12 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [4 - 9 September]

Here another week ends and that too with some surprises and celebration for the startup ecosystem. Where this some new startup accelerators launched for India, on the other hand, ecosystem saw the resignation and appointment of some prominent faces, new reports were revealed and government announcements. In all this week was full of shock and surprises for the startup world. For those who have missed the interesting updates from startup world, here is the recap for you all.

Trouble For E-commerce Firms: Online Discounts Being Treated As Capital Spend

The e-commerce majors are now facing the possibility of having to pay tax as per an income tax order of 2016. E-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon have approached the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Bengaluru in August 2017 after an assessment order of last year asked them to reclassify marketing expenditure as capital expenditure, a report in Economic Times said.The firms have appealed against this income tax order as it involved money spent by these firms on marketing done through deep discounts. If reports to be believed, these companies have been classifying it as a marketing expense and deducting it from revenue, leading to huge losses.

Edugild On-boards Five Edtech Startups For Its Fourth Batch

Edugild, an initiative of Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT), Pune paves way for the 4th batch of its accelerator programme. The global edtech startup accelerator will create a customized ecosystem to scale up five edtech startups from September 2017. The selected startups will be a part of an intensive 4-6 months of Edugild’s business acceleration program designed by global experts and have an extended 12-18 months of a relationship.

The startups for the fourth batch were selected from an application long tail of 250+ companies. The startups of the fourth batch are – Edvantics from Hyderabad, KnowHassles from Mumbai, Musein from Bengaluru, Vidya Robotics from Pune, Aurangabad and TrisLabs from Bengaluru.

ZDream Ventures Launches Startup Incubator In Gurgaon

An India-focused venture capital firm, ZDream Ventures has launched its startup incubator ZDream Labs in Gurgaon, reports LiveMint. According to a media report, this move is part of a strategy to double down on the local ecosystem and serve as a bridge between Chinese investors and startups discovery in India.

The newly launched incubator will provide mentorship and training to Indian startups along with the access to capital from Chinese VCs and tech companies, besides ZDream’s direct investment. The incubator will initially invite early-stage startups focused on areas such as content and media, education and logistics and warehousing.

India To Get Its Logistics Tech Startup Incubator; MWS To Launch It Soon

The Maritime Services (MWS) has decided to give India its very first maritime focused logistics technology startup incubator. The incubator, which is being launched in association with Hatch and Apex Group and Amplifi, will officially see the light of the day on September 15, 2017. The incubator will be launched during a three-day international conference cum exhibition Maritime Nation India (MNI) beginning from September 14, 2017, to September 16, 2017.

MWS’s main aim behind launching the incubator is to promote and provide advisory services to those entrepreneurs who have an inclination towards one of India’s fastest-growing sectors, the maritime and logistics sector.

Under Haryana Startup Policy, Gurgaon Is Soon Going To Have Innovation & Entrepreneurship Centre

September would see Gurugram getting its first Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) under Haryana’s new state startup policy. Scheduled to be launched during the Digital Haryana Summit to be held later this month, the CIE, which will be spread over two-acres of land, aims to reinforce the state’s startup ecosystem. The CIE will be developed in a private public partnership (PPP) model, wherein the state government will be seen collaborating with industry leaders and academic institutions for the project. The centre will be established right in the city.

Fintech Valley Vizag Launches Accelerator Program For Tech Startups

A sustainable global Fintech ecosystem, Fintech Valley Vizag has launched the Fintech Valley Accelerator Program for tech startups in India. The accelerator program is in collaboration with ICICI Bank and Mahindra Finance as corporate partners and Microsoft as the technology & acceleration partner.

This four-month residential program will provide selected fintech startups an opportunity to grow their development through a combination of support, guidance, and training. The first cohort of the accelerator program will have a group of selected finalists working to develop solutions for four key focus areas- financial inclusion, security, and fraud prevention and customer and risk analytics. The selection process for the accelerator program has commenced and will finalize 10-12 startups by mid-September. The first cohort will commence in the first week of October.

Tata Elxsi Invites Tech Startups For Its Newly Launch Incubation Program

Tata Elxsi, a leading global design and technology services company is inviting startups having deep technology based product, platform, or solutions for Indian consumers in India to their Incub@TE program. The nine months program will provide a platform for startups and prospective entrepreneurs to convert their ideas into commercially viable businesses. For these startups, incub@TE has tied up with 1Crowd to support funding needs and Nasscom 10K as ecosystem partner in order to further help these startups, foster entrepreneurial activities in the deep technology space.

A Step To Boost Entrepreneurship: DIPP To Move Cabinet Note To Ease Flow of Loans To Startups

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has decided to move a cabinet note on a credit guarantee fund that will ease the flow of loans to startups. The fund, that was unveiled by Indian PM Modi as a part of the Startup India action plan in January last year, will be used by the government to stand as a guarantee for loans being handed out to Indian startups.

The DIPP managed fund has a corpus of a whopping Rs 2,000 crore, which will be put to use to enable greater financial support to all stages startups in the country.

Ashish Kashyap, MakeMyTrip President, and Ibibo Group Founder Resigns

MakeMyTrip Limited, India’s leading online travel company, has announced the resignation of Ashish Kashyap, Co-founder and President, with effect from September 30, 2017. The MakeMyTrip Board has accepted the resignation and MakeMyTrip (India) Pvt Limited and Ibibo Group Private Limited have entered into a separation agreement with Kashyap. This agreement provides among other things, final settlement of dues and benefits to Kashyap and certain obligations on Kashyap including Non-Solicitation and Non-Competition which shall continue until September 30, 2019.

Venture Catalysts Ties Up with Ideal Insurance and Kreative Fingers

The Venture Catalysts, an integrated incubation platform, has announced its operational launch in Kolkata. VCats has tied-up with Ideal Insurance and Kreative Fingers for its Kolkata expansion, with the partnership aimed at boosting the innovation quotient of startups in the region by enabling state-of-the-art support facilities. The development is in sync with the platform’s long-term vision of fostering entrepreneurship across the country by creating a robust and interconnected pan-India support network with significant presence in tier-2 geographies, in addition to the top metros.

Indian Startups Get 80% Rebate On Patent Fee

Indian authorities have introduced a fast-track mechanism for filing patents which will help startups get 80% rebate on their patent fee. For the expedited patent registration, the startups have to pay double the fees against thrice the amount for other companies. Individuals and startups opting for the fast-track mechanism route for patent filing will be required to pay an application fee of Rs 8,000. For established companies, this fees increases to about a whopping Rs 60,000.

Chhattisgarh Government Selects 36 Startups Under Promotion Programme

The Chhattisgarh government has selected 36 promising startups in the state under its ‘Start-up Chhattisgarh Grand Challenge’ initiative launched last year that aims to foster entrepreneurship and promote innovation in the state. The final 36 were selected of the total 3,858 ideas submitted. The selection was carried out by the screening committee formed under the Commerce and Industry department.

