2020 has been a year of disruption. On top of an already slowing regional economy, Asia Pacific businesses also face the major challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. The situation could wipe off $211 Bn from economies this year, as they slow down in response. Hence, the Asia Pacific business landscape we are familiar with no longer exists, and the one that emerges during the recovery will be different as well.

The game rules for data analytics have changed, too. Businesses have to redefine the speed, accuracy and location with which they track, analyse and utilise data. Pre-defined queries, based on conditions of the past, will become less useful in an ever-changing business world. Hence, companies need the absolute freedom to ask any question about their data but there is rarely time to stop and ‘go do analytics’.

Delight Customers, Stay Resilient, Emerge Stronger

Let us examine this through the example of an Indian food retailer, which is experiencing less footfall in its brick and mortar stores due to the pandemic. As a response, it ramps up its online presence and offers home deliveries. There are a few ways embedded analytics can help the retailer optimise operations and boost business.

To adapt to new buying patterns, the retailer embeds analytics into the inventory applications at the branch layer. When checking stock levels, branch managers automatically get insights on what items are selling more, so that they can better decide what to promote and what to stock up on for the week. They don’t have to wait for someone else in the organisation to tell them; they can access these insights and immediately decide themselves. That’s pretty empowering, more efficient and customer-focused.

Then there’s the new delivery fleet in response to increasing online orders and home deliveries. Instead of monitoring the fleet and directing movements from a centralised control centre, the retailer embeds analytics into the fleet management software at the branches, giving staff more control over delivery times. They now know which drivers will become available and can prepare the orders just in time for the delivery schedules. The branches – and, by nature, the entire business – will become more responsive to customers and agile to changes in the market.

On an end-user level, the retailer can embed analytics into the app which consumers use to order their groceries. Visualisations or dashboards analysing the order history could show consumers when their favourite foods will be back in stock or on promotion, and which other items would complement them – inspiring them to cook a new dish they like and not forget that essential item. This way, the F&B retailer goes beyond just selling products to influencing consumers’ lifestyle, jumpstarting their quality of life with meaningful brand interactions.

With embedded analytics, the retailer will be in a better position to weather disruptions and forecast future demand. Consumers might continue to order online or consume different products. Whatever the changes, embedded analytics can give the retailer the immediate insights it needs today to adapt to the Asia Pacific market of tomorrow.

Turn Disruption Into Transformation

While 2020 is a year of disruption, it can also become a year of transformation, especially for those businesses using embedded analytics. Their ability to uncover the data secrets and make the right decisions intuitively puts them into a better position to break previous assumptions that worked before, find new opportunities within this new landscape and create exceptional customer experiences – emerging stronger and more resilient after all this is finally over.

The post Moving Into 2021: How Embedded Analytics Can Help Indian Businesses Mitigate Pandemic’s Impact appeared first on Inc42 Media.

BYJU’S-owned online coding platform WhiteHat Jr’s CEO and founder Karan Bajaj, on Saturday (November 21), filed an INR 20 Cr ($2.6 Mn) defamation case against software engineer Pradeep Poonia, who goes by the name WhiteHatSnr on Twitter. Poonia will have to present in Delhi high court on Monday (November 22, 2020) in this matter.

The defamation notice sent to Poonia, accessed by Inc42, has highlighted that the defendant was in violation of the Trade Marks Act of 199, The Copyright Act of 1957 and Code of Civil Procedure of 1908. The case has been filed for “Infringement of Registered and Unregistered Trademarks.”

The case has been filed with respect to the “defamatory comments” made by Poonia about WhiteHat Jr. The company, WhiteHat Jr & Anr represented by Fidus Law Chambers, has accused the defendant of trademark infringement, passing off and dilution of trademarks, copyright infringement, and the torts of inducing breach of contract. Besides this, Poonia has also been accused of mischief as also an invasion of privacy of the company and its employees.

The notice specified that Poonia started this defamation spree in early September by making comments on WhiteHat Jr’s advertisements concerning an imaginary child “Wolf Gupta”, a teen who landed a job in Google. “The Defendant’s posts quickly turned sinister subsequent to the withdrawal of the advertisements, with the defendant claiming that Plaintiff No. 1 [WhiteHat Jr] had “murdered” Wolf Gupta,” the notice read.

WhiteHat Jr had also issued a takedown notice against Poonia, which he adhered to the notice highlighted. But soon Poonia allegedly launched a “systematic and highly defamatory attack” against the WhiteHat Jr “even resorting to acts which are brazenly illegal and thereafter making wild and baseless  allegations against the Plaintiffs.”

The company has also accused Poonia of hacking into WhiteHat Jr’s internal business communications platform, SLACK, to access confidential employee communications, including communications with parents (customers) and put them up in the public domain.

2. #WhiteHatJr entire ORM team jumps on the tweets of the already frustrated and suicidal girl & starts reporting it from their personal accounts as well & within hours by 4am puts a temp restriction on her tweets
For reference, Nikhil Mittal is Marketing VP of #WhiteHatJrScam pic.twitter.com/0JDgO7hV5z

— Pradeep Poonia (@whiteHatSnr) November 13, 2020

This claim was in reference to Poonia’s tweet thread, highlighting how whiteHat Jr’s ORM team handled any negative comments against the company on the internet. The thread had also highlighted internal communications of the company talking about angel investor Aniruddha Malmani’s and Morning Context’s writer Abhishek Baxi’s tweets.

You can go through the legal notice here.

The development comes after coding for kids’ platform Tekie accused WhiteHat Jr. of using unethical tactics to understand and copy their model of teaching. Tekie cofounder Naman Mukund alleged that an employee of WhiteHat Jr, impersonated a grade six student’s persona to attend Tekie’s trial class.

“We encountered a suspicious session, where the student had their camera turned off, and the voice from their side sounded almost like a 30-year-old adult,” Naman Mukund, cofounder of Tekie said in a Linkedin post.

The post WhiteHat Jr’s CEO Files $2.6 Mn Defamation Suit Against Software Engineer Pradeep Poonia appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-based milk delivery startup Country Delight has raised $25 Mn in a Series C round led by Elevation Capital. Existing backers Matrix Partners, Orios Venture Partners and IIFL PE Fund also participated in the funding round.

With an aim to revolutionise milk consumption in India, Country Delight was founded in 2015 by Chakradhar Gade and Nitin Kaushal. It provides locally sourced, natural, cow, buffalo milk, bread, ghee, and paneer to customer doorsteps directly to the consumer’s doorstep.

The startup plans to use the funds to launch food essentials such as fruits and vegetables, cold-pressed edible oils, wheat, batters, pulses, spices, pickles, and jams, in the next 6-9 months.

