eSports Gaming Startup GamingMonk Raises ₹4 Cr from Japan's Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan and Others

GamingMonk, an eSports gaming company based out of New Delhi, has raised ₹4 crore (~ US$543,000) in its second round of funding from Japan-based Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India & South East Asia, reported Gizbot.

Other investors which participated in this round include Stellaris Ventures, Smile Group, AdvantEdge and Samir Khurana. GamingMonk had earlier raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from AdvantEdge Partners, an early stage venture capital fund, in July 2017.

The new infusion of funds will help the startup to achieve its vision of providing a smooth, transparent and credible gaming platform for all the players.

Founded in 2014, by Abhay Sharma and Ashwin Haryani, GamingMonk is focused on online and offline tournaments of competitive games across platforms such as Mobile, Console and PC.

GamingMonk was initially started as an e-commerce marketplace for consoles, gaming titles and other accessories, thereafter in August 2017 the startup launched its online eSports Portal and eventually pivoted to become a leading online esports company with a focus on building a community and provide authentic and relevant content to gamers.

Abhay Sharma, Co-Founder of GamingMonk said in a statement, “India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and funding in this sector. We are focussed on building a top-notch gaming experience for the esports enthusiasts and the community, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level."

Ashwin Haryani, the other Co-Founder, said, "We want to focus on not just the enthusiast gamers but also build an ecosystem which brings more casual and semi-pro players on all three platforms - PC, console and mobile gaming. We are seeing a lot of interest from investors and are in discussions with some strategic players both in India and overseas for our next round of funding."

"A big announcement is expected in the coming few months," he said.

The GamingMonk platform currently have 2 verticals - Offline Tournaments & an Online eSports Portal. Offline tournaments are held across India covering 8 cities so far with an expansion plan of covering 16 cities by next year.

The company has organised more than 200 competitive tournaments across the country with 35000 participants. The platform hosts tournaments on games such as PUBG, CS: GO, DOTA 2, FIFA game series, Call of Duty Series, Clash Royale and many more.

The rise of smartphone users and wider consumer trends are contributing to the growth of online gaming trends in India. According to a study by KPMG, Indian online gaming industry will add 190 million gamers and become a US $1 billion opportunity by 2021.

In June this year, tech giant Google had launched a training programme for gaming startups and developers in South-East Asia including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to successfully build, scale, launch and market the next generation of hit mobile games.

Just today itself, global sports tech fund, ADvantage, has announced that it is looking out for startups in India for investment opportunities.

In August, former Indian cricket skipper MS Dhoni picked up 25% stake in Run Adam, a 360 degree sports Tech-Ecosystem. The platform has been created with a vision to help aspiring sportsperson to hone their talent and help them in their professional journey.

[Top Image - Facebook.com/GamingMonk]

eSports Gaming Startup GamingMonk Raises ₹4 Cr from Japan's Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan and Others

GamingMonk, an eSports gaming company based out of New Delhi, has raised ₹4 crore (~ US$543,000) in its second round of funding from Japan-based Incubate Fund, Rajan Anandan, VP, Google India & South East Asia, reported Gizbot.

Other investors which participated in this round include Stellaris Ventures, Smile Group, AdvantEdge and Samir Khurana. GamingMonk had earlier raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from AdvantEdge Partners, an early stage venture capital fund, in July 2017.

The new infusion of funds will help the startup to achieve its vision of providing a smooth, transparent and credible gaming platform for all the players.

Founded in 2014, by Abhay Sharma and Ashwin Haryani, GamingMonk is focused on online and offline tournaments of competitive games across platforms such as Mobile, Console and PC.

GamingMonk was initially started as an e-commerce marketplace for consoles, gaming titles and other accessories, thereafter in August 2017 the startup launched its online eSports Portal and eventually pivoted to become a leading online esports company with a focus on building a community and provide authentic and relevant content to gamers.

Abhay Sharma, Co-Founder of GamingMonk said in a statement, “India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and funding in this sector. We are focussed on building a top-notch gaming experience for the esports enthusiasts and the community, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level."

Ashwin Haryani, the other Co-Founder, said, "We want to focus on not just the enthusiast gamers but also build an ecosystem which brings more casual and semi-pro players on all three platforms - PC, console and mobile gaming. We are seeing a lot of interest from investors and are in discussions with some strategic players both in India and overseas for our next round of funding."

"A big announcement is expected in the coming few months," he said.

The GamingMonk platform currently have 2 verticals - Offline Tournaments & an Online eSports Portal. Offline tournaments are held across India covering 8 cities so far with an expansion plan of covering 16 cities by next year.

