Microlanders Fundraise for PM-CARES Fund With MicroGive - An Internal Crowdfunding Initiative

Over 600 Microlanders came together in an internal crowdfunding initiative to fundraise for the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund to support the fight against COVID-19. An employee-driven initiative, the team mustered INR 33.28 Lakhs for the PM-CARES Fund including the company's contribution, that matched contribution made by employees.

"At times like this, not one, but multiple small and large-scale interventions are needed to support the crisis. MicroGive is Microland's employee-first crowdfunding model that supports Microlanders in fulfilling their responsibilities towards their communities. The crowdfunding was made possible through our award-winning employee engagement mobile app, MicrolandOne, that enables a seamless donation process on a single click for our employees globally," says Karishma Bhuyan, CSR Leader, Microland Ltd.

Apart from this financial support, Microland is also working relentlessly at grassroot level with partners by providing relief kits containing essentials like groceries and masks to needy families in an identified set of high-need localities.

About Microland:

Microland's delivery of digital and 'Making Digital Happen' allows technology to do more and intrude less. We make it easier for enterprises to adopt nextGen Digital infrastructure. We enable this using our expertise in Cloud and Data Centers, Networks, Digital Workplace, Cybersecurity and Industrial IoT. Ensuring the embrace of brilliance is predictable, reliable, and stable.

In the COVID impacted world, Microland is making digital happen for enterprises with a laser focus on services that are more relevant to our clients and prospects than ever before:

• Modern Workplace services: Enabling working from home via VDI, desktop-as-a-service, uni?ed end point management and collaboration tools roll-out & adoption


• Network services: Supporting new normal of working by designing, deploying and scaling network infrastructure including VPN and Software defined LAN & WAN rollouts.


• Cloud Services: Accelerating digital transformation journey by enabling hybrid cloud deployment to support critical workloads and ensuring business continuity.


• Smart security Operations centre: 24x7 Operations centre monitoring all points along a digital journey ensuring that clients are covered in their pursuit to support a world in transition

Incorporated in 1989 and headquartered in Bengaluru, India, Microland has more than 4,500 digital specialists across offices and delivery centers in Asia, Australia, Europe, Middle East and North America.

Read more here: https://www.microland.com/

Social Entrepreneurs collaborate for PregRX, world’s first paper-based Pee & See pregnancy product

In the lead up to International Women’s Day 2019, on the 8^th March, Gurgaon-based Deep Bajaj, Founder of PeeBuddy, India's First Design Patent Protected Female Urination Device for women, and the Sirona range of Unique Intimate & Menstrual Hygiene Products, has launched yet another breakthrough innovation, this time in the home pregnancy testing space. Called PeeBuddy PregRX, the product will be one-of-a-kind unique funnel with strategically-integrated HcG test strip.

With PregRx,women can now
simply pee and instantly check their pregnancy status. Not only does it
eliminate the need for any plastic bottle/tumbler/dropper, but also makes for
an easy-to-use and eco-friendly home testing process for pregnancy.

Deep has collaborated with ImpactGuru.com, India’s largest crowdfunding platform for personal causes, in a bid to facilitate a larger conversation around women’s health & hygiene, and to ensure successful market distribution for PregRX. Details of the PregRX fundraiser can be found here: https://www.impactguru.com/fundraiser/help-deep-bajaj

Making of PregRx

The current process of home pregnancy
testing is very cumbersome, wasteful, and regressive. A lady is expected to sit, pee, and capture urine in a
bottle/tumbler, before using a dropper and putting a few drops onto a plastic testing
cassette. The current process leads to plastic overuse, for every pregnancy
test involves plastic in some form or the other. The use of so many elements
also makes home pregnancy testing uneconomical, while impacting the accuracy of
the results. Most women also find the current process extremely nauseating.

Deep
Bajaj, Founder – PeeBuddy: Sirona,said, “As
a start-up, we exist to solve intimate and menstrual hygiene issues that Indian
women face, but which are either not discussed or not addressed. We
successfully solved the issue of wiping dirty toilet seats with PeeBuddy, which
sold a million units, and have also introduced many category-defining products
under the Sirona range. These include India’s first herbal feminine pain relief
patch which frees women from hot water bottle/pain killers, Sirona Disposal
Bags for clean & discreet disposal of sanitary products, Sirona Tampons both
with and without an applicator, Sirona Menstrual Cups, etc.”

“In one of our focus groups, young
mothers shared their stories about home pregnancy testing and called it
cumbersome & annoying! We decided to look deeper into the process and realised
that we could significantly streamline it by integrating HcG test strips with PeeBuddy,
thereby simplifying the entire process in terms of usage while reducing
wastage. With PeeBuddy PregRx, women
would now simply be able to test pregnancy anywhere without needing any other accessory,”
Deep added.

Utilization
of funds through crowdfunding

Deep said, “The product is ready and has already been tested extensively. However, as this product is for all women, we need everyone’s help to spread awareness about this innovative solution. The funds raised through crowdfunding on ImpactGuru.com would be used to develop other variants and a part of it would also go towards marketing.”

Khushboo Jain, Co-Founder and COO, ImpactGuru.com said,

Crowdfunding has evolved to become an important medium especially for social innovators in creating awareness and raising funds for various causes. We at ImpactGuru are thrilled to help PeeBuddy PregRX in a bid to impact the lives of millions of women in India and abroad. I hope that many people especially women come forward to support this wonderful cause and help make it the leading product in this category.”

