osaka, Japan.

SastaSundar Ventures, a group holding firm, is the majority owner of the company with 83% stake, while Rohto has around 17% in SastaSundar.

Founded in 2013, by B L Mittal and Ravi Kant Sharma, SastaSundar is aiming to use the knowledge and best in class technology to reduce cost and to add convenience in making available medicine, healthcare products and other useful products with high quality.

Earlier this month, one of the main companies of Mitsubishi Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), acquired significant stakes in several Indian companies, including Dr Reddy's, Tech Mahindra, Tata Global Beverages, Godrej Consumer, Marico and Cyient through acquisition of entities that hold shares of the companies.

Auto Industry car marketplace Truebil Web 2.0

AutoTech Firm Truebil giving Car Buyers 'Money-back' offer Even after a Week of Buying A Car

Vardaan

From clothes, home décor to electronics, now trying out your dream car for a week, with the assurance of getting your money back is now a reality! Truebil, India's leading auto tech company has announced the launch of its money-back guarantee, a first of its kind offer. This will augment customer experience by providing flexibility and 100% assurance to buyers who are often sceptical while making heavy investments.

Under this offer, buyers will have a whole week to test-drive the car as part of their daily routines and see if it meets their needs. If for any reason, the buyer is not satisfied with the car, they will be able to get a full refund on their purchase amount. All they have to do is make sure the car is returned within 7 days from the date of purchase and has been driven under 200km. Additionally, they must ensure that none of the car parts have been damaged or replaced, i.e. they should be returned in the same condition that they were received in.

[caption id="attachment_134348" align="alignleft" width="298"]

Shubh Bansal, CoFounder, TrueBil[/caption]

Speaking on the launch of the new offer, Shubh Bansal, Co-Founder, Truebil said, “Despite the sluggish growth in the automobile industry over the last few quarters, the used car market has continued to witness accelerated growth and is now booming. With the introduction of our first-of-its-kind money-back-guarantee, we aim to increase the transparency and credibility in our relationship with our customers to propel further growth. The offer will give our customers a unique opportunity to experience the cars first-hand for a week before their final decision. We believe that this move will help our customers to make better-informed decisions and encourage more people to choose our platform for a seamless buying experience.”

Currently a leading online retailer for used cars in India, Truebil has been able to effectively tap into consumer needs by leveraging cutting-edge technology for its service offerings. The company has been able to seamlessly integrate online to offline channels through its full-stack model, Truebil Direct. At present, it operates in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi with plans in place for further expansion, both within these cities as well across other parts of the country. With an array of unique services pertaining to used or pre-owned cars, Truebil is able to provide customers with flexible and innovative solutions that enhance their overall car buying and selling experience.

About Truebil:

Rapid technological adoption has been the backbone of Truebil's massive growth. Truebil, India's leading auto tech company has managed to achieve precious insights on rapidly changing consumer preferences and consequent increase in demand for used cars in recent years. The company leverages this information gathered to build state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms.

Following a seamlessly integrated online and offline model, Truebil has developed proprietary tech-enabled evaluation mechanisms such as Recommendation System for personalized user experience, TruePrice to predict the accurate selling price, Procurement Score to determine the right procurement price, and Dynamic Pricing to change the price based on a car's demand in the market.

TrueScore, Truebil’s super-efficient rating meter. The comprehensive measure gives the customer a fair idea of the condition of the used car. It takes into account several factors like the brand, age, price, mileage, history,etc.and provides a numeric index on the scale of 0-5. Every used car on sale on the Truebil site is given a rating between 0 and 5, which helps a customer to take the right decision. The higher the index, the better the car.

Business FMCG Food Retail Food Startup Locus Unilever

FMCG 2025 Highlights the Need for Increased Opportunity amidst Competition

IndianWeb2

FMCG 2025, was hosted by a global supply chain decision-making platform, Locus late last week in Mumbai. The event saw participation from supply chain bigwigs of leading FMCG players like Unilever, Dabur, Tata Starquik, Godrej Consumer Products, PepsiCo India, Nestle, Mondelez, VLCC Personal Care and eminent professors. The event was an opportunity for industry stalwarts to discuss strategies, innovation, and revolutionary technologies in the FMCG supply chain with an industry outlook for 2025.

