Rapido to Provide Free Rides During Odd-Even in Delhi

Rapido has now kick-started its services in the national capital - Delhi. With the launch mainly set to all the areas of Delhi, the prime focus is within central and south Delhi, targeting areas like Vasant Vihar, HauzKhas, Paharganj, Saket, Kamala Market, Tilak Marg, Rajiv Chowk, Chanakya Puri Tuglak Road Etc. to bring in the solution for last-mile commutes, especially the ones who use the metro services as frequently as every day. With the odd even scheme right around the corner, Rapido is all set to make their grand entry and winning hearts by offering free rides. A start-up from Bangalore with their latest funding round of series B has changed the game of today’s commute system.

When Rapido extensively started their services back in 2016 around Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad & Faridabad, they offered free rides all through-out the odd-even rule. With an innumerable number of bookings they saw, they had a clear vision of what’s next in the pipeline for them.

Currently, the services are spread across all tiers of the country targeting all niche of commuters and making commute the least of their worries. Nirmal, Senior Expansion Manager for Rapido, says, “Rapido’s concept is based around providing convenient and high-quality transport facilities for solo commuters, especially those who need to travel far or have to get somewhere quickly."

With over 10 Million happy customers and their presence spread across 90 cities, Rapido is striving hard to reach a number of people every day and bring happiness in their lives by providing a fast and affordable source of transport.

The app can easily be downloaded from play store in an Android or IOS phone which will help you book your rides in no time! Customer App: go.onelink.me/Ewte/8c2c3d0e

About Rapido Bike Taxi

Rapido is a Bangalore based company who provides technology-based services for booking two-wheelers mobile application “Rapido”. Rapido’s services have been widely received in South India, and the company is looking to expand its reach across the country gradually. Rapido takes extreme care of its passengers as well as captains. They have a dual helmet policy where the helmet will be provided to both – Captain and the passenger for their safety and security. Also, shower caps are provided to passengers for their personal hygiene. The app has GPS, live tracking, SOS and live chat facilities too. It has an option for the users to share their ride with their trusted contacts. Moreover, all the rides with Rapido are insured, your insurance cover begins the second you are seated and ends when you reach your destination.

CloudSEK is now a part of NetApp’s 5th Cohort of Start-ups

NetApp announced the launch of its fifth cohort of start-ups as part of the NetApp Excellerator, the company’s accelerator program. CloudSEK, an AI-based Digital Risk Management enterprise along with 4 other Data-driven enterprise start-ups were selected so as to be a part of a strategic partnership that develops more effective solutions for their customers.

As part of its previous four cohorts, the NetApp Excellerator program has coached 24 start-ups and they are set to accelerate a new batch of data-driven enterprises.

Apart from CloudSEK, other start-ups that have made it to the fifth cohort are Senseforth.ai, Lightwing, Coralogix and Curl Analytics. The core technology that NetApp is focusing on for this cohort is data.

Hence, all five start-ups, selected to be part of the fifth cohort, work with data. Being a part of the cohort helps CloudSEK not just with the development of its technology but also with the expansion of the organization’s market coverage.

Being a member of NetApp Excellerator’s cohort assures technical and business mentorship, the support to develop products and solutions, permission to use NetApp’s technologies, co-working space if need be along with HR and legal support.

Apart from this unparalleled support, the program helps CloudSEK and the other start-ups connect with potential investors, partners, and customers and sponsor a POC or offer an equity-free grant of $15,000.

 

NOFILTR.GROUP Launches Influencer Community ‘Creator 21’

NOFILTR.GROUP, a leading social media label and influencer incubator has launched its new influencer community – ‘Creator 21’. Creator 21 is a community of innovative thinkers and creators who will collaborate to reshape the future of content creation in India.

It aims to reach out to a wide audience of creators across the country offering them with a platform to meet likeminded people. They can share creative ideas that will help them build a better world and a stronger career path.

Being at the forefront of the influencer marketing space, NOFILTR has always come up with ground-breaking work in the creator and influencer segment. Launch of Creator 21 aims at building a community that focuses on creating meaningful and inspirational work for the next generation of creators to carry forward or build on.

Talking about the launch of this community, Mr. Sumedh Chaphekar, Founder and CEO, NOFILTR Group addressed the audience of creators, “I am very excited to begin the journey Creator 21 and extremely grateful to all the creators for inculcating trust in us and believing in our ideology.

Over the past few years, social media has evolved drastically. We engaged in a thorough discussion of over 6 months and went through various challenges that are faced by the creative minds, that is what germinated the idea of having a community that binds us all.

Creator 21 aims to organize collaborative events for the creators from every platform such as YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and much more.”, he added.

The launch event was followed by various innovative activities where the guests enjoyed the elaborate photo booth setup. Top influencers and creators were invited for the launch. Four spectacularly scintillating photo-booths were setup where the creators could come together and generate some quirky, innovative content.

The community event of Creator 21 helped the creators to meet like-minded people and expand their network to collaborate with each other. It will serve as an avenue for all the creators to grow together in the wake of making meaningful content and relationships.

With this event, the platform aims to foster offline as well as online community building and help members nurture deeper and professional relationships.

Nearly 35 influencers attended the launch event such as Awez Darbar, Nagma Mirajkar, Angry Prash, Mrunu, Sanket Mehta, Aashna Hegde, Sunny Chopra, Funcho and Anam Darbar to name a few.

About NOFILTR.GROUP
In a world where 'Content is King', NOFILTR is a social media label that primarily incubates young talent by giving them creative and resourceful direction. Through the plethora of influencers and brands that they collaborate with, they intend on creating a growing community network that facilitates personal expression and intriguing content.

NOFILTR connects the brand to the influencer, and the influencer to the world at large by offering a wide array of services which includes, personal branding, content creation and curation, influencer marketing and brand collaborations, campaign design along with campaign execution and analysis.

TO THE NEW appoints Abhishek Goel as Head of Financial Services Business

TO THE NEW, a leading digital technology company, has appointed Abhishek Goel to head their Financial Services business. Abhishek is a seasoned leader and holds over 2 decades of experience in the industry. 

The company leverages a broad spectrum of cutting-edge technologies such as Cloud and Data Engineering to help asset management firms, investment-banks and ISV’s with digital transformation and software development services. Some of the customers in financial services and FinTech who have entrusted TO THE NEW as their digital transformation partner include HDFC Mutual Funds, IDFC, Max Life Insurance, and Hydrogen Platform.

[caption id="attachment_137004" align="alignleft" width="260"] Abhishek Goel, Head of Financial Services Business, TO THE NEW[/caption]

Abhishek has previously worked with TCS, Headstrong and IRIS Software helping them build and grow their financial services practice. He has also worked in the past with major investment banks such as Barclays Capital & Royal Bank of Scotland and has successfully delivered low latency and large volume IT systems to the clients across the geography. He holds an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad and is an alumnus of National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra. 

“I consider this as a great opportunity to work with one of the fastest-growing digital technology companies that have redefined Digital Transformation for global organizations. It is good to see the focused approach of the company that has led them to such great heights in the last decade. I look forward to working with the team and helping TO THE NEW advance in its growth,” says Abhishek Goel.

On the appointment, Deepak Mittal, CEO & Co-founder, TO THE NEW commented, “I am extremely pleased to welcome Abhishek to head our Financial Services vertical. I am certain that his deep industry experience of over two decades will provide immense value to our customers.”

About TO THE NEW: 

TO THE NEW is a digital technology firm providing digital transformation and product engineering services to ISVs, Consumer Internet, and Fortune 500 companies across the globe. We design & build digital platforms and products with Cloud and Data at the focal point. 

TO THE NEW is amongst the fastest-growing technology companies globally with a CAGR greater than 50% since 2014. Established in 2008, our passionate team of 1200+ “Newers” is spread across delivery centers in New Delhi, Dubai, and NYC. TO THE NEW has been a consistent winner of the “Great Place to Work” awards in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 and figures in the top 100 companies in India to work for.

For Co-Origination of Loans to MSMEs, Bank of Baroda Ties with Fintech Firm KapitalTech

Bank of Baroda, the third largest public sector bank in the country, entered into a partnership with KapitalTech, a fintech lender, for co-origination of loans to the MSME sector, under the co-origination guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India.

The partnership aims at offering working capital business loans to MSMEs in over 200 micro markets across India. The focus will be to reach out to small businesses in need of capital in Tier II & Tier III cities that are traditionally underserved by financing channels.

“We are committed to working jointly with various partners to support MSMEs, and we have entered into this MoU to enhance our footprint in delivery of products and services in the MSME eco-system,” said Shri Vikramaditya Singh Khichi, Executive Director at Bank of Baroda.

‘We will be using our end-to-end paperless Tech-stack which includes ‘DEXTER’ – a Machine Learning underwriting Engine. This partnership is a validation of our high-quality portfolio and our ability to cater to wide-ranging MSME customers,” KapitalTech company statement said.

KapitalTech is among the fastest growing Fintech Lenders in India. KapitalTech has lent over INR 2000 crore so far, spread across 15000+ MSME customers with loan tenures ranging from for 12 to 36 months.

Established on July 20, 1908, Bank of Baroda is India’s third largest bank with a strong domestic presence supported by self- service channels. The Bank’s distribution network includes 9,500+ branches, 13,400+ ATMs and 1,200+ self-service e-lobbies. The Bank has a significant international presence with a network of 100 branches/offices of subsidiaries, spanning 21 countries. The Bank has wholly owned subsidiaries including BOB Financial Solutions Limited (erstwhile BOB Cards Ltd.), BOB Capital Markets and Baroda Asset Management India Ltd. Bank of Baroda also has joint ventures for life insurance viz. India First Life Insurance and India Infradebt Ltd., engaged in infrastructure financing. The Bank owns 98.57% in The Nainital Bank. The Bank has also sponsored three Regional Rural Banks namely Baroda Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank, Baroda Rajasthan Gramin Bank and Baroda Gujarat Gramin Bank.

Salesforce Economy will Create $67 Bn+ in New Business Revenues in India from 2019 - 2024

Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, today announced new research from IDC that finds Salesforce and its ecosystem of partners will create 548,400 new direct jobs and USD $67 Billion in new business revenues in India from 2019 through 2024[1].