US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan Are Most Active Investors in Indian Tech Startups

According to a recent CB Insights report, investors from the United States, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and UK have had an encouraging confidence in the Indian tech startup ecosystem and have been some of the most active foreign participants in India’s startup deals over the past five years. Among these, US-based investors have been the most active participants. The report also mentioned that with over 800 equity deals being made over the five years period, the US-based investors have also emerged as the second most active grouping since the year 2012, after India or Mauritius-based investors.

15 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [28 August - 2 September]

This week seems to be a week of celebration for the startup ecosystem. Where government announced some interesting initiatives for startups to foster, on the other hand, ecosystem saw the launches of news funds, signing of MoUs and acquisition of startups. In all this week was full of surprises for the startup world. For those who have missed the interesting updates from startup world, here is the recap for you all.

Government Initiatives

Govt Considering Over 60 Startup Proposals for Northeast

According to the media reports, the Modi government is currently working on over 60 proposals for startups in the Northeast. The proposal involves the Centre providing initial monetary help to these startups under the umbrella of a new scheme called Northeast Venture Fund. In addition to this, the fund from the center, Manipur Chief minister N Biren Singh announced that his state government has also set aside a budget of Rs 35 crores under the ‘Startup India’ initiative in order to encourage local entrepreneurs in the region.

According to Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) Jitendra Singh, the scheme would see his ministry providing an additional benefit of providing the initial funds to any youngster planning to set up an enterprise.

List of Karnataka’s 100 Most Innovative Startups Is Out

On Wednesday, the Karnataka government finally announced the list of the selected 100 startups for its ELEVATE 100 programme. The panel of jury chose the final 100 from a pool of 270 startups by following a rigorous four-layered selection process. However, overall the contest saw more than 1700 startups sending in their entries from all across Karnataka, although a majority of the participation came from the city of Bengaluru.

Out of 100 selected startups, 27 belong to electronic semiconductor design domain, 19 are from life sciences, 26 are from IT/ITES, there are 11 each from biotech, agri tech and four each from animation and gaming, and clean tech. The final selected lot also has 19 startups which have women entrepreneurs and 11 startups come from rural areas.

For the same state government has signed MoUs with eight companies including Google and PwC to cater to the needs of the identified 100 startups under the state’s ‘Elevate 100 programme.’

UP CM Yogi Adityanath Announces Rs 1000 Crore Startup Fund

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath has announced to create a corpus of Rs 1,000 crore as Startup Fund for aspiring entrepreneurship and employment generation in the state. Chief Minister further informed that a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be signed with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on September 15.

Yogi Adityanath was addressing a gathering of youth and entrepreneurs after inaugurating ‘Startup Yatra’, a platform for all stakeholders to discuss and generate inputs for assisting the government in the promotion of entrepreneurial zeal and creating awareness about establishing an entrepreneurial ecosystem in UP. In the coming weeks, similar events are lined up for 15 cities in the state and the Yatra targets reaching out to over 40,000 youth and 400 colleges.

Indian Startups Can Now Get 100% of Funds From Foreign VC Investor, Govt Includes Startups in FDI Policy

India’s Commerce Ministry in its consolidated FDI policy document released recently has, for the first time included startups, which can raise up to 100 per cent of funds from Foreign Venture Capital Investor (FVCI). Hereafter, startups in India can now issue equity or equity linked instruments or debt instruments to FVCI against receipt of foreign remittance, said the document which incorporates all the changes made in FDI policy over the past year.

A person resident outside India (other than citizens/ entities of Pakistan and Bangladesh) will be permitted to purchase convertible notes issued by an Indian startup company for an amount of Rs 25 lakh or more in a single tranche. NRIs can also acquire convertible notes on non- repatriation basis, said the document of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce.

Partnerships To Grow Startup Ecosystem

ISB, Sap India Ink Pact To Nurture Tech Startups

The Indian School of Business (ISB) and SAP Labs India have entered into a collaboration to nurture technology-based startups. They will focus on the ventures dealing in the social space which is working in areas that have relevance to national priorities.

According to a statement issued by the ISB, titled Jumpstart Social Enterprise Accelerator, the programme aims to identify and support 10 early stage and 5 growth stage promising ventures by providing guidance, mentorship and scaling up their technology solutions that can bring about a large scale impact on the lives of common people.

Nasscom Product Council, Accenture Plans To Collaborate With Israel Innovation Authority

To help startups to grow and nurture, the Nasscom Product Council and Accenture, an IT consulting major plans to collaborate with Israel Innovation Authority. This step is taken to help both the countries startups in joint product development, knowledge transfer and in the creation of hardware ecosystem.

According to ET report, the Nasscom Product Council’s co chair Somdutta Singh and Avnish Sabharwal, MD, Accenture Ventures and Open Innovation, Accenture India plan to take the delegation of product council leaders, startups to Israel in the first week of September.

Power2SME Signs MoU with NSIC to Empower MSMEs

India’s first ‘Buying Club’ for SMEs, Power2SME has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). This MoU will enable SMEs in India to benefit the most, given the vast array of experience and knowledge NSIC and Power2SME brings to the fore. Additionally, it will also catalyze exchange of market knowledge between both parties, and enable both to service SMEs better for their raw material, finance, and other requirements.

The alliance is aimed at empowering SMEs pan-India in sourcing variety of raw materials like Metal, Polymers, yarns, chemicals and a host of other materials. This initiative will provide massive opportunity for the SME sector in terms of creating a platform for them to grow, learn, and face challenges with guidance and support from Power2SME and NSIC.

Quick Look on Acquisitions

Narvar Acquires Logistics Service Provider GoPigeon

Narvar, the post-purchase experience leader has acquired key technology and personnel from GoPigeon, an end-to-end logistics management SaaS platform based in Bengaluru. This acquisition advances Narvar’s platform development with additional engineering talent and furthers the company’s position as the market leader which powers two billion experiences for more than 125 million consumers per year after they click to buy. It also scales Narvar’s global growth, with the GoPigeon India team anchoring the fast growing Asia-Pacific e-commerce market and enabling worldwide operations support.

1mg Acquires Dawailelo to Strengthen Pharmacy Operations

Digital health platform, 1mg has acquired Dawailelo.com, a technology-based facilitator in the healthcare space that helps individuals buy medicines, consult with doctors and get lab tests done. The team would be working with the 1mg ePharmacy team, reporting to COO Tanmay Saksena. 1mg was launched in 2015. The platform enables consumers to learn more about their medicines and also find more cost-effective substitutes. Its diagnostics service brings transparency and price-effectiveness to lab tests. 1mg’s doctor platform aims to revolutionize how a consumer finds the right healthcare professional for his needs.

Freshworks Buys Marketing Software Provider Zarget

Freshworks, the leading provider of cloud-based business software has acquired Zarget, a leading marketing software startup. This is the ninth acquisition made by Freshworks over the last two years and will help the company focus on building marketing solutions for businesses of all sizes.

Through this acquisition, Freshworks seeks to further develop Zarget’s marketing suite and provide the team with expertise, technology, and operations as well as access to over 120,000 customers. Zarget’s robust CRO tools help businesses increase orders, customer interactions and sign ups on their website by providing user metrics and data driven insights.