The company has organised more than 200 competitive tournaments across the country with 35000 participants. The platform hosts tournaments on games such as PUBG, CS: GO, DOTA 2, FIFA game series, Call of Duty Series, Clash Royale and many more.

The rise of smartphone users and wider consumer trends are contributing to the growth of online gaming trends in India. According to a study by KPMG, Indian online gaming industry will add 190 million gamers and become a US $1 billion opportunity by 2021.

In June this year, tech giant Google had launched a training programme for gaming startups and developers in South-East Asia including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, to successfully build, scale, launch and market the next generation of hit mobile games.

Just today itself, global sports tech fund, ADvantage, has announced that it is looking out for startups in India for investment opportunities.

In August, former Indian cricket skipper MS Dhoni picked up 25% stake in Run Adam, a 360 degree sports Tech-Ecosystem. The platform has been created with a vision to help aspiring sportsperson to hone their talent and help them in their professional journey.

[Top Image - Facebook.com/GamingMonk]

EasyGov, Cloud Services for Government Programmes, Raises Angel Round from Tata Trust, Rajan Anandan & Others

EasyGov, provides advanced Cloud services to improve efficiency, transparency and effectiveness in delivery of Government welfare schemes and services, have announced today a successful Angel round for an undisclosed amount from Tata trust initiative (Lead Investor), Rajan Anandan, Rajeev Ahuja (Navayuga Group), Kshitij Arora and other investors on LetsVenture. EasyGov and its team were supported by legal advisors KMNP Law.

EasyGov is an advanced Cloud solution to enable citizen self-services for availing Government of India schemes and services. EasyGov provides citizens complete information to facilitate them to get their entitlement/ rights available from Government of India. The startup has captured the interest and admiration of multiple policy makers and government arms who are keen on integrating and developing government services to be more accessible and effectual. Recently the CEO of NITI AYOG, Mr. Amitabh Kant met and discussed with EasyGov it’s current and potential future services for the citizens of India and appreciated as well as valued the work that was being accomplished by the same.

“There are some ideas that simply apply to a Billion Indians. This one does! What EasyGov is solving, is a tough, complex problem. I am very impressed with the team's deep domain expertise and tech chops. Very excited about EasyGov and the team has my full support. Let's solve for a Billion!” said Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director Google India and South East Asia and investor in the round.

“EasyGov leverages technology to simplify and automate the delivery of govt services to citizens. The company is making a significant, positive impact on how citizens interact with the govt and avail welfare schemes. By integrating analytics and the Aadhar stack, it is also bringing transparency to the process and truly empowering the citizens of India. I congratulate Amit and the EasyGov team for the great work they are doing, and am very excited to be part of their journey” said Shanti Mohan, Founder and CEO of LetsVenture.

Amit Shukla, Founder, EasyGov believes in empowering and developing India to greater heights with the motto of Empowering citizen and delivering convenience. The company has recently developed an Aadhar stack based Entitlement Engine that will help any family check all possible benefits they can get from various welfare schemes offered to them not only by the Centre but also the State Governments and NGOs. The firm has not just automated, it has simplified Government services delivery using advanced Aadhar stack and IT analytics. EasyGov can launch any G2C services or scheme in few clicks and has processed over 10K service request in the last 12 months in National Capital Region (“NCR”) alone. It has done over Rs. 25 Lacs revenue in last Financial Year with over 20+ services available in NCR alone. EasyGov is currently in talks with various Government institutions and service providers for offering services on cloud.

Cyber Security Firm Lucideus Raises Funding from Rajan Anandan, Govind Rajan & Others

Lucideus, an IT risk assessments and digital security platforms provider, has announced that they have closed an angel funding round of undisclosed amount.

The list of angel investors who participated in the round include - Amit Ranjan (Chief Architect, Digilocker), Anurag Goel (CEO, Cactus Communication), Govind Rajan (ex CEO, Freecharge), Jonathan Boutelle (ex Director of Technology, LinkedIn/SlideShare), Rajan Anandan (Managing Director, Google), Rahul Chawla (Managing Director, Head of Global Markets, Deutsche Bank), Salil Donde (ex EVP, NASDAQ), Sunil Kalra (Angel Investor), Vellayan Subbiah (Managing Director, Cholamandalam Finance), Kulmeet Bawa, MD, Adobe and Victor J Menezes (Angel Investor).

In its last angel funding round, the company had raised funding from three investors including Anand Chandrasekaran (Director, Messenger, Facebook), Amit Chowdhary (Director, Motilal Oswal PE) and Sanjay Baweja (CFO, Suzlon Energy).