About PeeBuddy: Sirona  

Sirona is an award-winning intimate & menstrual hygiene product brand providing solutions to ‘ignored & unaddressed’ feminine hygiene woes and wellness-related problems. Formally incorporated in 2015 by Delhi-based entrepreneur Deep Bajaj (Founder) & Mohit Bajaj (Co-Founder), Sirona was an outcome of the numerous bad experiences that the women around them suffered, in terms of basic and intimate hygiene issues that remain largely unaddressed in a country like India. The company is widely popular for being the maker of India’s first portable, disposable & highest selling female urination device, PeeBuddy.

Crowdfunding Platform Crowdera Raises Pre-Series A Funding from a Marquee Group of Investors

Crowdera, a fintech startup based in California and India, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding as a part of its current Pre-Series funding round. The marquee investors who have put their faith in the cloud-based fundraising platform are - Anil Advani, the Silicon Valley startup attorney, Pramod Jain, Amrendra Reddy and Manish Satnaliwala, angel investors from Singapore, Anand Daga, SME IPO specialist from Central India, and couple more unnamed investors from San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in 2014 by Chai Atreya and Chet Jain, Crowdera is a cloud-based fundraising platform which offers a comprehensive fundraising framework for non-profits and social innovators to raise funds without any form of donor dippings. It facilitates all aspects of the online fundraising ecosystem including donation buttons, cross-site donation widgets, websites (CMS), P2P campaigns, donation management, and much more.

Talking about the funding received and the support of such industry leaders, Chet Jain, CEO and Founder, Crowdera said “A start-up is either built to sell or built to last. I chose to build a company that can last at least 30-40 years. Hence, I always knew that we would have to put a lot more sweat in the game before we started accepting investor funds. It took over seven years of research and over three and half years of hard work to establish Crowdera as a viable for-profit business model that makes money without dipping into the donor dollars. We are not in for a sprint for quick successes; we are a marathoner. Hence, we believe in building best practices in fundraising which will allow us to help several causes for next several decades”.

The company plans to use the funds raised to propel the early stage growth and amplify the overall impact by enhancing the product, and scaling customer success activities.

On making the investment, marquee investor Anil Advani said, “The not-for-profit online fundraising campaigns are being run on social networks and donations too, are being made on mobiles. The digital era has thus, empowered the fund-seekers and the donors alike.I believe Crowdera will benefit from this paradigm shift and emerge as a leading crowdfunding platform.Most fundraisers need help in execution of their campaigns and here Crowdera, with its value-added services, has emerged as the trusted partner in helping fundraisers chart their journey."

The fundraising platform has already made its mark amongst the fund-raisers with eminent personalities like Social Worker Padmashri Dr.Suneetha Krishnan for Prajwala, Filmmaker Rajat Kapoor, ABBF founder Divyanshu Ganatra, Gurcharan Singh of Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma fame and Rhea Mukherjee, ex-VP of Radio Mirchi,already opting for Crowdera to raise funds for their causes and ventures.

So far, the company has supported over 2300 campaigns funded by 5,500 donors from 35 countries and currently operational in 200 countries by virtue of its payment gateway partnerships.

Crowdera is getting ready for its series A funding by early next year.

Crowdfunding in India

In India, Crowdfunding is not as popular as in the US, nevertheless there are many new and emerging crowdfunding platforms such as Ketto, Milaap, Impact Guru, Desiredwings, Bitgiving and FuelADream.

In April, Chinas Xiaomi launched Mi Crowdfunding in India to provide a dedicated space to products or ideas that still need money to go into mass production and finally launch in open markets. Notably, Xiaomi’s been crowdfunding out-of-the-box products for years in China, giving birth to various devices outside of the mainstream.


Last year, Desiredwings, a reward based crowdfunding platform, acquired Catapooolt.com to together become the largest crowdfunding platform with various diversified successfully funded campaigns to its portfolio.

According to SEBI, the investment knowledge of Indian citizens is not at par and hence popular models like equity crowdfunding and investment crowdfunding are not so popular in India. Last September, SEBI had asked crowdfunding platform to include a disclaimer stating that crowdfunding platforms are neither stock exchanges nor authorized by the capital markets regulator to solicit investments.

Crowdfunding Platform Crowdera Raises Pre-Series A Funding from a Marquee Group of Investors

Crowdera, a fintech startup based in California and India, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding as a part of its current Pre-Series funding round. The marquee investors who have put their faith in the cloud-based fundraising platform are - Anil Advani, the Silicon Valley startup attorney, Pramod Jain, Amrendra Reddy and Manish Satnaliwala, angel investors from Singapore, Anand Daga, SME IPO specialist from Central India, and couple more unnamed investors from San Francisco Bay Area.

Founded in 2014 by Chai Atreya and Chet Jain, Crowdera is a cloud-based fundraising platform which offers a comprehensive fundraising framework for non-profits and social innovators to raise funds without any form of donor dippings. It facilitates all aspects of the online fundraising ecosystem including donation buttons, cross-site donation widgets, websites (CMS), P2P campaigns, donation management, and much more.

Talking about the funding received and the support of such industry leaders, Chet Jain, CEO and Founder, Crowdera said “A start-up is either built to sell or built to last. I chose to build a company that can last at least 30-40 years. Hence, I always knew that we would have to put a lot more sweat in the game before we started accepting investor funds. It took over seven years of research and over three and half years of hard work to establish Crowdera as a viable for-profit business model that makes money without dipping into the donor dollars. We are not in for a sprint for quick successes; we are a marathoner. Hence, we believe in building best practices in fundraising which will allow us to help several causes for next several decades”.

The company plans to use the funds raised to propel the early stage growth and amplify the overall impact by enhancing the product, and scaling customer success activities.

