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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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