The company is operational in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, and Mumbai and plans to launch its Chennai operations in the next three weeks.

“Technology plays a very big role in building quality traceability and supply chain at scale – all of this while staying very capital efficient. We want to give our customers the best quality products, at the lowest possible price and directly to their doorstep,” Gade said.

Country Delight sources its produce from its network of 500 farmers within a 150-200 km radius. It claims to serve 1.5 Mn customers and fulfil close to 3 Mn orders a month, Gade said.

In February 2019, Country Delight had raised $9.8 Mn in equity financing from venture capital firm, existing investors Matrix Partners Existing investor Orios Venture Partners had also participated in that round.

In January Country Delight had raised $7 Mn -$10 Mn in a Series B funding round which was also led by Matrix Partners.

“The company has a truly unique business model and is one of the few consumer businesses in India with phenomenal retention metrics,” Deepak Gaur, Partner, Elevation Capital, told ET.

Avnish Bajaj, managing director, Matrix India, said, “The business has expanded into fresh food, and the resilience of the full stack and digital-first business model was evident during the recent Covid-19 disruption with an acceleration in the growth of the business.”  

Country Delight competes with Milkbasket, DailyNinja among other players in the highly competitive milktech segment. 

Milking The High Demand

Statistically, India accounts for 1/5th of global milk production, making it the world’s largest producer, but the bulk of consumption is domestic. According to the latest report by market research firm IMARC Group, the dairy market in India reached a value of Rs. 10,527 billion in 2019. The expected CAGR is 15% over the next few years.

In the recent past, investors have started to shift their focus on milktech startups. Gurugram-headquartered hyperlocal delivery startup Milkbasket in July last year raised $2.17 Mn debt from Innoven Capital. This effectively closed the company’s Series B funding round at $12.7 Mn. 

The micro delivery startup in September also went in advanced talks with private equity funds to raise $50 Mn in Series C round.

The post Dairy Tech Startup Country Delight Raises $25 Mn To Enter Grocery Delivery appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar could receive an investment in the range of $50-100 Mn from Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), an early-stage fund anchored by Abu Dhabi’s state entity ADQ and managed by Falcon Edge Capital, a New York-based venture capital and hedge fund. 

The new funding could value the parent company of the Indian insurance tech unicorn, ETechAces Marketing and Consulting at $2 Bn, up from $1.5 Bn for its last funding round. ETechAces also operates the online lending marketplace PaisaBazaar.

In July, PolicyBazaar had raised $130 Mn from Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Vision Fund, in exchange for a 15% stake in the company. That investment was a mix of pre-decided primary infusion of capital into the company of about $50 Mn and the purchase of shares worth $80 Mn. 

Founded in 2008 by IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad alumni Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar, PolicyBazaar is an online platform allowing users to purchase insurance policies, ranging from life insurance to car insurance and even two-wheeler insurance. The startup does this as it features products from all major insurance companies in India, to help its users decide the policy which suits them the best.

According to a report in the Economic Times, which first reported the development, the upcoming funding would be a mix of secondary and primary capital. Further, AWI has already acquired shares in PolicyBazaar worth $20 Mn from one of its existing investors, True North, a private equity fund. 

The funding from AWI is likely part of a larger funding round. In July, PolicyBazaar’s co-founder Yashish Dahiya had told Bloomberg that the startup was planning to raise $250 Mn in a round of financing at a valuation of $2 Bn, before issuing its initial public offering (IPO) in September 2021. 

PolicyBazaar is planning to go public next year, at a valuation of more than $3.5 Bn. If and when it happens, it will become India’s first unicorn to debut on the stock market. 

According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, insurance penetration in India is as low as 4%. Moreover, only 3% of all insurance is bought online in India in an $80 Bn market. It is to be noted that while India’s insurtech market is growing, the addressable market base is not growing as rapidly owing to the slow adoption for digital insurance services in non-urban areas. 

The post PolicyBazaar To Raise At Least $50 Mn From Alpha Wave Incubation appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Tech policy groups and civil societies are reportedly planning to write a letter to Meenakshi Lekhi, the chairperson of the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) on the personal data protection bill (PDP) to seek wider consultations on the policy and related issues.

Groups like Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC) India have already written to Lekhi to call them and other tech policy groups for consultations. Few others are likely to send in their letter over the next week.

In its letter, SFLC India has said that while others were given a chance for appearance, civil societies haven’t been called for oral consultations by JPC.

“Through this letter, we sincerely hope that the Joint Parliamentary Committee, under your chairpersonship, will invite civil society organisations that defend rights of citizens in the digital space for consultation on the draft Data Protection Bill,” SFLC said in its letter to Lekhi.

However, JPC may not call tech policy groups or civil societies for consultations as they are likely to move to clause by clause consultation and discussion from the next meeting onward, sources told Indian Express.

“The committee wants to wrap up consultations as soon as possible and submit its recommendations so that the bill is given a final shape. It may not be possible to invite more stakeholders for face-to-face consultations,” a senior government official said.

The Committee recently said that it has completed its discussion on more than 50 out of the total 98 clauses in the bill.

After Facebook, Twitter and Amazon, the committee has now invited CYBLE, PayPal Payments, Mastercard India Services, iSPRIT Foundation, Visa Consolidated Supported Services for discussion in its next meetings. 

The PDP Bill, 2019, which is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the Budget session 2021 seeks to ensure that the personal data of Indian citizens are safeguarded and not stored overseas.

Criticism Of PDP Bill

Section 35 of the bill gives the Union government the power to issue reasoned orders exempting any government agency from the application of any/all provisions of the bill for reasons listed in the provisions. Further, Section 36 of the bill allows for certain exemptions in complying with the various provisions, in the interest of prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of any offence.

The two clauses in the bill have been flagged by opposition members and domain experts for expanding the scope of exemptions while diluting important safeguards. 

A committee of experts under the chairmanship of Justice BN Srikrishna, in its report titled, ‘A Free and Fair Digital Economy, Protecting Privacy, Empowering Indians’, submitted to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in 2018, had noted the importance of ensuring, “the pillars of data protection are not shaken by a vague and nebulous national security exception.”

The post Tech Policy Groups Seek Wider Consultation On Data Protection Bill appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Software Engineer Pradeep Poonia, who was slapped with a $2.6 Mn (INR 20 Cr) defamation notice from WhiteHat Jr’s CEO and founder Karan Bajaj, has been restrained from downloading any curriculum from WhiteHat Jr and circulating it to third parties. Besides this, Poonia has been restrained from commenting on the number or quality of teachers of WhiteHatJr and from commenting on their educational or other professional backgrounds.

