The Supreme Court of India, which is hearing a bunch of petitions filed by cryptocurrency exchanges, groups, and enthusiasts, on July 20 set the final hearing date in the case for September 11. Meanwhile, as the RBI circular dated April 6 forced exchanges to shut down fiat-to-crypto transactions in India, cryptocurrency exchanges have gone P2P (peer-to-peer). Koinex became the latest exchange to launch a P2P trading platform — Loop — for Indian investors.

Meanwhile, after a two-month slowdown, Bitcoin is on the rise. Gaining over $1000 this week, Bitcoin trading at $7.3K back, is back with a bang. And so are other prominent cryptocurrencies.

Litecoin founder Charlie Lee, too, is back in the news. Speaking of cryptocurrency trading, Charlie Lee recently urged users to buy at least one Bitcoin before trading in any other cryptocurrency. He tweeted, “There will be at most 21 Mn Bitcoins in existence. There isn’t even enough BTC to go around for every millionaire to own one. So before you buy any other coin (LTC included), try to own at least 1 BTC first.  Once you have 1 BTC, buy all the shitcoins you want!”

Let’s take a look at the latest developments from the world of cryptocurrencies!

SC Sets Sept 11 As Final Hearing Date For Crypto Case

In a much-awaited cryptocurrency-related hearing on July 20, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India set the next and probably the final hearing date in the case for September 11.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its defence, told the Supreme Court that the circular has been issued to minimise illegal transactions, which could majorly impact the international flow of funds. The RBI also informed the three-judge bench that an interdisciplinary committee headed by Subhash Chandra Garg, the principal secretary of the department of economic affairs, is already looking at regulatory measures for cryptocurrencies. But, the circular was issued as a precautionary measure until a regulation is put in place.

Speaking to Inc42, Rashmi Deshpande, associate partner, Khaitan and Co, the advocate in this case for one of the petitioners — Kali Digital — said, “The Supreme Court is likely to dispose of the case on September 11, after hearing the arguments from both the parties.”

Limited arguments were advanced on behalf of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the RBI. Since Sebi and a few others have not filed their response to the petition seeking a crypto regulation, the apex court directed the hearings be completed. Final arguments are expected to come on September 11.

Koinex Introduces P2P Token Transaction

In line with exchanges such as Zebpay, Unocoin, BuyUCoin and WazirX, cryptocurrency exchange Koinex has now launched its P2P trading platform, Loop, for Indian investors to transact in cryptocurrencies against INR fiat currency.

Rahul Raj, co-founder & CEO, Koinex said, “Loop is in line with our mission to transform India into a hotbed of blockchain technology development, as Loop is a step closer to decentralized trading.”

VoxWeb Launches New Cryptocurrency Vollar

Singapore-based mobile-only social media platform VoxWeb has launched Vollar, a cryptocurrency to build ecommerce and fintech-based revenue streams.

Speaking to Inc42, founder and CEO Yash Mishra stated, “Unlike other cryptocurrencies, Vollar addresses the critical issues of volatility and liquidity as it’s pegged up against the top 20 fiat currencies in the world. Hence unlike the other popular cryptocurrencies, mining of Vollar is proportional to the real market conditions.”

Yash added that the non-users of VoxWeb social network will also be able to buy and sell Vollar coins on cryptocurrency exchanges and use it as a store of value or currency.

In a similar development, the tech giant IBM is also experimenting with a cryptocurrency that’s pegged to the US dollar. The company has teamed up with financial technology startup Stronghold for the ambitious project, reported CNBC.

Cryptocurrency Played A Major Role In Fixing US 2016 Election

The office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller at the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which recently said that 12 Russian intelligence officers were involved in the 2016 US presidential campaign, has now presented a detailed report on how these intelligence officers, who are members of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), mined and used cryptocurrencies to fund the infrastructure necessary to carry out their operations.

According to the report, the GRU officers conspired to launder the equivalent of more than $95,000 through a web of transactions structured to capitalise on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

G20 Watchdog Sets Out Framework To Monitor Crypto Markets

G20 watchdog the Financial Stability Board (FSB) recently submitted its report to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on the work of the FSB and standard-setting bodies on crypto-assets.

For its part, the FSB has developed a framework in collaboration with the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), to monitor the financial stability implications of developments in crypto-asset markets. The report published today sets out the metrics that the FSB will use to monitor crypto-asset markets as part of its ongoing assessment of vulnerabilities in the financial system.

India is also a prominent member of the G20 group.

As the report states, the objective of the framework is to identify any emerging financial stability concerns in a timely manner. To this end, it includes risk metrics that are most likely to highlight such risks, using data from public sources where available.