On making the investment, marquee investor Anil Advani said, “The not-for-profit online fundraising campaigns are being run on social networks and donations too, are being made on mobiles. The digital era has thus, empowered the fund-seekers and the donors alike.I believe Crowdera will benefit from this paradigm shift and emerge as a leading crowdfunding platform.Most fundraisers need help in execution of their campaigns and here Crowdera, with its value-added services, has emerged as the trusted partner in helping fundraisers chart their journey."

The fundraising platform has already made its mark amongst the fund-raisers with eminent personalities like Social Worker Padmashri Dr.Suneetha Krishnan for Prajwala, Filmmaker Rajat Kapoor, ABBF founder Divyanshu Ganatra, Gurcharan Singh of Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chashma fame and Rhea Mukherjee, ex-VP of Radio Mirchi,already opting for Crowdera to raise funds for their causes and ventures.

So far, the company has supported over 2300 campaigns funded by 5,500 donors from 35 countries and currently operational in 200 countries by virtue of its payment gateway partnerships.

Crowdera is getting ready for its series A funding by early next year.

Crowdfunding in India

In India, Crowdfunding is not as popular as in the US, nevertheless there are many new and emerging crowdfunding platforms such as Ketto, Milaap, Impact Guru, Desiredwings, Bitgiving and FuelADream.

In April, Chinas Xiaomi launched Mi Crowdfunding in India to provide a dedicated space to products or ideas that still need money to go into mass production and finally launch in open markets. Notably, Xiaomi’s been crowdfunding out-of-the-box products for years in China, giving birth to various devices outside of the mainstream.


Last year, Desiredwings, a reward based crowdfunding platform, acquired Catapooolt.com to together become the largest crowdfunding platform with various diversified successfully funded campaigns to its portfolio.

According to SEBI, the investment knowledge of Indian citizens is not at par and hence popular models like equity crowdfunding and investment crowdfunding are not so popular in India. Last September, SEBI had asked crowdfunding platform to include a disclaimer stating that crowdfunding platforms are neither stock exchanges nor authorized by the capital markets regulator to solicit investments.

Xiaomi Launches Its Crowdfunding Platform in India

Xiaomi on Wednesday launched a new programme in India called 'Mi Crowdfunding'. Notably, Xiaomi’s been crowdfunding out-of-the-box products for years in China, giving birth to various devices outside of the mainstream.

Just like any other consumer-driven funding program like Indiegogo, Kickstarter, the Mi Crowdfunding platform aims to provide a dedicated space to products or ideas that still need money to go into mass production and finally launch in open markets. Xiaomi will keep posting a curated list of "innovation-driven" products that it will sell only when a certain number of people are interested or technically speaking, if the product is 100% funded within the stipulated timeline. If a particular product fails to meet the funding gaol in defined timeline then the product will not be shipped and the customers (backers who supported the product) will get their money back.

As of now, Xiaomi has put up two products that it is planning to bring in India -- Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver and Mi Selfie Stick Tripod, which are priced at Rs 999 and Rs 1,099 respectively.

The Mi Selfie Stick Tripod is able to rotate 360 degrees and comes with an adjustable grip to "accommodate the largest smartphones like Mi Max 2." The product comes in only one Black colour variant, measures 45x49.5x190mm, and weighs 155 grams. Xiaomi promises that it will be shipped within 10 days of successful completion of the project.

The Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver meant to provide wireless music, comes with a single key function that turns on the earphones, connects to Bluetooth, plays and pauses music, and answer calls as well. It comes with Bluetooth 4.2 to connectivity, and a headphone amplifier chip.

Basically, the idea behind crowdfunding is that instead of asking a single company or an investor to put in large amounts of money into your project, such platforms let you ask a large number of people to invest a relatively small amount.

Though Crowdfunding is not as popular as in the US, nevertheless there are many new and emerging crowdfunding platforms such as Ketto, Milaap, Impact Guru, Crowdera, Desiredwings, Bitgiving and FuelADream. Last year, Desiredwings,a reward based crowdfunding platform, acquired Catapooolt.com to together become the largest crowdfunding platform with various diversified successfully funded campaigns to its portfolio.

According to SEBI, the investment knowledge of Indian citizens is not at par and hence popular models like equity crowdfunding and investment crowdfunding are not so popular in India. Last September, SEBI had asked crowdfunding platform to include a disclaimer stating that crowdfunding platforms are neither stock exchanges nor authorized by the capital markets regulator to solicit investments.

News Source - BGR India

Top Image - BTVi.in

Xiaomi Launches Its Crowdfunding Platform in India

Xiaomi on Wednesday launched a new programme in India called 'Mi Crowdfunding'. Notably, Xiaomi’s been crowdfunding out-of-the-box products for years in China, giving birth to various devices outside of the mainstream.

Just like any other consumer-driven funding program like Indiegogo, Kickstarter, the Mi Crowdfunding platform aims to provide a dedicated space to products or ideas that still need money to go into mass production and finally launch in open markets. Xiaomi will keep posting a curated list of "innovation-driven" products that it will sell only when a certain number of people are interested or technically speaking, if the product is 100% funded within the stipulated timeline. If a particular product fails to meet the funding gaol in defined timeline then the product will not be shipped and the customers (backers who supported the product) will get their money back.

As of now, Xiaomi has put up two products that it is planning to bring in India -- Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver and Mi Selfie Stick Tripod, which are priced at Rs 999 and Rs 1,099 respectively.

The Mi Selfie Stick Tripod is able to rotate 360 degrees and comes with an adjustable grip to "accommodate the largest smartphones like Mi Max 2." The product comes in only one Black colour variant, measures 45x49.5x190mm, and weighs 155 grams. Xiaomi promises that it will be shipped within 10 days of successful completion of the project.

The Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver meant to provide wireless music, comes with a single key function that turns on the earphones, connects to Bluetooth, plays and pauses music, and answer calls as well. It comes with Bluetooth 4.2 to connectivity, and a headphone amplifier chip.

Basically, the idea behind crowdfunding is that instead of asking a single company or an investor to put in large amounts of money into your project, such platforms let you ask a large number of people to invest a relatively small amount.

Though Crowdfunding is not as popular as in the US, nevertheless there are many new and emerging crowdfunding platforms such as Ketto, Milaap, Impact Guru, Crowdera, Desiredwings, Bitgiving and FuelADream. Last year, Desiredwings,a reward based crowdfunding platform, acquired Catapooolt.com to together become the largest crowdfunding platform with various diversified successfully funded campaigns to its portfolio.

According to SEBI, the investment knowledge of Indian citizens is not at par and hence popular models like equity crowdfunding and investment crowdfunding are not so popular in India. Last September, SEBI had asked crowdfunding platform to include a disclaimer stating that crowdfunding platforms are neither stock exchanges nor authorized by the capital markets regulator to solicit investments.

News Source - BGR India

Top Image - BTVi.in

Crowdfunding Platform Kickstarter Launches in India

Kickstarter, one of the largest crowdfunding platform in the world is entering India in association with Amazon Launchpad and HAX. Together, the three global entities will launch Startup C-Cube, a multi-level challenge for Indian start-ups that flags off in Bangalore on the 5th of December 2017.

HAX is a hardware accelerator that invests in select startups in their early stages and provides guidance and resources in exchange for equity. Kickstarter is a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their products and start a crowdfunding program. Amazon Launchpad is a global program that curates, showcases and delivers all kinds of products from startups to Amazon customers.

The Startup C-Cube challenge will be officially flagged off by Amazon Launchpad, HAX and Kickstarter at an event in Bangalore on the 5th of December. This will also mark Amazon Launchpad’s one year anniversary in the Indian market. The winning start-up will be supported by the three companies through the entire “concept-to-customer” journey and the joint program will also provide resources to the winner for launch, both in India and in Europe/US, depending on the scalability of the idea.

Manish Tiwary, VP of Category Management at Amazon India said, "Business growth of some of the start-ups on Amazon Launchpad has elicited interest in these start-ups from VCs as well as other funding agencies in the last one year.

"We are very happy to bring Kickstarter and HAX to India to give Indian start-ups an opportunity to get their ideas noticed at the global stage and arm them with resources to convert these into real business opportunities", he added.

Crowdfunding Platform Catapooolt To Launch Maximum Campaigns In An Asian Record Attempt

Catapooolt, India’s most rewarded and industry-backed crowd-funding platform, is all geared up to launch maximum number of crowd funding campaigns in a single day under Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge on May 19th, 2017. Crowdfunding campaigns of around 35 start ups will be launched together on this single day – which besides giving a fillip to innovation in India, will also be an attempt to register a unique Asia Record to be entered in Asian Book of Records.

In collaboration with The Economic Times, the Changemakers Challenge comprises of three rounds – starting with unique Start-up Pitch and Live Crowd funding series, which was successfully executed last month across eight cities. The round two, which initiates now, will be an online crowd funding wherein all participating start-ups get to pitch live to the audience and raise crowd funding. Top 20 startups post this round will then qualify for Round Three – wherein start-ups will pitch to 30 plus participating angel investor networks. All start-ups who qualify for round three will also receive Alpha Cards of f6s – which entitles them availing free services from various international vendors of upto $1 Million each!

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Shabir Momin, Co-Founder, Desired Wings and Share holder of Catapooolt says, “This industry has a lot of potential to successfully drive the innovative ideas and cater to the great minds. The launch of around 30 campaigns on Catapooolt in one single day, we feel marks the beginning of the growth of Crowd funding Ecosystem in India.”

“Subsequent to the successfully execution of Catapooolt Change makers Live Crowdfunding Roadshows, we are now on Online Crowdfunding Round. It is a matter of immense pleasure to augment these budding ideas and see them successfully flourishing. May 19 will be remembered as the turning point in the history of crowdfunding in India”, says Mr Satish Kataria, Managing Director, CATAPOOOLT.

The start-ups which qualify the Round two will be given a representative target of Rs 75,000 to be raised via crowd funding as a qualification. Top 20 start-ups who raise the maximum will qualify for the finale. During the round two, start-ups are catered with the Crowd funding mentors as well including Satish Kataria, MD Catapooolt, Mohammed Sirajuddin, Co Founder DesiredWings & Shareholder of Catapooolt, Abhinav Tandon, Co Founder Creator’s Gurukul, Sudeep Singh, Country Head Start-up Grind, Nitin Bajaj, Country Head f6s, Bhavesh Kothari- Co-Founder TheMentorpreneur, Shraddha Patil-Co-Founder TheMentorpreneur, Rohit Sardana, Head of BWDisrupt, Shivam Ahuja, Head of Delhi Start-ups, Aparna Mishra, Founder Club Cafe Biz. The start-ups benefit from not just from funds raised via Crowdfunding but also in terms of Market Validation, Marketing Buzz, Media Coverage from Partners and Community Building etc.

These 30 start-ups, who have been selected through Live Crowdfunding roadshows across 8 cities, represent some of the best innovation and early stage ideas from these corners of India and belong to multiple domains. While some of them are looking at strengthening agricultural outputs through right consulting interventions, others are seeking to develop unique products such as ultra-charging electric scooters or bringing in ayurvedic innovations to solve medical problems. Each of these campaigns, besides attempting to raise initial funding, would also be testing themselves to get validation from the audiences.