“Who is stopping you from a healthy discussion? They have a registered trademark. You are saying that their teachers are housewives, are you saying they are uneducated persons? How can you be so derogatory towards them? Of Course this is defamation,” the Delhi high court said.

Meanwhile, the court pulled up Poonia for sharing the name and numbers of lawyers who have filed the suit in the public domain, and hacking or unauthorisedly accessing the internal communication platform SLACK and displaying communication between WhiteHat’s employees on his YouTube channel.

Bajaj had also claimed that Poonia has his personal account’s password and has been misusing, while Poonia said that he did not use the password. The high court has also asked for the specific URLs to be taken down from his YouTube handle Pradeep Poonia 3.0.

This claim was in reference to Poonia’s tweet thread and videos, highlighting how whiteHat Jr’s ORM team handled any negative comments against the company on the internet. The thread had also highlighted internal communications of the company talking about angel investor Aniruddha Malmani’s and Morning Context’s writer Abhishek Baxi’s tweets.

BYJU’S-owned coding platform WhiteHat Jr has maintained that it is “all for freedom of speech”, while seeking an injunction into a takedown of critic Poonia. The software engineer has been using his Twitter handle (@whiteHatSnr) and YouTube and Reddit to allege the edtech startup of various unethical practices.

“We are not saying that Mr. Poonia cannot state anything at all,” WhiteHat Jr’s CEO and founder Karan Bajaj told the Delhi high court. The defamation notice sent to Poonia, accessed by Inc42, has highlighted that the defendant was in violation of the Trade Marks Act, 1999; Copyright Act, 1957 and Code of Civil Procedure, 1908. The case has been filed for “Infringement of Registered and Unregistered Trademarks.”

Arguing the case in Delhi HC, Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi representing Bajaj said that Poonia has made a Telegram account named WhiteHat Poonia and another account called WhiteHat Sr on another platform, thereby infringing on the company’s trademark.

Besides this, he also highlighted that Poonia has made certain below-the-belt remarks against WhiteHat Jr by equating their business to “sexual abuse” of children as the kids will have “lifelong issue” after being forced into the coding classes.

Meanwhile, advocate Swathi Sukumar, representing Poonia, highlighted alleged bad business practices followed by WhiteHat Jr citing reports published by The Ken and Forbes. The reports have highlighted that WhiteHat Jr was promoting its application using a fictitious 13-year-old Wolf Gupta, who landed a INR 1.2 Cr job at Google because of his coding skills. The character also has a LinkedIn page and uses several advertisements, without any demarcation whether the character is fictional or otherwise.

“I am yet to come across any disclaimer till the date the plaint is filed, that Wolf Gupta is a fictional character. They are duping the public,” Sukumar said.

As the hearing began, Delhi HC observed, “There is a constant debate whether children should have such a heavy load. There is debate on whether children should have so many online classes, it’s an ongoing debate. But there is a difference between healthy discussions and defamation/attacking an individual… You are right that there are articles and it is a fictional imaginary child, which will undoubtedly have consequences on a child’s psychology.”

The post [Breaking] WhiteHat Jr Vs Poonia: HC Restrains Poonia From Commenting, Told To Take Down Posts appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Even as Aniruddha Malpani prepares for the upcoming legal battle with LinkedIn after being banned for allegedly criticising world’s most valued edtech company BYJU’S, the angel investor has been hit with a defamation lawsuit by BYJU’S-owned WhiteHat Jr.

The coding for kids platform has filed an INR 14 Cr ($1.9 Mn) defamation case against Malpani, seeking a permanent injunction restraining defamation, infringement of trademarks, unfair competition, damages and more. The legal notice, assessed by Inc42, has highlighted that Malpani was in violation of the Trade Marks Act of 1999 and the Code of Civil Procedure of 1908.

The lawsuit has alleged that Malpani has made several “derogatory imputations” about WhiteHat Jr in his tweets. These tweets are allegedly tarnishing the company’s trademarks, and amount to defamation and unfair competition.

The systematic harassment by #WhiteHatJr to try to silence honest criticism against them continues ! They have now filed a case against me, suing me for Rs 14 crores ! Fortunately for me, truth is a strong defence against an allegation of defamation !https://t.co/scGU6VGNg2

— Aniruddha Malpani (@malpani) November 23, 2020

The legal notice to Malpani follows the defamation suit filed by WhiteHat Jr against another critic Pradeep Poonia on November 21 (Saturday). The defamation notice sent to Poonia highlighted that the defendant was in violation of laws related to trademarks, copyrights as well as India’s Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

Explaining the “unfair competition” claims in the Malpani lawsuit, WhiteHat Jr has alleged that Malpani is an investor in Bibox, which targets the same class of consumers as WhiteHat Jr and claims to teach “entrepreneurship” and “innovation” to children. Meanwhile, WhiteHat Jr stated it solely focuses on coding as a skill for children between 8 and 14 years of age.

“The malicious intent underlying the Defendant’s systematic campaign against the Plaintiff is apparent in the attempts by Bibox Labs to discourage the parents of its target consumer base to send their children to coding classes (which is the Plaintiff’s primary service) and instead to enrol for the it’s programmes. Thus, instead of fairly competing on the strength of their service offerings, Defendant’s slanderous campaign is clearly targeted towards helping his investment acquire an unfair commercial edge in a fiercely competitive market at the cost of harming the Plaintiff’s reputation and hard earned goodwill.” the legal notice read.

WhiteHat Jr has also shared several instances where Malpani has allegedly made “derogatory demands” and has allegedly been in violation of the above-mentioned laws. One of these alleged derogatory remarks was on September 29, when Malpanu shared videos on third-party page called ‘WhiteHat Sr’ on LBRY with the caption “Deconstructing the #WhiteHatJr strategy for cheating parents” on his Twitter handle. The video has since been taken down.

Meanwhile, during the hearing of the company’s case against Poonia today, the defendant or Poonia has been restrained from downloading any curriculum from WhiteHat Jr and circulating it to third parties. Besides this, Poonia has been restrained from commenting on the number or the quality of teachers of WhiteHat Jr and from commenting on their educational or other professional backgrounds.

The post After Poonia, WhiteHat Jr Files $1.9 Mn Suit Against Angel Investor Aniruddha Malpani appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Airline catering service provider TajSats is planning to venture into home delivery of meals. This comes at a time when there is a drastic fall in air travel leading to the suspension of many flights.

The flight caterers are already reeling under a huge crisis due to the pandemic as their business has been badly hit since February.