UK Mosque Raises More Donations In Crypto Than In Cash

East London-based Shacklewell Lane Mosque which just started accepting cryptocurrencies in May, has now announced that within two months, the mosque has actually received more cryptocurrencies than cash. A phenomenal success not only for the mosque but an inspiration for other charity organisations as well.

Bank of Israel Counting On Crypto Technology

Cryptocurrencies can assist with the monetising system. Speaking at a Bit2C cryptocurrency conference, Dr Bodo-Trachtenberg, deputy governor-general of the Bank of Israel presented the Bank of Israel’s stand on cryptocurrency: “The technology of distributed and encrypted currencies has the potential to contribute to the monetary and financial system in the long term. You have to see what you allow and where you turn down your enthusiasm.”

“I am told that digital coins can leave users with control over data and allow decentralisation. But that’s what they promised about the internet — which ultimately created huge information giants that hurt competition. Token trading and smart contracts is a technology that expands the possibilities of money and trading in assets today, can streamline processes that pass through many intermediaries,” he added.

In other news, former Chelsea soccer player Drogba has now become the ambassador of a cryptocurrency-related project founded by Artak Tovmasyan. Like Voxweb, the digital platform combines a social network with a cryptocurrency bank and a trading floor.

Stay tuned to Inc42 for more latest news on Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and ICOs!

The post Cryptocurrency This Week: Supreme Court Sets Next Crypto Case Hearing For Sept 11, Bitcoin Gains Over $1K, And More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding of the week.

This week 16 startups raised around $248.31 Mn in funding altogether. (The startup funding calculations are based on the startups that disclosed funding amount.)

One of the biggest Indian startup funding this week was raised by Bigtree Entertainment, which runs the online ticket booking platform BookMyShow. The company raised $100 Mn in a Series D funding round led by TPG Growth, the middle market, and growth equity investment platform of alternative asset firm TPG. The company plans to use the latest funding to fuel its growth plans as it transforms into the ultimate ‘Entertainment Destination’ for its customers.

In another development, Singapore-based Temasek Holdings bought shares worth $30 Mn from former and early employees of the cab-hailing company Ola as a part of the secondary share sale. The sale share value has valued the company at around $2.5-3 Bn. It has also enabled large-scale Esop encashment for former and early employees of Ola.

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

TVF: TVF (The Viral Fever) raised an additional $6 Mn from existing investor Tiger Global. TVF generates its revenues through marketing and advertising streams associated with its content viewership. It is yet to charge audiences for its content.

 Welcomecure: Mumbai-based online homeopathy platform Welcomecure raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Bollywood couple Riteish and Genelia Deshmukh. The startup plans to use the latest funding to strengthen its infrastructure, expand the team, and promote the brand through consumer engagement activities.

The Ken– Subscription-based news company The Ken raised $1.5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network. The funding round also saw participation from Yuj Kutumb, the Family Foundation headed by Sid Yog, the Founder and Managing Partner of The Xander Group Inc., and a mix of existing and new angel investors. The startup plans to use these funds for fresh hiring and boosting growth.

SaffronStays– Micro hospitality startup SaffronStays raised $2 Mn in pre Series A funding from VC Sixth Sense Ventures. The startup has planned to use funds to accelerate its growth, hire top talent, and expand its inventory.

Cars24– Gurugram-based online used car marketplace Cars24 raised $49.7 Mn from Sequoia Capital India and other existing investors like Cayman Islands-based Kingsway FCI Fund and Toronto-based KCK Global. The startup plans to create an efficient and reliable way for car owners to sell their used cars at the best price.

OfBusiness– Gurugram-based SME lending startup OfBusiness raised $29.2 Mn in a Series C funding round from Creation Investments and Falcon Edge. Other existing investors like Matrix Partners India and Zodius Capital also participated in the funding round. The startup plans to use this funding to source funds from banks and other NBFCs for onward lending.

Woodenstreet– Jaipur-based online custom-furniture platform Woodenstreet raised approximately $1 Mn in a Series A funding round from RVCF (Rajasthan Venture Capital Funds). With the funding, the startup plans to expand and open new stores in other major cities, which will help the company to maintain their market leadership for customized solid-wood furniture.

Vebbler: Bengaluru-based photo sharing application Vebbler raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-Series A round. The funding round was backed by investors including Ambiga Subramanian, ex-CEO of Mu Sigma, actor Dino Morea, and VJ Nikhil Chinapa. The startup further plans to use the funding for senior-level hiring and marketing.