Mr. Nishith Aggarwal, Director of Customer Development, Route to Market South Asia, Unilever, said, “Omnichannel has promising opportunities in E-commerce given the seemingly viable economics of the model. From the FMCG distribution perspective, while the efficiency of operations has always been intrinsic to model, the key differentiator among players is how effective you are. On being asked about rising competition, Nishith opined, “Competition has always been there in the industry and is good for innovation. The key point is to remain focussed on consumer needs and trends and not get carried away by only competitive response.” Mr. Aggarwal comes with 17 years of experience in Supply Chain and Sales Operations in distributive trade context in leading organizations.

K. Radhakrishna, Co-Founder at Tata Starquik, added, “FMCG companies have innovated in distribution channels that has worked fairly well. What e-commerce has done is empowered the customer, an unparalleled feat."

Krishna Khandelwal, Chief Business Officer, Locus, said, “E-commerce has instilled a sense of fear of missing out in the FMCG fraternity, and all the increased action is helping the ecosystem grow."

Key topics covered were ‘How E-commerce is Disrupting the Consumer Market Space’ focusing on the rise of e-commerce, which has raised questions on the existing operating model of FMCG companies. E-commerce companies have radically shortened the delivery cycle, and even though they are currently about 10% of the market, the growth rate of 24.8% signifies the disruption created in the industry.

Another trend discussed was ‘Rural India - The Future of the FMCG Industry in India’ with the metro markets saturating giving rise to opportunities to tap into high potential and fast-growing semi-urban and rural segments. This panel discussion was addressed by Shivinder Singh, Head, Trade Marketing for Home & Personal Care, and Sales IT at Dabur India and Dr. Harvinder Singh, Chairperson – Marketing Area, IMT Ghaziabad followed by a Q&A session.

Dr. Harvinder Singh said, “Accessibility, awareness, and affordability are the significant elements required to address a rural market, be it for a startup or conglomerate."

Shivinder Singh said, “Kirana stores in rural India will place orders on the app to replenish their inventory; however, this will take at least a decade to function smoothly. Impact of technology to show benefits will require the consumer to move using the app from an awareness generation tool to an order placing mechanism.”

The event saw an amalgamation of business insights led by Krishna Khandelwal, CBO, Locus and a dash of humor added by the special host Shashwat Maheshwari. Locus is all set to organize similar round table conferences for different industry segments.

E-governance Microsoft news Niti Aayog

Microsoft announces Digital Governance Tech Tour to Skill Govt Officials on AI and Cloud

Vardaan

In line with the government’s Digital India vision, Microsoft India today launched the Digital Governance Tech Tour, a National program to deliver critical AI and intelligent cloud computing skills to the Government officials in charge of IT across the country. The initiative comprises a series of physical and virtual workshops and aims to train 5,000 personnel over a period of 12 months. This announcement reaffirms Microsoft’s commitment to empower government organizations to leverage AI and secure cloud technology for efficient, transparent and productive governance.

The program was inaugurated at the Digital Governance Tech Summit 2019 in New Delhi by Shri. Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog and Shri. Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary MeITY, in the presence of Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC); Shri Sureshkumar Nair, Additional CEO, Government eMarketplace (GEM); Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India and other dignitaries. The summit in New Delhi was supported by NIC, GeM and STPI.

[caption id="attachment_134320" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog and Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India at the Digital Governance Tech Summit to announce the launch of a national skilling initiative[/caption]

AI and intelligent technologies are becoming all-pervasive today, driving change across businesses, communities and governments. As India advances towards fulfilling its vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy, applying AI and data analytics using secure and compliant cloud-based tools can provide actionable, predictive and effective citizen focused services, while empowering more secure inter-departmental and cross-agency collaboration. Through this program, Microsoft will help upskill government officials, equipping them with the digital skills and experience needed today and - in the future - to successfully deploy cloud-based solutions.