Setting Up of New Funds and Centres

OMA Emirates Group Launches $3 Mn Fintech Fund

UAE-based OMA Emirates Group has launched a fintech Fund. The newly launched fund will focus on emerging and potential financial technology companies and startups in India.

According to ET reports, OMA Emirates will invest a corpus of $3 million towards fintech startups that have been in operation for 12 months or less. Apart from this, the firm also plans to invest $20 million across other fintech verticals and towards innovation of existing products and services depending on the national and international presence of the company. Not only this, OMA Emirates will provide support to tech startups in terms of technology, R&D, practices and GTM strategy.

Saama Technologies To Set Up Deep Learning Centre In Pune

In an attempts to build on its expertise in the data analytics space, data analytics firm Saama Technologies is setting up a deep learning center in Pune. According to ET report, the firm was in the process of hiring people for the lab, which would work in collaboration with its existing engineering centre in the city.  The Company plans to sell this solution primarily to the customers in the US and Europe, which is where a bulk of the pharmaceutical research happens.

Not only this, Saama would also be increasing its headcount by 1520% by the end of this year.  Though the company has operated across sectors, now it is focusing on specific verticals such as insurance, biotechnology, and pharma.

Michael and Susan Dell Foundation Looks To Set up An Incubator For Indian Startups

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is looking to set up an incubator for startups. According to ET. For the same, the foundation is in talks with IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Commenting on the development, Rahil Rangwala, the director for family economic stability at Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, the incubator will look at early-stage companies and will offer financial inclusion, digital empowerment, job creation and services in other such impact areas. Apart from this, the foundation will also offer seed funding to the startups.

Some Other Important News

After Notice from India Post, Paytm Renames Postcard to ‘Lifafa’

A few days later after Paytm’s launch of Postcard, India Post, the government-operated postal system in India, has sent out an official notice to Paytm on use of name ‘Postcard’. The notice cited the IPO Act and the established rules and regulations, saying the usage of the word ‘postcard’ is the sole prerogative of India Post. The notice was addressed to Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and India post asked the company to stop using the term ‘postcard’ with immediate effect. The company is now branding its gifting solution as Paytm Lifafa.

Microsoft To Now Bet Big On Late-Stage Indian Startups

Software giant Microsoft has decided to focus all its attention on promising later-stage startups in the country through its Bengaluru-based accelerator program.

Initially launched with a motive of providing a helping hand to early-stage firms, Microsoft has now decided to advance to only later-stage startups in its fifth year of operation in the Indian subcontinent. The accelerator helps selected startups by making things easier, approachable and achievable for them. The accelerator mainly helps Indian startups scale up and go global if this is what they want.

10 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [21- 26 August]

We are back with our weekly recap. Here are the 10 startup biz news which becomes the talk of the town this week.

IIIT-H Signs MoU With MANAGE To Encourage Indian Agritech Industry

IIIT-Hyderabad and National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) have recently joined hands and signed an MOU which aims to set up an Agritech startup accelerator programme. IIIT-Hyderabad and MANAGE’s Agritech Startup Accelerator Programme will be identifying, supporting and facilitating idea-stage enterprises making use of innovation and technology to solve agriculture related problems being encountered in the Indian subcontinent.

MANAGE is hoping that its MOU with IIIT-Hyderabad will help make a significant impact on farmers’ lives, entrepreneurs, and agri-startups in India.

Now Failed Indian Startups Can Exit in 3 Months, Here’s How

In the latest development, to encourage startups, the government is considering the further reduction in taxation for startups and a three months exit procedure for those ventures who have failed to take off.

Taking the podium at the India international MSME and Startup Expo 2017, Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of Development for North-eastern state and Minister of State for Prime Minister Office Personnel revealed that the Indian central government is contemplating a new tax holiday, a temporary reduction or elimination of tax for new ventures with a three months exit window.

Currently, Inter-Ministerial Board (IMB) certified startups in the country are allowed a three-year tax exemption within the first seven years of their existence. The Union Budget for 2017-18 had allowed eligible startups to make use of their three-year tax holiday in a period of seven years instead of five years.

NITI Aayog Calls for Applications for Atal Innovation Mission ‘Mentor India’

The government of India’s flagship program to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is inviting applications for ‘Mentor India’. Mentor India is a strategic nation building initiative to engage leaders who can guide and mentor schools students in 900+ Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) established by AIM in schools across India.

Through Mentor India, AIM is looking to engage leaders who can dedicate 1 – 2 hours every week in one or more such labs and enable school students to experience, learn and practice future skills such as design and computational thinking. AIM is looking for corporates/professionals/academicians/students etc. who are keen to contribute to this strategic nation building initiative. ATLs are dedicated works spaces where students (from Class 6th to Class 12th) learn innovation skills and develop ideas that will go on to transform India.

Ola, Google Join Hands To Introduce ‘Outstation’ Cabs To Maps

India’s homegrown ride-hailing app Ola has joined hands with tech giant Google for its ‘outstation’ category. The new partnership will allow people using the services of Ola for their outstation journeys to easily find and book their inter-city rides facilitated by Google maps, which is considered as one of the best web mapping service that there is today.

Not only this, the Ola Outstation category will initially enable outstation bookings from 23 cities to over 215 one-way routes in the Indian subcontinent. This will then be extended to a total of 500 routes in the coming weeks.

Eight Startups Are Selected By IIMB For Its Non-Profit Incubator Programme

IIM Bangalore’s NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) has shortlisted eight early-stage non-profits startups for its 18-month incubation programme. All the selected eight startups are working on solving some of the toughest education and skills challenges that poor communities in the country are facing.

The programme is an inclusive part of India’s first-ever, nonprofit startup incubator supported by the famous Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. Some of the selected entrepreneurs are graduates of leading global institutions like Harvard Business School, IITs, and IIMs etc.

Startup Policy To Be Launch By Haryana On September 15

Haryana is all set to announce the launch of its startup policy at the Digital Haryana Summit that will be held on 15 September. The announcement of launch will be made in the summit which is scheduled to be held on September 15 in Gurgaon. The government had earlier planned to launch the policy in 2015, and then later in 2016. But on both occasions, it suffered unparalleled delays. Haryana’s startup policy will be an attempt to make it easier for entrepreneurs to launch and run businesses in the state.

Reliance Powered Unlimit Partners With Z Nation Lab To Search Next IoT Disruption

Z Nation Lab, a Silicon Valley and Mumbai based accelerator has partnered with Unlimit – powered by Reliance. This comes at a time when the outlook for IoT services and products in India and elsewhere are projected to rise from 200 million dollars to 3 billion dollars by 2020. Together, they will identify and nurture startups in targeted markets and technologies relevant to Reliance’s businesses; engage meaningfully with startups for pilot projects, investments or strategic partnerships.

Unlimit falls under the Reliance group of industries and is solely dedicated to providing Internet of Things (IoT) services to enterprise customers throughout India.