Amazon Pay: Amazon India’s digital payment platform Amazon Pay raised an investment of $33.5 Mn from Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings and Amazon.com.incs. Amazon invested in Amazon Pay as it is looking to increase traction on the platform with cashback offers for shopping on its site. Further, the ecommerce platform has planned to push Amazon Pay beyond its platform to third-party online merchants as well as to offline touchpoints.

Unacademy: Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy raised $21 Mn in a Series C funding round from Sequoia India, SAIF Partners, and Nexus Venture Partners along with existing investor Blume Ventures. The startup plans to use the funding to onboard new educators on the platform and to penetrate deeper into categories including courses for pre-medical, GATE, and CAT. Also, it will be using the funds to strengthen its core product and technology team.

StayAbode: Bengaluru-based co-living space provider StayAbode raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-Series A round from Anupam Mittal (CEO, People Group), Vineet Sekhsaria (Head, Real Estate Investing, Morgan Stanley), and Japanese gaming company Akatsuki Inc. The startup plans to use the funding to scale its business and create more supply as demand increases. Further, it wants to expand in several other cities in due course of time and plans to go deeper into micro markets.

Eatigo: Bangkok and India-based online restaurant reservation platform Eatigo raised a follow-on-funding as a part of its pre-Series C round from existing investor Tripadvisor. The startup plans to use the funding to expand in several markets and to further extend its product offerings. Eatigo will also be using the funds to expand its presence and services across the Asia Pacific region.

Foyr– VR focused prop-tech startup Foyr raised 4.2 Mn in an extended Series A Round from SRI Capital, JLL, and other investors. The startup has planned to use funds to enter the US Market.

Muskaan Dreams– Youth-driven social startup Muskaan Dreams raised a funding of $218K (INR 1.5 Cr) from Hindustan Zinc Limited. The startup plans to use the funding to transform 100 rural government schools in MP through online learning classrooms for students. The initiative will help students in better understanding of subjects especially Maths, Science, and English with the help of audiovisual content and internet support.

FIRSTCut App– An online audition application FIRSTCut App raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Kunal Singhal, MD, EazyERP. The startup plans to use the funding to reach out to a huge talent sitting in smaller towns. The latest funding will help the startup to augment and consolidate its position with some of the most influential clients in the market and add talent to its team.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Flipkart’s PhonePe acquired Zopper Retail – a hyperlocal POS platform for small and medium businesses. Post the acquisition, Zopper’s CEO Neeraj Jain and the engineering leadership have joined PhonePe’s team. With this acquisition, PhonePe aims to aggressively ramp up its offline business.
• Sexual wellness brand Kaamastra acquired adult online store ItsPleaZure. With the acquisition, Kaamastra has plans of new avenues of distribution and new product lines along with expanding its social media presence and creating and curating many social activities for education and awareness. The startup is hoping to touch 100% sales growth and claims to have an increase in basket size by 70%.
• Mumbai-based expense management startup Zaggle acquired mobile payments solution platform Clickpay. With this acquisition, Zaggle aims to build a world-class expense management platform and further plans to create a unique value proposition for its customers.
• Xoxoday acquired localised tours/experiences & activities startup Bluebulb.in. With this acquisition, Xoxoday looks forward to harnessing its vast resources to strengthen Vendor relationships. It further looks to drive business, primarily in Mumbai and the Western Region.
• Bengaluru-based food tech startup SmartQ acquired Nexus Venture Partners-backed Goodbox’s cafeteria business for an undisclosed amount in an all-cash deal. With this acquisition, SmartQ aims to increase its customer base.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Blume Ventures partnered with two US-based funds – Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) and Emergent Ventures. The aim of the partnership is to launch a B2B accelerator platform-cum-fund called Arka Venture Labs. The Arka Venture Labs will be investing solely in B2B startups with the aim of facilitating the global transition and faster growth.
• Bharat Innovation Fund has announced the first close of its $100 Mn fund. The investors in the fund are corporates, banks, insurers, and fund of funds – including SIDBI through its Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) program, ICICI Lombard, Philips, Bajaj Electricals Ltd., RBL Bank, among others.
• Rajasthan government’s one of its most successful initiatives has been the hackathons. From 400 coders in the first hackathon on Rajasthan IT Day 2017 to 5,000 coders on Rajasthan IT day in March 2018, the hackathons have seen tremendous interest from the coding community.
• PharmEasy is planning to raise a $40-50 Mn funding from Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev-led investment firm Fundamentum Advisors and Eight Roads Ventures. The startup is planning to use the funding towards growth and to further build its technology platform.
• The first edition of Green-a-Thon was organised during the Rajasthan Digifest & IT Day in Jaipur.  The event was a huge success — it witnessed 800 participants and helped develop sustainable solutions to make cities in the state smart and green. The winners were given a cumulative prize of INR 32.5 ($47.5K) Lakh and also got a chance to collaborate with the Rajasthan government
• GPS enabled tracking solutions provider Letstrack announced an investment of $2 Mn in premium retailers under its initiative Letstrack points. The company is investing to build a strong relationship with premium retailers and offer them special schemes and promotions to provide a high quality of sales experience to its customers.
• Amazon revealed its plans to dive into the Indian healthtech market with the acquisition of online pharmacy MedPlus. Apart from this, Amazon is in an active conversation with at least two more pharma chains.
• Edtech platform BYJU’s is looking to raise another round of funding at a valuation of $1.8-2 Bn and is expected to raise an amount of $150 Mn. The company has a total investment of $244 Mn and boasts of investors like Tencent, Sofina, and BCCL among others. It plans to expand into the international markets through the acquisition route.
• Delhi-based online lending startup StashFin partnered with non-banking finance company DMI Finance to raise $4.3 Mn (INR 30 Cr) for onward lending through its online platform. The company aims to augment its portfolio to meet the growing needs of its customers.
• N/Core announced a three-year partnership with Mphasis to incubate early-stage nonprofits. The latter will be investing over INR 4.5 Cr to incubate up to 26 nonprofit startups over the three year period. Apart from this, N/Core will be announcing ten nonprofit startups that were selected for six-month incubation in the second open cohort.
• Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) and Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry came together to encourage entrepreneurship among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes youth at state and national level. EDII will be organising entrepreneurship development programmes in various districts identified by DICCI.
• Online financial services marketplace 5Paisa.com announced its plans to raise $15.13 Mn(INR 104 Cr) through a rights issue in the next three to four months. The company is also planning to enter the peer-to-peer lending business soon.
• FLAME University inaugurated the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to support high potential early stage startups through a structured and personalised mentoring program. FCEI (FLAME Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation) will be led by Darshan Doshi, who joins as the director of FCEI. It will be a 5 months programme and will select 10-15 startups in the equity-free no-cost FLAME Origins Programme.
• Sachin Tendulkar-backed virtual gaming company Smaaash Entertainment has planned to raise $72 Mn (INR 100 Cr) from its IPO, which is expected to come in December 2018. Smaaash’s operating revenue had doubled to $16 Mn in FY17. Also, its losses also jumped by around 33% to $5 Mn. The company has planned to use the funds it will be raising to fund its inorganic growth initiatives, repay part of its debt and for the working capital requirements.
• Naspers’ is ready to sell its stake to Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) and was planning to exit TBO ( Travel Boutique Online) since September 2017. It had acquired a stake in TBO in 2012.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Funding Galore: Indian startup funding of the week!