Shri. Amitabh Kant, CEO - NITI Aayog, said, “For our country, the power of AI, cloud services, and data analytics needs to be brought to bear in core sectors for inclusive economic growth. As we move beyond pilots and understand how to scale AI implementation and cloud adoption across states and sectors, it is vital to equip the ecosystem with the right knowhow and skills. Collaboration with academia and the industry, and initiatives such as this will help build the foundation towards an AI enabled future.”

According to Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, “AI and the cloud can enable path-breaking innovation and drive the next phase of India's growth. Continuous focus on learning and improving skillsets for all are a must to make this a reality. Microsoft's first-of-its-kind Digital Governance Tech Tour for government officials reiterates our commitment to be a trusted partner to the government by enabling and empowering officials to do more with technology in service of the citizens.”

About the Digital Governance Tech Tour

The Digital Governance Tech Tour will be open to technocrats and IT professionals across the entire Government ecosystem, including employees of Public Sector Undertakings; government partners as well as solutions/systems integrators.

It is designed keeping in mind all skill levels required at every stage of Government’s cloud adoption journey - from integrating on-premise core infrastructure with cloud platforms to operationalizing cloud analytics solutions. Participants will come away with a range of skills including being able to move, transform and analyze data, design and deployment skills for end-to-end solutions, and monitoring and troubleshooting in the cloud.

It will offer a comprehensive free of cost 10-module program under two different tracks. The first track, meant for Technical Directors, Technical Architects and Project Managers will cover

Modern Project management for governance

An overview of DevOps: a foundation for digital transformation

Data, Analytics & Insights

Ethical governance through AI

Increased productivity with modern collaboration tools

Top security considerations for moving to cloud

The second track, for Developers, IT Architect and Application Architects, will comprise a deep dive into the fundamentals of Azure cloud. Additionally, developers will also have the opportunity to take an exam and earn the AZ-900 Certification on the spot at no cost.

The Digital Governance Tech Summit, New Delhi

The launch summit featured discussions on the immense possibilities that skilling will open up in government services. Speakers also deliberated on the need for a secure information infrastructure as well as how government agencies can build trust in their intelligent technology powered projects. The discussions were followed by first training session of the program with close to 500 participants from different central and state government departments.

The daylong conference also saw participation from eminent government representatives including Mrs. Shakuntala Doley Gamlin, Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Government of India;, M S Bhatia, Inspector General, Central Republic Police Force (CRPF); Shri S N Pradhan, Director General, National Disaster Recovery Force (NDRF), and Shri Dhruva Kant Thakur, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), UP Dial 100, Uttar Pradesh Police, among others.

Microsoft has been a longstanding partner in India’s digital transformation journey, enabling technology led transformation in government and across various key sectors including education, agriculture and healthcare. Microsoft is the first global public cloud service provider to be accredited by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). Its hyper-scale, flexible and secure local cloud services from three India datacenters in Pune, Mumbai and Chennai – Microsoft Azure, Dynamics 365, and Microsoft365 – are already accelerating cloud innovation and opening new possibilities in e-governance and inclusive digital growth.

Bengaluru Knight Frank real estate Web 2.0

Startup Boom helps Bengaluru beat Delhi, Mumbai to become India's Costliest Office Space

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Mumbai, Aug 27 (PTI) With a 9 percent spike in rentals in Q2 2019, Bengaluru's Central Business District (CBD) has unseated Connaught Palace and Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), to become the costliest prime office space in the country, and the fifth across the Asia-pacific region.

Bengaluru CBD saw the highest annual growth in rental values in India, with current rentals at Rs 125 per sq ft per month, according to a survey conducted by Knight Frank.

The report said, the BKC and Connaught Palace, which make up the prime office markets in Mumbai and the NCR respectively, were ranked 8th and 12th at the end of Q2 2019.

The Knight Frank Prime Office Rental Index tracks rental levels of 20 frontline cities across the Asia-Pacific region.

Mumbai's BKC registered a growth of 5 per cent in the quarter and was recorded at Rs 300 per sq ft a month. New Delhi's Connaught Place recorded a rental value of Rs 330 sq ft a month also recorded an annual rise of 1.4 per cent during the quarter.