Globally, manufacturing leads the way job creation with a forecast of 765,800 new jobs by 2024 and finance leads in new business revenues with $224 billion by then. The study report also delves into specific high growth occupations, with AI specialist jobs growing at 44 percent and IoT related jobs growing at 38 percent annually.

Cloud computing is driving this growth, and giving rise to a host of new technologies including mobile, social, IoT and AI, that are creating new revenue streams and jobs that further fuel the growth of the cloud — creating an ongoing virtuous cycle of growth and innovation. According to IDC, by 2024 nearly 50 percent of cloud computing software spend will be tied to digital transformation and will account for nearly half of all software sales. Worldwide spending on cloud computing between now and 2024 will grow 19 percent annually, from $179 billion in 2019 to $418 billion in 2024.

“India has a unique opportunity to leap-frog to the next level of development by identifying the comparable advantage across sectors and value chains while preparing for the future. This means investing in the right skills, innovation frameworks, institutional partnerships and policy frameworks. In addition, businesses will leverage technology and embrace localization to creatively solve for India’s structural peculiarities. This report reinforces the potential the Salesforce ecosystem has in nurturing innovation spearheading a technology revolution,” said Sunil Jose, Senior Vice President and Country Leader, Salesforce India.

Because organizations that spend on cloud computing subscriptions also spend on ancillary products and services, globally the Salesforce ecosystem in 2019 is more than four times larger than Salesforce itself and will grow to almost six times larger by 2024. IDC estimates that between 2019 and 2024, Salesforce will drive the creation of 1,362,400 indirect jobs in India, which are created by spending in the general economy by those people filling the 548,400 direct jobs in the country.

Skilling and ensuring readiness of the future workforce for the economic and technological changes expected over the next decade is crucial. “The tech skills gap will become a major roadblock for economic growth if we don’t empower everyone - regardless of class, race or gender - to skill up for the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” said Sarah Franklin, EVP and GM of Platform, Developers and Trailhead at Salesforce. “With Trailhead, our free online learning platform, learners don’t need to carry six figures in debt to land a top job; instead, anyone with an Internet connection can now have an equal pathway to landing a job in the Salesforce Economy.”

For the first time, Salesforce is bringing TrailheaDX, its annual developer conference, to India December 19-20. The conference provides technical sessions, hands-on workshops and bootcamp tracks for Salesforce developers, administrators and architects. The event is designed to empower a new generation of developers to create connected experiences, build apps fast and skill up.

Industry Economic Benefits of the Salesforce Economy

In this study, IDC looked at how the Salesforce Economy will impact revenue and job growth for six specific industries. Globally, the research shows:

• Financial Services industry will gain $224.0 billion in new revenues and 730,900 new jobs will be created by 2024.


• Manufacturing industry will gain $211.7 billion in new revenues and 765,800 new jobs will be created by 2024.


• Retail industry will gain $134.8 billion in new revenues and 539,700 new jobs will be created by 2024.


• Comms and Media industry will gain $129.7 billion in new revenues and 473,800 new jobs will be created by 2024.


• Healthcare and Life Sciences industry will gain $68.5 billion in new revenues and 222,600 new jobs will be created by 2024.


• Government industry will gain $64.7 billion in new revenues and 254,400 new jobs will be created by 2024.

The Dynamic Salesforce Ecosystem

Salesforce’s multi-faceted ecosystem is the driving force behind the Salesforce Economy’s massive growth:

The global ecosystem includes multiple stakeholders, all of which play an integral part in the Salesforce Economy. This includes the world’s top five consulting firms, all of whom have prominent Salesforce digital transformation practices; independent software vendors (ISVs) that base their businesses on the Salesforce Customer 360 Platform and bring Salesforce into new industries; more than 1200 Community Groups, with different areas of focus and expertise; and more than 200 Salesforce MVPs, product experts and brand advocates.

Launched in 2006, Salesforce AppExchange is the world’s largest enterprise cloud marketplace, and hosts more than 4,000 solutions including apps, templates, bots and components that have been downloaded more than 7 million times. Ninety-five percent of the Fortune 100, 81 percent of the Fortune 500, and 86 percent of Salesforce customers are using AppExchange solutions.

Trailhead is Salesforce’s free online learning platform that empowers anyone to skill up for the future, learn in-demand skills and land a top job in the Salesforce Economy. Since Trailhead launched in 2014, more than 1.7 million Trailblazers have earned over 17.5 million badges; a quarter of all learners on Trailhead have leveraged their newfound skills to jump start their careers with new jobs.

Download a full copy of the IDC White Paper, “The Salesforce Economy in the Next Five Years” at: https://www.salesforce.com/salesforceeconomy/

IDC Methodology

The Salesforce Economic Impact Model is an extension to IDC's IT Economic Impact Model. It estimates Salesforce's current and future share of the benefits to the general economy generated by cloud computing, and it also estimates the size of the ecosystem supporting Salesforce using IDC's market research on the ratio of spending on professional services to cloud subscriptions; the ratio of sales of hardware, software, and networking to spending on public and private cloud computing; and the ratio of spending on application development tools to applications developed.

Note that the ecosystem may include companies that are not formal business partners of Salesforce but that nevertheless sell products or services associated with the Salesforce implementations.

3 Crowdfunding Platforms to Help your Business

You always need money to start your business. Of course, an idea and a well-thought-out technology for its implementation are also necessary things. But a talented person is able to come up with a dozen good ideas, each of which has a chance to become world-famous. But if there is no money, you will not move one step towards your business dream. Crowdfunding is changing the game. It is a way to get investments for your project without bank loans and to borrow money from relatives.

If your business becomes extremely successful, it will be great to share the joy of your victory with someone you love. If you don’t have such a person yet and you’re done trying, we suggest that you give dating services a try. There is a dating platform reviewer called HookupGeek, and it analyzes all the aspects of online dating sites imaginable. Thanks to it, you’ll find the most reliable service to find this significant someone.

So, here is the list of the crowdfunding platforms that are bound to take your business to the next level:

1. Kickstarter

This one is the most popular crowdfunding resource now. Kickstarter is one of the thousand most visited sites in the world - and this is a very good indicator, which suggests that Kickstarter is really useful.

Kickstarter has served as the basis for the creation of other similar crowdfunding sites. Kickstarter collects money to implement specific ideas and not to finance the companies that already exist. If the declared amount has not been collected for a certain period, then all the money received will be returned back to investors. This is one of the mandatory laws of Kickstarter. The term for fundraising and the minimum amount required is determined by the author of the project.

2. IndieGoGo

This is another popular international crowdfunding platform. Here you can raise money for charity, launching your own business, implementing any interesting idea. Unlike Kickstarter, IndieGoGo transfers to the project author all funds raised by a certain deadline, even if the amount is not sufficient. Only the size of the commission changes: if the goal of the fundraising project is reached, the resource keeps 4% of what you’ve gotten. But if not, then 9%. The IndieGoGo service extends to approximately 200 countries of the world, so the resource can be called the most international.

One of the main differences between IndieGoGo and other similar resources is that the rating of projects is not compiled manually, but the automatic calculation is used. The algorithm analyzes the level of activity of authors and investors, the number of updates, comments, etc., and based on this, a popularity rating for projects within IndieGoGo is compiled.

By the way, IndieGoGo has recently launched a new fundraising area. Now you can raise money there to finance various life events: large family celebrations, weddings, medical operations, contingencies, etc. But if you have nobody to have a wedding with and try out this new IndieGoGo feature, you can find the person perfect for you thanks to the HookupGeek. This service analyzes the reliability, prices, quality of different dating services. This way, you’ll undoubtedly find the right person for you!

3. RocketHub

Here you can raise funds for projects related to art, business, science, as well as for socially important goals. The principle is the same as that of IndieGoGo - how much money is collected is exactly how much you get. But if the entire amount has not been collected, then you should pay a larger percentage of the commission. All the information on the projects (including how much money has already been raised, which people donated money, etc.) is publicly available for each user.

RocketHub is perfect for beginners. Even if you do not know what crowdfunding is and how to work with it, you can use the services of the school, which was created with the RocketHub resource. You will be told what you need to write in the application, how to organize a fundraiser, what are the features and nuances of RocketHub, and crowdfunding in general. So, you can achieve maximum results on your project.

To conclude

If you have wonderful ideas or an already completed project in which you believe, and you need finances for its development, be sure to use these services. Good luck with all your unique business!

For Automated Trading of NSE India, Vela and PlusWealth Collaborate to Extend Metro Trading Platform

Vela, a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading, and PlusWealth Capital Management LLP, the stockbroking business of proprietary trading firm Plus Wealth, today announced the addition of the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) to Vela’s automated trading platform, Metro. The availability of NSE access is an extension of existing support provided by Vela to Plus Wealth’s proprietary trading business.

PlusWealth Capital Management is a registered member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), active in multiple markets including cash equities, options, and futures, and is currently providing server hosting, market data and market access for global firms looking to trade the Indian markets. Vela’s Metro automated trading platform provides the options pricing, execution, risk management, and API extensibility tools to enable seamless integration and connectivity for clients that need access to NSE, locally and globally. A Chicago-based hedge fund will be the first to take advantage of this market on the PlusWealth solution leveraging Metro’s technology.

Gaurav Chhabra, Designated Partner at PlusWealth commented, “We are delighted to be working with Vela to make our expertise available to clients outside of India. We believe this integrated PlusWealth/Metro offering is quite unique as traders now have access to a market that traditionally has been very difficult to enter.”

Ollie Cadman, Chief Product Officer at Vela, said, “There has always been barriers and challenges for traders outside of India to gain entry into this market. With the availability of NSE on the PlusWealth and Metro combined platform, global clients have the benefit of an integrated technology and broker solution to simplify electronic trading.” Adding, “We are excited to onboard our first joint client and look forward to offering this convenience of NSE access to other Metro users in the options trading community.”

Vela’s Metro trading platform is a high-performance, server-based system supporting automated, algorithmic and click trading strategies that underpin buy- and sell-side trading requirements. Offering a complete solution for options pricing, execution, and risk management, Metro provides traders with access to all major US and European options markets on a single platform – and now Indian markets.

Who is Vela ?