"Facebook, Amazon And Google Are Bigger Threat To Banks Than Fintech Startups’’

A recent World Economic Forum (WEF) report has taken everyone in the financial services sector by surprise. According to the report, ‘Beyond Fintech: A Pragmatic Assessment of Disruptive Potential in Financial Services‘, as against the common belief that the fintech sector is going to be the endgame for banks, it is the technology giants like Facebook, Amazon and Google that pose a bigger threat to the longevity of banks and their services.

The report claims that these technology big weights are slowly but steadily hollowing out the value proposition of the financial institutions by carrying out more and more of their core functions, even as banks and insurers are really working hard to outdo them.

Paytm Mall To Invest $35 Mn In Its Tech And Logistics Biz

Paytm’s e-commerce arm, Paytm Mall is eyeing to invest $35 million in technology and infrastructure. Not only this, the firm further plans to shorten its delivery timelines. Paytm Mall plans to achieve this by servicing demand with local suppliers to provide same-day and next-day deliveries in categories such as electronics and appliances across 25 cities. The move comes after the e-commerce platform recently delisted 50 percent logistics partners and 30 courier aggregation centers to restructure their logistics network.

10 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [14-19 August]

We are back with our weekly recap. Here are the 10 startup biz news which becomes the talk of the town this week.

Cambridge Innovations Makes Partial Exit from Roadzen

The Cambridge Innovations, the investment arm of Cambridge Technology Enterprises (CITE) has partially exited from an early stage investment in an insurance technology firm Roadzen with a realisation of $2,50,000, reports CI website.

The firm has invested nearly $1.3 million in the startup in three stages of funding in 2015. CI participated in the financing of Roadzen in the last two years and has sold $250,000 of Roadzen’s stock in order to assist the entry of one of the most prominent Hong Kong based Chinese investor. Roadzen Technology is transforming global auto insurance with big data and AI. Roadzen helps insurers underwrite their risk with better data, interact with their customers in real-time, provide roadside assistance to stranded customers and process auto-claims instantly.

Global Incubator Techstars Enters Into JV With ANSR

The US-based incubator Techstars is all set to make its debut in India. The global incubator is going to launch its new startup programmes over the coming weeks and months. For the same, Techstars has entered into a joint venture (JV) with Bengaluru-based ANSR that provides enterprises to build and manage in-house or external accelerators and other such startups-focused infrastructure.

The financial details of JV are undisclosed. With this JV, Techstars aims to open centres across multiple locations in India in a few years. The firm will launch its first centre in Bengaluru next year.

CloudBoost To Represent India at MassChallenge and Parallel18

CloudBoost.io, a Hyderabad based startup has been invited to participate in MassChallenge and Parallel18, representing India on the global platform at two of the leading startup accelerators in the world. With a team of just 12 with everyone below the age of 24, this young startup is now one of the companies serving more than 50,0000 customers globally.

The startup is a cloud platform that lets software developers build apps in half less time by taking care of the infrastructure and backend (servers, databases, and more) for them. CloudBoost is one of the 36 companies from around the world who is invited by Government of Puerto Rico & Parallel18  to start operations and serve customers locally on the island. Puerto Rico serves as a launchpad for companies to expand into Latin American markets in the future.

Startups Need To Develop Stronger Biz Plans To Receive Funding: Study

A report by Assocham-Hammurabi & Solomon recently highlighted that startups need to develop stronger and sustainable business plans to receive private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) funding.

The ASSOCHAM-Hammurabi & Solomon joint report titled ‘M&A landscape in India,’ noted that after registering 26 percent dip in fund raising by PE firms last year i.e. from $5.7 billion in 2015 to $4.2 billion in 2016, the year 2017 could be the one for consolidation, with PE/VC (venture capital) firms chasing a business having a strong biz model with a focus on unit economics and profit.

Google Acquires Health Monitoring Startup Founded By Indian-Origin Professor

Google has acquired Seattle-based health monitoring startup Senosis Health. Founded by Indian-origin Professor Shwetak Patel along with four others, Senosis Health turns smartphones into medical devices and collects various health stats. Financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed.

Being a Professor at University of Washington’s computer science and engineering faculty, Patel’s past startup ventures have landed in the hands of companies such as Belkin International and Sears.

IAN Partners With Kolkata Based Neotec Hub

Indian Angel Network (IAN) has announced a strategic partnership with Neotec Hub, an incubator started by Kolkata based corporate house – Ambuja Neotia, bringing innovative entrepreneurs, angel investors and corporates together on a single platform.

With Neotec breeding innovation in the ever-emerging startup ecosystem, IAN would help fine tune their business strategy, provide mentorships as well as help them access to funds through IAN’s group of more than 450 angel investors.

MergerTech To Set Up A Center of Excellence to Give Push To Indian Tech Startups

A serial tech entrepreneur, Nitin Khanna has announced his partnership with R. P. Singh, CEO of Seasia Infotech to set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) to help tech startups in India.

Under this initiative, they will jointly work on creating the CoE cores which will allow technology startup companies to use the co-working space of Seasia Infotech to work, learn and collaborate at no extra cost. CoE will offer these startups with all support and services right from providing IOT and networking infrastructure to beta testing and customer access. In addition to this they also plan on providing financial support to these startups. Nitin Khanna recently invested $5 million in a software startup iSoS Inc.

Russia’s Sistema to Set Up 100% Arm For Indian startups

Russia’s $10-billion conglomerate Sistema JSFC is considering setting up a wholly owned unit in the Indian subcontinent, according to a report in the Economic Times. The Indian unit will be providing hands-on business execution assistance to Indian startups working in domains like financial technologies, e-commerce, digital analytics, etailing and lifestyle.

According to a report, a source aware of the matter has disclosed to them that the new Sistema India subsidiary will be handholding Indian startups under its new Scalerator platform through a host of services, including go-to-market strategies, solutions to scale up business growth and even the support of a back-up operations team, if required. The Scalerator platform, which combines the words sale and accelerator, will be helping local startups in growing their businesses rapidly but in a cost-efficient way.

Another Relief For Indian Startups, No Labor Law Inspection for First 5 Years

Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has recently instructed the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) to make sure that all states in the country have a system in place that will allow startups self-certification for at least six labour laws for a period of five years. With this, the PMO is hoping to boost its startup drive in the Indian subcontinent. While the PMO has pitched a five year window, the MoLE advisory had, in fact, suggested the same last year, but instead of five years it wanted to restrict the period to three years.

All Kerala Govt Dept. Apps To Be Developed Through Startups Only

The Kerala government has instructed its departments to utilise the services of startups registered in the state or cleared by its Kerala Start Up Mission (KSUM) for coming up with some easy to navigate but fun mobile apps for all their official projects.

The order issued by the Kerala state government dictates that the government has officially sanctioned direct purchase of mobile applications from startups who have found a mention in the list cleared by KSUM up to a cost of Rs 5 Lakhs. A purchasing officer is not allowed to buy more than two mobile applications in a given financial year from one KSUM registered/cleared startup.

Other Important News

Apart from these, there were some other happening which grabbed the attention. During a recent visit to the Indian subcontinent, Simon Galpin, Managing Director, Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) revealed that kingdom’s plan to set up a fntech Centre in India by next year.