The post Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [16- 21 July 2018] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

GirnarSoft (also known as Girnar Software), the parent company of automobile portals like CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com, has raised  $3.6 Mn (INR 25 Cr) in debt fund from Trifecta Venture Debt Fund-I, as per the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) filings accessed by Inc42.

Girnar Software, which has its offices in Jaipur, Hyderabad, Gurugram and Mumbai was founded in 2007 by Amit Jain and Anurag Jain. Besides CarDekho.com and Gaadi.com, the company also owns BikeDekho.com, Zigwheels.com, BusesDekho.com, among others.

In February this year, GirnarSoft entered into a partnership with Times Internet. The partnership is said to allow GirnarSoft to reach over 17 Mn in-market car buyers and 10 Mn in-market bike buyers, assisting them at every stage of their decision making.

The company went international in 2015 with the launch of CarBay.com in multiple countries in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Last year, GirnarSoft appointed Pragya Kumar as its chief people officer.

GirnarSoft caters to various services including website designing, website development, ecommerce site building, mobile app development, internet marketing, among others. It also offers auto loans through tie-ups with banks and conducts pre-inspection of used cars listed on its platform.

Prior to this, GirnarSoft had raised $2.3 Mn (INR 16 Cr) from Sequoia Capital in an internal round of financing and in 2013, Sequoia Capital had invested $15 Mn.

Similarly, a number of investors, including Hillhouse Capital and Tybourne Capital and existing investor Sequoia invested $50 Mn in GirnarSoft’s CarDekho. According to its earlier statement, the company claims CarDekho to have recorded auto sales of 21.8 Mn units in 2016-17.

Ratan Tata has also invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Later in May 2015, HDFC Bank picked up 1% stake in its portal, CarDekho.com. Also, Times Internet invested an undisclosed amount in the company in October 2015.