Cities like Melbourne saw the highest rental growth y-o-y at 16 per cent, while Tokyo (12 per cent), Bangkok (10.4 per cent) and Singapore (10.3 per cent) were the other prime office markets that saw higher y-o-y rental growth rates ahead of Bengaluru.

Indian office rents remained stable in Q2 as the market saw an influx of new supply in H1 2019, with 23 million sqft being added during the period.

"The office markets of India have withstood headwinds from global and national economic conditions and depict an impressive growth story. The leasing volumes have grown consistently and are at historic highs, which indicates a high level of confidence that the corporate world has in the India story, especially from a long-term perspective," Knight Frank India chairman and managing director Shishir Baijal said.

He further said the IT/ITeS sectors continue to absorb the lions share of new space coming online, accounting for 35 per cent of all transacted volumes in H1 2019 but has started to show signs of slowing on lower corporate spending and moves towards in sourcing.

"However, this weakness has been offset by strong demand from co-working operators; co-working transaction volumes rose 42 per cent year-on-year to 4 million sqft in H1 2019," Baijal added.

He further added that a strong rental trend will be a force majeure for the growth of investments in this segment going forward. PTI PSK

Algo Capital Business startups VC Funds Venture Capital Fund

Algo Capital Closes Algo VC Fund at $200 Million

Vardaan

Algo Capital, the financial institution focused on accelerating access, adoption and liquidity of the Algo, the native digital currency of the Algorand blockchain, today announced the closing of its Algo VC Fund at $200 million, surpassing the firm’s original goal of $100 million. The fund will invest in category-leading businesses that are building on the Algorand technology platform and seeks to accelerate the use and acceptance of the Algo as a means of payment.

It is backed by a collection of experienced financial and blockchain industry investors across North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe, including Brainchild, NGC Ventures (the venture arm of NEO Global), Arrington XRP Capital, Eterna Capital, GSR, Cognitive Blockchain, Rokk3r Inc, Wibson, 11-11 Ventures, DG Ventures, Winslow Strong, Invermaster and many others.

Founded and led by veteran blockchain investor David Garcia, entrepreneur-turned-VC Arul Murugan, and blockchain technology expert Pablo Yabo, Algo Capital builds modern financial products to power Algorand’s borderless economy. It is a separate independent entity from both the Algorand Foundation and Algorand LLC, which developed a pure proof-of-stake protocol that is the first of its kind capable of supporting billions of users and transactions on blockchain.

As the venture arm of Algo Capital, the Algo VC fund is based on an investment strategy of creating and capturing value across all levels of the Algorand tech stack: the blockchain protocol, the infrastructure and the applications built on Algorand. Besides holding a large stake in Algos, the fund invests in emerging disrupters with proven business models, scalable revenue, and a clear path toward profitability. Initial portfolio companies include:

Securitize - the leading security token issuance platform

Idex - the leading decentralized exchange

BlockDaemon - the leading blockchain infrastructure and middleware orchestration platform

OTCXN - the leading institutional exchange and cross-custodian settlement platform

Each of the portfolio companies is working closely with Algorand to leverage its platform for speed, security and feature development.

“A key element of the NGC Ventures investment thesis is analyzing the caliber of leadership teams, be it the technical excellence, academic rigor, or business acumen. Led by luminaries across emerging technology, entrepreneurship, and investing practices, Algo Capital has world-class talent at the driving seat, and we look forward to seeing the success of its Algo VC fund,” said Roger Lim, Founding Partner at NGC Ventures.

Toward its goal of accelerating the use and acceptance of the Algo as a means of payment, all commitments to the Algo VC Fund were accepted in Algos rather than U.S. dollars and the Algo is the primary currency for all capital calls. Additionally, a portion of the firm’s capital investments are comprised of Algos, which allows portfolio companies to make use of the digital currency as a means of payment within the Algorand network.