Another development comes from PayTM Mall. The firm is all set to invest $5 million to address needs of its partner retailers and to do so they have introduced Shopkeeper Inclusion Programme for them.

One of NASSCOM Center of Excellence,  IoT’s first incubated startups IoT Pot, an arm of IoK Labs Inc. has unveiled their first innovation on Indiegogo – Klove Knob; a product that promises to make cooking smart and safe. Klove Knob can be made to replace any conventional existing stove knob and needs no additional hardware to jump into action.

10 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [07– 12 August]

Missed the happening of startup world? Here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 10 news which made headlines this week:

Softbank Pumps In $1.1 Bn In Indian Origin Entrepreneur’s BioTech Startup

Roivant Sciences, a biotech firm founded by 32-year-old Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has bagged $1.1 billion equity investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. This investment, which includes existing shareholder participation, is intended to accelerate the launch of new subsidiaries within and beyond the biopharmaceutical industry.

Roivant is dedicated to transformative innovation in healthcare. Startup focuses on realizing the full potential of promising biomedical research by developing and commercializing novel therapies across diverse therapeutic areas. It focuses on five different subsidiaries areas which include Axovant (neurology), Myovant (women’s health and endocrine diseases), Dermavant (dermatology), Enzyvant (rare diseases), and Urovant (urology).

Homegrown E-commerce Giant Flipkart Bags $2.5 Bn From Softbank

Here comes the biggest announcement from the Flipkart house. The homegrown e-commerce major has bagged around $2.5 billion from Japanese telecom and internet giant SoftBank, marking it the largest-ever investment in an online Indian company.

According to TOI, this freshly infused fund has extended the size of Flipkart's financing round, which was announced this April, to $4 billion. Flipkart will now be valued at $14.2 billion,  boosting its firepower in its battle with Amazon in the online retail market.

Ivanka Trump Is All Set To Lead Us Delegation For Entrepreneurship Summit In India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the series of tweets announced that India and US will be co-hosting the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Hyderabad from November 28, 2017. The event which will be organised by the NITI Aayog in coordination with Ministry of External Affairs will witness the presence of US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka who will be leading the American delegation.

Ivanka presence was confirmed by Donald Trump through a tweet where he said, “@IvankaTrump will lead the US delegation to India this fall, supporting women’s entrepreneurship globally. #GES2017 @narendramodi.”Later on, Ivanka retweeted Modi tweet and tweeted “Honored to lead the US delegation to #GES2017 in India & meet with Prime Minister Modi & passionate entrepreneurs from around the globe!”

Later on, Ivanka retweeted Modi tweet and tweeted “Honored to lead the US delegation to #GES2017 in India & meet with Prime Minister Modi & passionate entrepreneurs from around the globe!”

World’s Biggest Fintech Hub To Open In Vishakhapatnam, India

Singapore-based Lattice80, which boost to be the world’s largest fintech hub is now coming to India. Expected to go live by next month, the Indian office is a part of the firm’s global expansion plans.

According to Joe Seunghyun Cho, CEO, Lattice80, the fintech hub is contemplating opening the office in Visakhapatnam and is currently in the midst of negotiations with 30 tenants for the 30,000 square-foot space, which is about 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Bengaluru. The hub will be able to host as many as 100 tech startups at a time.

San Francisco Based Coinbase Becomes First Bitcoin Based ‘Unicorn’ Startup

San Francisco-based Coinbase has recently become the first Bitcoin startup to enter the unicorn startup club after it successfully raised a whopping $100 million at a private valuation of $1.6 billion that includes the capital raised. The investment round saw the participation of Draper Associates, Greylock Partners, Battery Ventures, Section 32 and Spark Capital, and was led by venture capital firm Institutional Venture Partners.

Founded in 2012, Coinbase achieved its unicorn status in just five years. During its half a decade journey, the startup which began as a simple Bitcoin wallet service has progressed on and ventured into brokerage space, opening online exchanges where traders can sell or swap crypto coins.

SEBI Sent Notice To 6 Angel Firms

Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has sent notices to at least six angel firms in one-and-a-half months asking them for details of their business. However, the names of these angel investment firms are not yet out in public domain. SEBI’s primary queries are — Who are people behind these angel networks? How do they raise these funds? Are they acting like unauthorized stock exchanges?

In the last couple of years lot of amateurish people better be called as ‘Startup Brokers’ are creating companies on Facebook (create Facebook pages) and present them as angel firms (which they are not) to budding entrepreneurs and newly formed startups. They, however, act as platform or matchmakers for startups to raise funds.IAN Signs MoU With BIRAC To Support Biotechnology Startups

IAN Signs MoU With BIRAC To Support Biotechnology Startups

Indian Angel Network (IAN) has announced the signing of a MoU with Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). This partnership brings the biotechnology startups closer to angel investors, who apart from money will provide invaluable mentoring and global market access.

BIRAC a Public Sector Undertaking of Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Government of India, is an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprises in India. BIRAC enables enterprises and startups to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.

DIPP Recognize Over 2100 Startups Since Startup India Launch

According to government data, over 2196 new ventures in India have been recognised by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) since the launch of Startup India programme in January 2016.

DIPP recognition means comparatively easy patent filing process and credit availability for the recognised startups. The data made available by the government highlights that the country saw an encouraging increase in the registrations of startups ever since the DIPP made some small tweaks in the definition of what qualifies as a startup in India in May this year. One of the most prominent changes made in the definition which helped DIPP register a huge increase in startup registrations was DIPP’s decision to do away with the compulsory recommendation letter needed from an incubator.

Acquisitions Of Tech Startups Gone Down Dramatically In 2017 Globally

According to the report by TechCrunch, just 17 ‘well-funded’ private technology companies were acquired for more than $100 million so far in the year 2017. If we compare this figures with last year, the same number were sold with valuations of $500 million or more.

If we look at the deals, by the end of July 2017, there’s been only one big ‘unicorn’ ($1 billion valuations) deal that is Cisco’s $3.7 billion purchase of AppDynamics. Whereas in 2016 there were six such deals. This number clearly states the slowdown in the tech acquisition.

India Holds 43% of Global IoT Market, Says Report

A recent report by research and strategy consultancy Zinnov Zones has highlighted that the Indian subcontinent holds a 43 percent of the global Internet of Things (IoT) market. After India’s first position, the second position is occupied by Western Europe with 27 percent and North America with 23 per cent.

According to the research report, Indian information technology (IT) services companies now own about two-fifth of the global IoT market, which comes out at $1.5 billion of the global $3.5 bn market. The report noted that Bengaluru city was deemed as the top location in India for IoT processes.

Other Important News

Online learning platform Unacademy has announced the appointment of Bhavin Turakhia, co-founder of Directi, on its Board as a Director. Bhavin will contribute to Unacademy’s overall business strategy and vision of democratizing educational content.