The company saw its revenues grow by 32% to $18.5 Mn (INR 127.7 Cr) in FY17, up from $14 Mn (INR 96.4 Cr) in FY16. But the company slightly narrowed its loss in FY17 to $19.6 Mn (INR 135 Cr) from $20.9 Mn (INR 144 Cr) in FY16. In 2016, GirnarSoft acquired three companies in the automobile segment, according to Crunchbase.

A study by CII and KPMG suggested that India’s digital advertising industry is poised to touch $4 Bn (INR 25,500 Cr) by 2020. Another report by Google-BCG said that the digital spending by consumers is expected to grow nearly 2.5 times to $100 Bn by 2020.

With the latest funding, GirnarSoft looks ready to expand its reach among Indian consumers.

The post Gaadi.com Parent GirnarSoft Raises $3.6 Mn From Trifecta appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Mumbai-based fintech company PaySense has raised $18 Mn in its Series B round of funding led by Naspers-promoted payments provider PayU, after selling an undisclosed stake.

PayU has invested $11.5 Mn in the company while other existing investors including Jungle Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in the round.

With the latest funding, PaySense aims to tap into the emerging middle class of India and is also looking to hire more people to strengthen its tech and data analytics team.

Till date, the company has raised $25.6 Mn, from investors like PayU, Nexus Ventures, and Jungle Ventures.

Prashanth Ranganathan, co-founder and chief executive, PaySense, said, “India has one of the largest financially underserved populations in the world. We are constantly innovating to serve this population using net new ways of assessing these customers through our instant credit decisioning models.”

Founded in 2015 by Ranganathan and Sayali Karanjkar, PaySense offers individuals, such as working professionals, credit options ranging from INR 5,000 to INR 2 lakh, and does the credit scoring as well as the documentation processes by leveraging India Stack.

PaySense is a startup that is targeting to be a risk assessment provider for 16 Mn Indian households currently underserved by the lenders. The company provides offers like aspirational ecommerce purchases, family vacations, home renovations, and a medical emergency.

Siddhartha Jajodia, global head, PayU, said, “PaySense is leveraging the IndiaStack platform very well to create additional capabilities beyond those of the traditional credit bureaus to generate strong underwriting of retail loans. With these investments, we intend to tap into the emerging middle class of India and provide them with easy access to formal credit.”

PaySense claims to hit INR 50 crore monthly disbursement rate and it is targeting to double it within the next few months.

PaySense is competing with some other players in the alternative lending market, PaySense competes against Lendingkart, FlexiLoans, KredX, Capital Float, EarlySalary, Rupeelend, Myloanbuddy and MoneyinMinutes, among others.

The fintech lending space has also attracted players like Flipkart and Paytm. Recently, it was reported that Flipkart is looking to invest in the Indian fintech market which is said to be worth $2.4 Bn by 2020. The company has also applied for an NBFC (Non-Banking Financial Company) licence to focus on consumer lending.

Paytm, after launching the Payments Bank was planning to enter the mutual fund space. The company has reportedly applied to the RBI for a license to set up a money market fund.

Inc42 Datalabs in its Indian Tech Startup Funding report H1 2018 has found that the fintech sector marked a sweeping victory, occupied the first spot in terms of tech startup funding in H1 2018. Fintech startups raised a combined funding of $631.29 Mn across 70 deals in H1 2018.

It also revealed that 46% of the total funding of $3 Bn in H1 2018 went to fintech and ecommerce alone. With PaySense ready to ramp up its operations in India, the company looks ready for the next phase of growth.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Startup PaySense Raises $18 Mn From Naspers-Backed PayU appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Flipkart has created an alliance with video streaming service Hotstar to launch a video advertisement platform named Shopper Audience Network.

The launch is part of a broader strategy to generate more revenue from the booming video advertising business. The newly launched platform will allow brands to target consumers through personalised video advertisements on Hotstar.

Prakash Sikaria, senior director, Flipkart, said, “Understanding our customers better than anyone else has always been one of Flipkart’s core strengths, and these insights help marketers in their ad journey, on our platform.”

With the partnership, Flipkart plans to leverage the intent-based understanding and couple it with Hotstar’s platform to create an unparalleled offering in the ads industry in India.

This comes at a time when Flipkart is aiming to cement its position as the third-largest digital advertisements platform in the country, after Google and Facebook.

Recently, Flipkart announced that it will capitalise on digital advertising to reach $200 Mn sales by 2019.

Flipkart plans to leverage data from its massive user base and help brands in connecting with potential consumers using the targeted advertisements.

For FY17, Flipkart’s ad business had reached $100 Mn in annualised revenue. The company plans to double down on video ads, the fastest growing sector in the overall digital ads business, which is expected to drive its growth in the near future.

