Apple's First Online Retail Store In India Goes Live
Published on 23rd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: Apple’s first online store in India went live today. With the web store, Apple customers in India can engrave specific products in six Indian languages, and English. The Apple Store will also offer specialized support for Apple products in both Hindi and English. Apple’s newest products, including the Apple Watch SE and Apple Watch Series 6, are also being sold through the store. “It creates tremendous interest in our products, which are available on our online store and through our network of trusted resellers, allowing us to connect with our customers where they are. As of today Apple Store Online is selling a wide range of Apple products,” she added. The store offers Apple’s complete range of products in India, and the Apple One subscription-based services will also be offered later this year. Launching its online store should allow Apple more control over the retail experience, something the company is known for globally.
ClanConnect.Ai Raises Rs 5 Crore Led By Venture Catalysts
Published on 23rd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Ai, a platform that connects influencers to brands, has raised Rs 5 crore from investors led by Venture Catalysts along with a clutch of angels including Samrath Bedi, managing director of Forest Essentials; Sandeep Aggarwal, founder, Droom. In; Aakrit Vaish, co-founder of Haptik; and Haresh Hingorani, chief creative officer, Redchillies VFX. The tech-enabled platform allows brands in the automobile, fashion, food, technology and lifestyle businesses to scale up their influencer marketing efforts by bringing discovery, management and performance analytics in one system. “At the back-end, we collaborate with individual influencers, talent hubs and agencies, bringing the supply side on one platform, connecting them to brands,” said ClanConnect CEO Sagar Pushp. “We offer 30 different parameters to quantify the suitability and reach of each influencer… along with a structured process of selecting influencers for brands,” said Kunal Kishore Sinha, co-founder, ClanConnect. “With pandemic giving a boost to digital adoption, we are confident that people-to-people marketing will become a mainstream marketing tool. We are excited to become a part of the ClanConnect.ai’s journey into a fiscally disciplined SaaS business that will solve fundamental problems of this growing industry,” said Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, president, Venture Catalysts.
Byju's Onboards New Investors, Valuation Now At $11.1 Bn
Published on 23rd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Bengaluru: Online education startup Byju’s on Tuesday said BlackRock, Sands Capital and Alkeon Capital have joined as new investors, as part of the ongoing $500-million fundraising round. Earlier this month, Byju’s raised funds from a group of investors, including private equity firm Silver Lake Partners along with existing investors General Atlantic, Owl Ventures and Tiger Global at a valuation of $10.8 billion. “We are excited to welcome Blackrock, Sands Capital and Alkeon as our partners. As we continue to create engaging and personalised learning solutions, partnerships like these reaffirm our commitment to build and transform the global learning landscape through technology, innovation and quality pedagogy. Continued support from our existing investors is a testament of their confidence in us and our mission,” said Byju Raveendran, founder and CEO. Since the lockdown, Byju’s has added over 25 million new students on its platform. The company, named after its founder Byju Raveendran, has raised around $1 billion since January, reflecting the surge in investor interest in Indian edtech startups as remote learning replaced classrooms amid the lockdown. That round had elevated Byju’s valuation by 45%. Since then, Byju’s valuation has increased by a further 35%. It had turned into a unicorn in late 2017 when it raised money from a group of investors, led by China’s Tencent.
Onsitego Raises Capital From IFC, Extends Series B Round To $30 Million
Published on 23rd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
New Delhi: Onsitego, a Mumbai-based after-sales services startup, has raised capital from IFC in an extension to its Series B investment round, closing it at $30 million. The fund will be utilized for consolidating its market position in the after-sales services industry, and strengthening its consumer offerings like annual maintenance contract, home protection and on-demand services, the company said in a statement. “IFC brings in a strong global footprint and expertise of investments in fintech which is valuable as we scale our business by expanding new business lines like AMCs, home warranty, doorstep repair services, new distribution channels and in other emerging markets,” said Kunal Mahipal, founder and CEO, Onsitego. Onsitego aims to plugs these gaps with its focus on customer service by leveraging a pan-India network of brand-authorized service centers with its technology platform and direct integrations with distribution and service partners. “India is one of the largest and fastest growing appliances and consumer electronics markets globally and the ACE protection market is significantly underdeveloped. There is a clear market need for innovative and customer-service-focused players like Onsitego to drive growth in this market,” said Jun Zhang, country head India, IFC. Zhang further added that they would support Onsitego in its growth journey by sharing their experience from emerging markets in disruptive technology and fintech.