Vela is a leading independent provider of trading and market access technology for global multi-asset electronic trading. Our software enables clients to rapidly access global liquidity, markets, and data sources for superior execution. We help firms successfully differentiate and innovate in an ever-changing, increasingly-regulated and fiercely-competitive landscape, while also reducing total cost of ownership.

Vela’s ticker plant, execution gateways, trading platform, and risk and analytics software deliver a unique, ultra-low latency technology stack to simplify and streamline electronic trading. We leverage the latest innovations in technology to deliver cutting-edge performance, features and reliability. Our modular stack provides access to a comprehensive set of trading, data and risk APIs and can be delivered as-a-Service from multiple co-location data centers globally.

With access to more than 250 venues, Vela provides global coverage across all major asset classes. Clients are supported by an award-winning team of technical and business experts available 24x7 from our multiple offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. Vela’s clients include traders, market makers, brokers, banks, investment firms, exchanges, and other market participants.

Environment Startup Ambee launches Website for Real-Time Hyperlocal Data about Air Quality

Ambee, an environment intelligence startup has launched www.indianairpollution.com, a website that provides hyperlocal air quality data in near real time. The website provides a quick overview of real time air quality information from more than 15,000 monitoring stations from over 65 countries, covering 150000 locations.

Founded by Madhusudan Anand, Akshay Joshi and Jaideep Singh Bachher in 2017, Ambee is an environment intelligence startup which was started with a goal  to create an environmentally informed society by providing access to data, and tools that enable a better living experience. Ambee aims to make hyperlocal air quality data accessible to developers, consumers, health researchers and media companies

Ambee has installed 100 sensors across Bangalore with over 500 sensors currently being installed across India. Ambee’s sensors measure  air quality, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors. In addition to proprietary sensor data, Ambee uses multiple sources of satellite imagery, government pollution data from across the world, meteorological data, and every open-source air pollution data set currently in existence. All this data is processed using Ambee’s proprietary intelligence methods.

Commenting on the launch, Akshay Joshi, CEO and Co-Founder of Ambee said “ Every year over 9 Million deaths worldwide are due to air pollution. Unfortunately, most people are unaware about the impact of air pollution on their health. At Ambee, our goal is to provide real time air quality data to everyone and spread awareness amongst people about the state of the world we live in. As the famous quote goes, we can only improve what we can measure. At Ambee our mission is to measure and democratize access to data and eventually work towards improving air quality for  future generations."

Ambee’s analysis of recent air quality data across cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai  showcase interesting insights on the overall air quality in all these cities. Air Quality Index or AQI is a measure of air quality computed by taking into account major air pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Over the last month, Air Quality Index(AQI) in Bangalore has averaged between 80 to 120 which is approximately 2.5 to 3.5 times above the desired range of 0-50. The reasons include increased urban emissions from vehicular traffic, particularly so in the month of October due to increased movement of trucks and buses for festive season, industrial pollution, garbage burning and ongoing construction activity, road repair and metro construction. Although rain reduces PM2.5 count, it does little or has no impact to the gaseous pollutants like CO, SO2, No2 etc., 

Similarly, AQI in Delhi indicates hazardous levels of air pollution in more than 30 areas with numbers averaging between 300 to 400 AQI for the last month. Post Diwali, Ambee predicts a 45% increase in PM 2.5, a carcinogenic pollutant that the human body has no immunity against. In the next one week, with the increase in stubble burning, AQI in some areas can go upto 500, indicating hazardous levels of air quality in the national capital. 

However, Mumbai on the other hand will have safe to moderate levels of AQI due to continued rains and PM 2.5 will remain within safe limits in most parts of the city. Likewise, In Hyderabad, due to pre-diwali showers in some parts of the city,  there was considerably lower pollution levels compared to other cities. However, AQI in Hyderabad will average between 120 to 150 for the entire month due to vehicular traffic and industrial pollution. 

Ambee has air quality data for over 1 lakh pin codes across 65 countries. Ambee analyzes air quality data at a hyperlocal level and predicts air quality trends  for the next 15 years by taking into consideration factors like traffic, population density, climate change and its impact on human health, businesses, and other socio economic factors. 

Oncology Startup OncoStem successfully completes Validation study in European Cohort

OncoStem Diagnostics, an oncology focused company that enables personalised cancer treatment, has successfully completed its first ever single center, blinded validation study in Europe. The study, conducted in association with Vall d'Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Spain, involved retrospective validation on a set of 290 patient samples with an accuracy of 96%. The result of this study was on par with the accuracy seen in the previous studies conducted by OncoStem diagnostics. 

OncoStem’s CanAssist Breast is a prognostic test for early-stage hormone receptor positive breast cancer patients. It makes customized treatment possible by analysing the patients tumor in depth and providing a patient specific report. CanAssist Breast categorizes patients based on the biology of the tumor as either ‘low or high’ risk for cancer recurrence. This clear distinction of patients based on risk of cancer recurrence allows doctors to devise treatment plans that are in tune with the prognosis, maintaining a balance between the benefits and side effects of chemotherapy treatment.

Patients who are at low risk of relapse can potentially avoid chemotherapy and its associated side-effects while patients who are at high risk of relapse would benefit from the addition of chemotherapy to their treatment regimen.

The retrospective study performed in collaboration with VHIO, Spain was conducted on samples of breast cancer patients ranging in age from 28 to 92 years. The mean age at diagnosis was found to be 61 years and the predominant tumour size was T1 (less than 2cm tumour), in line with previously reported data on Caucasian cohorts. In India, mean age at diagnosis is about 48 years and T2 (2-5 cm tumour) tends to be the predominant tumour size. Despite these differences in the patient profile, the accuracy of CanAssist Breast risk classification in the Caucasian population was found to be the same as what was seen in OncoStem’s Indian studies (96% NPV). This suggests that CanAssist Breast test can be used across all age groups and across a broad range of clinical presentations of early-stage breast cancer. 

[caption id="attachment_135626" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dr Manjiri Bakre, CEO and Founder, OncoStem Diagnostics[/caption]

Speaking about the validation, Dr Manjiri Bakre, CEO and Founder, OncoStem Diagnostics said “We are very encouraged by the results of this study as it demonstrates that CanAssist Breast has universal applicability. This validation has taken us a step closer towards our goal to globally validate CanAssist Breast and provide patients with a world class product.”

OncoStem Diagnostics presented the validation study data at the recently concluded annual ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) Congress 2019 in Europe.

More about OncoStem Diagnostics:

OncoStem Diagnostics develops innovative multi-marker prognostic tests to enable  personalized treatment of cancer patients. Founded by Dr Manjiri Bakre, OncoStem’s ‘CanAssist Breast’ is an innovative, cost effective test that can help clinicians to plan tailor made treatment for each breast cancer patient based on tumor biology.

OncoStem is currently working on similar tests for other subtypes of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. OncoStem has raised US $9 million in  funding from Sequoia Capital and Artiman Ventures.

Fintech Startup ePayLater wins 'Innovation in Digital Payments through Lending" at DigiDhan Awards 2019

Adding yet another feather to its cap, ePayLater, India’s leading innovator in the digital credit market, recently announced its win at the DigiDhan Mission Fintech Award 2018-19.

At this first-of-its-kind recognition ceremony held by the Govt. of India as part of the MeitY Startup Summit 2019 to applaud fintech’s contribution in encouraging digital payments, ePayLater was rewarded in the category ‘Best Fintech Innovation in Digital Payments through Lending’. The award was presented by the Chief Guest Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications, Electronics, & IT, and Law &Justice.

ePayLater is essentially a tech-driven checkout lending platform that provides credit at the Point-of-Sale (PoS). The company has two major proprietary product lines—a B2C ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ solution to provide frequent online shoppers with an interest-free credit for a tenure of 14 days, and a B2B solution providing short-term credit to individual retailers for their business needs.

The company renders this credit line service with no hidden charges or collaterals involved, thus empowering these businesses to continue providing services to their customers and to achieve higher sales through faster inventory churns. Through such provisions, ePayLater has emerged as one of the most preferred credit lending platforms for both individuals and businesses.

The award category ‘Best Fintech Innovation in Digital Lending’ under DigiDhan intended to recognize those companies that have developed innovative solutions for hassle-free and economically viable lending to individuals or SMEs. Basis an objective and unbiased evaluation across several parameters to assess true contribution in terms of the relevance of lending products and solutions in the context of the current Indian landscape, ePayLater emerged as a deserving winner in this category.

Expressing their joy on this occasion, Aurko Bhattacharya, Co-Founder, ePayLater remarked, “We are honoured and humbled to have been bestowed with this prestigious award by the MeitY. At ePayLater, we envision leveraging new-age technologies and data science to solve real-life challenges, and getting this coveted title stands as a testament to our tireless efforts towards achieving our vision. It is really heartening to be acknowledged as one of the major contributors to the growth story of digital payments and lending in India, and we hope to continue working dedicatedly towards bridging the credit divide that exists in the country today.”

Equipped with the mandate to promote digital payments across India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has been at the forefront of the digitization drive that the country is currently undergoing. Through this first ceremony of its kind, MeitY aimed at acknowledging and appreciating innovations done by fintech companies in transforming the digital payments ecosystem during FY2018-19. Because of its highly innovative and relevant lending solutions, MeitY recognized ePayLater as one of the instrumental players in the domain. Armed with such success and appreciation, the company aims to continue working just as relentlessly towards bridging the existing credit gap in India.

Founded in 2015 by Akshat Saxena, Uday Somayajula and Aurko Bhattacharya, ePaylater is a ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ payment solution through which customers can get instantly get access to a credit limit to make faster online/offline purchases. A 14-day interest-free period is provided from the date of purchase to settle the payment. ePayLater has over 3000 merchants on-board including IRCTC, PVR, Croma, Box8, Travelyaari, Ticketnew, to name a few.

Hourly Hotel Booking Firm MiStay Raises funding from ah! Ventures Angel Platform, others

An online hotel booking company that offers booking hotels by the pack of hours, MiStay has raised an undisclosed amount of investment through ah! Ventures angel platform and a group of investors led by Hyderabad based ex-entrepreneur, Sumit Nagpal. MiStay will utilize the fund to grow the leadership team and also to build up the brand.