“We have an aggressive growth plan to expand the portfolio and diversify into non-aviation catering. TajSats has also launched a new brand, Anuka, a multi-cuisine virtual restaurant available on the Qmin (Taj Hotels food delivery app) in Mumbai and Delhi. It will offer gourmet delight to guests in the comfort of their home,” said Manish Gupta, CEO of TajSats told TOI.

He further added that TajSats has also launched a new brand of chocolates (Asa) and Indian sweets (Ishri) which are going to be available throughout the year for retail sales on ecommerce platforms.

Before the pandemic, TajSats claims it was catering to over 3.7 lakh flights annually and serving more than 2.3 Cr meals in a year or over 67,000 meals served onboard daily.

The company provides in-flight catering at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa and Bengaluru.  

“The numbers have dropped as meals were not being served in airlines for the first six months of the lockdown. Meals onboard have started from September however with many restrictions like serving cold meals (on domestic flights), pre-plated meals to business class passengers and limited international flights operating. We expect the numbers to resume, once travelopens up,” he added.

Earlier, in May this year, the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) had joined hands with TajSATS to provide food to frontline Covid-19 workers including doctors and other healthcare professionals.

Under this initiative, the company provided financial assistance of about INR 64 lakh to TajSATS for supply of high quality and hygienic food to the doctors and medical staff of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi on daily basis for a period of 60 days beginning May 25.

The post After Ruling The Skies, TajSats Forays Into Home Delivery Of Food appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Over the last couple of years or so, hitherto retail-driven businesses have realised the gains to be made from an omnichannel approach. For those still unsure about the pivot, the onset of the pandemic meant that going online was paramount. For smaller players, this pivot was enabled by companies providing logistics, warehousing and other supply chain-related solutions to retail businesses. 

Although, much like the competition among online brands, the outlook for those providing back-end solutions to these businesses doesn’t paint a rosy picture. 

Snapdeal-owned startup Unicommerce, which provides businesses with cloud-based ecommerce supply chain solutions, competes with players such as Xpressbees, Delhivery and Shiprocket. After the profitable financial year 2018-19 (FY19) when it recorded a profit of INR 2.53 Cr, Unicommerce has slipped in the red in FY20, recording an after-tax loss of INR 3.56 Cr. 

According to the company’s filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) accessed by Inc42, Unicommerce recorded a revenue of INR 33.68 Cr in FY20, a 28% increase from last year’s revenue of INR 27.19 Cr. But during the same period, the company’s expenses grew 59%, from INR 23.36 Cr to INR 37.05 Cr, meaning a loss of INR 3.37 Cr for the company in the period, with a loss of INR 3.56 Cr after taxes. 

A Unicommerce spokesperson told Inc42 that the loss for the year was primarily due to a “one-time human capital-related expense which was done as part of the overall strategy to drive rapid business growth and international expansion.”

Indeed, among Unicommerce’s expenses, the employee benefits expense has grown the most, rising by 76% from INR 15.62 Cr in FY19 to INR 27.57 Cr in FY20. The employee expense grew primarily due to the company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) scheme, as stated in the financial statements. 

Depreciation, depletion and amortisation expenses stood at INR 28 Lakhs; other expenses, which include the company’s spending on rent, fuel, travel, advertising and legal services, stood at INR 9.19 Cr. 

Unicommerce’s financials claim that in spite of some headwinds in the last quarter of FY20 due to the pandemic, the overall revenue growth has been similar to the last couple of years at 25%, and its enterprise SaaS business (which contributes to 32% of the business) was growing at 80%.

“While we were EBITDA Negative in FY20, but if we exclude nonoperational costs such as ESOP costs etc., then we were EBITDA positive for FY20. We processed 168 Mn+ order items with GMV of $2.4 Bn+ and achieved $4.5 Mn in annual recurring revenue,” the statement said. 

How The Pandemic Pinched Unicommerce

It is worth mentioning that Unicommerce’s financials for FY20, ending March 31, 2020, don’t reflect the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the company’s business, since the effects of the lockdown-induced financial disruption began to be felt in ecommerce and other sectors starting late-March and continuing to date.

Disruptions to supply chains and logistics had become a common occurrence for most companies. From late-March till late-May, during the months of the hard lockdown, online marketplaces were not allowed to deliver non-essentials, which severely curtailed the earning potential for many retailers with an online presence. 

Talking about the performance amid the pandemic, a Unicommerce spokesperson claimed that the company had seen 300% growth in client acquisition in the last six months, compared to the same period last year. 

Elaborating on the reasons for the same, the spokesperson said, “The pandemic-related disruption has accelerated online expansion by both traditional and new-age brands, especially in verticals like FMCG and personal care.” 

Ecommerce Adoption Grows In 2020

Founded in 2012 by Karun Singla and Manish Gupta, Unicommerce enables manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retail chains, individual store owners and ecommerce sellers to automate their supply chain operations for online and offline business to sell more. 

In 2015, Unicommerce was acquired by Gurugram-headquartered ecommerce startup Snapdeal. 

Unicommerce claims it acquired 112 new enterprise clients during FY20 including BulBul TV, NetMeds, Urban Company, Times Internet, Hamilton V2 Retail and BlueDart in India and DHL Vietnam and YZBuyer in international markets. Its other clients include Myntra, Zivame; BestSeller, which owns brands such as Jack&Jones, Vero Moda and Only; House of Anita Dongre, which owns brands such as AND and Global Desi; and, TCNS, with brands such as W and Aurelia. 

The company claims that it processes over 20% of India’s e-commerce volume, amounting to more than $2.5 Bn GMV (gross monthly volume) annually for more than 10,000 registered customers across India. 

For companies like Unicommerce, their success is directly tied to the growth of the ecommerce sector, digital penetration in the country and the shift in customer preferences from purchasing in physical stores to shopping online. 

According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), propelled by rising smartphone penetration, 4G network penetration and increasing consumer wealth, the Indian ecommerce market is expected to grow to $200 Bn by 2026 from $38.5 Bn in 2017.

The post [What The Financials] Snapdeal-Owned Unicommerce Posts Loss In FY20 As ESOP Expense Grows appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based deeptech startup LightSpeedAI Labs has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by YourNest Venture Capital and growX Ventures.

With the fresh capital, the company plans to build and deploy LightCompute MVP for pilots. 

Previously, LightSpeedAI Labs received pre-seed funding from Entrepreneur First in 2019 and went on to join the cohort of Semiconductor Fabless Accelerator Lab (SFAL).

Founded by Rohin Y and P V Ramana in 2019, LightSpeedAI Labs is building LightCompute optoelectronic processors for accelerating AI & high performance computing (HPC) application. The company’s processor uses light to compute and plugs into standard PCIe slots in server racks and integrates with the existing ML libraries thereby reducing the cost-per-compute.

