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Sep 18
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Byju’s Acquires Virtual Simulations Startup LabInApp

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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.

Sep 18
0

Fourth Partner Energy Raises $16 Million From European Investment Funds

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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.

Sep 18
0

UK-Based Compass Group’s India Unit In Talks To Acquire Food-Tech Firm SmartQ

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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.

Sep 18
0

E-Health Startups Gear Up For Smaller Cities, Towns

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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.

Sep 17
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Govt To Reward Startups For Building AI Solution For Health, Education, Mobility

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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.

Sep 17
0

Chinese Gaming And Social Media Group Tencent Puts $ 63mn In Flipkart’s $1.2 Bn Round

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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.

Sep 17
0

Acko Raises $60 Million Led By Munich Re Ventures

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Acko Raises $60 Million Led By Munich Re Ventures

Published on 17th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Bengaluru-based insurtech start-up Acko has raised $60 million in its Series D funding led by Germany-based Munich Re Ventures, with participation from existing investors Amazon, RPS Ventures and Intact Ventures Inc., which is the corporate venture arm of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer. The company said it has issued over 650 million policies to over 60 million unique customers to date. “Munich Re has been a strategic partner to Acko since inception and we are really excited to bring them on board as our investor. As one of the largest reinsurance companies globally, their investment shows confidence in our data and technology-driven business model,”said Varun Dua, founder and CEO, Acko. “We’re excited to join forces with one of the leading digital insurers in India, as well as other investment partners, to help support Varun and his impressive team as they continue their journey,” said Oshri Kaplan, Director, Munich Re Ventures. “Since our first investment in Acko which was made last year, it has scaled quickly to become the leading digital insurer in India by leveraging data and technology to create a unique customer-centric experience,” said Karim Hirji, senior vice-president & managing director of Intact Ventures.

Sep 17
0

Bengaluru Based Ed-Tech Startup Newton School Raises $650,000 In Seed Funding

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Bengaluru Based Ed-Tech Startup Newton School Raises $650,000 In Seed Funding

Published on 17th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

City-based ed-tech startup Newton School on Wednesday said it has raised $650,000 in a seed round of funding led by early-stage venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners. Newton School will use the raised capital to strengthen its product and expand its team. Newton School is an online edtech platform that trains people to be highly skilled software developers and get them placed in top companies and startups as frontend, backend and full stack software developers among other roles, it said in a release. “While software engineering is one of the highest paying and fastest growing career paths, access to quality software development training remains limited to students of few top colleges. With our unique pay after placement online platform we are democratising software development training and allowing people to cross financial and location barriers to achieve their dream of becoming a great software developer,” Newton School Co-founder Siddharth Maheshwari said. With a highly capital efficient business model, Newton School is close to break even just after a few months of operations and is on the path to become profitable in the next couple of months. The coming months will see Newton School deploy this funding round to further evolve its platform and increase its user capacity to handle thousands of simultaneous learners, the company said.

Sep 16
0

House Panel For Abolition Of LTCG Tax On Investments In Startups

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House Panel For Abolition Of LTCG Tax On Investments In Startups

Published on 16th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

A Parliamentary panel has batted for the abolition of long-term capital gains tax for all investments in startups which are made through collective investment vehicles such as angel funds, alternate investment funds and investment Limited Liability Partnerships. “The Committee would like to strongly recommend that tax on Long Term Capital Gains be abolished for all investments in startup companies which are made through collective investment vehicles such as angel funds, AIFs, and investment LLPs,” the committee said in its report “Financing The Startup Ecosystem”. “The Parliamentary Panel has given voice to a longstanding ask of the Indian startup ecosystem. Investments into startups are in the form of primary investments into the company, which in turn generates new assets, economic growth and jobs. These measures, if adopted, will help accelerate the Indian startup ecosystem and allow them to meet the PM’s goal of startups contributing 20% of India $5 trillion GDP by 2025,” said Siddarth Pai, founding partner at 3one4 Capital & co-chair Regulatory Affairs Committee at IVCA. The panel recommended that after this two year period, the Securities Transaction Tax may be applied to CIVs so that revenue neutrality is maintained. At present, LTCG earned by foreign investors in private companies attracts taxation at concessional rate of 10%, in comparison to the domestic VC/PE investments being taxed at 20% with an enhanced surcharge of 37%. The panel also proposed that the sectors in which Foreign Venture Capital Investor are allowed to invest should be expanded to include all sectors where Foreign Direct Investment is permitted, as this route provides a flexible investment framework and hence will be able to attract significant capital in the economy.

Sep 16
0

GullyBuy Software Raises Rs 4 Crore Pre-Series A Funding

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GullyBuy Software Raises Rs 4 Crore Pre-Series A Funding

Published on 16th Sept, 2020 | 1 min read

Pune: Pune-based software startup GullyBuy Software said it had raised Rs 4 crore in Pre-Series A funding from SEED Enterprises and a few individual investors. “The funding will help our sales/marketing team to promote the app more aggressively and engineering to accelerate the product roadmap. This space has unlimited potential but is also highly competitive, and hence we continue to seek more funding,” said Shirish Deodhar, co-founder of GullyBuy Software. GullyBuy provides a unique digital hyperlocal marketplace solution that enables buyers to order online from nearby stores selling groceries, food, medicines and other daily necessities. “While offline-to-online retail solutions are proliferating, we decided to back GullyBuy because of their vision of empowering local stores, a segment that has been underserved by the digital economy. Others either enable standalone online stores or are logistics apps that bypass stores, while the e-commerce giants’ strategy is to effectively make them their agents,” said Siddharth Sethi, CEO of InfoBeans, who joins the GullyBuy board following the investment. GullyBuy’s mobile apps are aligned to the informal nature of the regular buy-sell transactions with local stores.