Founded in 2016 by alumni of IIT Madras, Sandeep Jaiswal & Pranav Prabhakar, MiStay had previously raised the first round of seed investment in late 2017. Later, the company pivoted from the initial focus on the B2B corporate market to the consumer market in mid 2018. Since then, MiStay has grown 5 times and hit operational profitability in June this year.

“Travellers today no longer want to plan their trip based on the hotels’ check-in time. The hotel industry is poised to transform to meet these evolving travellers’ needs. This transition, however, requires disrupting the age-old technological ecosystem in hotel industry and raising operational capabilities of hotels. We are building the entire ecosystem ground up to enable the flexible hotel stay and be the leader in this market”, said Sandeep Jaiswal, the Co-Founder & CEO at MiStay.

The average hotel occupancy rate in India stands at around 65%, thus the unsold hotel rooms constitute around 6 Billion Dollars of missed revenue opportunity for hotels. MiStay creates a new demand of customers who require hotels with early check-in, short-stay or day-use rooms which hotels can tap into to maximize their occupancy and revenue.

“The micro-stay model brings a unique revenue optimization opportunity for the hotels. Our product helps hotels realize their full revenue potential by unlocking the value in hotel inventory during the hours it remains unutilized. Hotels can in fact run at more than 100% occupancy”, said Pranav Prabhakar, the Co-Founder & CTO at MiStay.

MiStay is currently operational in 100 cities with around 1500 hotel partners. Unlike other counterparts who focus on couple-friendly hotels, MiStay sees business travellers or travellers having long layover as the primary target audience. The partner hotels of MiStay include many premium hotel brands such as The Park, Radisson, Holiday Inn as well as mid-scale hotel chains such as Lemon Tree, Mango Hotels, Mint Hotels, 1589 Hotels, Treebo, and others.

“Currently we have divided a full-day into 3 smaller slots of a few hours which costs as low as around 30% of the full-day tariff. We are working closely with the hotels and aim to bring even more flexibility to travellers. Obsession with customer experience has been and will remain the guiding principle for our every move”, added Nupur Singh, who leads customer success at MiStay.

Abhijeet Kumar, Founding Partner at ah! Ventures said “Hotel booking is a very large market and the unique approach of MiStay for inventory optimization will change the way hotel industry operates. The market opportunity and the efficiency with which the founding team has scaled the business so far, made the investment decision a no brainer. We are very excited to be backing their vision.”

About Mistay

MiStay is an online hotel booking company that offers booking hotels by the pack of hours. MiStay is an attempt to empower people to achieve their travel dream. Bringing flexibility into hotel bookings is just the beginning. We aim to eventually disrupt and drive innovation in every facet of the travel industry. We aspire to be the leader of the next generation of travel.

Airtel Acquires Stake in Vahan; Launches Startup Accelerator Program

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telecommunications company, today announced the launch of its Startup Accelerator Program to support growth of early stage Indian tech startups. With the advent of its Start-up Accelerator Program, Airtel aims to support the creation of a vibrant start-up ecosystem that contributes to “Digital India”.

Through Airtel’s Startup Accelerator, early startups get access to Airtel’s online and offline distribution network, deep market understanding and ecosystem of global strategic partners. In addition, Airtel has also developed strong in-house capabilities around machine learning and artificial intelligence which could be leveraged to aid the growth of startups. Furthermore, startups also get access to advisory services from Airtel’s executive team.

Vahan is the first to join Airtel Startup Accelerator

Airtel announced the induction of Bengaluru based tech startup Vahan into its Startup Accelerator Program. Airtel will acquire a stake in Vahan and partner with them in building significant scale to achieve their vision of enabling jobs for the next billion internet users.

Founded in 2016 and backed by YCombinator and Khosla Ventures, Vahan leverages advanced Artificial Intelligence to match job seekers with employers inside messaging apps such as Whatsapp. It is focused on finding blue collar jobs for millions of young Indians in Delivery, Driving, Retail, BFSI, BPO and Hospitality sectors with companies such as Zomato, Swiggy and Dunzo as clients.

Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel said: “Today, early stage startups in India have some very exciting ideas but face multiple challenges in scaling up. With Airtel’s scale and digital capabilities around distribution and payments, we have the potential to drive accelerated growth of emerging startups that are solving hard problems. The team at Vahan is doing some incredible work to bring jobs to millions of people through AI based technology. We are excited to partner with them on this vision.”

Madhav Krishna, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vahan, said: “Airtel will be a key partner for us as we look to solve a hard problem for Bharat. Most blue-collar job seekers are unaware of the opportunities that exist in the market, especially new-age on-demand jobs. Airtel’s distribution channels will help us reach the very depths of the country and in turn, help millions of Indians take control of their economic destiny. We are incredibly excited about this partnership.”

Great Manager Institute (GMI) Raises $283K from Clutch of Investor-Advisors led by CXOs of Technology Firms

Great Manager Institute (GMI), has raised funding of the amount of 283,000 USD, from a clutch of investor-advisors led by CXOs of technology companies. It was founded in 2017 by Dalreen Patrao, Prasenjit Bhattacharya, and Ashwin Srivastava. Bhattacharya and Patrao are domain leaders while Srivastava is a technology entrepreneur.

The investors include Ramesh Shankar, ex-EVP of Siemens and a veteran HR professional, Bala Malladi, CEO of ACT Fibernet, and Srikanth Karra, CHRO of Mphasis. Karra and Shankar have joined the technical advisory committee, while Malladi has joined the India Advisory Board of Great Manager Institute.

[caption id="attachment_136866" align="alignleft" width="324"] Dalreen Patrao, cofounder, GMI[/caption]

GMI is a lifetime coach and profiler for people managers, using artificially intelligent coaches and a community of experienced human mentors, to provide personalized sustainable learning to people managers. It claims to solve the “how of high trust performance”. It plans to raise another round of investment at a valuation of 15 million USD or higher in the coming months, to help propel its global growth even further. The current raise is expected to go towards branding, technology and research.

Karra, who has previously also been an entrepreneur and angel investor, says, “The new age economy is redefining business models, organizational structures, and delivery models, with a renewed emphasis of leadership. In the middle of these disruptions, the role of a manager is undergoing a change like never before. Collaborative platforms and agile methodologies are redefining the skill sets and roles of the management layer. Great Manager Institute has come out with a timely model of engaging and reskilling the managerial layer which in my view is the spine of an organization.”

Shankar elaborates on the reason of his association, “It is people managers who make the difference between good and great organizations and not technology, brand or anything else. That’s why I decided to be a part of Great Manager Institute.”

Srivastava, cofounder of the company, says about the investors, “It is our honour to have such stalwarts on board to help us create a new ecosystem of people management. They are not with us for their money, but for their value as great leaders who believe in the importance of building trusting relationships.” Patrao, the other co-founder adds, “Amongst the jobs that are definitely going to be there in the future, people management is amongst the top. This is why what we are doing is so important”.

Game-based Assessments & Learning Platform Talent Litmus Raises Funds from IP Ventures

Mumbai-based start-up Talent Litmus, a platform for game-based assessments and learning, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) and Haptik co-founder Aakrit Vaish via Let’s Venture.

Founded in 2016, by Satpreet Arora and Kiran Wadhwa, Talent Litmus is a game-based platform for assessments and corporate learning. It's leveraging the power of games and AI for creating new-age solutions that companies can use to recruit the best talent and develop in-house employees.

[caption id="attachment_136863" align="alignleft" width="225"] Satpreet Arora and Kiran Wadhwa[/caption]

While the co-founder Arora is an IIT and IIM alumnus who gained experience in engineering scalable systems at Yahoo!, Kiran Wadhwa is a creative professional with experience in digital engagement and journalism.

The company has created proprietary algorithms grounded in psychology and data sciences to power its game-based HR applications. This, combined with highly-engaging game mechanics, enables them to create powerful tools for organizations to engage with existing and prospective employees.

“We are excited to bring together the diverse fields of game design, psychology and data analytics to re-imagine talent management. This triad ensures the scope of innovation is limitless,” said Arora, “To be guided by the committed network at IPV and our other investors gives us confidence to surge ahead.”

Talent Litmus already counts some of the country’s largest brands as their partners. Their flagship product, Nautics, was awarded the best behavioural assessment at the World HRD Congress 2019.

Sharing his insights, Sadique, an IPV member, said, “The acceptance of Talent Litmus across industries proves its market potential for solving a significant challenge for organisations.” On the experience with IPV, he said, “IPV is very process-driven. The timeline from pitch to closure is well-defined. The comprehensive reports IPV puts together on startups helps investors make informed decisions.”

Over the next 2 years, Talent Litmus is looking to work with 200+ clients across India, Europe and the US. The start-up will utilize its funds to invest in R&D, expand product portfolio and geographies served.

For Aakrit, the investment decision was straightforward. “We started using Talent Litmus at Haptik and I was blown away by the results and its impact on candidates. I was convinced they have a highly differentiated product backed with credible R&D. The company’s traction signals a strong product-market fit, and I believe in the founding team's capabilities.

The “Assessments and Corporate Learning”industry is poised for change with organizations eager to replace traditional methods with innovative solutions to engage with their tech-savvy workforce.

Jignesh Kenia, another IPV member, said, “Our teams played Nautics and were happy the assessment results inferred from the gameplay." This increased our confidence to invest in the business.

Wealthy.in Raises $1.3 Mn from Good Capital, EMVC and others to Build a Network of Technology Enabled Wealth Managers

In a funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm, Good Capital, Wealthy has raised USD 1.3 Million. Fintech venture capital firm, Emphasis Ventures (EMVC), also participated in the round. Wealthy’s previous investors include Venture Highway, Tracxn Labs, V1 Capital and Globevestor.

Founded in 2016, by Prashant Gupta and Aditya Agarwal, Wealthy is a fast-growing Fintech platform that enables professionals and other individuals to become Wealth Managers by providing them with digital financial products and training to succeed as independent entrepreneurs. This round of funds will be utilised to scale up its partner base and to continue further development of the platform to offer more financial products.