Saket Modi, CEO & Co-founder, Lucideus said, “As a company we have been growing 700% y-o-y (average) while being cash flow positive for the last 4 years. We have got a set of marquee names of handpicked investors who have not only invested their money but also bring in their strategic and technical guidance.”

Talking about his investment Govind Rajan one of the angel investors said, "Lucideus has shown a consistent top line growth while continuing to innovate itself in the cyber security industry. At a time when both the government and the private sector are adapting digital, their cyber risk is increasing exponentially with linear addition to their technology stack. Considering all the ground work done by Lucideus for the last 5 years, I feel they are well positioned to grab the market opportunity and emerge as clear market leaders."

Saket Modi, further highlights, “With an access to the office of the CTO, CIO and CISO of over a 100 customers across the globe, a year back we realized a pressing need that was not being answered by any of the existing products in the cybersecurity space. To address the same we will be launching a cyber risk management platform very soon. The funding raised is largely being used for the research & development of this platform.”

Incubated from IIT Bombay, Lucideus is an IT Risk Assessment and Digital Security Platforms provider. It’s a trusted standard for companies that need to protect their brands, businesses and dignity from debilitating cyber attacks. It builds and delivers information security platforms and services, both generic and customized to proactively secure, continuously monitor and reactively respond to cyber threats to an organisation’s technology stack. Its objective is quantify digital risk to inculcate a knowledge-based culture of safe and secure use of technology, such that cyber risk becomes an informed business decision leading to minimal disruptions to businesses.

Global SaaS Platform for SMEs, Omnify Raises $150K from Rajan Anandan & Others

Global SaaS platform for SMEs, Omnify has raised $150K from Rajan Anandan (VP, Southeast Asia and India, Google); L.D Sharma (CEO, Shoogloo Group and MD, Optimise Media Group, India); and Saurabh Arora (founder and CEO, Airwoot). The startup raised this funding round through Let's Venture platform.

About

Omnify provides a Unified platform for small service businesses to enable E-Commerce, Scheduling and Communication with their customers. It provide everything from the website, booking system, payment processing, scheduling and customer management in One, Simple Platform. More like ‘Shopify for Services’.

Omnify was founded in 2016 by Manik Mehta and Kabandi Saikia. Manik is an Engineer and did his Post graduation from De Montford University, England before venturing into the startup world. Co-Founder Kabandi Saikia is a Delhi University Alumni. She did her Post-graduation from Manchester Business School.

“Omnify is a Strong Global SaaS product focused on a large global market: commerce enabling small service businesses. The company is seeing solid traction. This is a very lean, technical team that knows how to growth hack. I'm very excited about Omnify,” says Rajan Anandan (VP & MD Google India).

Product-Market

Although Fitness, Recreation and Sports are currently the biggest segments, Omnify can be used by any Service business with Scheduling at their core. Over $400 billion are spent globally on these services every year, which is still majorly offline. It’s a huge addressable market with over 10 million small service businesses that will be spending over $68 billion annually on their technology, marketing and payment processing in the next 5 years. “The question is not online vs. offline; what we believe is a business needs to be where their customers are. Hence Omni-channel is the way forward- Web, Mobile, Social and Chat” says Manik Mehta, Founder & CEO of Omnify

While there are many platforms like Shopify available for product e-commerce, there is no parallel for services e-commerce. There are scheduling softwares, business management softwares but there is no complete e-commerce software that does both Selling and Scheduling together. Omnify is filling this gap.

Traction Details

Within a year, Omnify is used by 850+ businesses and 1600+ professionals in over 56 countries across the globe. They recently crossed $250,000 in online transactions through their platform.

“Online payments are seamlessly built into Omnify Platform, so our customers can start selling and transacting in minutes of signing up. Payments are also an important part of our business model as we charge a small fee on every transaction. Already, almost half a million dollar worth of services have been sold through Omnify, out of which 60% are online transactions,” says Kabandi Saikia (Co-founder & COO at Omnify).

Funding Goal

With this funding, the main goal is to make the technology stack 10X better for the small businesses in a way that makes it easier for them to grow faster and automate their operations. The investment instills our faith in building a product that is loved and is scalable globally. It is more than just a funding for us - we are gaining access to mentorship and strategic assistance.

“I am betting on the team of Omnify, which has achieved significant early traction with a lean team. The team has a potential to disrupt the current incumbents with their solid product and passion,” LD Sharma, Founder & CEO, Shoogloo Group.

“Omnify can become the technology stack for small businesses. I am personally excited investing and working with the co-founders Manik & Kabandi on the global SaaS play here,” Says Saurabh Arora who co-founded Airwoot which was Acquired by FreshDesk last year.