The Trend Of Digital Advertising

A survey report has claimed that 40% of the Indians prefer to watch advertisements in video format on their mobile phones while 24% prefer to watch these video ads in the form of an image.

The overall advertising business is expected to grow at an annual average rate of 32% to touch (INR 18,986 Cr) by 2020, according to an earlier report.

Digital advertising spend is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% to touch $1.75 Bn (INR 12,046 Cr) by 2018, on the back of increased consumer trust in online ads, said a report jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Kantar IMRB.

To compete against established players like Facebook and Google, playets like Amazon, Snapchat, Flipkart and Oath have a long way to go.

The post Flipkart, Hotstar Launch Advertising Platform Shopper Audience Network appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We’ve kept you updated on the happenings in the Indian startup ecosystem. With the week coming to a close, it’s time to catch up on the important updates in the tech and startup ecosystem around the world.

Data compromises haven’t yet gone out of fashion. The latest addition to the growing list of data concerns came to light with the European Commission announcing a $5 Bn (€4.34 Bn) fine on Google’s Android operating system. Earlier, there were reports that Google has used the dominance of its Android smartphone operating system to unfairly strengthen its search business in Europe.

Soon after the accouncement, the global search giant confirmed that it would appeal against the anti-trust fine. In a tweet, the company said: “Android has created more choice for everyone, not less. A vibrant ecosystem, rapid innovation and lower prices are classic hallmarks of robust competition. We will appeal the Commission’s decision.”

The tale of data controversies goes on. Security researcher UpGuard Cyber Risk disclosed that sensitive documents from more than 100 manufacturing companies including GM, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, Tesla, Toyota, ThyssenKrupp, and VW were exposed on a publicly accessible server belonging to Level One Robotics.

Further, last week, hackers targeting Singapore’s SingHealth stole the personal profiles of some 1.5 Mn patients along with the details of prescriptions for 160K others, which include Singapore’s prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. The ministry of health said Loong was targeted “specifically and repeatedly.”

At the same time, Facebook has suspended the accounts of British data analytics firm Crimson Hexagon in lieu of concerns that it may be improperly handling user data. Crimson Hexagon has been using official APIs to syphon off public posts from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other sources online, collating and analysing the data for various purposes, such as to gauge public opinion on a political candidate or issue.

On the positive front, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft launched the Data Transfer Project to enable users to move their content, contacts, etc, across apps.

Further, after getting into trouble because of a contract with the US government involving facial recognition software, Microsoft said it would be more careful while considering contracts in this area and urged lawmakers to regulate the use of artificial intelligence to prevent abuse.

The company said it would take steps to make its systems less prone to bias; develop new public principles to govern the technology; and would move more deliberately to sell its software and expertise in the area.

At the same time, Google is working on a project named Fuchsia, which was created from scratch to overcome the limitations of Android as more personal devices and other gadgets come online.

Fuchsia is being designed to better accommodate voice interactions and frequent security updates and to look the same across a range of devices, from laptops to tiny internet-connected sensors.

In Inc42’s weekly rundown of international stories to educate and entertain you and keep you informed about the startup landscape across the globe, we bring you the important developments from the week gone by. Here are some more!

Rolls-Royce New Entrant In Flying Taxi Market

Claiming to be well-placed to play a leading role in the “personal air mobility”, Rolls Royce has designed a propulsion system for an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) vehicle — or a flying taxi — which can carry four to five people at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour for approximately 500 miles. The company is looking for an airframer and a partner to provide elements of the electrical system to help commercialise the product.

Ofo Exits International Markets

Chinese bike-sharing company Ofo will stop its operations in some countries, such as Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, India and Israel. In a statement, Ofo said its focus now is on its priority markets and moving towards profitability.

Netflix May Soon Have Emergency Alerts

In an interesting turn of events, senators in Hawaii and South Dakota have introduced a bill (the ‘Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement’, or READI Act) which will “explore” broadcasting alerts to “online streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify,” among other changes to the Emergency Alert System.

Buzzfeed Is Ready For ‘Real’ Journalism

Buzzfeed is now ready for “real journalism” with its new news website. Even though curated news stories will still run on the main BuzzFeed homepage and the BuzzFeed News site will include links to other BuzzFeed content, the new website looks and feels more like a standalone site, giving the team “a new domain and a new brand.”

In other words, the website is a “general interest news organisation” that covers the “full range” of relevant topics.

Walmart Ready To Challenge Netflix

Global retailing giant Walmart is planning to launch a video streaming service through its Vudu digital-entertainment division. It plans to launch a low-cost subscription based video-on-demand package that will include both licensed TV shows and movies as well as original productions.