“We are attempting to simultaneously solve the interconnect and computing problem for the next-generation Artificial Intelligence / high performance computing hardware. With a global market outreach potential, we are gearing up to demonstrate our technology next year. This investment enables us to build and deploy our LightCompute MVP for pilots. We are happy to have found early-stage partner-investors in YourNest and growX, who share our vision” said Rohin Y and P V Ramana.

LightSpeedAI competes with startups like  Petasense, LabToInnovation, Synconext and many others.

“Traditional chip architectures fail when addressing the needs of diverse and varied use-cases of high performance computing and AI algorithms. We believe the founders of LightSpeedAI are building a reconfigurable, modular and optical interconnect architecture that represents the future of computing. We are delighted to partner in their journey as an early-stage deep tech investor,” said Satish Mugulavalli, venture partner, YourNest Venture Capital.

“LightSpeedAI’s proprietary hardware and software solutions aim to harness the full potential of high-performance computing chips by making them both efficient and versatile. Their chipsets will create their own niche in the new world order being created by 5G and Edge AI. We are glad to be Rohin and Ramana’s partners on this quest,” said Manish Gupta, principal – growX ventures.

The post Deeptech Startup LightSpeedAI Labs Raises Funding From YourNest Venture Capital, growX Ventures appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After a profitable sprint in the last three years, online retailer Bewakoof is back in the red in the financial year 2020 that too with the highest margins yet. The Thane-based company recorded a loss of INR 28 Cr in the financial year ending in March 2020, compared to the INR 29 Lakh profit it recorded in the last financial year.

Bewakoof’s cofounder and CEO Prabhkiran Singh explained that the company spent heavily on branding and acquiring talent in FY2020, keeping in mind the company’s long term growth. Though Bewakoof’s sales were almost zero in the first quarter of FY2021 between April and July, it will turn profitable again this year.

The company had noted a profit of INR 2 Cr and INR 30 Lakh in the FY2018 and FY2017, respectively. Prior to this, the retailer had registered its biggest loss in FY2015 of INR 2.5 Cr with a revenue of INR 14.5 Cr. With this precedent spike in losses in the latest financial year, the company has also grown its revenue by 5.5x from INR 38 Cr recorded in FY2017.

In FY2020, Bewakoof recorded a revenue of INR 210 Cr. Of this, the company has earned nearly INR 202 Cr through the sale of products, INR 4.6 Cr from the sale of services, and INR 2 Cr as other operating revenue and income. The spike in revenue was majorly due to the increase in customers and selections coming on board, Singh said.

Compared to FY2019, the company’s earnings have increased by 28% from INR 164 Cr. Like the latest financial year, Bewakoof had earned more than 96% of its income by selling its products. The sale of services made for another 2.5% in both FY2019 and FY2020. While other operating revenues and other income have contributed the remaining 2.5%.

“20% of our overall revenue comes from purchases made by Bewakoof Tribe Members, which is a paid loyalty program of Bewakoof. INR 4.6 Cr service revenue includes revenue generated from the Bewakoof Loyalty Program – Bewakoof Tribe and from the Cash Collection Charges, which are levied on the Cash on Delivery Orders,” Singh explained. 

With INR 100 Cr In Pocket, Bewakoof Serves More Than 2 Cr Users

Bewakoof started its journey in 2012 by focusing solely on theme-based T-shirts. The company, which was founded by Prabhkiran Singh and Siddharth Munot, later branched out into other categories such as hoodies and sweaters, joggers, pants and trousers, footwear, mobile covers, notebooks, backpacks, and now masks and PPE kits. The company has found its target audience in the young millennials and Gen-Z. According to the company’s website, it has sold more than 2 Cr products and has about 1 Cr app downloads. The retailer sells most of its merchandise through its website and mobile application.

The online retailer has less than INR 100 Cr from investors across two rounds. It had last raised INR 80 Cr from Bahrain’s alternative asset manager Investcorp in exchange for a 14% stake. It was looking to use the funding to further strengthen its platform and capture consumer data to improve their experience on the website by using machine learning. Prior to this, it raised an undisclosed amount in seed round from Snapdeal founders’ Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and founder of Sixth Sense Ventures Nikhil Vora back in 2015.

Where Is Bewakoof Spending?

With great sales, comes greater expenses. Over the last financial year, Bewakoof sold more than 75 Lakh products in FY2020, which led to a 5x growth in its purchase of stock-in-trade. While the company had spent only INR 1.5 Cr on such purchases in FY2019, it grew to INR 9.8 Cr in FY2020. However despite the spike, the company’s spending on cost of material reduced by a crore to INR 50 Cr in FY2020.

Another major area of spending for a consumer-facing brand like Bewakoof was its marketing and promotional expenses. The company spent about INR 41 Cr on advertising, almost doubling up its spending from INR 19 Cr in FY2019. This had led to an increase of 15 Lakh customers in FY2020 compared to FY2019.

Besides this, the company’s employee benefit expense has also increased by 21% from INR 14.8 Cr in FY2019 to INR 18 Cr in FY2020. The company attributes this increase to the major hirings the company has made over the last fiscal year.

“Among some of the important senior positions – We have been able to attract Technology Head from Amazon, Manufacturing Head from Page Industries(Jockey), Design Head from Levis, Sourcing from TataTrent(Westside) and Vishal Megamart, HR Head from United Colors of Benetton, CFO from Purplle,” Singh told Inc42.

According to Bewakoof’s financial statements for FY2020, the company paid INR 17.2 Cr as salaries and wages compared to INR 13.5 Cr spent in FY2019. Besides this, the company also spent INR 53.8 Lakh as staff welfare expense, INR 3.70 Lakh as gratuity and INR 53.4 Lakh as a total contribution to provident and other funds in FY2020.

The online retailer also spent INR 55 Cr as a miscellaneous expense, which includes job work charges, contract labour expenses, carriage inward, royalty, commission expense, and a net loss of sale or discard of property, plant and equipment.

The post [What The Financials] Bewakoof Back In Losses After A Profitable Run Of Three Years appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Tech giant Google is reportedly planning to buy out Bengaluru-based social media platform ShareChat for $1.03 Bn.

In August 2020, when news was rife that Microsoft may invest in the $100 Mn a funding round, reports suggested that ShareChat was valued at $650 Mn. 

This speculation comes after ShareChat has recorded a 166% spike in its monthly active users base from 60 Mn during the pandemic to 160 Mn till now. Over these months, the daily average user time spent on the platform has also increased from 24 minutes to 31 minutes, the company’s cofounder and CTO Bhanu Pratap Singh had told Inc42.