Narzo 20 Series Is Built To Cater To Performance Seekers: Madhav Sheth
Published on 22nd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
The success of narzo 10 series gave us confidence and motivation to step further to cover the wider price segment, attempting to meet the needs of young gamers and performance seekers and offer them a variety like portrait lens. How is the narzo 20 series different from the narzo 10 series? Narzo 20 is our series upgrade over narzo 10 and with the new 20 series, we have brought more features and options to the Indian consumers. “Powerful Processor” – narzo series is known for being performance-oriented and all three products – narzo 20 Pro, narzo 20 and narzo 20A feature best-in-segment processors to cater to young players. Narzo 20 Pro has the world’s leading MediaTek G95 SoC, narzo 20 has a MediaTek G85 gaming processor and narzo 20A offers Qualcomm Snapdragon 665. Will the new narzo 20 series cater to this audience? Yes, narzo 20 series exactly caters to this and brings the world’s leading gaming-focused chipsets with MediaTek Helio G95 SoC and MediaTek G85 SoC in 20 Pro and 20 respectively, while the powerful Snapdragon 665 processor is brought to narzo 20A for the first time in this price.
Charged Up By Demand From B2B Companies, Hero Electric To Design Customised E-Scooters For Segment
Published on 22nd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Hero Electric, India’s biggest electric two-wheeler company, is witnessing a steady increase in demand for electric scooters from companies that specialise in last-mile deliveries. Logistics providers of e-commerce companies such as Flipkart or those hired by Amazon and others, as well as food delivery agents of Zomato and Swiggy are switching to electric scooters. With an eye on this segment, Delhi-based Hero Electric is developing e-scooters specifically for institutional, business-to-business buyers. According to a senior Hero Electric executive, such e-scooters promise better cost dynamics than personal scooters. “It is difficult to convince a personal buyer to give up petrol and switch to electric. But in the B2B segment it is much easier. To ride 80 km, someone may be using two litres of petrol, which is more than Rs 160 a day. But in the case of electric, the same range can be done in four units of electricity, which is around Rs 30. This is a very appealing cost proposition for the B2B customer,” Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric, said in an interview with Moneycontrol. Electric two-wheelers saw a jump of 20 percent in sales to 152,000 units in FY20, up from 126,000 units in FY19, according to the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicle.
HCL Tech Acquires Australian IT Firm DWS For $115.8 Million
Published on 22nd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: HCL Technologies has announced the acquisition of Australian IT firm DWS Ltd for $115.8 million in a bid to further expand its digital offerings especially in Australia and New Zealand. The DWS Group closed FY 2020 with revenues of $ 122.9 million and has over 700 employees with operations in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, and Canberra. “Michael Horton, Executive Vice President & Country Manager, Australia & New Zealand, HCL Technologies, said”We are excited for this expansion of HCL Technologies in Australia and New Zealand and are confident that our combined strengths will further accelerate the digital transformation journeys of our clients and innovations for their end customers. HCL has invested in the region for over 20 years and is committed to enabling digitilisation and growing the local ecosystem, he added. HCL currently employs 1600 people in major cities, including Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth. Danny Wallis, CEO and Managing Director, DWS said, “We are delighted the DWS team is joining HCL. This acquisition represents an outstanding outcome for all DWS stakeholders: shareholders, employees, clients and other business partners.”
MPL Bags $90m; Valuation Rises To $450 Million
Published on 22nd Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Bengaluru: Gaming startup Mobile Premier League has raised $90 million in its latest financing round, its top executive told ET. The company also executed a buyback of employee stock ownership plans worth $3.2 million as part of the fundraising. The latest round, valuing the real money competitive mobile gaming platform at $450 million, was led by SIG Global and RTP Global, along with MDI Ventures and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Existing investors Sequoia India, Go-Ventures and Base Partners also participated in the round. MPL’s early investor also includes Times Internet, a part of the Times group, which publishes this paper. This takes the total investment raised by the two-year-old firm to $130.5 million. “Our goal, with respect to this fundraise, is to set us up to go to multiple international markets… and, separately, as a part of this raise we are doing a significant Esop buyback,” Sai Srinivas, cofounder and CEO of MPL, told ET.”This valuation is more of a validation of the business. We look at long-term success as listing our company on the Nasdaq or equivalent exchange,” he said. MPL is a gaming platform that offers more than 70 real-money games, including fantasy sports, rummy, poker, chess, 3D pool, ludo, and carrom.