Manmohan Agarwal, the seasoned Entrepreneur, who introduced India to the world of fashion e-commerce with his brainchild Yebhi.com has unveiled his second venture, Truxapp. In a short span of two years, the company has become a well-established name within the Indian Tech-Logistics industry.

A startup from IIT-Madras has bagged a whopping million dollar deal from a Singapore-based company. The order involves transferring technology used by Merkel Haptics’ first two products — “Laparoscopy Surgical Simulator with Haptics Feedback” and “In-Vitro Fertilisation Training Simulation with Haptics Feedback.”

10 Startup News That Made Headline This Week [24 - 29 July]

Missed the happening of startup world? Here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 10 news which made headlines this week:

Snapdeal Board Gives Green Signal For FreeCharge Sale To Axis Bank

This week finally saw the sale of FreeCharge, Snapdeal’s digital payments platform to country’s third-largest private sector lender, Axis Bank. The sale marks the end of a two-year long process where numerous buyers came forward to pitch their bid for FreeCharge. According to a media report, the deal could end up valuing FreeCharge somewhere between Rs 385 crore-Rs 390 crores, which would be a steep plunge from the Rs 2,400 crore figure that Jasper Infotech paid in the year 2015 to acquire the company. The report further revealed that an official announcement on the sale could be made anytime now.

If sources to be believed, the Snapdeal board has also given a go ahead to Flipkart’s revised offer for Snapdeal and an official announcement on the same can also be made within the upcoming week.

FIR Filed Against Startup Founder For Misusing Aadhaar

The organisation administering Aadhaar, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has recently filed an official police complaint against the Abhinav Srivastava, co-founder of a mobile payment startup, Qarth Technologies accusing him of misusing Aadhaar data from its website. According to the FIR, Srivastava is accused of giving out e-KYC and misusing data from the Aadhaar’s official website via a mobile application that he had created.

According to a report in the Hindu, the complaint filed with the Bengaluru Police was registered by Ashok Lenin the Deputy Director at the UIDAI Regional Office in Bengaluru. According to the FIR, Srivastava has been booked under Section 29(2) of the Aadhaar act which restricts sharing Aadhaar data with others. In addition to that, he has also been booked under Sections 65 and 66 of the IT act and Sections 468 and 471 for forgery with Section 120(B) for conspiracy.

Google Launches AI Studios For Startups

The Google’s Launchpad has announced a new hands-on studio program that would help AI startups with resources that would help them kickstart their company’s journey to success and scale to new heights. Launchpad with its AI studio aims to solve all the problems for AI Startups and provide them with a level field with other startups to progress and achieve momentum success. It plans to achieve this by making them available with specialized data sets, prototyping assistance and simulation tools. Another major attraction of the Launchpad Studio is that the selected AI startups will get unlimited access to Google’s top notch talent, including IP experts, product specialists and engineers.

Nemo Care Ends Israel’s Search For Women-Led Tech Startups In India

Hyderabad-based Nemo Care, the winner of the fifth edition of the Start TLV Competition along with the five women-led startups will represent India at Start Tel Aviv workshop in Israel this year.
At the Start TLV ‘boost camp’, Pratyusha Pareddy, co-founder, Nemo Care will join local Israeli entrepreneurs and participate in lectures, workshops, and meetings with leading Israeli and international investors and professionals.

Start TLV is a global annual event organised by Israeli MFA and Tel Aviv Municipality. The competition is the platform to support women entrepreneurs in the country to accelerate their startup growth. In order to search India’s upcoming women-led tech startups with a social impact, the Embassy of Israel had joined hands with the Indian government’s Startup India programme, TiE-NCR, YES Bank, YES Global Institute and CNBC-TV18.

Facebook Acquires US Based Startup Source3

Social networking giant Facebook has recently acquired US-based startup Source3 to help the tech giant in its battle against pirated content on its social networking platform. Source3 has built successful licensing platforms powering digital music, user-generated videos and 3D printing. It offers scalable, turnkey solutions for today’s global licensing challenges.

The New York-headquartered startup claims to be the world’s first platform for end-to-end management of intellectual property in user-generated content (UGC). It provides IP recognition, licensing and rights administration services to connect creators, marketplaces and brands and enable monetization of user content across physical and digital products.

Paytm Mall Limits Delivery To 17k Pin Codes; Delists 50% Logistic Partners

Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt Ltd has delisted 50% logistics partners, stopping deliveries to more than 9,000 pin codes out of 26,000 were guaranteed assistance in returns and replacements was not assured. Based on this audit, the company has delisted 6 out of 14 logistic partners and 30 courier aggregation centres, as they were unable to offer a consistently superior consumer experience. The company aims to establish a reliable logistics ecosystem with greater transparency in delivery and replacement timelines while ensuring that exact products are delivered in a good condition.

In another development, Indian e-wallet giant Paytm has recently revealed that it has joined hands with online lottery company AGTech Media, which has the backing of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, to make mobile games in the Indian subcontinent.
According to information available, both the companies have decided to jointly put in about $16 million capital in the new company.

Not IITs, Zoho Is Massively Hiring High School Graduates

Zoho, a Chennai-based software firm founded the Zoho University (ZU) initiative. The University, which took birth 12 years ago in 2005, trains turns software programmers out of high-school graduates and then hires them for roles at salaries on par with engineering graduates. The initiative’s more than a decade old life is the testimonial of its success and popularity among the Indian youth.

In today’s times, when India is finally waking up to the fact of shortage of quality engineering talent in the country, accompanied by the proliferation of automation and advanced technologies, Zoho’s University model is gaining a lot of traction.

Lendingkart Group Appoints Two New Vice Presidents

Lendingkart Group has made two significant appointments to strengthen its leadership team. Utsav Mehrotra, formerly an investment banker with Axis Capital, has joined as Vice President of Capital Markets taking charge of fundraising and marketplace initiatives. Abhishek Arora, who was earlier heading the seller management & growth vertical at e-commerce unicorn in Middle-East and North Africa (MENA) region – Souq.com, has come on board as Vice President of Revenue & Operations.

MTV To Air India’s First Reality Show For College Dropouts

Finally, here is the announcement of the reality show by veterans Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman which will help the truants of the country to achieve their startup dreams. The show called Droom.in presents MTV Dropout Pvt. Ltd. will premiere on July 29 at 7 pm on MTV and next day onwards on VOOT. The show has been created by Monozygotic and co-developed by MTV and Monozygotic. The show will help in identifying college ‘dropouts’ with real entrepreneurial potential and transform their lives forever by helping them setup their own startup journey.

The shortlisted talents will be groomed and mentored by some of the biggest names in the industry through a trials-by-fire method where the contestants will have to solve their way out of real-world business problems in a short span of time and prove their hunger for their entrepreneurial dream.

Singapore’s Prestellar Ventures Launches $100 Mn VC Fund

Prestellar Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, launched a $100 million venture capital fund backed by four general partners (‘GPs’) – CG Corp Global (Nepal’s sole Forbes-listed billion-dollar enterprise), Satin Creditcare (the third largest Microfinance Institution in India), Frontline Strategy (a private-equity firm in Mauritius) and N.E. Group (a family conglomerate in Nepal).