While ShareChat declined to comment on the development, a Google spokesperson told ET Now that it doesn’t “comment on market speculation and rumours.”

ShareChat’s last funding round was in August 2019, when it raised $100 Mn in a Series D round led by Twitter, with existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital also investing further.  

Till date, the company has raised $222.8 Mn in eight funding rounds, according to data available on Crunchbase. ShareChat was part of Inc42’s UpNext series on soonicorn startups in 2019, and was expected to reach a $1 Bn valuation by 2021.

ShareChat started its journey in 2015 as a content-sharing tool for WhatsApp with users sharing about 100K content pieces per day. The company gradually evolved into a regional language-focused social media platform. It relies on user-generated content, and enables them to create, create, discover and share content with each other much like people do on Tumblr and Instagram.

ShareChat’s massive growth in 2020 can be attributed to two factors. First, the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown, which pushed people further into digital adoption. According to data released by Carat India, smartphone usage increased by 1.5 hours a week and social media consumption nearly doubled to 280 minutes a day. India also hit 500 Mn internet users, riding on the growing popularity in the rural regions.

Secondly, the ban on Chinese apps like TikTok, Likee and WeChat has also pushed users towards ShareChat, which is an Indian alternative to these social platforms. ShareChat had achieved a growth rate of 500,000 new users per hour after the ban on Chinese apps. It currently has more than 100 Mn downloads on the Google Play Store.

In order to leverage it further, the company launched a short video app of its own called Moj. The Moj app has garnered over 80 Mn MAUs with users spending on an average of about 34 minutes on the platform. It has more than 50 Mn downloads on Google Play store. Like ShareChat, Moj too is available in vernacular languages, such as Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi, Odia, Tamil, Telugu, Haryanvi, Rajasthani, and Urdu among others.

The social media platform’s growth in Tier II and Tier III areas is one of the main reason why Google is probably planning to buy ShareChat.

The post Google In Advanced Talks To Buy Out ShareChat For $1.03 Bn appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based digital lending company Kinara Capital is looking to raise INR 22.56 Cr from multiple investors. 

According to filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, accessed by Inc42, the company is raising the funds by issuing 3,55,314 Class A1 Equity Shares, at a face value of INR 10 per share and a premium of INR 625 per share, to four investors, namely Gaja Capital, Michael, Susan and Dell Foundation, Patamar Fund and Global Financial Inclusion Fund (GAWA). 

All four investors had previously participated in the over INR 100 Cr funding for Kinara Capital in May last year. 

Kinara Capital was founded in 2011 by Hardika Shah. It provides online loans between INR 2-25 Lakhs ($2,855 – $3,569) range without property collateral to small businesses and claims to process claims for loans in 5-7 days. The company is focused on lending to growing businesses that require funding for working capital, capital assets, and start-up needs. Kinara Capital focuses on industries such as agri-products, handicraft production, water, food, and energy.

According to data on Crunchbase, to date, Kinara Capital has raised $49.3 Mn in five funding rounds.

Lending Set For Boost In India

As per Inc42 Plus estimates, the credit demand in India is projected to be worth $1.41 Tn by 2022. The estimated growth rate in credit demand is 3.73% between FY17 and FY22. However, the Covid-19 crisis is said to be an unprecedented boost to the lending space in India.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, talking at the ‘Ask Me Anything’ webinar hosted by Inc42, highlighted that lending is one of the biggest opportunities which comes out of these times. “Companies that swing around to the opportunity of distributing unsecured loans and collecting them well, and underwriting them well will become the champions of tomorrow,” he added.

Among digital lending startups in India, Kinara Capital competes with ZestMoney, MobiKwik, Rupifi and Credgenics. 

The post Exclusive: Kinara Capital To Raise Over 22 Cr From Existing Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based payment gateway platform Cashfree has raised $35.3 Mn in a new financing round. The startup’s Series B was led by London-headquartered private equity firm Apis Partners, with participation from existing investors Y Combinator and Smilegate Investments. 

With the latest fundraise the startup’s mop up to date stands at $42 Mn.

Launched in 2015 by Akash Sinha and Reeju Datta, Cashfree offers a number of services to ease out payments processes for digital platforms. Currently, it offers more than a dozen products and services and helps over 55,000 businesses disburse salary to employees, accept payments online, set up recurring payments and settle marketplace commissions.

Some of Cashfree’s customers include fintech startup Cred, online grocer BigBasket, food delivery platform Zomato, insurers HDFC Ergo and Acko and travel ticketing service provider Ixigo.

Commenting on the fundraise Udayan Goyal, co-founder and a managing partner at Apis said, “Cashfree has maintained a leadership position in this space and is now going through a period of rapid growth fuelled by the development of unique and innovative products that serve the needs of its customers.”  

Cashfree claims to have processed over $12 Bn in payments volumes in the financial year that ended in March. Sinha said part of the fresh fund will be deployed in R&D so that Cashfree can scale its technology stack and build more services, including those that can digitize more offline payments for its clients.

Commenting on the capital raise, Akash Sinha, CEO and cofounder of Cashfree said, “We are delighted to have Apis as an investor and partner in our journey and value their extensive experience investing in high growth digital payments companies, like Cashfree, across several geographies globally. This investment is an endorsement of Cashfree’s platform as well as our vision to empower customers and businesses with the latest payments tools.”

Speaking to Inc42 earlier, Datta had said, “Refunds being slow is one of the major causes of bad customer experience for an online business. Around 50% of the support time is spent in resolving complaints regarding refund delays for a merchant and for us as a payment gateway.” 

After raising $5.5 Mn (INR 38.2 Cr) in its Series A round of funding in April 2019, the company recently launched a first-of-its-kind solution ‘instant refunds’ for online payments for ecommerce and other online services such as food delivery.

The post Cashfree Bags $35 Mn In Series B Round Led By Apis Partners, Plans To Muscle Up R&D appeared first on Inc42 Media.

News and content aggregator Dailyhunt has raised INR 73 Cr in primary capital from B Capital Group, and the company is reportedly moving fast to rework its ownership structure, after the Indian government, last month, reiterated its decision of capping the foreign investment for digital media entities at 26% by October 2021. 

B Capital Asia is an investment firm founded by Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin. Dailyhunt counts Falcon Edge, Matrix Partners, ByteDance, Goldman Sachs, and Sofina as investors.

According to data on Crunchbase, the company last raised funds in April this year, worth INR 180 Cr, in its Series G round led by Falcon Edge Capital, also seeing participation from Goldman Sachs, Sofina and ByteDance. 

It is worth noting that ByteDance is a Chinese company which owns the once-popular short video app TikTok, banned in India on June 29. 