34K Startups Gave Direct Employment To 4.2L: Government Data
Published on 21st Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU: Emerging as a major job creator, more than 34,000 startups, as of September 2020, gave direct employment of over 4.2 lakh people. According to data released by the ministry of commerce and industry, the department for promotion of industry and internal trade has so far recognised 36,106 startups, of which 34,267 have self-reported employment data. The 4.2 lakh count is a significant increase from the 1.9 lakh such jobs startups created in 2016. Guruprasad Mohapatra, secretary, DPIIT, told TOI, “The figures have been provided by startups registered with us. The registration enables them to avail some direct and indirect tax benefits. It also helps them gain access to other departments and ministries of the central government. But yes, not all startups register with us.” The latest data trend shows that 36% of the jobs were created in Maharashtra and Karnataka, which are also states that have the most number of startups, followed by Delhi. V Balakrishnan, chairman, Exfinity Ventures, a venture capitalist firm that invests in startups, said, “The overall number is positive, but new employment is happening only in patches. The startup job environment is not so bad, but it is not as good as last year as firms are more concerned about fundraising and business management.”
How Fintech Can Provide Innovative Financing Solutions To India's EV Sector
Published on 21st Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Here, the Fintechs, with their innovative solutions, have stepped up their contribution to the growth of the sector. Fintech solutions for the EV industry Fintechs offer speed, ease and reach to the EV industry. Credit supply solutions for potential buyers – Access to finance for buying e-rickshaw is difficult for the buyer. Digital payment solutions – Fintechs are looking to drive digital payments in the commercial e-rickshaw first/last-mile delivery segment. Other innovative digital solutions – Embedded IOT devices help lenders and insurers to keep track of vehicles, limit the range of vehicle movement through geo-fencing or immobilize vehicles in case of theft. Fintechs supporting the EV ecosystem – Fintechs are playing a significant role in developing the ecosystem for electric vehicles, through tie-ups with insurance providers; partnerships with battery manufacturers to finance replacement batteries; creating an instalment-cum-subscription model to make it easier for buyers to buy the vehicle. A healthy combination of digital technologies of fintechs, eCommerce players, insurers, in addition to support from the government, spell a fantastic time of growth for the EV sector in India.
Mandi Alternatives: How Agri-Tech Startups Beat The Lockdown Blues
Published on 21st Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Gurgaon: While the farmers’ union protests against the Centre’s agriculture reform ordinances, now bills, the alternative path for farm produce that these legislations seek to open up – outside the mandi chain – has been evident for the past six months. That’s how a Sonipat farmer found a reseller in a Gurgaon condominium. Another in west UP found the tomatoes and brinjals he grew being delivered by food aggregators like Swiggy and Zomato in Delhi-NCR. It began with the lockdown, which froze all gears of the mandi machinery, setting off a desperate search for ways to sell millions of tonnes of farm produce. How startups linked farmers and merchantsOn June 5, the Centre passed the ordinance ending the monopoly of APMCs and allowing farmers to opt to sell directly to private players. In the March-August period, when the economy hit rock bottom, startups marketing farm produce all registered significant growth. Farmers who tied up with startups saved on transportation, unlike in the mandi system where they have to carry it themselves.
Vedantu Co-Founder Launches Edtech Platform Uable
Published on 21st Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
NEW DELHI: Saurabh Saxena, co-founder of online tutoring platform Vedantu and Lakshya, is on to his third entrepreneurial venture with Uable, a life skill development online platform for kids. Uable focuses on the 6-12 year-old category and aims to nurture creative intelligence and develop future-ready skills among them through playful learning methods. Most edtech startups primarily focus on school curriculum for students and online entrance exam preparation for college students. Saxena made an exit from Vedantu in 2018 after a successful stint with the live tutoring startup for about eight years. Saxena said his aim is to make Uable a one-stop platform for beyond-curriculum learning for children and bridge the skill gap even before a child finishes from school. In June, 2019, Uable raised seed funding from venture capital firm 3one4 capital and a clutch of angel investors including Pine Labs’ CEO Amrish Rau. “We are growing 50% month on month,” said Saxena, adding that Uable makes sense in a post-covid world.