Rajan Anandan Invests In Women’s Health Tracker, Maya

Bangalore-based women’s health tracker, Maya (previously LoveCycles), has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Rajan Anandan, Vice-President, Google, Southeast Asia and India. The company had also raised seed funding of 5 crores from Prime Venture Partners earlier this year. Maya enables women to keep track of their menstrual and physiological health via a mobile application. Maya is building a personal health assistant that uses data, analytics and machine learning to provide women actionable insights around their health. Using the tracker, women can record vital health information and trace out patterns that help them manage their health better. To date, Maya has processed more than 100 million data points to build its predictive models. The funds will be used to enhance the user experience, product development and to expand the user base of Maya in India.

Rajan is an active angel investor in early stage technology companies and has invested in Internet, mobile and software startups in India. Rajan brings a deep understanding of technology, a track record of investing in many sectors across technology, first hand experience working closely with founding teams and leading and growing several large technology businesses in US, India and Sri Lanka

Maya has also appointed NetApp, Cisco and Juniper Technology veteran Raghu Mallena to the role of Chief Technology Officer and Cofounder. Raghu has more than 20 years of leadership experience building software products in the US and India. He set up Netapp’s first engineering team in India and has lead large engineering organizations spanning multiple geographies (US, India, China and Israel). In his recent roles at Cisco and Juniper, Raghu led teams responsible for the global product delivery of the entire Security Management product suite. Raghu has a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Madras and a Masters from University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Raghu Mallena, Chief Technology Officer, Maya, said, “I have been in the tech industry for more than 20 years and worked on some great projects – but Maya is a different ballgame! It is humbling to work on something that changes the lives of millions of women across the world. Maya has already generated more than a 100 million data points and we are just getting started. Using technology and data science to solve problems that have not been addressed before is a challenge I am looking forward to.”

Founded in early 2012 by a young engineer, John Paul, Maya logs more than 1.2 million active users every month. It has clocked more than 6.5 million downloads in more than 50 countries worldwide. The tracker has garnered a consistent 4.5 star rating across Android and iOS based on more than over 100,000 user ratings. Maya has also been featured on the Apple iTunes Store and Google Play Store regularly. Globally, the tracker supports 13 languages including Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French and very soon will support popular regional languages in the country.

John Paul, Chief Executive Officer, Maya, said, “It is a great moment for us at Maya! Rajan is one of the most prolific internet executives and investors in South Asia. He is known to invest in companies that are potential disruptors and we are honored to be a part of his portfolio. I am also excited about Raghu joining Maya. Raghu comes with an impeccable pedigree and he will be instrumental in transforming Maya into a health platform built on data, analytics and machine learning.”

Google India Head Rajan Anandan Invests Undisclosed Amount in 500 Startups-backed Fulfil.IO

Angel investor Rajan Anandan, who also heads Google‘s Southeast Asia and India businesses, has invested an undisclosed amount in 500 Startups-backed Fulfil.IO.

Sharoon Thomas, co-founder and chief executive officer, Fulfil.IO, told DealStreetAsia that the funding was at the seed level but did not disclose the amount. The funds will be used for ramping up sales operations in the US and scaling the product further. The company is also in talks with various venture capital firms for next round of funding.

Founded by Prakash Pandey, Rituparna Panda, Tarun Bhardwaj and Sharoon Thomas, Fulfil.IO offers modern cloud based software for retailers to manage inventory and automate fulfillment operations.

Fulfil.IO was among the 15 startups chosen in investment firm 500 Startups’ accelerator programme, where it received $125,000 as initial investment. While the company is based in US, it also has a centre in Bengaluru where it houses a team that works on design, engineering and data analytics.

Anandan has emerged as the most prolific angel investor in the country. He primarily invests in early stage technology companies in sectors like internet, mobile and software. In the first six months of the year, he has already invested in around seven companies.

Apart from Fulfil.IO, his latest investments include Surfboats Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates an online discovery platform for premium lifestyle products and services called Smytten, and Unacademy, a start-up that offers free video courses. He has made a total of 90 investments in a span of 10 years.

Rajan is also the co-founder of Blue Ocean Ventures, the first seed fund in Sri Lanka. Blue Ocean started investing in 2012 and has many investments in the island nation.

Bike Taxi Operator Rapido Gets Funding from Pawan Munjal, Rajan Anandan and Others

Bike taxi operator Rapido has received funding from a set of investors, including Hero MotoCorp Chairman Pawan Munjal and Google India head Rajan Anandan. The company has raised pre-series A round of funding led by Munjal, AdvantEdge Partners, Astarc Ventures and Tesellate Ventures, among others.