“Our focus is to build a strong base of partners that we call Wealth Managers. Over the last three years, we have realised that though there is a growing demand for online financial solutions that are convenient and paperless, there is an underlying trust issue that deters most end customers to build meaningful relationships. Our partners are helping solve this trust deficit by bringing a rules-based advisory experience to customers in their trust network” says Aditya Agarwal, co-founder of Wealthy.

Prashant Gupta, Co-Founder of Wealthy adds, “Our latest Fund-Raise will help us fast track the process of onboarding banking professionals who are looking for an independent career. Typically, their jobs today with any large bank or financial institution, is a one-sided relationship. The maximum benefit of this relationship accrues to the institution leaving both the banker and their clients short-changed. Wealthy’s bank-like financial services platform, software-led advisory, and, a cloud-based operation empowers these partners to build the career they always dreamt off and achieve a substantial increase in their income.”

Srimanta Patra, a Wealth Manager at Wealthy adds, “I had to step out of my comfort zone to leave ICICI, but, I am so happy I made that move. I am the boss of my own work now and in complete control of my earnings without needing to sacrifice my soul. My favourite part is the limitless earning potential and the technology support I get to onboard and service my clients.”

Arjun Malhotra, Founding Partner of Good Capital adds, “Wealthy's approach in enabling middleman to better curate and serve the eventual customer is something that resonates well with our investment thesis. We have seen this theme play out across different industries and are excited to partner with a highly capable and execution-oriented team in Aditya and Prashant.”

Melissa Frakman, Managing Partner of EMVC adds, “Indian households with a large and emerging middle class deserve the transparency, cost-efficiency, and convenience of the country’s digital finance transformation, while still enjoying personalized, professional service from their advisor. We look forward to working with the Wealthy team as they build a next-generation network of technology-enabled advisors to service a growing need of Indian households.”

From Scaling Transactions to Scaling Trust

Wealthy.in began their foray into the fin-tech market in 2016 by offering tax savings investments in three clicks and then scaled their portfolio of financial products and services over the years. With its seamless and paperless investment solution, Wealthy acquired customers via word of mouth rapidly.. Encouraged by this early success, the team launched new product features and started to increase its user base.

As they scaled further, they found it easy to make consumers conduct small financial transactions via social media posts and digital marketing. However, the users who built meaningful relationships with the platform were those who were referred by their friends, or, heard about Wealthy from someone they trusted at their workplace.

Click moment for them ironically was on the day when the team was celebrating it’s best-month ever. Incidentally, relationship manager of the company’s account with HDFC was in the office and casually asked about the celebration. A casual question led to the realisation that a single relationship manager of HDFC was doing more business than Wealthy’s online-only operation. Wealthy had a superior product but was missing the ‘trust’ element that a HDFC’s relationship manager was able to bridge in his client interactions. That’s when the team sensed that the real opportunity lies in empowering these professionals with their technology-led approach.

“That was a turning point, prompting us to shift our focus from Transactions to Trust. In hindsight, we found that it only makes sense as people have always taking major financial decisions on the advice of other people, be it their friends, relatives, or their banker. This led us to introduce a layer of professionals who could engage end customers with a 360 degree solution“, explained Aditya further.

Bengaluru, Kolkata to be included in World Bank's Doing Business Report

The World Bank will now include Kolkata and Bengaluru, besides Delhi and Mumbai, for preparing ease of doing business report to provide a holistic picture of business environment of the country, an official has said.

"The country of the size of India was not properly represented by just two cities, and now with the inclusion of Kolkata and Bengaluru, Indian ranking in the World Bank's report will present a much better picture," the official said.

The report ranks 190 nations based on ten parameters, which includes ease of starting a business, construction permits, getting electricity, getting credit, paying taxes, trade across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.

The official added that the exercise to include these two new cities has already been initiated and would be included in the World Bank's ranking in the years to come.

The annual World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report is expected to be released tomorrow.

According to the official, India's rank is expected to improve further in the report from the current 77th position.

India improved its ranking on the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' report for the second straight year, jumping 23 places to the 77th position on the back of reforms related to insolvency, taxation and other areas.

India was ranked 100th in the World Bank's Doing Business 2018 report.

In the 2019 report, India had improved its rank on six out of the 10 parameters relating to starting and doing business in a country.

New Zealand topped the list of 190 countries in ease of doing business, followed by Singapore, Denmark, and Hong Kong.

The United States is placed eight and China has been ranked 46th. Neighbouring Pakistan is placed at 136.

Ranking helps in improving parameters which are essential to attract both domestic and foreign investors. PTI RR CS

B2B Platform Pumpkart Raises Funding from CII Chairman for Startups and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Dinesh Dua, North India Chairman for Startups & Entrepreneurship for CII has made an angel investment in Pumpkart, an online B2B platform which works on Brand to retailer model.

Founded in 2014 by Mr. KS Bhatia, the startup which began as B2C company selling Pumps online pivoted earlier this year into a B2B platform. It has added multiple other categories to serve its clientele of retailers across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.

Dr. Dua currently, currently CEO of Nectar Life Sciences Ltd and Chairman of Pharmexcil, Ministry of Commerce, GOI made his first Angel investment in a startup since he became the Chairman of Startups and Entrepreneurship for CII.

Dr. Dua an alumnus of IIM Ahemdabad has spent substantial time understanding Pumpkart’s journey and its business model. Impressed by the pace at which Pumpkart has been able to execute and build brands like VTOP in the Smart LED space, he believes that under the leadership of Dr. KS Bhatia, Pumpkart has a great team to deliver.

The Punjab’s government support to startups like Pumpkart and others has really given a boost to the state’s startup ecosystem. Punjab Government is aggressively supporting Pumpkart to bring the MSMEs of Punjab onboard the Pumpkart’s platform. Dr. Dua believes that this is not only a great milestone for Pumpkart but would also give a great boost to the MSMEs of Punjab by giving them an easy access to the domestic market. He also says that this one step was probably the tipping point which led him to invest in Pumpkart.

Pumpkart which is a boot strapped organization is currently scaling and is spreading its wings to states beyond Punjab. Dr. Dua specifically mentions this as the strength of a startup as a boot strapped organization is more careful with an external investment.

Dr. KS Bhatia, Co-founder and CEO of Pumpkart announced that Dr. Dua shall be joining the board of Pumpkart and under his mentorship, Pumpkart would scale new heights.

Dr. Dinesh Dua, through the CII platform also encouraged other high net worth individuals and corporates to identify innovative and fast growing startups like Pumpkart from the state and invest in them. This single step can provide a boost not only to the startup Ecosystem but also to the state’s economy.

blurams’ Teaser post Hints at the Launch of its 1st Flagship Product

blurams, one of the leading global providers of advanced, intelligent imaging technologies, products, services and platforms, posted a series of teaser posts and graphics on its Indian Facebook and Instagram accounts, that tries to drive home the power of Smart Home Security Cameras. The key highlight, however, is on providing a ‘Carefree life” user experience.

For modern-day security solutions, the device is expected to be full of smart features and it is where blurams comes in with its unique technology propositions, which includes Smart AI and Edge Computing core technologies. The teaser post released by blurams, showcasing the first glance of its flagship product. It also hints to be the first of its kind in the Indian Market because of its unique features.

We are curious to know-how blurams is going to excite the Indian market. Going by blurams’ global legacy, the Indian audience is curious to know what unique blurams is going to bring to space as it’s social media caption states a strong statement “First of its kind to disrupt Indian Smart Home Security Camera Space !”.

We’ll have to wait a bit for the company to either drop some more hints through its social media handles. Stay tuned and follow blurams India:



Blurams is a leading, international provider of advanced, intelligent imaging technologies, products, services and platforms. Blurams advocates user experience and technological innovation and is dedicated to making everyone live a carefree life.

 

 

FreightBro becomes 1st Indian Logistics Startup to Join Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg

FreightBro, India’s first freight forwarder facing digital platform that digitizes operations for Freight Forwarders, became the first Indian startup to join the Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg in an exclusive event titled ‘Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg Roadshow - An Indo-German Logistics Startups Connect’ Organised by FreightBro, the event focused on the importance and the success of building a digital logistics ecosystem in Germany and the potential of replicating similar ecosystem based models in India.

The event brought together the pioneers of digital transformation in German and Indian logistics sector who discussed synergies, possibilities and opportunities in the logistics and freight forwarding industry.

The first half of the event essentially focussed on logistics startups presenting their industry solutions and business models to Hamburg Invest and Digital Hub Logistics, Hamburg. The second half comprised of informative and interactive sessions of the keynote speakers with the audience comprising of a mix of startups and industry leaders. The keynote speakers were Mr Johannes Berg, Managing Director at Digital Hub Logistics, Hamburg, Ms Lee Lee Ong, Project Director, International Investments at Hamburg Invest, Mr Prasad Menon, CEO, CIBA, Mr Vikram Gupta, the Founder & Managing Partner of IvyCap Ventures and Mr Raghavendran Viswanathan, CEO & Co-founder, FreightBro.

Johannes Berg, Managing Director, Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg, was of the opinion that, “There is immense potential for partnership and expansion opportunities for Indian startups in Germany. We have collaborated with an Indian startup for the first time and introduced FreightBro to one of our hub partners, DAKOSY who are keen on working on Indo-German synergies. We eagerly look forward to further connect Indian startups to hub partners in Germany and connect German startups with the Indian market. We are grateful to FreightBro for organizing a unique event for us in India and enable us to connect with startups which has been immensely satisfying.”

Mohammed Zakkiria A, Co-Founder, FreightBro, said, “Joining hands with Digital Hub is a strategically sound decision for us and is the perfect platform for us to connect with the right partners in Germany and plan future expansion in the European market.”

Mr Prasad Menon, CEO, CIBA, emphasized the significance of incubators in the flourishing of startups in India especially from the idea validation to growth stage. Mr Vikram Gupta, an industry veteran in venture capital, business consulting, M&A and strategy mentioned how the focus for venture capitalists has seen a shift towards logistics based startups and the immense potential they hold.

The Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg is the first port of call for the digital business transformation of the logistics industry in the Hamburg metropolitan region and Germany. Some notable digital hub partners are Hamburg Port Authority, Lufthansa, DAKOSY, Volkswagen, SHELL, HHLA and City of Hamburg.