With an eye toward the continued growth of the Algo VC Fund, the Algo Capital team is also exploring joint ventures with several venture studios and accelerators around the globe. These studios each support hundreds of early-stage startups across the world, and through these partnerships, Algo Capital will bring further investment to fledgling blockchain-based businesses in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

“Our investment approach specifically targets companies that are creating the next great blockchain applications and infrastructure solutions, and as a result, helping to speed blockchain adoption and bring millions of new users into the Algorand network,” said Arul Murugan, founder and managing partner, Algo Capital. “That’s how Algo Capital contributes to the growth and investment of Algorand’s borderless economy and enables maximum value capture for Algo VC Fund investors.”

Aster DM Healthcare healthcare Healthcare startups news research

Dubai-based Aster to Setup Innovation and Research Hub in India and GCC; To Collab with Startups

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Dr. Satish Prasad Rath has been appointed to lead the Aster Innovation and Research Centre as Chief of Innovation

The Centre to be based in Bangalore would be introducing the latest advancements in healthcare science, while encouraging research through collaboration with start-ups, academia and industry partners

To improve the ultimate health outcomes for patients and enhance their overall experience at all its facilities, Aster DM Healthcare is setting up Aster Innovation and Research Centre in GCC and India. Over the next three years, the Centre will aim to achieve key milestones like introduction of innovative solutions for home healthcare with focus on digital primary care, establishing a rich eco-system of digital health partners from start-ups to academia and starting digital health/ informatics/ medicine as a stream for future healthcare workers.

Joining as the Chief of Innovation, Dr. Satish Prasad Rath, MD would be spearheading the innovation projects, that will be aim to leverage the advances in digital health research like AI, cognitive psychology, blockchain, IOT, behavioral economics etc. and on-board start-ups which can drive innovation. The Centre will also work in a collaborative manner focusing on applied research with academia, startups and industry partners.

[caption id="attachment_134304" align="alignleft" width="212"]

Dr. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman & Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare[/caption]

Aster DM Healthcare has the unique positioning of providing an integrated service offering that ranges from primary care (aster clinics and pharmacy) to quaternary care, along with an in-house research center as MIMS Research Foundation and a medical college as DM Wayanad Institute of Medical Sciences (DMWIMS). The new center will accelerate various ongoing innovation projects being led by different units, like the diabetes, sepsis and dialysis projects; and will be working to introduce an interdisciplinary subject on digital health/medicine at DMWIMS.

“Our main objective as an organization has been to ensure that quality and affordable healthcare is easily available at the doorsteps of our patients. With evolving patient needs, it is essential to focus on digital transformation of healthcare because of advances being made in various areas like AI, genomics and molecular biology which is likely to produce a quantum leap. We are confident that under the leadership of Dr. Satish, Aster Innovation and Research Centre would play a major role in introducing the most advanced and unique patient care solutions and enable our organization to become one of the most technologically progressive healthcare providers in the world,” said Dr. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare.

[caption id="attachment_134305" align="alignright" width="216"]

Dr. Satish Prasad Rath, MD, Chief of Innovation, Aster DM Healthcare[/caption]

Dr. Satish Prasad Rath, a post-graduate medical doctor and a digital health scientist with multiple patents, comes with rich experience of leading research and innovation labs at Xerox Innovation Group, Wipro Technologies, Intel labs and Philips Research. He is also an adviser to several start-ups and incubators.

Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Satish said, “Today, there are many inefficiencies being experienced by the healthcare industry. We can reach far more people who are not able to access health system due to geography, knowledge or affordability constraints. Leveraging AI, IoT, blockchain, cognitive computing we can address these difficult segments in sustainable way. We will be tapping into the rich evolving entrepreneurship culture of start-ups and academia in a collaborative model whom we can curate and co-create for better future. Simultaneously we will be preparing the digital health aware/ empowered workforce in collaboration with govt and teaching institutions.

Aster DM Healthcare Limited is one of the largest private healthcare service providers operating in multiple GCC states and is an emerging healthcare player in India. With an inherent emphasis on clinical excellence the Company is one of the few entities in the world with a strong presence across primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary healthcare through its 25 hospitals, 115 clinics and 231 pharmacies. These are manned by our 20,329+ workforce (including approx.. 1230 doctors on fee for service basis) from across the geographies that we are present in, delivering on a simple yet strong promise to its people: “We’ll treat you well.” We reach out to all economic segments in the GCC states through our differentiated healthcare services across the “Aster”, “Medcare” and “Access” brands.