Other investors who participated in the round include Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People group; Smile Group Partners; Ankit Nagori, ex CBO, Flipkart, and Kunal Khattar, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Carnation Auto. The funding amount is still undisclosed by the company.

The funds will be deployed for Rapido's expansion into other cities and building up the team. The company has a fleet of over 400 bikes across Bangalore, Gurgaon and Delhi. The number is set to touch 1,000 over the next two months.

Founded in November 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan G and Rishikesh Sr, Rapido is a nextgen platform which provides Bike Taxi Services in India. One can book a bike ride through a mobile app for travelling solo. Its app is available for Android platform and has over 50,000 app downloads and delivered more than 1,25,000 rides.

The startup claims that its 85% of rides are from repeat customers and 10% of the customers are women as well as it also helps customers save 40% cost and 50% time compared to alternative options.

Commenting on the funding, Aravind Sanka, Co-founder at Rapido said, “The funds will be deployed for Rapido’s expansion into other cities and building up the team. A majority of our customers use us as a daily commute option since we have built the product with deep understanding of their needs. We have unique features such as quick booking, favorite routes and multiple modes of booking including missed call booking service.”

Bike Taxi Operator Rapido Gets Funding from Pawan Munjal, Rajan Anandan and Others

Bike taxi operator Rapido has received funding from a set of investors, including Hero MotoCorp Chairman Pawan Munjal and Google India head Rajan Anandan. The company has raised pre-series A round of funding led by Munjal, AdvantEdge Partners, Astarc Ventures and Tesellate Ventures, among others.

Other investors who participated in the round include Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People group; Smile Group Partners; Ankit Nagori, ex CBO, Flipkart, and Kunal Khattar, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Carnation Auto. The funding amount is still undisclosed by the company.

The funds will be deployed for Rapido's expansion into other cities and building up the team. The company has a fleet of over 400 bikes across Bangalore, Gurgaon and Delhi. The number is set to touch 1,000 over the next two months.

Founded in November 2015 by Aravind Sanka, Pavan G and Rishikesh Sr, Rapido is a nextgen platform which provides Bike Taxi Services in India. One can book a bike ride through a mobile app for travelling solo. Its app is available for Android platform and has over 50,000 app downloads and delivered more than 1,25,000 rides.

The startup claims that its 85% of rides are from repeat customers and 10% of the customers are women as well as it also helps customers save 40% cost and 50% time compared to alternative options.

Commenting on the funding, Aravind Sanka, Co-founder at Rapido said, “The funds will be deployed for Rapido’s expansion into other cities and building up the team. A majority of our customers use us as a daily commute option since we have built the product with deep understanding of their needs. We have unique features such as quick booking, favorite routes and multiple modes of booking including missed call booking service.”

Smytten, a Discovery Platform for Premium Lifestyle Products, Raises Funding from Rajan Anandan, MD of Google India

Smytten, an online discovery platform for premium lifestyle products and services, has raised an undisclosed amount as funding from Rajan Anandan, prolific angel investor, and Vice President and Managing Director of Google, South-East Asia and India.  Smytten will use this round of funding for enhancing user experience, product development and expanding both user and brand base. The company is going to pay special attention to artificial intelligence and algorithmically personalise offerings on their platform.

Founded by ex Unilever and Google executives, Siddhartha Nangia and Swagata Sarangi respectively - Smytten is India's first invitation-only lifestyle platform. It provides its customers an engaging and curated discovery trial and shopping experience for premium products and services. Within just six months of inception, Smytten has over 80 domestic and international brands on its platform, and thousands of engaged consumers. The platform addresses multiple lifestyle needs across beauty, health and wellness and lifestyle among others

“The new flush of investment will  help us focus further on product, content, and seamlessly integrate technology, marketing & operations to create value for both brands and consumers” said Swagata Sarangi, Co-founder of Smytten.

The online market for premium lifestyle is being disrupted due to huge eCommerce adoption by India’s working population, and discretionary consumer spending. Less than 1% of the market is online today, and is poised to grow to a healthy 10-15% in the next 3-4 years. Direct consumer engagement is key to growth in the segment. Smytten is solving the discovery and engagement problem for both brands and consumers, creating a scalable online model for high end products and services.

Smytten, a Discovery Platform for Premium Lifestyle Products, Raises Funding from Rajan Anandan, MD of Google India

Smytten, an online discovery platform for premium lifestyle products and services, has raised an undisclosed amount as funding from Rajan Anandan, prolific angel investor, and Vice President and Managing Director of Google, South-East Asia and India.  Smytten will use this round of funding for enhancing user experience, product development and expanding both user and brand base. The company is going to pay special attention to artificial intelligence and algorithmically personalise offerings on their platform.