Catapooolt was recently acquired by promoters of Desiredwings making their combined strength a market leader in the space and also enabling them to aggressively foster crowd funding ecosystem in the country.

Over Rs 1 Cr Raised Online for Indian Charities by Crowdfunding Platform, LetzChange

LetzChange, an online social giving and crowdfunding platform, concluded the third edition of its annual fundraising competition, the ‘’Giving Premier League, raising a total of Rs. 1,17,66,617 for the 105 participating non-profits. The 40 day League saw non-profits from across the nation engage in fundraising in the digital space as they represented teams from seven different regions across India, with the ‘Empathetic East’ team, comprised of NGOs from West Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Bihar, emerging the winner by raising a total of Rs. 26,81,603. As a contributing grant for the winning team, LetzChange’s partner organization LetzDream Foundation matched 30% of the total amount raised by the qualifying NGOs of the Empathetic East, thereby taking their total donation value to Rs. 33,77,169. The second position in the League has been secured by the ‘Northern Knights’ team, comprised of NGOs from Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, who raised Rs. 24,58,425. LetzDream matched 25% of the amount raised by the non-profits of the Northern Knights as their prize money, raising their total donations to 30,79,023. LetzChange charges 0% fees or transactional cost to the NGOs, and therefore the entire amount raised though this fundraising challenge will be directly transferred to all the participating non-profits.

Giving trends observed at the culmination of the competition revealed that education was the most preferred philanthropic cause for donors, with 70% of the total donations or Rs. 70,05,612 raised for non-profits in the education sector. Parivaar Education Society, a Kolkata based organization working for the overall care and development of underprivileged and vulnerable children, including orphans, street children, abandoned and impoverished children from tribal areas, collected the maximum funds of Rs. 26,28,395, followed by Sant Singaji Education Society, a co-educational college with a focus on educating the rural youth, based in Madhya Pradesh, which collected Rs. 13,72,766. The Society for Development Activities, based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, collected Rs. 11,22,133 for their flagship initiative ProjectKHEL that uses the concept of play and fun as development tools to engage with children and impart life skills education.

A region-wise comparison of fundraising efforts revealed that cumulatively, the highest donations, i.e. Rs. 30,13,186 came from the southern region of the country, comprised of funds raised from three regional teams – Chennai Changemakers (Rs.14,69,699), Bangaluru Bravehearts (Rs.13,68,642) and Telugu Titans (Rs.1,74,845). This was possible through maximum retail donations received from South India, as non-profits from the region optimised social media to expand their donor base.

Speaking about the success of the 2017 edition of the Giving Premier League, Rahul Chovva, CEO and Director of LetzChange, said, “We are overwhelmed with the response received by the Giving Premier League this year. More than 100 non-profits took part in the campaign and a nationwide network of over 6000 donors came forward to support and generously donate to the organizations of their choice. We saw healthy competition among regions whose NGOs, irrespective of size and location, were enthused to engage donors for the causes they espouse. The Eastern team, for example, which remained in the bottom rung in previous editions of the competition, performed remarkably well this year by securing the leading position in the League. Our aim, year-on-year, is to build awareness and trust for online giving, and LetzChange in particular, which helps people make online donations through an easy, trusted and user friendly interface. We will continue to on-board and support more non-profits in helping them raise donations to advance their causes. We are big believers that online social giving, if used optimally, can be a game changer for philanthropy in India.”

Vinayak Lohani, Founder, Parivaar Education Society, the winning NGO team from West Bengal, said, “It is challenging to raise donations for charity and development work in India, but thanks to the LetzChange platform, we have realised the power of social media and have learnt to use technology to showcase our work to a larger network of donors. Every year, we participate in the annual fundraising competition by LetzChange, and we are very happy to have won the fundraising challenge this year. Currently, we have around 1500 children in our residential facility, majority of them being girls. We envision adding 1000 more children in the next two years to our education society and work towards their development. The amount that we have raised through the Giving Premier League will be utilized towards build the infrastructure, purchasing inventories and improving the existing facilities at Parivaar.”

The 2017 Giving Premier League saw participation from 105 non-profits across 14 states across India. Some of the non-profits included Teach for India and IDEA Foundation from Mumbai, Sevalaya and Bhumi from Tamil Nadu, Vrutti from Karnataka, Milaan from Uttar Pradesh, and Sita Gramodyog Vikas Sansthan from Bihar, to name a select few. The League aims at removing physical barriers that stop prospective donors from contributing to society, by allowing them to use LetzChange’s trustworthy and dependable online NGO aggregator platform along with their own social networks, to raise funds for the causes they believe in.

A dedicated team at LetzChange also works closely with the participating non-profits to educate them about digital literacy, training them on the use of social media and making them self-reliant. This year, 73% of the participating non-profits used social media channels to market themselves and create online campaigns to showcase their work and expand their donor network.

Meet Spero, India’s First Crowdfunded Eco-Friendly Electric Bike

The environment problem is real, and its high time that the citizens of the Earth start taking a stock of their actions and really do something to fish the world out of this crisis. It is for sure a problem that will take a long time to get solved but in order to reach there, the mankind needs to start with small-small steps everyday. Spero, India's first crowdfunded eco-friendly electric bike is a step in that very direction.

Manufactured by Milltex Engineers, a Coimbatore based company, the Spero electric bike offers a smart alternative for the current urban commutation problems. Though light in weight, the e-bike isn't particularly light on pocket. The base Spero model starts at an expensive Rs. 29,900.

The central idea behind Spero is quite simple. The makers wanted to manufacture a powered bicycle which is small and lightweight, hence very portable to use. For people who use their motorcycles/cars to get to the metro/train stations, this can serve to be a suitable alternative option.