Automation Anywhere Business

Automation Anywhere to Open 4 New Offices in India

Vardaan

Bengaluru, Aug 27 (PTI) Automation Anywhere, a leader in robotic process automation (RPA), announced on Tuesday that it will open four new offices in India to support customer and partner growth.

The company said it also plans to double its workforce across IMEA (India, the Middle East, Africa) by the end of the current year.

The expansion plan is a result of the increased adoption of RPA, a technology that helps organisations improve business productivity and increases the number of tasks that can be automated, particularly in banking, financial services, telecommunications, manufacturing and retail, it said.

Gartner estimates that by 2021, 90 per cent of large and midsize organisations would have at least one process supported by RPA.

According to equity research firm KeyBanc Capital Markets, RPA has emerged as a USD 100 billion market opportunity, an Automation Anywhere release said.

As part of its expansion strategy, Automation Anywhere would strengthen its presence in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Vadodara as well as open new offices in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, the release said.

Currently, the company has three engineering centres in India two in Bengaluru and one in Baroda.

It also plans to open a new product engineering centre in Pune by the end of the year to expand research and development capabilities.

"As organisations seek to lower operating costs and improve employee productivity with RPA, India possesses a tremendous business opportunity for our company," Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder of Automation Anywhere, Ankur Kothari said.

"We are building the world's most efficient and intuitive end-to-end intelligent RPA platform, and over the next year, we anticipate deploying more than one million bots across India and the Middle East to help more companies discover, deploy and scale RPA to drive extraordinary human potential", he said.

In IMEA, the company has experienced a growth rate of approximately 200 per cent year-over-year with now more than 3,100 global enterprise brands using its RPA platform, the release added. PTI RS ROH

Chatbots Haptik news Study Virtual Assistants

67% Users prefer Virtual Assistants with a ‘Friendly’ Personality - Study by Haptik

IndianWeb2

Research study by the world’s largest Conversational AI company reveals
67% users prefer virtual assistants with a ‘friendly’ personality in terms of comfort level, efficiency, and likelihood of re-engagement

Haptik, the world’s largest Conversational AI platform, has published a research study on “Virtual Assistant Personality Preference Among Urban English Speakers”. The study was conducted by Brinda Mehra, a Psychology student investigating the effects of inserting personality in chatbots and virtual assistants, and its influence on customer experiences primarily across three domains- likelihood of re-engagement, comfort levels and estimation of productivity and efficiency.

The research paper is available for download here.

As a part of the study, Haptik conducted experiments using bots with three distinct personality types:

Transactional bot (impersonal and serious bot solely focused on efficiently completing tasks).

Prosocial bot (attempts to mimic a ‘helping hand’, engaging in social niceties and easing users through task completion).

Friendly bot (emotional and energetic bot that uses slang and pop culture references, simulating conversations between close friends).

The study revealed that urban English speakers overwhelmingly prefer virtual assistants that exhibit a friendly personality - rating them higher than more impersonal, purely ‘transactional’ assistants when it comes to factors such as comfort level and efficiency while completing tasks. They were also more likely to re-engage with ‘friendly’ assistants.

In the first experiment, participants, aged between 18-50, were asked to order food using each of the three bots. Although their ages varied drastically, their demographics were roughly the same. All participants had completed or were completing some level of tertiary education, had access to a smartphone or laptop (if not both) and were fluent English speakers living in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Hong Kong.

They were then asked to rate each of the three bots on a Likert scale, on three parameters - likelihood of re-engaging with the bot, their comfort level with the bot, and the efficiency with which the bot completed the task at hand.

The results of the experiment were as follows:

40% of participants said that they felt extremely comfortable interacting with the friendly bot.

Participants were nearly three times more likely to state that they would definitely want to interact with the friendly chatbot again, as compared to the transactional bot.