The fund seeks to partner with passionate entrepreneurs and disruptive startups across South Asia and ASEAN in the Hospitality, Consumer, Financial Services, Rural Product and Services sectors, typically in ‘Pre-Series A’ deals with a cheque size of approximately $2-3 million. The firm is seeking to raise and deploy country specific sub-funds across the South Asia region-more specifically India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Other Important News

Apart from these startups news, there were other important headlines which grabbed the eyeballs of the readers. Paytm has appointed Kiran Vasireddy as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for its payments business. Going forward, Kiran will be overseeing all product and business functions for the payments division in line with its growth plan for bringing 500 million Indians into the mainstream economy.

On the other hand, Capillary Technologies, the Omni channel customer engagement and commerce platform, has appointed Ganesh Lakshminarayanan as the new COO of the company.

Jugnoo, hyperlocal startup, is all set to create its footprints in the South Korean market. The B2B offering of the company, Tookan has been selected as one of the top three finalists to participate in K-Startup Grand Challenge – a 4 month accelerator programme, organised by the Korean government.  Jugnoo is selected from the 70 Indian Startups that auditioned for the challenge becoming 1 of the top 3 finalists making it a big achievement for the team.

Lastly,  Awfis Space Solutions has launched its first community workplace in Pune at Baner.

12 Startup News That Made Headline This Week

Missed the happening of startup world? Here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 12 news which made buzz during in the week gone by.

The Early Stage Investment Arm Airbus To Set Up VC Firm For Indian Startups

The early-stage investment arm of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, Airbus Ventures has informed to set up an independent investment arm in India. With this investment arm, the firm will infuse money in the aerospace and non-aerospace startups. The size of the India fund is yet to be disclosed. Airbus Ventures, which invests in seed and first round in the global aerospace ecosystem, have a corpus of $150 million. Till now the VC arm has put money in 13 startups across North America, Europe, Israel, and Japan.

RIL To Invest $25 Mn In Israel Based Tech Startup Incubator

India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has decided to invest a $ 25 million in Israel-based technology incubator, Jerusalem Innovation Incubator (JII). The tech incubator, which has been set up as a Limited Liability Partnership, will have RIL holding a 20 percent interest stake.As per the term of the partnership, JII will be using RIL’s money to invest in early stage startups in the country working in areas of big data, fintech, artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) etc.

ATA Carnet Insurance Policy Launches By FICCI for Startups and SMEs

Good news for startups and SME’s. Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) in association with The New India Assurance Company Limited (NIA), Besso Limited (London Insurance Brokers) and JB Boda Reinsurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd (JBBRIB), Mumbai launched an Insurance Policy on ATA Carnet for the benefit of Startups and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in India. The objective of this insurance policy is to facilitate Insurance cover for Startups and SMEs in lieu of Cash Deposit or Bank Guarantee against the issuance of ATA Carnets.

Freshworks Acquires Gurgaon Based Chatbot Startup Joe Hukum

Chennai-based Freshworks has acquired Gurgaon-based Joe Hukum, a platform that helps businesses build their own chatbots. The deal amount, however, has remained undisclosed.

Founded in July 2015 by ex-Healthkart employees – Arihant Jain, Ajeet Singh Kushwaha and Rahul Agarwal, JoeHukum is a chat-based order taking and fulfilment platform that offers services like local shopping, pick and drop, food, repairs, movie/ event tickets, travel, restaurant reservations, taxi, flowers, cakes, recharge, bill payments and groceries, among others.

NIELIT Launches Initiative To Encourage Women Entrepreneurship

The National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), a body with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has launched a unique initiative ‘Saksham– Power of She’ aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among women under Digital India.

In this unique initiative, over 200 female students from NIELIT Centres spread across different geographical locations participated through the Smart Virtual Classrooms that facilitates live interactive session through Video Conference.

Startup Cricket League Launches To Unite Indian Entrepreneurs

Memilog, a Hyderabad based startup launched Startup Cricket League to unite entrepreneurs and all other stakeholders of Indian startup ecosystem through the medium of the most popular sport in India, cricket which is just a binding factor.

A SCL bat also was designed to capture the signature imprints of the respective startup team captains as an invaluable memory to cherish henceforth. Startup Cricket League (SCL) became the most happening thing to discuss. Presented by NASSCOM and Memilog together, it was one of the most novel ways to congregate the startup ecosystem in Hyderabad, which included several founders, investors, mentors and much more. It is one of the largest Informal Networking Platform for Entrepreneurs, Investors, Incubators, Accelerators and other Startup enablers.

Flipkart Board Might Have Approved Offer For Snapdeal Merger

There is speculation that Flipkart board has already approved the revised offer for Snapdeal. Weeks ago Snapdeal rejected Flipkart’s $850 million buyout offer from Snapdeal’s board felt that the offer made by the e-commerce leader undervalued the company. A latest Zeebiz report has claimed that the Flipkart board has already approved the revised offer for Snapdeal. It is being said that the new offer is likely to be around $1 billion. The report comes fresh on the lines of a news report claiming that SoftBank is considering investing $500 million in Flipkart. According to rumours going around, SoftBank is planning a $2 billion investment in Flipkart, as part of a primary funding.

emids Acquires Encore For An Undisclosed Amount

Global provider of IT services and solutions for the healthcare and life sciences industries, emids has acquired Encore Health Resources, a healthcare information analytics company focused on value-based care and electronic health records for providers. As healthcare providers and payers converge, today’s healthcare organizations have an increasing need for clinical and financial data to operate effectively in a value-based environment. This acquisition provides an opportunity for emids to address these needs for providers and complements the company’s existing expertise in the payer space.

CureFit Buys Bangalore’s Yoga Brand a1000yoga

Cure.fit, healthcare and wellness startup brand announced the acquisition of Bangalore’s leading yoga brand – a1000yoga. This acquisition consolidates Cure.fit’s offering in the fitness segment and is a leap towards establishing their existing brand Cult.fit as the largest, one-of-its-kind holistic fitness training facility in Bangalore by the end of this year. a1000yoga centres will be re-launched to incorporate the expansive offerings in the Cult.fit portfolio, while a1000yoga clients will get access to CULT’s workout offerings: Zumba, Strength and Conditioning, Yoga.

a1000yoga is Cure.fit’s third acquisition for their fitness vertical in less than a year after CULT and Tribe Fitness Centres, thereby complementing the brand’s philosophy of providing complete fitness through a combination of unique workouts without equipment.

Eatigo Acquires Ressy, Enters India

Eatigo, Southeast Asia’s restaurant reservation app announced that it is officially available to users in both Mumbai and Pune, India. The platform, which aims to connect empty tables with empty stomachs, offers discounts of up to 50% throughout the day at all of its participating outlets and enables users to make fuss-free reservations at more than 2,000 restaurants across Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

As part of its expansion strategy in India, eatigo signed an Asset Purchase Agreement in April 2017 to acquire the operations of Ressy, an Indian online restaurant reservation platform.

iFuture Robotics Selected For 2nd Cohort of Europe’s Kickstart Accelerator Programme

Kickstart Accelerator, one of Europe’s largest multi-corporate, zero-equity technology accelerators, has announced its shortlist of 30 startups for its second cohort. The startups will take part in an 11-week programme, from 4 September to 17 November 2017, and will be divided into the four verticals based in Zurich – FinTech (10), Food (6), Smart Cities and Robotics (9) & Intelligent Systems (5). Bengaluru-based iFuture Robotics is among these 30 shortlisted startups (in Robotics vertical) which made it through and is only Indian startup for this programme of 2017.