Paytm App Removed From Google Play Store
Published on 19th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Google has removed Paytm’s mobile application from its mobile app store platform Play Store. The app could have been removed because of Paytm First Games, sources said. Paytm, in a statement shared on Twitter, said its Android app is temporarily unavailable on Google’s Play Store for new downloads or updates but will be back very soon. Sources pointed out that Google does not allow apps to redirect users to other platforms from within the apps and, in this case, Paytm was doing it for Paytm First Games, they said. “This includes, if an app leads consumers to an external website that allows them to participate in paid tournaments to win real money or cash prizes, it is a violation of our policies,” the blog post read. Google said the developer is always notified and the app removed till it complies with the guidelines. While Google did not specify which service on the Paytm app was non-compliant, sources pointed fingers at Paytm First Games that offers cash prizes against participation in paid tournaments. Moneycontrol found that other Paytm applications like Paytm Money and Paytm for Business are still available on the Google Play Store.
Zuper Raises $1.1 Mn From Prime Venture Partners And Others
Published on 19th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Workforce management platform Zuper has raised $1.1 million in seed funding from Prime Venture Partners along with other investors Gunderson Dettemer and Gemba Capital. Zuper is a SaaS-based mobile first workforce management platform that helps businesses modernise operations and provide on-demand customer experience. Zuper was founded in August 2016 with offices in Seattle, US and Chennai by Raghav Gurumani, Karthik Rao and Vijay Narasiman. Anand Subbaraj, joined Zuper as its chief executive in 2020, having spent more than 13 years in Microsoft as a head of product in Azure Data. The company claims that enterprises and mid-sized businesses which have used Zuper have benefited from 50 percent increase in workforce utilization, 35 percent reduction in service turnaround time, 45 percent increase in customer adoption and profitability, and 30 percent reduction in costs. The solution helps businesses across different industries ensure their workforce stays compliant and up-to-date with the latest COVID-19 protocols and guidelines. “We formulated our hypothesis based on our own experiences with customer service and started reaching out to service businesses in different parts of the world…we soon realized that it was a huge global problem that needs to be tackled at scale using a modern technology solution,” said Anand Subbaraj, co-founder, Zuper.
Byju's Acquires Virtual Simulations Startup LabInApp
Published on 18th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
BENGALURU: Education technology leader Byju’s has acquired LabInApp, a startup that offers lab-like simulations for science students on a mobile app. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, will give Unitus Ventures, a backer of LabInApp, a full exit. Hubli-based LabInApp uses technologies to make desktop and mobile games to create virtual simulations of science experiments, giving students an ability to gain practical knowledge in the absence of physical infrastructure. “While schools have their set of challenges, students shouldn’t miss out on experiential learning. Keeping this in mind, we have created a virtual learning and teaching environment representing science laboratories where teachers can teach practical concepts to students,” said Pavan Shinde, co-founder and CEO of LabInApp. The startup said it had onboarded over 5,000 schools for its product with its simulations covering concepts across Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics, for students in grades 6-12. “Acquisition of LabInApp by Byju’s during the course of a global pandemic exemplifies the growth story of innovative ed-tech solutions. Unitus remains steadfast in mentoring early stage start-ups applying advanced technology to meet the needs of India’s lower-income populations,” said Will Poole, Managing Partner at Unitus Ventures.
Fourth Partner Energy Raises $16 Million From European Investment Funds
Published on 18th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
India’s leading solar solutions provider Fourth Partner Energy has raised $16 million in mezzanine funding from a consortium of European impact investment funds, led by Symbiotics. Fourth Partner will utilise these funds for the construction of around 150 MW worth of new solar assets. “At Fourth Partner Energy, we are working hard to bring into India high-quality global financiers committed to the long-term impact of distributed solar… We will be utilising these funds for expanding our distributed solar footprint,” said Pradhyum Reddy, head, corporate finance at Fourth Partner Energy. Fourth Partner Energy has an operational portfolio of 400 MW of solar assets and is looking to add 350 MW capacity this fiscal. “Medium, small and micro enterprises, the backbone of the Indian economy, are likely to adopt solar energy at a large scale in the coming years as it is a cleaner and cheaper renewable energy alternative and provides tariff certainty for up to 25 years,” she said. Founded in 2010, Fourth Partner Energy has grown to become India’s largest company in the distributed solar sector, catering to over 150 major businesses including Walmart, Hindustan Unilever, Ferrero, UltraTech Cement, Coca Cola, PepsiCo, DMart, AkzoNobel, Skoda, Colgate Palmolive and Myntra.