Founded by ex Unilever and Google executives, Siddhartha Nangia and Swagata Sarangi respectively - Smytten is India's first invitation-only lifestyle platform. It provides its customers an engaging and curated discovery trial and shopping experience for premium products and services. Within just six months of inception, Smytten has over 80 domestic and international brands on its platform, and thousands of engaged consumers. The platform addresses multiple lifestyle needs across beauty, health and wellness and lifestyle among others

“The new flush of investment will  help us focus further on product, content, and seamlessly integrate technology, marketing & operations to create value for both brands and consumers” said Swagata Sarangi, Co-founder of Smytten.

The online market for premium lifestyle is being disrupted due to huge eCommerce adoption by India’s working population, and discretionary consumer spending. Less than 1% of the market is online today, and is poised to grow to a healthy 10-15% in the next 3-4 years. Direct consumer engagement is key to growth in the segment. Smytten is solving the discovery and engagement problem for both brands and consumers, creating a scalable online model for high end products and services.

IAMAI To Identify Objectionable Content On Internet

The government of India has trusted Industry body IAMAI with the task of identifying objectionable content on the net in India. The same was informed to Parliament by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom Minister on Friday.

Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which is an association of content providers, has been bestowed upon with the task of making a list of objectionable websites, particularly porn sites, available on the net.

The websites included in the list by IAMAI will then be considered for disabling.

The top ranks at the Industry body IAMAI are currently held by the Indian heads of leading international internet giants.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Google India, is the Chairman of IAMAI, while Kirthiga Reddy, India Chief, Facebook, is the Vice Chairman of the industry body.

According to Prasad, currently, the government doesn’t have any proposal to formulate a policy to censor content on the net.

“Government takes action, whenever sites/URL pages with objectionable contents infringing any law of the country are brought to its notice by law enforcement agencies, or when court issues direction to block any URL of websites,” said Prasad in Rajya Sabha.

Prasad had informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the Modi government had blocked 32 websites, including web-pages, in November last year. The request for the same was sent by the Anti-Terrorism squad of Mumbai and was accompanied by a court order.

According to the Anti-Terrorism Squad, the 32 blocked web pages and websites were being used to promote "jihadi" propaganda and for luring Indian youth into joining "jihadi" activities and ISIS.

All these blocked websites and web pages were later unblocked after their owners guaranteed to comply with the law and its rules and also follow consultation with the Anti-terrorism squad.

As per the official information shared in the Lok Sabha, the owners of these blocked websites took the help of the social media website Twitter to respond to the government’s ban and assured work within the law.

IAMAI To Identify Objectionable Content On Internet

The government of India has trusted Industry body IAMAI with the task of identifying objectionable content on the net in India. The same was informed to Parliament by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom Minister on Friday.

Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which is an association of content providers, has been bestowed upon with the task of making a list of objectionable websites, particularly porn sites, available on the net.

The websites included in the list by IAMAI will then be considered for disabling.

The top ranks at the Industry body IAMAI are currently held by the Indian heads of leading international internet giants.

Rajan Anandan, Managing Director, Google India, is the Chairman of IAMAI, while Kirthiga Reddy, India Chief, Facebook, is the Vice Chairman of the industry body.

According to Prasad, currently, the government doesn’t have any proposal to formulate a policy to censor content on the net.

“Government takes action, whenever sites/URL pages with objectionable contents infringing any law of the country are brought to its notice by law enforcement agencies, or when court issues direction to block any URL of websites,” said Prasad in Rajya Sabha.

Prasad had informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the Modi government had blocked 32 websites, including web-pages, in November last year. The request for the same was sent by the Anti-Terrorism squad of Mumbai and was accompanied by a court order.

According to the Anti-Terrorism Squad, the 32 blocked web pages and websites were being used to promote "jihadi" propaganda and for luring Indian youth into joining "jihadi" activities and ISIS.

All these blocked websites and web pages were later unblocked after their owners guaranteed to comply with the law and its rules and also follow consultation with the Anti-terrorism squad.

As per the official information shared in the Lok Sabha, the owners of these blocked websites took the help of the social media website Twitter to respond to the government’s ban and assured work within the law.