After the recently established partnership with Port of Wilhelmshaven, this collaboration with Digital Hub Logistics, Hamburg comes as a significant step ahead in strengthening FreightBro’s Indo-German ties and establishing a footprint in the European logistics hub.

2nd Edition of Startup Summit Gurgaon - 2019 by The Hustler Team Organised Successfully

The hustle to grow with the spirit of entrepreneurship the Hustler Team curated by Amit Vikram Tripathi, Akash Kumar, Gautam Mishra provided an unbiased platform for the growth oriented entrepreneurs and startups with their 2nd edition of “Startup Summit Gurgaon 2019” the Star of the summit Manu Rikhey - Partner Growx Ventures and Special Guest and Coaching Icon Saurabh Kauhsik - India’s Premier Business Coach and Founder Peopleist have shared the concept of Angle round of investors and the outlook Vs Venture Capitalist round of investment and outlook.

To empower the entrepreneurial mindset and startup support special delegation of ICICI bank shared their vision and exciting schemes to harness the opportunity in the banking sector and policies further to uplift the startup ecosystem.

Saurabh Jain Vice President Paytm, shared the story of Paytm and motivated attendees by telling them the importance of 3 P’s of business.

[gallery type="thumbnails" size="large" link="none" ids="136785,136784,136783,136782,136777,136778,136779,136780,136781,136776"]

The most esteemed entrepreneurs like Deepanshu Manchanda founder Zappfresh, Atul Rai Co-Founder & CEO Staqu Technologies, Saurabh Dayal Co Founder, ClearDekho.com

Tanvi Kandpal Co-Founder & CBO, Finoledge and Session Chaired by Saurabh Kaushik Founder, Peopleist India shared their views on Opportunity Mining - Zero to One. Each one shared their journey from Zero to One  learning, opportunities and challenges while starting up their business.

Ashi Singhal shared the linkedin success secret and advanced linkedin tools and technologies to support the enterprises, sales and marketing post with the tecnologiest like Mohit Malik CTO, Chaayos, Col. Inderjeet Singh Ex Director CISO, Indian Army, Vikram Shah CTO, Internshala shared their vision on innovation and disruption the actual need of today’s startup. The panel addresses various concepts of technopreneurship and how leverage can take the startup to the Next Level.

The most awaited Massive Business Growth Session with India’s Premier Business Coach Saurabh Kauhsik added cherry on the cake and bind the audience with his advanced coaching tools and techniques. The session was NLP fused with business success mantra the basic concept of sales, revenue and growth.

In order to acknowledge the role of ecosystem in startup prominent personalities like Nemesisa Ujjain Project Director, Hunch Ventures & Investment Pvt Ltd, Abhishek Dubey Founder, Muskaan Dreams, Amit Singal CEO, Startup Buddy, Rajiv Bathla COO, TheCircle, Himanshu Gupta CEO & Co-founder, Lawyered, Tanya Kathpal Founder, Eat My News shared their views on future and opportunities in startup ecosystem 2020. The discussion shared the upcoming boost in the startup ecosystem and expected growth of startups by 15% in comparison of 2019. It is the best time for startups to grow since government and non government bodies are now supporting entrepreneurship full fledgedly.

The hustler team once again proved themselves by creating such an awesome gathering of 200 startups on Saturday at the Circle - Coworking Space Huda City Center with the support of key sponsor ICICI Bank. The Hustler Team is all set to organise new theme for the Investors Meet and Ecosystem Players to harness the entrepreneurial wave and support the startups to get the Next Level.

Fashion Rental Platform Stage3 Raises $2 Mn in Funding led by Blume Ventures

Stage3, India’s leading fashion-rental and styling platform bringing the largest selection of celebrity endorsed designer outfits and accessories to millennial India’s closets has raised USD 2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round. The funding round was led by Blume Ventures, and highlighted the strong interest of investors in India’s growing fashion rental market. Stage3 has successfully established itself as the leading purveyor of design-led glam wear for men and women in the affordable luxury category.

The current funds will be utilized to amplify the brand experience, boost its offline footprint and augment its data capabilities. Furthermore, Stage3 plans to collaborate with several prominent celebrities, influencers and designers within the coming year, adding to the extensive network it has already created.

Stage 3 has registered a strong revenue growth of 350% YoY and high engagement metrics, further reinforcing the investors’ decision. The company has consistently recorded high repeat rates and unit economics. Its asset light model with revenue share inventory is another advantage, accounting for 80% of its current inventory.

Founded in 2016, the company was envisioned to make glamorous fashion affordable, sustainable and, most importantly, easily accessible to Indian consumers. It targets today’s fashion-forward millennials via a two-pronged approach. First, by making expensive designer wear available to them at a fraction of the MRP through a rental business model. Second, it simultaneously sells capsule collections of “elevated basics” via its home-grown fashion brand “Alaya”, by leveraging collective purchase trends and data insights from customers. These curated collections perfectly straddle the line between exclusivity, style and cost, and are co-developed by designers and celebrity stylists.

Stage3’s proposition fits perfectly into the sharing economy ecosystem in India where fractional ownership is bridging the gap between aspiration and access. In a true case of buyer empowerment, Stage3 also lets its users list their own designer wear to be rented by others via the platform. All of the platform’s offerings are complemented by the company’s in-house stylists, who provide fashion and styling advice to users for free.

[caption id="attachment_136771" align="alignleft" width="262"] Sabena Puri[/caption]

Commenting on Stage3’s proposition, Sabena Puri, CEO and co-founder said that dress up is undergoing transformational changes with millennials interested in engaging in a variety of fashion experiences rather than a owning a closet full of clothes that they no longer have interest in or use of. Constant exposure to the best of designs and creations the world over, their desire to experience such fashion is high. Platforms that make accessing such products easier for the buyer have great potential for success. “Through our offerings, we want to bridge this gap and help our customers be on top of today’s fashion game without having to worry about high pricing, seasonality or storage woes”. At Stage3, we have proven that the sharing economy is going to change the way we consume fashion in India”.

[caption id="attachment_136772" align="alignleft" width="217"] Sanchit Baweja[/caption]

Commenting on the investment, Sanchit Baweja, CBO and co-founder added, “We are excited that Blume Ventures has extended their support to us to add to our strong ecosystem of investors and advisors, including Nisha Kumar, Ex-CFO, Rent the Runway and Anaita Adajania Shroff, Fashion Director, Vogue India. Our growth is going to be omni-channel and data-driven. We plan to invest heavily in enhancing our data capabilities as well as focus on building greater awareness amongst our target audiences about the rental model we are operating with.”

Speaking on the funding, Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner, Blume Ventures said, “We’ve known Stage3 and its founders for a few years now. We love their commitment to the model and its ability to take aspirational brands and designs from great designers and luxury wardrobes to a growing mass of aspirational consumers. Rental culture and recycling or reuse is here to stay as youth understand wastage more than the last generation or two. By providing choice, convenience and prices that special occasions demand in their lives, Stage3 is providing coolness with sustainability in the new India.”

About Stage3 –

Founded in 2016 by Sabena Puri, Sanchit Baweja and Rina Dhaka, the Delhi-based company focuses on providing today’s fashion-forward millennials affordable access to on-trend, glamorous fashion through rental and sales. Stage3’s unique, expansive ecosystem comprises 100+ designers, fashion enthusiasts and a network of relations with 25 celebrity stylists, 150+ leading bloggers, influencers and 50+ celebrities. The company’s board members are some of the biggest names in the business.

Data Utility Platform Crediwatch Raises $3.2 Mn in Funding led by ARTIS Labs

• Led by ARTIS Labs, Funding will accelerate R&D and Commercialization of Crediwatch’s AI based Platform.


• Has partnered with some of the most respected Financial institutions to support their credit risk and business teams

Crediwatch, a Bangalore based FinTech company building AI/ML tools to help the financial services industry reduce credit risk has secured $3.2 Million in Series A funding.

Led by ARTIS Labs, the funding will accelerate R&D and commercialization of Crediwatch’s platform. Additional new investors in the round include Abstract Ventures. Prior to this round, Crediwatch has raised $1.6 million from Modern India Limited, Family Offices of Mr Vijay Kumar Jatia, Contrarian Vriddhi Fund, Vaibhav Domkundwar’s  Better Capital, Mekin Maheshwari (Flipkart) and Pithambar Gona (former MD of Blackstone Pvt Equity Asia) bringing the total funding till date to $5 million.

Crediwatch is a ‘Data Insights-as-a-service’ company that provides lenders, businesses with actionable credit intelligence on private entities they need to improve trust and increase their lending and trading activity. Crediwatch does this with no human intervention by deploying the latest practical AI and technology tools that provide the most reliable comprehensive real time inputs.

Less than 15 percent of the 50+ million Indian Small businesses (companies, partnerships and proprietorships) have access to formal credit. The debt financing gap of the SME is over $1 Trillion. Lenders have written off more than $100 Billion due to bad debts in the last three years. The current friction cost of lending to the SMEs is 6~7%. Corporates have large vendor/supplier relationships that get exposed to similar financial risks that increase the trust deficit.

Having provided insights on 50,000+ businesses and $7 billion loan portfolio, Crediwatch aims to fill this void by offering a dynamic “Trust Score” derived from millions of data points that are extracted and analysed across thousands of formal and alternative sources to help lenders assess borrowers and monitor them close to real time.

[caption id="attachment_136754" align="alignleft" width="261"] Meghna Suryakumar, Founder and CEO Crediwatch[/caption]

“The ecosystem needs a dynamic business information exchange to create transparency and a continuous monitoring of borrowers to weed out bad cases early” said Meghna Suryakumar, founder and CEO. “Our vision is to reimagine SME credit by measuring trust through verifiable data, insights and good behaviour”

Sharing his insights, Stuart Peterson, General Partner with Artis, commented, “The increasing digitization of business data against the backdrop of a failure of conventional credit rating and underwriting methods provides a unique opportunity to create a scalable business using AI/ML to provide unprecedented insights. These are massive trends that are just now beginning to play out within India and Crediwatch finds itself ideally positioned to lead this digital revolution."

"We have already seen various algorithm-based lending models trying to address the issues pertaining to digital lending, but the lack of a data utility platform for the industry has created a gap. Crediwatch is one of the few businesses that is committed to addressing this gap and we are delighted to offer our support” Abstract Ventures Partner Ramtin Naimi said in a statement.