Massive adoption of the Spero can have a real, significant effect on the current traffic congestion, pollution problems faced almost daily by the urban population and might even improve general public health by propagating a healthier and active lifestyle.



The company recently concluded the first crowdfunding campaign for the high-powered electric bike and raised INR 38,65,000 from 147 funders, way more than its goal of INR 30 Lakhs. The second campaign is currently LIVE and one can book themselves a Spero e-bike through this second campaign. With 56 days remaining, the second round of crowdfunding campaign has currently raised INR 97,200 of its goal of INR 15,00,000.

Running on a 48KV lithium-ion battery with a two-year warranty, the 5-Speed electric Gear shift bike can reach its top speed of 25kmph in mere 10 seconds, when the motor is running. Further, the biggest relief is that the battery is detachable and hence can be charged by anyone, anywhere. According to claims of Milltex Engineers, the battery charges from 20 to 80 percent in just six hours.

The e-bike comes in 3 models:

• E-30 – Has a range of 30 kms on a single charge (available only in MEN'S model)


• E-60 – Has a range of 60 kms on a single charge (available in both MEN'S & UNISEX models)


• E-100 – Has a range of 100 kms on a single charge (available only in MEN'S model)

Price:

The price of the eBike ranges from Rs.55,000 for its base model to Rs.84,900 however one may get the Spero at 45% leeser price in its second crowdfunding campaign here. Prices indicated include cost of delivery.

The idea for the e-bike was conceived and developed by 36-year old, Manikandan, an MBA having ample experience in the manufacturing realm.

The bicycle, which is a result of three years of intense research and development, can be considered as another brilliantly executed ‘Made in India’ story, well almost. According to the company, the e-bike has been made with with a judicious mix of materials that were locally sourced and some key imported components –such as the motor and the tyres come from partners in Korea and the battery comes from Samsung.

So, would you consider booking a Spero for yourself? Do tell us in the comments below.

No Regulations For Crowdfunding But Directives For Startup Funding says SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided not to bring out any regulations for crowd funding as of now. The board is currently in the midst of evolving guidelines for funding arrangements for startup entrepreneurs. SEBI is evolving these guidelines in consultation with the central government. These observations were made by Mr. Rajeev Agarwal, a wholetime member at SEBI.

Speaking at a Seminar on Energizing SME Exchange, ITP and Dissemination Boards Platforms under the aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Agarwal pointed out that the issue of crowd funding has been discussed in detail by the International board of SEBI.  He also added that the issue has not been discussed in a detailed manner in advanced economies such as Europe and United States and that a country like India needs to wait for sometime before contemplating on bringing out directives and regulations on the matter.

Mr. Agarwal also added that the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitely, had allocated funds to the volume of Rs.10,000 crores to extend funding facilities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other splinter groups such as early stage startups in the budget for the year 2014-15. The money allocated is yet to be utilized for the desired objective.

The government and SEBI are together making guidelines for the optimum utilization of the above mentioned fund. A special focus is being given to the young entrepreneurs in the allocation of funds, as they are the ones who would evolve into macroeconomic and financial entities in the future. The funding will help these young entrepreneurs strengthen their base.

According to Mr. Agarwal, SEBI would continue with its commitment to promote trading in SMEs exchanges and protect the retail investors within the existing guidelines. He also expressed the board’s inability to further broad base policy measures on the regulation of SMEs exchanges as the existing guidelines are considered sufficient to do justice to their regulation.

However, Mr. Agrawal also added that SEBI is open to accepting the suggestions of the industry and subsequently include these suggestions on further policy making as and when the time for broad basing of the existing SMEs exchanges is right.

 

No Regulations For Crowdfunding But Directives For Startup Funding says SEBI

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided not to bring out any regulations for crowd funding as of now. The board is currently in the midst of evolving guidelines for funding arrangements for startup entrepreneurs. SEBI is evolving these guidelines in consultation with the central government. These observations were made by Mr. Rajeev Agarwal, a wholetime member at SEBI.

Speaking at a Seminar on Energizing SME Exchange, ITP and Dissemination Boards Platforms under the aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Agarwal pointed out that the issue of crowd funding has been discussed in detail by the International board of SEBI.  He also added that the issue has not been discussed in a detailed manner in advanced economies such as Europe and United States and that a country like India needs to wait for sometime before contemplating on bringing out directives and regulations on the matter.

Mr. Agarwal also added that the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitely, had allocated funds to the volume of Rs.10,000 crores to extend funding facilities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other splinter groups such as early stage startups in the budget for the year 2014-15. The money allocated is yet to be utilized for the desired objective.

The government and SEBI are together making guidelines for the optimum utilization of the above mentioned fund. A special focus is being given to the young entrepreneurs in the allocation of funds, as they are the ones who would evolve into macroeconomic and financial entities in the future. The funding will help these young entrepreneurs strengthen their base.

According to Mr. Agarwal, SEBI would continue with its commitment to promote trading in SMEs exchanges and protect the retail investors within the existing guidelines. He also expressed the board’s inability to further broad base policy measures on the regulation of SMEs exchanges as the existing guidelines are considered sufficient to do justice to their regulation.

However, Mr. Agrawal also added that SEBI is open to accepting the suggestions of the industry and subsequently include these suggestions on further policy making as and when the time for broad basing of the existing SMEs exchanges is right.

 

Fundlined wants to be KickStarter for Indian Crowdfunding

Fundlined is a Crowdfunding Platform, just for India. Anyone who has an Idea, Project, Startup or Cause can raise Funds on Fundlined.com. The portal looks promising and close and it won't be an exaggeration if we say that it is about to become KickStarter of India.