Dailyhunt operates three subsidiaries, Eterno Infotech, Rocket Science Innovations and Greynium Information. Of late, the company has diversified its operations, also launching a TikTok alternative short video app called Josh in July. 

According to the Economic Times, which first reported the development, Dailyhunt has classified itself as a business engaged in the “designing, developing, researching vertical search and recommendation services. It also engages in the development of software tools, products, and services for business analytics, services for internet content providers, advertising network, m-commerce, web telecom, etc.”

Launched in 2009 by Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekhar Sohoni, Newshunt began as a news aggregator. It was acquired by job classified company, Ver Se Innovation, in 2012. Later in August 2015, NewsHunt rebranded itself as Dailyhunt to offer news in vernacular languages.

As of April, Dailyhunt claimed to have over 1,300 publication partners, 250K news and content pieces every day in 14 languages. The Dailyhunt group claims to have 263 Mn monthly active users across all platforms, their app is said to have 208 Mn monthly active users. The company has over 500 employees.

Last month, the Indian government in a clarification note, said that the FDI cap would apply to digital media entities streaming or uploading news, agencies which gather, transmit and distribute news, and news aggregators, which collect news content from various sources and post them in one location. 

Digital media organisations which fall under any of the three categories mentioned above would have to comply with the 26% FDI cap within a year of the date of issuance of the clarification.

This month, digital news portals and streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix were brought under the purview of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). 

The post Dailyhunt Raises INR 73 Cr, Restructures Ownership After 26% FDI Cap appeared first on Inc42 Media.

A petition has been filed against WhatsApp in the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) over an allegation of the Facebook-owned palatform abused its dominant positions in India to expand in the digital payments market. 

In August 2020, the antitrust watchdog Competition Commission of India (CCI) had scrapped a case on the same issue. 

Lawyer Harshita Chawla who filed a petition against Whatsapp in March is appealing against CCI’s dismissal with a fresh hearing in front of the Appellate Court on December 21. After hearing the arguments of both parties, NCLAT will decide whether the case requires a fresh admission and trial.

Earlier in March 2020, Chawla had moved the CCI alleging that WhatsApp was bundling its digital payments facility WhatsApp Payments within its messaging app, which has close to 400 Mn users in India. The petitioner claimed that WhatsApp’s move would give the company an undue edge over its competitors — PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.  

However, CCI noted that WhatsApp has not even launched its services in India, and is currently running on a beta version, serving less than 1% of the total WhatsApp userbase in India.

WhatsApp has been embroiled in a slew of lawsuits in the country over the past one year due to which it hasn’t been able to launch its payments feature beyond the beta mode.

“The tangible connection between messaging and payments might be difficult to prove for the petitioner, since CCI has already ruled ‘against’ WhatsApp leveraging its dominant position in the messaging market. Additionally, while the intent is in the right place, it might be premature for a case to be taken up in anticipation, basis a personal judgment that WhatsApp may abuse its dominant position, since no clear examples are presently currently in the market,” a senior lawyer aware of the matter told Mint.

Earlier this month, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) gave approval for WhatsApp to ‘Go Live’ on UPI in the muti-bank model.

The payments authority said in a statement that the Facebook-owned messaging app can expand its UPI user base in a graded manner starting with a maximum registered user base of 20 Mn in UPI.

NPCI will also cap the total volume of UPI transactions at 30% for any third-party app provider (TPAP). This will be with effect from January 1, 2021.

The post Fresh Plea Against WhatsApp In NCLAT Over Alleged Abuse Of Its Dominant Position appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Popular battle royale esports title PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is seen to be inching closer to the India relaunch of the mobile version of the video game, PUBG Mobile. 

Earlier this week, a website dedicated to PUBG Mobile India — the India-specific version of the game — seemed to be teasing fans by displaying a download button for the game’s APK version. 

According to users on Twitter, upon clicking the button, the game didn’t download and the button was removed from the website in a few hours. Even so, fan forums continue to churn up the buzz around the game’s much-anticipated launch in India. Meanwhile, PUBG Mobile India’s website says “Coming Soon”. 

On Tuesday (November 24), some users on Twitter pointed out that PUBG India Private Limited was now a registered entity with India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). 

The date of incorporation for the new entity is displayed on the MCA website as November 21, 2020. Earlier this month, PUBG’s South Korea-based parent entity PUBG Corporation had announced that in addition to launching PUBG Mobile India, to cater specifically to the needs of Indian users with several localised elements in the game, the company would set up an Indian subsidiary to enhance communications and services with its players in India. 

“The Indian company will hire over 100 employees specialising in business, e-sports, and game development. In addition to establishing a local office, the company will look to actively collaborate and leverage local businesses to strengthen its gaming service,” PUBG Corporation had said in its statement.

Meanwhile, Abhijeet Andhare, a leading Indian esports athlete and one of PUBG’s well-known India influencers, who goes by the name ‘GHATAK’ in PUBG esports circles, has revealed on Twitter that following its India relaunch, PUBG Corporation would organise an esports tournament in the country which would offer INR 6 Cr as the prize money for the winner. 

The Ban On PUBG Mobile

It is worth noting that PUBG Mobile, which counted China-based Tencent Games as its publishing partner, was banned in India in September, as part of the Indian government’s ban on 118 Chinese apps believed to be jeopardising data security of Indian users. 

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) is developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole. PUBG Corporation counts Chinese multinational tech conglomerate Tencent as a publishing partner for the game’s mobile version. Tencent also holds a 10% stake in PUBG’s parent company.

So while the game’s intellectual property is owned and been developed by a South Korean company, the fact that its mobile version was published by a Chinese company meant that the game was caught in the crossfire of India’s sweeping crackdown on Chinese apps since June 29, when it first banned 59 Chinese apps, including popular ones such as TikTok, UC Browser and Club Factory, among several others. 

The fact that the ban on Chinese apps in India was triggered by the geopolitical conflict between the two nations can’t be missed. The armies of both nations have had skirmishes and faceoffs at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in India’s Union Territory of Ladakh since June. 

Days after it was banned, PUBG Mobile’s South Korea-based parent company PUBG Corporation withdrew its India association with Tencent Games, the game’s China-based publisher. 

“In light of recent developments, PUBG Corporation has made the decision to no longer authorise the PUBG MOBILE franchise to Tencent Games in India. Moving forward, PUBG Corporation will take on all publishing responsibilities within the country,” read PUBG Corporation’s statement at the time. Tencent Games was PUBG Mobile’s licensed publisher in India.