Leading financial institutions like SBI, KVB and RBL Bank and NBFCs like ABFL and Capital Float subscribe to the Crediwatch’s Insights platform and Early Warning Signals to help manage their credit on a more dynamic basis.

About ARTIS Labs

ARTIS Labs is a platform for early stage opportunities within ARTIS Ventures. ARTIS Ventures partners with entrepreneurs who are driven to impact the world by reshaping and reinventing industries. The ARTIS team supports its portfolio companies through their entire life-cycle, from initial venture investment to public offering and beyond. Notable companies the firm has backed include YouTube, Palantir, Eko, Modern Meadow, Nimble Storage, StemCentrx, IDbyDNA, Versa Networks, Cohesity, and more.

About Abstract Ventures

Abstract Ventures is a broad partnership of investors, industry experts, and exceptional entrepreneurs that backs founders at the earliest stages of business formation.

Notable companies the firm has backed include Ripple, Drip Capital, Trusted, Locus Biosciences and many more.

 

Women Social Network Healofy Raises Funds from Japan's M&S Partners

Hiro Mashita-led Japanese investment firm M&S Partners has invested in Healofy, India’s largest and fastest-growing Women Social Network. Healofy connects millions of women across different stages of life - from getting married, to becoming a mother, and beyond. Having started as a pregnancy and parenting community in 2016, Healofy seeks to empower women by enabling them to consume relatable information, create content, and showcase their skills sets. This peer-to-peer platform also enables women to connect and influence other like-minded women based on similar language, location, life-stage, as well as interests such as fashion, food, fitness, lifestyle, learning different skill sets, and earning from home.

Prior to this, the Bangalore-based startup has raised $9.5 million from Omidyar Network India, BabyTree Group (01761.HK, China’s Largest Parenting Platform, a Public company), BAce Capital - a fund backed by Alibaba’s Ant Financial Services Group, and angel investors. With over 2 million app downloads, the app has successfully created a strong community of over 500,000 Daily Active Users (DAUs) and 1 million Monthly Active Users (MAUs) on their Android app, exhibiting industry-leading engagement and retention. The platform also sees 1.5 million+ monthly web visits.

According to the "Toward Gender Equity Online: Research with the Next Billion Users" report by Google India, “women are reluctant to network online on social platforms due to the fear of harassment and lack of a safe community”. Additionally, women often struggle to find relevant content and supportive communities online. Healofy’s mission is to create a vernacular social network exclusively for Indian women to feel informed, safe and empowered, allowing them to consume, connect, and transact in a trusted space.

Healofy is addressing this by bringing Indian women together on a platform where their opinions are heard and their personalities are valued. Catering to Indian women across Tier 2, 3 & 4 cities through content in their native language, Healofy offers content on various topics of women’s interests in 9 languages - English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

What makes Healofy’s communities unique is that they facilitate smoother peer-to-peer interaction in users’ mother tongues, by using innovations which include allowing a user to type vernacular words using English characters, which the app converts on the fly into the regional script.

Further on, Healofy envisions to help women attain financial independence by helping them earn from home via network e-commerce. By allowing women to form meaningful connections and relationships with other women in the Healofy community, the aim is to replicate the offline experience of networking and ‘shopping together’ in the online world.

“The societal impact Healofy is having is immense and has resonated strongly with their users. Led by the passionate founders, Gaurav and Shubham, we believe that this impressive team is capable of disrupting the online behavior of the next 100 Million Indian women, and we are excited to be part of this journey with them.” said Hiro Mashita, Director, M&S Partners.

“It has been an incredible journey for us over the last three years, impacting the lives of millions of women. At Healofy, we are committed to providing a safe and empowering online environment for women in the country. We are excited to welcome M&S Partners to be part of the journey.” said Gaurav Aggarwal, CEO and Co-Founder of Healofy.

About Healofy

Healofy is India’s largest social network exclusively for women, addressing the growing need for credible, relatable content and a safe, empowering community for Indian women on the Internet. Healofy was founded in September 2016 by Forbes 30 Under 30 awardees Gaurav Aggarwal and Shubham Maheshwari, alumni of IIT Guwahati and NIT Warangal respectively. Initially focused on women’s critical-health content like conception, pregnancy and post-pregnancy care, the app has since become the leading social network for women in India which aims to create an online community where Indian women can feel informed, safe and empowered, allowing them to connect consume, connect and transact in a trusted space.

Season 2 of Apple’s ‘Best Business Podcast of 2018’ - Building It Up with Bertelsmann launched

• Bertelsmann India Investments launches the second season of the podcast ‘Building It Up with Bertelsmann' with the first episode featuring Anand Jain, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of CleverTap


• After a highly successful first season, Ankur Warikoo, Co-founder & CEO of Nearbuy.com continues to host the second season of ‘Building It Up with Bertelsmann’


• The second season has also been launched in video format for all episodes and will be available on BII website, YouTube, Facebook and other video platforms

New Delhi, October 22 2019: Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the strategic investment arm of the Germany based Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA, launched the second season of its acclaimed Podcast - ‘Building It Up with Bertelsmann’ – India’s first growth focused podcast. Ankur Warikoo (Co-founder & CEO at nearbuy.com) hosts industry leaders and stalwarts of the startup ecosystem in candid and honest conversations about their experiences, learnings, failures and feats through the journey of their startup.

The podcast offers a microscopic view of how the businesses are scaled, how some mistakes are an inherent part of the journey, what frameworks are applicable and lots more. It is a must listen for anyone associated with the startup ecosystem or pursuing critical decision-making roles in an organization. BoringBrands, a new-age communications agency, is the exclusive outreach partner for ‘Building It Up with Bertelsmann’ Podcast.

Apple recognized the first season of Building It Up with Bertelsmann as the ‘India’s Best Business Podcast of 2018’, with a reach of more than 2.5 million. The second season continues to project the company’s vision of investing in innovative new-age companies with a winning potential. This season’s first episode features Anand Jain (Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of CleverTap), who talks about ‘Building a successful global SAAS business and pricing it right’. Anand delves deep into the strategies of building a global SaaS platform from India, monetising the product and unit economics, need to expand globally and the importance of collaboration, among others.

Commenting on the launch, Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director at Bertelsmann Investments India said “We are deeply humbled by the overwhelming response to Season 1 of the Podcast. In this second season, we will feature many more national and international icons of the startup community and share insights on building scalable high-growth businesses. In an effort to make this season even bigger, we have also launched a video version of the Podcast episodes.”

About Bertelsmann India Investments

Bertelsmann India Investments (BII) is a venture capital fund of Bertelsmann, a media, services and education company that operates in about 50 countries around the world. BII focuses on series B and C stage investments in pioneering companies in the digital, education, media and services sectors. Since its official launch in 2012, BII has invested in 10+ companies including Saavn (music streaming service), Pepperfry (online furniture marketplace), iNurture (higher education services), Lendingkart (digital lending platform for SMEs) and Eruditus and Emeritus (IVY league programs for working professionals) among others. BII is part of Bertelsmann Investments, which houses the group’s other corporate funds such as BAI (China), BDMI (US and Europe) and BBI (Brazil) and cumulatively has almost 200 investments.

Trend Micro Acquires Cloud Conformity to Cement its Position in Cloud Security

Trend Micro Incorporated , the global leader in cloud security, today announced it has acquired Cloud Conformity, an innovative Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) company. The acquisition instantly broadens the cloud services Trend Micro can secure and resolves often overlooked security issues caused by cloud infrastructure misconfiguration.

Trend Micro’s strategy is built to ensure cloud security without disrupting how customers need to do business. This acquisition builds upon Trend Micro’s continuous innovation in cloud security, adding complementary capabilities that automatically identify and fix a range of cloud infrastructure configuration issues. It also optimizes costs and helps ensure compliance with leading industry regulatory standards such as PCI, GDPR, HIPAA and NIST.

“We have been laser focused on building integrated security for the cloud since its birth over a decade ago, unlike other vendors who are now attempting to stitch together disparate cloud technologies,” said Eva Chen, chief executive officer for Trend Micro. “As more enterprises move to the cloud, our customers feel they’re operating amid a wild-west approach to cloud implementations that leave them with unmanaged risk. As an AWS technology partner of the year for 2019, Cloud Conformity understands these implementations and the risks. Their offering perfectly complements our own portfolio and provides immediate value to customers. Both the people and technology are a great fit for Trend Micro."

In purposeful acquisitions, people matter as much as the technology, and Trend Micro will nurture and grow both as part of its market-leading cloud security strategy. The addition of all of Cloud Conformity’s employees brings valuable expertise and experience, along with the technology, to help businesses build in the cloud more effectively, not just build securely.

According to Gartner, “Through 2023, at least 99% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault.” Gartner also states, “Through 2024, organizations implementing a CSPM offering and extending this into development will reduce cloud-related security incidents due to misconfiguration by 80%.”1 Trend Micro’s comprehensive set of cloud security services provide assurance for businesses that their risk is effectively managed while simultaneously meeting compliance standards.

"Our rapid expansion with AWS, complemented by our dedication to security and compliance, is made actionable and scalable through the Cloud Conformity tool,” Russell Jones, principal architect for Virgin Australia. “Their product provides us with greater visibility, the ability to improve performance and optimize costs, assuring continuous resilience as we grow.”

“Our research is clear that organizations of all sizes are adopting cloud-based delivery and, in doing so, are often using not only compute services, but also storage, messaging, and many other services”, said Fernando Montenegro, principal analyst with 451 Research. “With this acquisition, Trend Micro is able to extend its security offerings to organizations looking for assistance with cloud security beyond securing compute workloads.”

“We are excited for the opportunities that will come from being part of the leading cloud security provider – amplifying what we do best, while allowing our offerings to expand in ways we couldn’t have done on our own,” said Michael Watts, chief executive officer of Cloud Conformity. “We think customers will love this simplified approach to security and compliance across their entire cloud environment, including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud – providing security guardrails to let them go faster and do more.”

Trend Micro is making the Cloud Conformity solution immediately available. For more information, please visit: http://trendmicro.com/cloudconformity.