The friendly bot was nearly four times more likely to get the highest rating for productivity and efficiency, as compared to the transactional bot.

The average ranking of the friendly chatbot was around 22% higher than that of the transactional bot.

The overwhelming preference for the friendly personality was further validated by the second experiment, with participants being asked to rate the three types of personalities based on viewing an interaction with a chat-based dictionary. The participants of the second experiment were aged 11 to 15, indicating that the preference for the friendly bots applies across age groups. The findings revealed that 67% of participants expressed a preference for the friendly bot, over the prosocial and transactional types. Qualitative feedback collected from the participants indicated that the friendly bot made them “feel like they were talking to another human being”. The use of gifs, slang and emojis by this bot also appealed to them.

What this means for the future of user engagement?

The one-of-its-kind study by Haptik has revealed interesting insights that can have far-reaching effects on how we understand man-machine engagement today. “The popularity of the friendly bot gives enterprises a new perspective to look at conversational AI solutions,'' said Prateek Gupte, VP - Product at Haptik. “The evolution of virtual assistant personalities is currently enjoying the beginning of its golden age. This study is an important contribution to the literature on the subject. At Haptik, we have continuously stressed on building bots that have both a distinct personality along with targeted utility. Chatbots and virtual assistants, after all, are essentially the 24x7 voice of enterprises and brands to engage with end-users. Therefore, they are best served to have bots which can make conversations fun for users and something to look forward to."

Interestingly, Haptik has been doing significant work in the field of enhancing user experience in chatbot engagement. Its research team conducts extensive, granular level analysis of each element involved in chatbot conversations, such as the font, sound design, tonality of conversation, length of sentences, and even the emoticons used.

Kartik Poddar, Haptik’s Business Head, also commented on the study by saying “While there have been previous studies on bot personality, they have largely focused on general conversation chatbots like Mitsuku or Xiaoice. Our study is a rare experimental investigation on the role that personality plays in the context of enterprise virtual assistants. It will certainly inform our approach to designing superior conversational experiences for our partners - by enhancing our understanding of how to make human-to-machine interactions a lot more engaging, while still keeping our partners’ unique brand voice and personality in mind."

For those looking to get a more in-depth understanding of the research process and the insights obtained, download the research paper here.

About Haptik

Haptik is one of the world’s largest Conversational AI companies, having reached over 100 million devices, and processed over 2 billion conversations till date. The company has been the recipient of several industry accolades, including the Frost & Sullivan Award for Conversational AI Company of the Year 2018, and recognition as one of the Top 25 AI Companies in the World 2018 by AI Time Journal. Haptik’s leading clients and enterprise partners include Samsung, Oyo Rooms, KFC, Coca-Cola, Tata Group, Club Mahindra among others. Haptik is a part of the Reliance Jio group of companies, which acquired a majority stake in the company in a $100 million deal in April 2019.

Bipul Sinha IIT kharagpur Rubrik startups

IIT Kharagpur Honours Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha with the 'Distinguished Alumnus Award'

Vardaan

Bipul Sinha, the Co-founder and CEO of Rubrik, a unicorn tech company and world’s first Cloud Data Management platform for hybrid cloud enterprises, was today honoured with the ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ from his alma mater the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. The award recognizes individuals who have achieved the highest levels of professional success in their respective fields. Prior American technology executive recipients of this award include Sundar Pichai, Google CEO.

[caption id="attachment_134285" align="alignleft" width="481"]

Bipul Sinha, Co-founder and CEO of Rubrik[/caption]

Sharing his excitement Sinha said, “I’m honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award. The world-class engineering education I received at IIT Kharagpur has been foundational to my success in technology. Additionally, I’m fortunate to count many fellow IIT alumni as colleagues and business partners.”

Sinha drove the founding and funding of Rubrik and was the founding investor at Nutanix and Hootsuite. He holds several patents in distributed computing, a Bachelor of Technology in electrical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, and an MBA from The Wharton School, where he was a Palmer Scholar.