The company had also claimed that it was monitoring the developments in India and respected the Indian government’s decision to give precedence to data privacy and security of Indian users. The company added that it hopes to work “hand-in-hand with the Indian government to find a solution that will allow gamers to once again drop into the battlegrounds while being fully compliant with Indian laws and regulations.”

The post PUBG’s India Subsidiary Registered In Bengaluru As Mobile Game Plans Relaunch appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Disney India has made its entry into the ecommerce segment with the launch of its marketplace shopDisney, which offers Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars products from authorised international and domestic licensees.

To start with, the ecommerce platform features more than 3,000 items across categories such as toys, apparel, back-to-school, accessories and fashion, among others. “shopDisney will also be offering Disney-designed shipping boxes, special services like gift wrapping. The platform currently supports deliveries to over 500 cities in India,” it said.

“Optimised for mobile devices, shopDisney will provide users with a special online Disney touch-point access at any time. The product lineup will continue to grow to ensure consumers can always find what they want, to add the magic of Disney into their daily lives,” the company said in a release.

The ecommerce platform is also offering authentic licensed merchandise inspired by stories and characters such as Mickey and Friends, Disney Princess, Frozen, Marvel’s Avengers, Spider-Man, and more.

“With shopDisney, our endeavor is to bring genuine Disney licensed products inspired by our stories and characters to every household in the country. shopDisney will extend the magic of Disney and be a truly immersive experience for kids and families wherever and whenever they want,” Sanjeet Mehta, Executive Director and Head, Consumer Products, Disney India told ET.

All your favorites have arrived at a brand new location! We already know what we’re ordering first, do you? Shop Now. #ShopDisneyIndia #BoxFullOfDisney pic.twitter.com/TcgZILOcox

— disneyindia (@DisneyIndia) November 23, 2020

Disney India tweeted, “All your favorites have arrived at a brand new location! We already know what we’re ordering first, do you? Shop Now.”

India’s ecommerce sector is growing at the fastest pace in the world. The latest redseer report noted that goods worth $4.1 Bn (INR 29,000 Cr) were sold on ecommerce platforms during the week-long festive sale, representing a 55% increase from last year’s $2.7 Bn gross merchandise value (GMV).

The post Disney India Makes Ecommerce Foray, Launches shopDisney appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Delhi high court, on Tuesday, passed an interim order against angel investor Aniruddha Malpani from posting or publishing or sharing any content derogatory or deprecatory against edtech platform WhiteHat Jr or its content or management. The observations were made by the court while hearing the $1.9 Mn defamation case filed by the coding platform on Malpani.

The court had also directed Malpani to take down select Tweets made by him. Hearing the case Justice Mukta Gupta said there was no trademark infringement with Malpani unlike here, as  Pradeep Poonia who used a handle termed WhiteHatSr.

The court has also sought Malpani’s written response in the matter by January 14, 2021.

The development comes two days before Malpani is slated to appear in court to challenge LinkedIn’s decision to ban his accounts for allegedly criticising WhiteHat Jr’s parent entity BYJU’S.

During the hearing, WhiteHat Jr’s legal counsel has highlighted a number of Malpani’s remarks which were allegedly defamatory. “This man has gone on a Twitter rampage – how do you stop a bull on a run? He called us liars, cheaters, pigs and said that we are associated with a convicted person, which is completely false,” WhiteHat Jr’s counsel Kaul said.

Calling Malpani a business rival, Kaul told the court that the angel investor had called the edtech platform, “pigs with lipstick, slimy hypocrites.”

“Are these part of free speech? Is this what the valuable right to freedom of speech guarantees? And that too by a business rival! Some kind of injunction will have to be granted,” Kaul pleaded.

Kaul noted that WhiteHat Jr was heavily criticised for its advertisement revolving around a fictitious character Wolf Gupta, a teen who landed a job at Google. The company claimed that they had taken down the advertisement as they took it as a fair and constructive criticism.

Continuing the argument for WhiteHat Jr, Kaul’s deputy, advocate Shwetashree Majumder pointed the court towards the series of Tweets made by Malpani on Monday night after he had received the legal notice. “One of the tweets read (alleged) that the company was trying to muzzle their voice as they took the legal route.

Kaul also noted that Aniruddha Malpani had accused WhiteHat Jr of hiring people with no coding skill, despite the fact that they have a “rigorous selection process.” Later, Justice Gupta asked if Malpani knew the background of every teacher. To which, Malpani’s legal counsel responded that “they have 1-minute interviews of the teachers hired which can be referred to.”

Justice Gupta had also came down heavy on Pradeep Poonia on Monday for questioning the quality and educational backgrounds of the teachers hired by the coding platform. The court had restrained him from further commenting on the number or quality of teachers on the platform, and from commenting on their educational or other professional backgrounds.

Poonia has been restrained from downloading any curriculum from WhiteHat Jr and circulating it to third parties.

The post WhiteHat Jr Vs Malpani: HC Orders Malpani To Take Down Posts appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The tax department has turned down a proposal by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to extend the incorporation cut-off date for startups by five more years.  

The DPIIT had pitched the idea of extending the startup incorporation cut-off date to March 31, 2026, i.e. by five years as the current window expires from April 2021.

The government had already exempted DPIIT-recognised from income tax for a period of three years since incorporation under Section 80IAC of the Income Tax Act.

“The proposal was to revise the definition of eligible startups for tax benefits under Section 80 of the IT ACT but the tax department clearly told DPIIT, that the government policy is to remove all income tax exemptions and reduce income tax rates,” sources told CNBCTV18.

The tax department said, “In this connection, it may kindly be noted that the stated policy of the government is to remove all income-tax exemption and simultaneously reduce the tax rate. Accordingly, the Finance Act, 2016 grandfathered income-tax exemptions. In furtherance to this policy, the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Act, 2019 provided a concessional tax regime of 22% for all existing domestic companies which do not claim exemptions.”

Earlier, the government had allowed an exemption for the startups incorporated during the period from March 1, 2016 to March 31, 2019. However, this was extended at the request of DPIIT up to March 31, 2021, vide Finance Act, 2018.

To bolster the development of early-stage startups in India and provide them with a competitive platform, the government had exempted DPIIT-recognised from income tax for a period of three years since incorporation under Section 80IAC of the Income Tax Act. To avail of these benefits, a startup must get a certificate of eligibility from the Inter-Ministerial Board (IMB).

Under the Startup India programme launched in 2016, the government had formed a Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with a corpus of INR 10,000 Cr to be provided till 2025. 

Out of this corpus, which is currently managed by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the government has released INR 1322.05 Cr until September 9, 2020. However, in February 2020, the government had committed INR 3123.20 Cr to 47 SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs).

The post Tax Department Rejects DPIIT Proposal To Extend Exemptions To Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.