UK-Based Compass Group's India Unit In Talks To Acquire Food-Tech Firm SmartQ
Published on 18th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Online food-tech startup SmartQ that provides services in the digital cafeteria segment is in talks to be acquired by UK-based Compass Group’s India unit for $6-7 million, a source has told Moneycontrol. SmartQ did not respond to Moneycontrol’s emailed queries on the deal and the status of the talks. Founded in 2014, by Krishna Wage and Abhishek Ashok, SmartQ provides services such as automated billing kiosks, centralised billing system, NFC prepaid cards, POS software to companies. Along with companies such as Goldman Sachs, Airtel and Razorpay, is also a client of SmartQ. SmartQ last announced a $1-million fundraise from a consortium of Dubai-based investors in 2018. To cater to the now-limited segment, companies like SmartQ are also working on slot-based booking systems in the cafeterias to minimise the risk of infection. Compass Group is one of the world’s leading providers of contract food and support services with a presence in 45 countries. Compass Group India is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Compass Group PLC and has been in the country since 2008.
E-Health Startups Gear Up For Smaller Cities, Towns
Published on 18th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
E-health startups that saw a spike in business during the covid-led lockdown have their eyes set on smaller cities and towns to attract new customers with offers of value-added services like chronic illness care. The founders of these startups believe the covid-19 pandemic has led to a significant shift in consumer behaviour toward online health services due to their convenience and faster access, prompting a search for the next wave of growth. Online health platform Practo that saw a sharp increase in online consultations claims that teleconsultations on its platform have grown by 10x in the last six months; 80% of all telemedicine customers were first-time users and 50% consultations were for patients from non-metros. For online health platform 1mg Technologies, the focus is on value-added health services like chronic care plans, expanding its diagnostic business to include vaccinations at home and building its healthcare advertising business. Startup founders believe that the government’s efforts to digitize the interaction between consumers and providers like pharmacies, doctors and diagnostic centres have also given an impetus to online health platforms. “This has given a huge structural and regulatory boost to the digital health sector. Digital health is here to stay and India has a long way to go,” 1mg’s Tandon said.
Govt To Reward Startups For Building AI Solution For Health, Education, Mobility
Published on 17th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
The Centre has launched an Artificial Intelligence Solutions Challenge, inviting startups to develop and innovate solutions to address challenges across sectors such as healthcare, education, agriculture, smart mobility, transportation and natural language processing. The development assumes significance as the government in the last few months has launched challenges such as Atma Nirbhar app innovation challenge to promote existing apps and develop new ones and ‘Chunauti- next generation startup challenge’ to further boost startups and software products. “Challenges like these are now common in many countries and is being widely used by various governments to solve problems by roping in young innovators. This AI challenge is a bit different as usually these challenges try to solve a particular problem. Still, this is a welcome step and will encourage start-ups to share their solution,” DD Mishra, senior director analyst at Gartner said, adding that crowd sourcing solutions is going to be the next big thing in India. The US government has set an example on how crowd sourcing can be used to solve complex problems using emerging technology, be it the state’s department of defence’s 2019 AI challenge to automate post disaster damage assessment using computer vision algorithm or crowd sourcing attempts by the White House earlier this year for development of new AI solutions to help researchers answer important question about covid-19. The AI Solution challenge can be big boost for cash strapped start-ups and can pave the way for future investments into them.
Chinese Gaming And Social Media Group Tencent Puts $ 63mn In Flipkart's $1.2 Bn Round
Published on 17th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read
Bengaluru: Chinese gaming and social media group Tencent has invested $62.8 million in Flipkart’s $1.2 billion round, regulatory filings in Singapore showed. Vc that says Tencent owns 4-5.3% in Flipkart Pte, the Singapore-based holding company. On July 14, US retail giant Walmart said that it had led a $1.2 billion investment in Flipkart’s commerce business, valuing it at $24.9 billion. Walmart already owns around 80% in the Bengaluru-based online retailer. Though the investment itself is small, it is significant since Flipkart is the most valued internet company in India and has come at a time when tension between India and China is on the boil. Since April, the government has taken multiple steps to limit China’s exposure to Indian businesses, including revising its foreign direct investment regulations as well as banning Chinese apps. The investment has come within months of India opening up for business after a nationwide lockdown, and at a time when the Indian online retail battleground has been redrawn with Reliance Jio’s plans to aggressively enter online commerce.