Goa based crowdfunding portal wants to empower people by democratising funding and with this belief the portal claims to revolutionise crowdfunding in India, forever. The portal is currently in beta state.

Fundlined has been developed for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, social-organisations, software developers, anyone and everyone, to help you make great things possible.

Similar to KickStarter.com FundLined takes zero set-up for creating funding campaigns and when your campaign raises funds the portal takes mere 5% from successful funding campaigns and 15% from unsuccessful campaigns.

Fundlined founder Siddharth Shetty founded the crowdfunding platform at just 18 years of age, the portal was released officially in May 2014 and in less than a month, the portal already become one of India's Largest Crowdfunding Platforms, claims Siddharth. Currently, FundLined is organising India's biggest crowdfunding contest - With over 20 Lakhs worth of extra funding up for grabs.

The team behind this new crowdfunding platform is a Pan India team, with members based in Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, besides other cities.

The crowdfunding portal is currently organising India's Biggest Crowdfunding Contest - With over 20 Lakhs worth of extra funding up for grabs! You may visit contest.fundlined.com for further information.

The portal aims big, but comparing other crowdfunding platforms Fundlined currently have very few funding campaigns probably it was released officially just five months back (May 2015). Recently another crowdfunding platform for India called Wishberg.com has just announced to shutdown in coming days. Wishberg lived just for couple of years which raises questions on sustainability for crowdfunding platforms just for India. When it comes to online crowdfunding interested individuals/teams based out of India eye towards crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo.com.

FlipClass raises funding via crowdfunding portal LetsVenture

FlipClass, which is an online portal that helps parents and guardians looking for private coaching for their children by connecting them to tutors, has been successful in raising seed funding on LetsVenture, which is a deal making site.

The Bangalore based startup has raised Rs.1.5 crore this week from a cluster of investors which was led by Hareesh Ramanna, who is the founder of BlueCap MobileHoldings, which is a Singapore based Company.

FlipClass was founded by Vineet Dwivedi, who is an IIT Kanpur graduate, in May 2013. The idea came to him when he was trying hard to find a home tutor for his 11 year old son but his hard work yielded him with no successful results.

FlipClass currently offers services only in Bangalore and Hyderabad. The online portal helps parents in finding tested and pre-screened tutors for their children and even provides them with the facility of paying their fees online. The startup retains about 20 to 30 % of the fees with itself as commission and passes on the rest to the concerned tutors.

According to Vineet, the company pre-screens all the tutors in their network and even tests them for their skills. The company currently aims to expand the marketplace to the top 50 cities of the country. The company's database contains experienced people from BITS, IITs, IIMs, Stanford and other prestigious institutes from all around the globe. The tutors are also judged on their passion in teaching others.

The Company has a goal to earn revenue of more than $150 million in the next 5 years and is working hard to achieve this goal. The startup currently has around 1000 tutors and 500 students in its network in Bangalore.
According to Hareesh Ramanna, who lead the 1.5 crore deal, the money can be used by the startup to expand to at least one more city and after this they will have to raise a larger round. He further added that the startup has a great potential to expand globally as it is a challenge to find a good tutor in Asian markets of China and Korea as well.

Indian Crowdfunding platform Wishberg.com to shut down

India's crowdfunding and social wishlist platform Wishberg.com has announced that portal will be shutting down in coming days.

In a blog post Wishberg team announced - "As a startup, data is your best friend. Reviewing those goals at the end of the year, we realised that we have trailed behind on few of them. For us a team, we have always believed in chasing bigger dreams and not take up smaller challenges. Keeping up with that belief, we will be sunsetting Wishberg in coming days while we give time to our users to go through their accounts and wishes."

Wishberg's founders - Pravin Jadhav (CEO) and Kulin Shah (COO) are joining online mobile recharge startup FreeCharge, and will lead its product & growth and partnerships & alliances, respectively.

Wishberg was founded by Pravin Jadhav and Kulin Shah in December 2011 as a social discovery site and the name was Tyche’d, it was in July last year when the startup was renamed and rebranded to Wishberg.com.

Almost a year before (April 2013) Wishberg raised it's first investment and raised $150,000 in funding from early-stage investment firm India Quotient, with participations from angel investors including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of One97, and Uday Sodhi, CEO of HeadHonchos, among others

Wishberg got many accolades when it was launched and named among the top startups to be featured among the best products. The all of a sudden decision of shutting down the crowdfunding platform is disheartening for its many users. Although not many tech ideas was there in the portal wish funding lists nevertheless the portal is still receiving many wishes from users across India for crowdfunding.

India does not have many crowdfunding online platforms and Wishberg is among few crowdfunding platforms dedicatedly for India and was one of the firs such platform in India. The reason as why Crowdfunding platform like Wishberg doesn't make it to success in India is unknown as founders doesn't reveal as why they are moving crowdfunding model to online mobile recharge business.

Crowdfunding initiator (CFI) is India's first residential Crowdfunding bootcamp

Started on 16th June 2014 in Ahmedabad, Crowdfunding initiator (CFI), is a summer boot camp, being organized with the support of Start51.com, an indigenous crowd-funding platform in India and supported by the Gujarat Technological University (GTU). CFI is a month long event organized in order to make the potential entrepreneurs & innovators funding-ready through use of this internationally successful tool called "Crowd".  

The four-week programme : (16th June- 11th July) will have different modules to train young innovators and will include focused sessions with industry experts, case studies, mentor session and hands-on-exercise on different aspects of crowd-funding with selected finalists. At the end of the programme, all the selected finalists will go live on a dedicated crowd-funding platforms and not only learn how to get funded but "do-it themselves". Also a mega public launch of crowd-funding projects in Gujarat will be attempted.