Crowdfunding Platform Wishberry Secures $650,000 Seed Funding Led by Google’s Rajan Anandan & iSPIRT’s Sharad Sharma

Leading Indian crowdfunding platform Wishberry, founded by ex-McKinsey consultants Priyanka Agarwal (CEO) and Anshulika Dubey (COO) in 2012 has secured $650,000 or four crores in seed funding. The round has been co-led by Rajan Anandan, MD Google India, and Sharad Sharma, Co-Founder of iSPIRT Foundation, along with 42 strategic investors including leading Bollywood composer Shankar Mahadevan, Rohit Khattar, Chairman of Mumbai Mantra, official partner to the Sundance Film Festival, SEBI board member Mohandas Pai, and seasoned entrepreneurs Deep Kalra (Make My Trip) and Amit Ranjan (SlideShare).

With a community of 9,000+ funders across 50+ countries and a campaign success rate of 75%, Wishberry is India's leading rewards-based crowdfunding platform and commonly referred to as “Indian’s Kickstarter.”

"Crowdfunding has immense long term potential in India, and Wishberry has an awesome team with a deep understanding of what it takes to win in India," said Rajan Anandan.

Wishberry focuses on projects spanning across film, music, arts and design, theatre, food, technology innovations and publishing. However, creative projects account for 70% of funds raised on Wishberry so far, of which music and film alone account for 50%.

“I am excited about finding the next generation of fantastic musicians and creating purposeful, inspiring music,” said Shankar Mahadevan.

Wishberry plans to use the funds to grow its team across marketing and technology and build awareness for crowdfunding in India.

"Our goal is to crowdfund 100 crores across 5,000 projects over the next two years and raise our Series A," said Priyanka. "In five years, we want to build a community of 3-4 million funders and support 50,000 creative projects on Wishberry."

Wishberry selects projects based on their crowdfundability. Considering the fact that Indians are not used to the Western concept of DIY, Wishberry assigns a crowdfunding coach to guide the selected campaign creators in creating compelling pitch videos, developing rewards, and marketing.

Once a campaign goes live on Wishberry, the project creator has to reach his/her target amount within 60 days, failing which, all the money is refunded back to the funders making it an “all-or-nothing” platform, ensuring transparency and trust.

Wishberry charges a non-refundable fee of Rs. 2,500 for campaign consulting and 10% a commission on the funds raised by successful projects.

Within a short span, many interesting creative projects have come out of Wishberry, such as:

1. Kothanodi, an Assamese film by Bhaskar Hazarika that raised Rs. 22 lakhs


2. Menstrupedia, a comic book about menstruation that raised Rs. 6 lakhs and eventually got sponsored by P&G



3. IGNITE! a festival of contemporary Dance that raised Rs. 15 lakhs in just 30 days.

Google Chromecast Officially Comes To India at Rs.2999

Not a big fan of the small screens of your phones, tablets or laptops? Always aspired to watch your favorite serial or movie trailer on a bigger and better screen? Well, Google has finally made your wish come true with its Chromecast making an official debut in India.

The streaming media device connects to an HDTV via the HDMI port and allows the user to stream content from their laptops, tablets or phones to their TV. Chromecast combined with a good broadband connection will make it super easy for users watch their favorite show like Bigg Boss or Comedy Nights with Kapil on a bigger screen. Currently, around 35 percent of people access YouTube on their mobiles and a large number of them keep switching between two to three devices everyday, Chromecast will help these mobile content lovers in bridging the gap between their TV and their devices.

The device will be available in India via Snapdeal starting from today (10 December). The device has been exclusively priced at Rs. 2,999 keeping the Indian audience in mind.

Although, before this official launch Indian users could buy Chromecast device from Amazon and Flipkart but at much higher price which was around Rs.3800-Rs.4200, which because of unavailability in India, used to shipped from US to India. From today onward Chromecast will be available in India itself.

Google will launch the Chromecast in the Indian market as a part of the Great Online Shopping Festival event that will take place from 10-12 December. It has partnered with Snapdeal.com and Airtel in order to bring the Chromecast to the Indian market. This piece of information was tweeted by Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google India.

Chromecast is very easy to set up and tucks away neatly behind your TV. It can work with iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and ChromeOS devices.  You will not face any difficulty in using the Chromecast for the first time as it taps the same experience of using applications and web that you are familiar with on your phones, laptops or tablets. Chromecast provides you the ability to cast from your Chrome browser, tablet or phone by simply opening the browser or a supported application and pressing the cast icon.

In India, the device currently supports hundreds of applications like Google Play Movies and YouTube etc. It will also run applications from partners like Eros Now, YuppTV  and Spuul.

The device will also be available on selected Airtel stores apart from Snapdeal.

Google Chromecast Officially Comes To India at Rs.2999

Not a big fan of the small screens of your phones, tablets or laptops? Always aspired to watch your favorite serial or movie trailer on a bigger and better screen? Well, Google has finally made your wish come true with its Chromecast making an official debut in India.