Under Sinha’s leadership, Rubrik has grown to a valuation of $3.3 billion USD and 1600 employees in less than six years. Rubrik has become known for its hypergrowth as well as its transparent company culture. In addition, Sinha is the Co-founder & Executive Chairman of Confluera and a Venture Partner at Lightspeed. Prior to this, he held senior engineering positions at Oracle Corporation, IBM and American Megatrends. He currently serves on the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Board of Directors.
About Rubrik

Rubrik, the Multi-Cloud Data Control™ Company, enables enterprises to maximize value from data that is increasingly fragmented across datacenters and clouds. Rubrik delivers a single, policy-driven platform for data recovery, governance, compliance, and cloud mobility. For more information, visit https://www.rubrik.com/ and follow @rubrikInc on Twitter.

Rubrik is a registered trademark of Rubrik, Inc. Other marks may be trademarks of their respective owners.

~ Published Unedited via Business Wire India

Alphalogic Techsys BSE IPO startups

Start-Up IPO Alpahlogic Techsys Subscribed 64% On First day of Bidding

IndianWeb2

The initial public offer (IPO) of boutique software consulting firm Alphalogic Techsys was subscribed 64 per cent on the first day of the bidding process.

The IPO with issue size of Rs 6.18 crore, received bids for 4,70,400 Shares against the total issue size of 7,36,000 shares as per the BSE data.

The category reserved for Non Institutional Investors (NIIs) which include HNI's and Corporates subscribed 125%, whereas retail individual investor category got subscribed 11%.

The company has fixed a price of Rs 84 per share. The issue will close on Wednesday. Alphalogic’s IPO comprises of a fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 6.18 crore and an offer for sale of up to 7,36,000 equity shares.

Finshore Management Services Limited is the book-running lead managers to the offer.

Alphalogic Techsys Limited is a boutique Software Consulting Firm that helps its clients with their digital transformation needs. Alphalogic' motto is "Making Software Simple". Alphalogic has its development centre in Pune, India but serves its customers globally. Alphalogic works with clients from early stage start-ups to established SMB's and Fortune 500s from over 12 countries.

It was in November last year, when BSE Startups Platform was rolled out for entrepreneurs to list their new-age companies on BSE.

ebikego Electric vehicles India startup funding Startup Funding India Sukhbir Singh

Singer Sukhbir Singh Investing in Electric Vehicle Startup eBikeGo

IndianWeb2

Startup Buddy who was appointed as advisor to Singer Sukhbir Singh for his investments in Startups has announced that Sukhbir Singh has selected eBikeGo for his second investment in India, after investing in LQI as his first angel investment in India.

Amritsar based electric mobility startup, eBikeGo is in the process of raising funds and it will deploy these funds to expand its operations to other cities in India as well as for increasing their fleet in Delhi.

eBikeGo is India's first ever electric two wheeler rental platform that provides economical and environmentally friendly travelling option for everyone. Founded in the year 2017 by Dr. Irfan Khan, they first started their operations in Amritsar with Okinawa scooters and then expanded to Delhi, Jaipur and Ludhiana. eBikeGo is bootstrap startup and has raised their initial investment from friends and family.

eBikeGo is working with different delivery companies to convert their fleet into electric and has tieups with companies like Zomato, Delhivery, Ferns & Petals, Gostops etc.

“eBikeGo is solving the major problem of pollution that India is facing right now by converting the fleet of fuel two wheelers which is the major reason for pollution in major cities to electric and it is an economical solution to major delivery companies and executives” said Sukhbir.

“I feel that good number of angel investors are required to grow the Indian Startup Ecosystem at the right pace and we are working in that direction” said Amit Singal, co-founder of Startup Buddy.

Last November, eBikeGo announced its launch claiming as India's first ever platform offering electronic mode of transportation which runs for around 200 kms after an electronic charge for about 2 hrs and makes the daily movement zippy with a speed of 75 km/ hr.

The startup targets to have their services in 30 cities (100 clusters) within the next one year. The start-up aims to reduce 2-3% of the pollution through this unique eco-friendly electric mobility solution.

Agriculture Cropin news Punjab Government

Punjab Govt Partners with AI-powered AgriTech Firm CropIn for Seed Potato Traceability

IndianWeb2