Rezo.ai introduces Conversational AI 'Converse' for enriched customer experience this festive season

Rezo.ai – A Conversational AI platform is disrupting the customer service segment in India with its cutting-edge solution, CONVERSE, for richer customer experience this festive season. With the ability to understand the customer mood, predict interest levels, jargons, and lingos, CONVERSE provides appropriate and personalized responses to customer queries.

During festive season, there is a sudden in sales across industries like Travel, Ecommerce, Insurance, etc. Increased sales also mean that sellers need to ramp up their customer support teams to be able to handle customer queries regarding the change in order, delivery timing, complaints, replacement, refunds, feedback and much more. The customer expectation remains intact and they look to have real-time personalised responses to their queries along with frictionless, on-demand and data-driven experience to help them take better decisions. Rezo.ai is helping brands provide enriched customer experience with its solution CONVERSE that delivers intelligent communication with a human-like context.

Rezo​.ai​’s team has worked dedicated for 2 years to build their proprietary algorithms primarily using Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. ​Its solutions help understand human conversations, interpret them and respond by automating workflows. Their technology is language agnostic and providing real-time assistance to customers through different mediums like WhatsApp, Email, Live Chat and Social Media.

Commenting on the same, Rashi Gupta (Ph.D.), Co-founder & Chief Data Scientist at Rezo.ai says, “Brands are expecting bumper sale during festive period and are required to add agility, nimbleness, efficiency, and effectiveness to their customer services. The festive season provides great opportunity for us to deploy our Conversational AI technology that allows businesses to accommodate the surge in traffic without ramping up the teams or getting stressed about the response time, making it a profitable affair for businesses on one hand, and enriching experience for customers on the other. We have enabled both pre-sales, as well as post-sales customer, queries over WhatsApp and Email for multiple enterprises, by handling up to 90% of conversational traffic end-to-end with personalized responses.”

Rezo.ai is the first company to introduce Conversational bots over Whatsapp. Leveraging the benefits of CONVERSE, Rezo.ai powers next-gen customer support for brands like Aurelia, W, Delhivery, Car Dekho, etc to help them build personalized relationships with their customers without much assistance.

About Rezo.ai

Founded by an IITian couple Manish and Rashi Gupta, Rezo.ai is a one-of-its-kind AI driven platform that empowers customer services in India.

Rezo.ai’s mission is to empower brands to deliver superior customer experience at right price. Built with AI at its core, the platform incorporates Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Predictive Analytics, Feedback Mechanism and other propriety algorithms to automate enterprise work flows.

The core business of the organization is to simplify the workflows with very little human intervention, and deliver the most efficient and effective customer interactions in no time. It is integrated with all communication channels such as e-mail, chats, social media, telephony etc.

The company is currently deployed with a wide array of clients which includes some of the prominent names in the B2C sector such as Delhivery, W, etc.

18 High Potential Fintech Startups unveiled by India FinTech Forum for IFTA 2019

• Fintech startups chosen from a pool of over 400 applications received from across the globe.


• Applications received from countries like the US, France, Hungary, Israel and India.


• Winning startup takes home the prestigious IFTA Fintech Startup of the Year trophy, and will get an opportunity to be a part of Paris Fintech Forum 2020.Winner to be announced at IFTA on 29th Nov, 2019 in Mumbai

India FinTech Forum, a not for profit fintech advocacy group representing Indian fintech companies, have announced 18 fintech startups who will be giving live demos to a high profile jury next month to compete for the Fintech Startup of the Year award at India FinTech Awards (IFTA) 2019   taking place on 29th Nov 2019 in Mumbai.

After diligent and careful evaluation, Knowledge Partner The Digital Fifth has narrowed down the top 18 FinTech startups that will be pitching on November 29, 2019, at The Lalit, Mumbai.

The winning startup will be awarded the prestigious IFTA Fintech Startup of the year award and will get an opportunity to participate in Paris Fintech Forum 2020.

In the past editions, winners included well-known names like Capital Float, ZestMoney and Oz Forensics. Past winners of IFTA have cumulatively raised over a billion USD in funding from VCs till date.

“Being identified as the ‘Fintech Startup of the year’ during the FinTech awards and subsequently getting a direct entry to Paris Fintech Forum was a very significant milestone in our startup journey. This was one of the first major awards we received and it was a great recognition of the hard work we had put into building our product and platform.” says Lizzie Chapman, Co-Founder & CEO, ZestMoney & IFTA Fintech Startup of the year 2017

The India FinTech Forum is a non-profit initiative that offers a platform for fintech companies to collaborate and voice opinion on the relevant policy issues. Indian fintech firms have unique opportunities with the India Stack (Aadhar, UPI, etc.), which are not available anywhere else in the world. The India FinTech Forum organizes meet-ups in several locations and seeks to drive policies that accelerate the growth of fintech in India.

The process of shortlisting was more quantitative than qualitative to ensure an objective decision by the panel. IFTA Knowledge Partner helped score each registered startup across several parameters. Additionally, feedback was sought from other event partners, startup accelerators and experts from the fintech sector. After careful deliberation on numerous strong applications, 18 firms have been shortlisted to present at IFTA.

“The depth and width of Fintechs in India have improved exponentially in the last couple of years. We had received around 400 interesting startup applications in the event, out of which we have selected 18 to demonstrate their innovation in front of 800+ attendees. We can see a new trend emerging wherein Indian Fintechs are now getting ready for entering international markets as well as foreign startups are now making inroads into India”, says Sameer Singh Jaini, Convener, India FinTech Forum’s IFTA 2019 and CEO, The Digital Fifth.

This year’s event is potentially the most impactful one in India with multiple curated tracks running through the day along with business workshops and Investor matchmaking sessions. We hope that this event would help in accelerating the Indian Fintech Ecosystem,” he adds.

IFTA is proud to present the shortlisted 18 FinTech startups for 2019:

1. Active.Ai (Singapore) - Active.Ai is a Conversational AI platform built specifically for BFSI with deep capabilities of enabling Transactions, Service Requests, Enquiries and FAQs.


2. Bon Credit (India) - Bon Credit is a digital lending start-up that provides micro-credit for the gig economy that tends towards temporary contractors and freelancers instead of full-time employees.


3. CreditMate (India) - CreditMate platform provides 100% data secured, real time collections performance for lenders and our Machine Learning algorithm improves collection resolution rates at all stages of delinquency.


4. CreditOn (India) - CreditOn enables large entrenched lenders to transform themselves into nimble digital lenders at scale consistent while preserving portfolio quality.


5. CredoLab (Singapore) - CredoLab uses smartphone device data to generate a behavioural score for the customer that predicts her probability of defaulting.


6. Fintuple Technologies (India) - Fintuple is India’s fastest growing investor portfolio management platform.


7. Jai Kisan (India) - Jai Kisan is a fintech platform catering to rural emerging markets, providing risk adjusted return to lenders and a low cost of capital for the borrower through subvention, securitization, an asset light model to lower distribution costs to create technologically enabled channel partner outlets with existing rural stakeholders brands and next generation credit assessment.


8. Lokyata (USA) - Lokyata provides AI/ML- driven customer analytics for social impact lenders to better understand their customer base, provision scores across multiple dimensions of the customer profile, and engage the customers using AI/ML transparency technology that provisions "decision codes" used to generate personalized messages.


9. Neener Analytics (France) - Neener Analytics is the leader in computational social science and the only social media analytics technology that delivers specific, individual, risk outcomes in a 100% friction-less environment.


10. Partnerhub Ltd (Hungary) – The company provides its customers own branded invoice – related services for their SME customers which enables them to issue, process and pay their e-invoices with just a couple of clicks which saves time & money.


11. Rewire (Israel) – Rewire is an international remittance platform for migrant workers, who usually transfer most of their income to their countries of origin.


12. Riskcovry InsurTech Platform (India) - AI enabled health insurance claim APIs, which can be integrated into a natural messaging experience like WhatsApp. Policy holders or agents can now submit health insurance claims in under 5 minutes, with Riskcovry AI being able to enrich the experience by guiding the user through a personalized, simple and secure process.


13. Think Anlaytics  (India) - Think Analytics is an advanced analytics and technology start up with considerable experience in building AI & ML frameworks and solutions. Their product Algo360 is comprehensive data underwriting solution for ‘new to credit’ segment.


14. Valocity Global (New Zealand) - Valocity transforms end-to-end valuation process for banks. The platform connects the entire valuation ecosystem through a smart cloud based platform that digitises the workflow for seamless automation while capturing data from end to end to enable address validation (including a Valuers’ App), valuation benchmarking and analytics, and essentially a faster mortgage valuation process that removes collusion and enables global best practice regulatory compliance.


15. Vested Finance (USA) - Vested simplifies US stock investing for investors based in India. Users can now invest in companies they know and use, such as Amazon, Google, Starbucks and more in a commission-free and in an end-to-end online process via this platform.


16. Vymo (USA) - Vymo is an intelligent Personal Sales Assistant; it captures sales activities automatically and predicts ‘next best actions’ intelligently. Vymo has 100,000 users in 50+ large enterprises such as AXA, Allianz, Generali, and Sumitomo. Vymo is a Gartner Cool Vendor and funded by Emergence Capital and Sequoia Capital.


17. Xtracap Fintech India (India) - Bridge2capital is a product built on the principle of reverse Factor. The app is the first app in India, which provides funds to Small business for the purchase of their bills from GST registered suppliers.


18. Yobee Research (India) – Yobee Research uses AI & Data Science to generate high probability & actionable trading signals. Signals are generated by multiple neural network for top 500 traded companies (representing 99.97% of daily trading volume). These signals are combined to produce one signal per company. Signals that qualify by having a minimum probability threshold will be delivered to customers for his final action.

The India FinTech Forum is a non-profit initiative that offers a platform for fintech companies to collaborate and voice their opinions on the relevant policy issues. More than 450 fintech companies and over 5000 individuals who are members of this forum, are dedicated to enhancing the ecosystem to ensure that India leads the global fintech innovation wave. Indian fintech firms have unique opportunities with the India Stack (Aadhar, UPI, etc.), which are not available anywhere else in the world.  IFTA organizes meet-ups in several locations and seeks to drive policies that accelerate the growth of fintech in India.