The services is expected to have a price target of just $8 per month.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Around the Tech and Startup World!

The post Google To Contest EU $5 Bn Fine, Rolls Royce Ready With Flying Taxi, And More: News From The Tech And Startup World [July 16-21] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

I almost ruined my career right at the beginning.

In 1992, HBO offered me a job. I wish I had taken it. They wanted me to work on this new field, “virtual reality”.

I never responded to them. I felt inadequate.

How come?

I didn’t want to take a job in the “real world” until I felt people would like me.

I had so little self-esteem that I thought the only way people would like me at a job like HBO was if I had published a novel.

So I wrote and wrote and wrote.

I wrote a novel called “The Book of Orpheus” (a corny, cliché title written by a 24 year old). It was a 400 page novel about the person I wanted to be in my wildest dreams instead of a novel about the real me.

Then, after 40+ rejections of that novel ― which took over a year to write ― I wrote another novel.

(Some books I’ve published since then. Millions of copies sold. Persistence beats Resistance).

The title: “The Book of David” (I know). It was about the biblical David but from a very alternative point of view.

40+ rejections.

I wrote another novel: “The Prostitute, The Porn Novelist, The Romance Novelist, and Their Lovers”. (A play on the movie “The Cook, The Thief, the Wife, and Her Lover”.)

40+ rejections.

I wrote 40-50 short stories. Thousands of rejections.

I wrote novellas. I read thousands of books and then criticisms of those books because I wanted to get better.

I was so afraid to show up to the real world empty-handed. Nobody would like me. Nobody would think I was special.

I had such low self-esteem in my value that if people didn’t think I was special (people secretly whispering to each other: “Who is he?” “Him? He wrote a novel!”) that they would hate me or worse, not pay attention to me.

Women would spit on me. Everyone would laugh at my ideas.

Finally, in 1994, I was afraid of two things.

My friends were starting to make more money than me (a sin!). And I wanted to break up with my girlfriend at the time.

I was so bad at difficult conversations that I decided the only way out of the relationship was to move to NYC.

So I took the job at HBO even though out of thousands and thousands of pages, I never published a single one.

It wasn’t easy to remind them about me but I did it. It was hard to get that job in 1994 but a few months later I was in NYC for my first day.

I was in a suit. Settling down in my cubicle at the HBO building.

For the first three months, I screwed up so bad they had to send me to remedial computer classes even though I had majored in Computer Science and went to grad school for Computer Science.

I was the worst employee. I was sure they were going to fire me every day.

That job was the best decision I ever made.

—–

The Wright Brothers ran a bicycle shop. People love to ride bicycles.

The US government was spending $2 million to get a plane in the air.

The Wright Brothers (from their tiny bike shop) were racing against the wealthy US government to fly.

Who would fly first?

The US government was convinced that a plane has to fly straight or it would crash. No turbulence. ZERO imperfections else it would fail.

The Wright Brothers thought this also.

Until one day…they looked at a little kid learning to ride a bike.

He jumped on the bike and took off, he wobbled for a few seconds, and every turn he wobbled again, but soon he was off and gone. He was riding a bike.

He wobbled!

They made a plane that wobbled. The plane flew. They made history.

They beat out the government that was spending millions. They did it by focusing on progress rather than perfection.

I have a lot of imperfections. Sometimes I’m lazy. Sometimes I procrastinate. Sometimes I’m afraid to confront people so I disappear on them.

I try to be a good friend and parent but it’s hard. I try to be a good partner but I have insecurities and doubts.

I try to have good ideas but it’s a constant effort to keep my idea muscle exercised.

I wobble.

And then, on occasion, I fly.

—–

At HBO, I stopped writing. I started focusing all my efforts on this brand-new thing, the World Wide Web (“W W W”).

I made imperfect websites (ugly, slow, barely worked). But nobody else was making websites.

I had ideas about design but I wasn’t a designer. My programs were sloppy but they got the job done.

(The website I did for http://HBO.com back in 1996)

I built the website after website and soon I had other companies asking for my help. (AmericanExpress.com, TimeWarner.com, etc. etc.)

I started a business. I built it up. I left HBO. I was a horrible sales person. I was bad at following up. I was bad at customer service.

I knew nothing about business.

But very few people knew how to make websites then. Even the ugly, imperfect websites I was making. So clients kept asking for more.

I sold the business. I started another one. It failed. I started another one. It failed. I started another one. It failed.

That was a long time ago. Sometimes I gave up but I had kids to raise.

I really messed up a lot of things. But I wanted to survive, to get better. I had no goals. Just survive. Just get better.

I wobbled. But I flew.

If I had only stuck with my Goals, I’d never have started with my Life.