More than 90% of student start-ups, based on good ideas and prototypes, die a premature death despite having a huge potential. Most of them also suffer from incomplete market research. Crowd-funding permits the use of the connected
world as a market research tool for innovative ventures, which want to find their target consumers.

By using crowd-funding a budding entrepreneur can market the concept to numerous stakeholders, can get insightful inputs from them and can obtain help in product validation. In addition, of course, Crowd-funding can help raise funds during the crucial phase of product development.

Crowd Funding Initiator (CFI) in Ahmedabad is a one month event by which a startup is initiated and is taught the fundamentals/basics of crowd funding in order to make it successful. This boot camp undergoes a series of programs which will clear the basic thoughts about crowd funding, prepare a startup to be able to crowd fund by applying the most appealing qualities to the startup and making the crowd funding a very successful process in the current system.

A lot of successful startup case studies are there in India who have backed by crowdfunding platforms one to name is - RHL Vision, which among top startups in India to have raised big sum of Rs.77 crore via crowdfunding from Indiegogo similarly Menstrupedia also one of a successful Indian startup first backed in similar way.

SEBI wants to regulate online crowdfunding in India

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued a consultation paper for regulating online crowdfunding in India. Crowdfunding is the collection of funds or finance from backers - the "crowd" - to fund an initiative, startup or business idea and usually occurs on Internet platforms. The paper issued bu SEBI covers the extant legal structure governing the fund raising for start ups and SMEs in India. Sebi want to permit only Accredited Investors to participate in crowdfunding.

SEBI intends to invite comments and suggestions from industry and market participants regarding the different possible structures for crowdfunding within the existing legal framework and other associated issues.

SEBI issued paper categorized the crowdfunding into four categories: donation crowdfunding, reward crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding. For example, In the US, Kickstarter, Indiegogo etc. are some of the platforms that support donation based crowdfunding.

Why need regulation on Crowdfunding in India ?

SEBI (Venture Capital Funds) Regulations ("VCF Regulations") were framed in 1996 to encourage funding by entrepreneurs' early-stage companies in India. However, since registration of VCF was not mandatory under VCF Regulations, all players in the alternative funds industry were not registered with SEBI. Hence, it was felt that there was a regulatory gap which needed to be addressed. Further, SEBI Board had approved the proposal for a clear regulatory framework privately pooled investment vehicles under AIF (Alternative Investment Fund) framework to inter-alia pave way for increased investment in startups, SMEs etc.

As per the said Regulations, AIF should be prohibited by its trust deed/memorandum and articles of association/partnership deed from making an invitation to the public to subscribe to its securities. AIF shall not accept from an investor an investment of value less than Rs. 1 Crore and no scheme of the AIF shall have more than 1,000 investors. Further, each scheme of the AIF shall have a minimum corpus of Rs. 20 crore. Further, the manager or sponsor shall have a continuing interest in the AIF of certain percentage of the corpus.

Risk of Fraud

Risk of fraud is primary reason as why Sebi wants to regulate crowdfunding as there is possibility of genuine websites being used by fraudsters claiming to be promoters of projects or of false websites being established, simply to defraud the investors or to entice individuals to provide credit card details etc. Thus, there is a risk of misuse as well as cyber-security and/or identity theft.

Who can be the Investor?

Sebi has proposed to permit only Accredited Investors to participate in crowdfunding. The proposed accredited investors who may be allowed to invest through crowdfunding platforms are as under:

• Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs) as defined in SEBI (Issue of Capital and
  Disclosure Requirements) regulations, 2009 as amended from time to time,


• Companies incorporated under the Companies Act of India, with a minimum net
  worth10


• High Net Worth Individuals (HNIs) with a minimum net worth Rs. 2 Crores or
  more (excluding the value of the primary residence or any loan secured on such
  property), and
  of Rs. 20 Crore,


• Eligible Retail Investors (ERIs):
  
  
  
  • who receive investment advice from an Investment Adviser, or
  
  
  • who avail services of a Portfolio manager, or
  
  
  • who have passed an Appropriateness Test (may be conducted by an
    institution accredited by NISM or the crowdfunding platforms),
  
  
  
  and
  
  
  
  • who have a minimum annual gross income of Rs. 10 Lacs,
  
  
  • who have filed Income Tax return for at least last 3 financial years,
  
  
  • who certify that they will not invest more than Rs. 60,000 in an issue
    through crowdfunding platform,
  
  
  • who certify that they will not invest more than 10% of their net worth
    through crowdfunding. (Net worth excludes the value of the primary
    residence or any loan secured on such property).
  
  
  
  

Proposed Limitation of on investment through crowdfunding

EbC (Equity based Crowdfunding) and DbC (Debt based Crowdfunding) shall allow private placement offers through internet based crowdfunding platforms to any number of QIBs and a maximum of 200 HNIs and ERIs combined. It is also proposed that QIBs, Companies and HNIs should be required to own at least a certain percentage in every issue through EbC and DbC.

Who can raise funds from Crowdfunding Platform and Limitations on capital
raised?

• A company intending to raise capital not exceeding Rs. 10 Crores in a period of 12 months. Companies which intend to make issue more than size of Rs.10 Crores may raise funds by complying with the provisions of SEBI (ICDR) Regulations and list them on a SME Platform or main board of a recognized stock exchange,


• A company intending to raise capital not exceeding Rs. 10 Crores in a period of 12 months. Companies which intend to make issue more than size of Rs.10 Crores may raise funds by complying with the provisions of SEBI (ICDR) Regulations and list them on a SME Platform or main board of a recognized stock exchange,