10 Startup News That Made Buzz In The Week Gone By [10 - 15 July]

Missed the happening of startup world? Here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 10 news which made buzz during in the week gone by.

Bengaluru Based Gaming Startup IONA Entertainment Bags Investment From Chris Gayle

West Indies cricketer, Chris Gayle has invested an undisclosed amount in IONA Entertainment, a Bengaluru-based gaming startup. founded in 2016 by TS Subramanian and Preetha, IONA is a one-stop entertainment to Indian sports fans, which includes state-of-the-art virtual gaming. The startup had earlier raised an initial round of funding from Singapore-based Vestasia. For Gayle, India is his top priority in terms of investment destinations and wanted to invest as many businesses as possible.

Google Launches New Startup Programmes; Selects 11 Women Led Startups For Launchpad’s Build

The tech giant. Google has recently announced the expansion of its startup accelerator project Launchpad, bringing three other programmes under its umbrella — Start, Build and Scale. Under this initiative, Google India recently hosted a Developers’ Launchpad Build event in Bengaluru where they shortlisted and provided guidance to 11 women-led startups in Bengaluru. According to the Google Launchpad’s Event website, with this edition of Launchpad, they want to support women entrepreneurs from startups across various stages.

Delhi-based Startup Builds A Touch Screen Mirror With Wi-Fi Connectivity

Delhi-based startup Help Me Build Technologies Pvt Ltd. has developed an innovative touch screen smart mirror called  ‘Nuovo, that can do anything and everything with Wi-Fi connectivity and android phone. Nuovo ‘Smart Mirror’ can keep you updated with notifications from social sites like Facebook and Twitter. You can get the latest news from the leading publications, can also access YouTube videos, and even book cab through Uber. With the help of this, the user can control which app to be displayed on the mirror for easy access.

Finally, It's Official, PayTM Acquires OML’s Insider.in

The digital payment startup PayTM has acquired a majority stake in Insider.in, a ticketing platform. According to the sources, this deal is done for about 35 crores. Shreyas Srinivasan, Insider.in founder will continue running the business, while Only Much Louder (OML) founders and brothers Vijay and Ajay Nair will remain stakeholders and members of the advisory board. This acquisition will enable hundreds of millions of PayTM customers to discover a wide selection of events and book instantly.

Earlier owned by OML, Insider.in is one of the leading ticketing platforms in India for events and properties including for events and properties, including NH7 Weekender, EDC and The Grub Fest.

StartUp India Report: After 18 Months Only 39 Startups Qualified for Tax Benefit

According to a report by The Hindu, till March 2017, only around 10 Indian startups have been able to pass the eligibility for tax benefits. This takes the total number of startups actually benefitting from the programme to 39 since its launch 18 months ago in January  2016. In recently, concluded the budget session, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced alteration in the government’s policy on tax concessions for startups and said that only the firms incorporated on or after April 1, 2016, could now avail a three-year tax holiday in the first seven years of their existence.

According to experts, only a few startups have been able to pass the tax benefit eligibility criteria because not many corporate entities have been incorporated on or after that stringing cut-off date that the government has decided upon.

Google Acquires Indian Startup Halli Labs

Google’s growing interest in Indian startup ecosystem can be witnessed by this. Recently, tech giant acquired Halli Labs, an Indian startup working on solutions based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Based out of Bengaluru, Startup has been founded just four-months back by former Stayzilla employees. Over the past one year, Google has announced several services to better serve the untapped Indian market. The startup announced the news by a post on Medium, and Caesar Sengupta, a product management VP at Google, also confirmed the acquisition with a Tweet.

Early Stage Startup Funding Shrinks Sharply In 2017

This news comes as a major concern for Indian Startup ecosystem. According to the reports, the base of the startup funding pyramid is shrinking and this could severely impact the growth of startup ecosystem in India. According to the figures stated by Tracxn the number of angel and seed investments made in the first half of 2017 (January to June) is down to 260, indicating a drastic drop from 419 in the first half of 2016. Whereas, Seed funding has seen a steep decline from 278 to 152. The report further states, the total funding in 2017 at $5.1 billion is more than double that in 2016, at $2 billion and ecosystem get this number because of the two big funding rounds of $1.4 billion each in Flipkart and Paytm.

Startup Tools Launched By Microsoft

Microsoft recently unveiled three new tools that would help small businesses and startups to grow at a rapid pace. The three new tools: Microsoft Connections, Microsoft Listings and Microsoft Invoicing will be a great addition to the company’s existing rack of tools like the Outlook Customer Manager and Microsoft Bookings. The main idea behind launching the three tools is to make Microsoft users more involved in its Office 365 ecosystem. In order to make it available to people, the company has decided to make the tools available free of cost through Microsoft’s Office 365 First Release program.

Acquisition Talk: Snapdeal’s Logistic Arm Vulcan To Be Acquired By Gati, TVS

The logistics arm of online marketplace Snapdeal, Vulcan Express in talks with express distribution and supply-chain companies, Gati, Peepul Capital and TVS Logistics for its acquisition. The companies have shown their interest to acquire Vulcan Express. From this acquisition, Snapdeal is expecting Vulcan Express to fetch Rs 90-120 crore, which could take place over the next 60 days.

Sachin Tendulkar Backed Smarton To Acquire New IoT Startups

Smartron is planning to spend Rs 300 crore for acquiring new companies to complete IoT play in India. According to the company’s top executive, Smartron will spend money towards acquisition of new firms in the area of healthcare, smart homes, energy and infrastructure. The startup is taking this step to broaden its IoT product portfolio in India. Founded in 2004 by Mahesh Lingareddy, the company further plans to invest Rs 1,500 crore over the next three years towards setting up R&D, engineering, manufacturing and data centre facilities.

The company had earlier acquired Volta Motors, a Chennai-based automotive player that manufactures electric vehicles.

Other Important News

Apart from these startups news, there were other important headlines which grabbed the eyeballs of the readers. The parent company of Google and several former Google subsidiaries, Alphabet has officially launched a new firm, Gradient Ventures within Google that will invest in early-stage AI startups.

Recently, iKeva had launched 2 new centres – 175 seats secured co-working space in Sector 44, Gurugram’s Premium location and another 165 seaters in Mumbai.

Apart from these two, another news which made the buzz was iVOOMi, Chinese electronic major announcing its strategic alliance with the e-commerce giant Flipkart, to capitalize on latter’s Market Intelligence support, in order to extensively penetrate into Tier – 2,3 & 4 cities in India.