The streaming media device connects to an HDTV via the HDMI port and allows the user to stream content from their laptops, tablets or phones to their TV. Chromecast combined with a good broadband connection will make it super easy for users watch their favorite show like Bigg Boss or Comedy Nights with Kapil on a bigger screen. Currently, around 35 percent of people access YouTube on their mobiles and a large number of them keep switching between two to three devices everyday, Chromecast will help these mobile content lovers in bridging the gap between their TV and their devices.

The device will be available in India via Snapdeal starting from today (10 December). The device has been exclusively priced at Rs. 2,999 keeping the Indian audience in mind.

Although, before this official launch Indian users could buy Chromecast device from Amazon and Flipkart but at much higher price which was around Rs.3800-Rs.4200, which because of unavailability in India, used to shipped from US to India. From today onward Chromecast will be available in India itself.

Google will launch the Chromecast in the Indian market as a part of the Great Online Shopping Festival event that will take place from 10-12 December. It has partnered with Snapdeal.com and Airtel in order to bring the Chromecast to the Indian market. This piece of information was tweeted by Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google India.

Chromecast is very easy to set up and tucks away neatly behind your TV. It can work with iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and ChromeOS devices.  You will not face any difficulty in using the Chromecast for the first time as it taps the same experience of using applications and web that you are familiar with on your phones, laptops or tablets. Chromecast provides you the ability to cast from your Chrome browser, tablet or phone by simply opening the browser or a supported application and pressing the cast icon.

In India, the device currently supports hundreds of applications like Google Play Movies and YouTube etc. It will also run applications from partners like Eros Now, YuppTV  and Spuul.

The device will also be available on selected Airtel stores apart from Snapdeal.

Google Announced Hindi Voice Search And Indian Language Internet Alliance

Google, the search giant, has finally recognized the need for Indian language content on the Internet and announced the Indian Language Internet Alliance on Monday so as to encourage the same.

According to Rajan Anandan, Google India MD, the search giant has an aim of getting around 500 million users in India by the year 2017. Google also announced its Hindi Voice search option, which is also a part of its effort to encourage local language content on the Internet. The Internet giant also launched hindiWeb.com, a website that will offer curated content in Hindi language.

Following this announcement, Google Voice Search and Knowledge graph suggestions will soon be available in the Hindi language along with the option of multiple Hindi fonts from Google.com/fonts. Things like keyboard predictions in Hindi language, a feature which is already available on Android One devices will also be extended to other devices.

Earlier in June this year Google started supporting voice search in Indian accent and dialects which work on the Google Search App for iOS, Android and Chrome browsers for laptops and desktops.

Google has realized the potential that India holds for them and has therefore been investing its energy and marketing efforts in the country. The search giant released its Android One devices with stock Android experience, standardized hardware and timely updates in September this year. Through its Android One devices, Google is trying to find its footing in the extremely lucrative and low end Smartphone segment.

The search giant took a definitive step in the Indian internet landscape with the launch of its voice search and translation feature in Hindi. According to Anandan, India has a total of 19.8 crore English speakers and almost all of them are online. Regional language content will act as a great means of getting more and more non-English speaking users online.

Google Announced Hindi Voice Search And Indian Language Internet Alliance

Google, the search giant, has finally recognized the need for Indian language content on the Internet and announced the Indian Language Internet Alliance on Monday so as to encourage the same.

According to Rajan Anandan, Google India MD, the search giant has an aim of getting around 500 million users in India by the year 2017. Google also announced its Hindi Voice search option, which is also a part of its effort to encourage local language content on the Internet. The Internet giant also launched hindiWeb.com, a website that will offer curated content in Hindi language.

Following this announcement, Google Voice Search and Knowledge graph suggestions will soon be available in the Hindi language along with the option of multiple Hindi fonts from Google.com/fonts. Things like keyboard predictions in Hindi language, a feature which is already available on Android One devices will also be extended to other devices.

Earlier in June this year Google started supporting voice search in Indian accent and dialects which work on the Google Search App for iOS, Android and Chrome browsers for laptops and desktops.

Google has realized the potential that India holds for them and has therefore been investing its energy and marketing efforts in the country. The search giant released its Android One devices with stock Android experience, standardized hardware and timely updates in September this year. Through its Android One devices, Google is trying to find its footing in the extremely lucrative and low end Smartphone segment.

The search giant took a definitive step in the Indian internet landscape with the launch of its voice search and translation feature in Hindi. According to Anandan, India has a total of 19.8 crore English speakers and almost all of them are online. Regional language content will act as a great means of getting more and more non-English speaking users online.