Always go for progress, practice, persistence, pain, and then find the pleasures of life.

Be willing to wobble.

[This post by James Altucher appeared first on LinkedIn and has been reproduced with permission.]

The post Strive For Progress And Not Perfection appeared first on Inc42 Media.

One thing that comes with being a venture capitalist is you see hundreds and hundreds of businesses. You get to have interesting conversations with founders and review business plans and then see how these businesses evolve over the years. A firm like ours has almost 100 different investments across all the various partners so we get to see some businesses very intimately.

The other day I posted some advice on Twitter that I just did free-formed from thoughts going through my head from recent conversations. Since I know not everybody reads Twitter I thought I’d collect them here in a blog post. If you can any value please feel free to share this post or RT any individual Tweet.

There are many more concepts I could have written about. This wasn’t meant to be exhaustive. But if you want to add some in the comments section on Medium and I’ll make sure to read them.

[This post by Mark Suster appeared first on bothsidesofthetable and has been reproduced with permission.]

The post Some Quick Things Every Founder Should Know appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The National Anti-Profiteering Authority has directed the director general, audit, to conduct an audit on the ecommerce companies such as Amazon and Myntra. The tax authorities aims to check if they have passed on cuts in goods and services tax (GST) rates to consumers.

Since the rollout of GST in April 2017, the GST Council had slashed tax rates on a host of household products such as chocolates, toothpaste, shampoo, washing powder and shaving creams to 18% from 28% in November last year.

More products were shifted to a lower slab or fully exempted at the GST Council’s latest meeting – the 26th one-held six days ago.

According to reports, tax experts say it’s important for ecommerce companies to look at the aspect of refunding excess tax to consumers.

“The objective is to check if excess amount collected before rate reduction has indeed been refunded to buyers or not. Hence, it becomes critical for ecommerce platforms to examine this aspect and refund the amount ( if required) as soon as possible,” said Anita Rastogi, indirect tax partner, PwC.

Earlier in July this year, reports also surfaced that ecommerce companies like Amazon India and Flipkart could finally be asked to get onboard the tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax collected at source (TCS) berths in the GST wagon as they will need to prepare for withholding tax provisions in two months under the GST.

TDS and TCS provisions were put on hold earlier to give time to ecommerce players to prepare for the new system. But with the GST regime stabilising, these provisions may be imposed soon.

Also, amid a continuous delay in the implementation of e-way bill system due to “technical reasons”, ecommerce companies got another breather, wherein a group of strate ministries decided to start the inter-state movement of goods worth more than $773 (INR 50K) through e-way bill mechanism from April 1. 2018.

To reduce the burden of ecommerce players, it has been suggested that a single e-way bill can be generated for multiple deliveries on the same trip

Apart from ecommerce companies, others who have earlier received audit notices are Nestle, Hindustan Unilever, Jubilant FoodWorks (Domino’s Pizza), Hardcastle Restaurants (McDonald’s), retailer Lifestyle International and auto firm Honda Motors

GST is proving to be a hard nut to crack for the online ecosystem of the country. Not only ecommerce companies but even online food ordering and delivery platforms were found to be facing troubles. Even the World Bank has said that the GST is one of the most complex tax systems in the world.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Taxman Alert: Ecommerce Companies may face Audit On GST Rate Cuts appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Over 80% of blockchain developers in India may move abroad in search of better career profiles, according to a research survey conducted by blockchain community, Incrypt.

The survey was conducted over a period of six months and included 100 developers.

The key reasons cited for the brain drain are:

• the lack of “robust regulatory framework” in the country on blockchain technology.
• the notion that bitcoin or any crypto asset is not necessary to derive a value of blockchain technology adversely affects the innovation ecosystem.
•  public blockchains like micro-grids, financial inclusion, asset quality and liquidity, health records, and data marketplaces are not there to unlock the internet of value.

This has also caused a setback on the skilling front, as highlighted by hiring-solutions provider Belong Technologies. Only 5,000 (0.25%) of the 2 Mn software developers in India currently have the right blockchain skills.

“The delay in putting together a framework for blockchain is causing India to lose out on jobs, drag in capital infusion, lack of innovation for local problems, talent flight, and setback in global positioning,” said the survey report.

The blockchain developers are expected to move to nations like Singapore, Dubai, Estonia and Switzerland that offer tax incentives and e-residency for startups.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on April 6 notified banks to stop offering services to exchanges and crypto-related businesses in India. Banks like SBI,  HDFC , AXIS, YES, ICICI and Kotak Mahindra Bank have already stopped a slew of their services to cryptocurrency exchanges and other entities and traders.

This has certainly affected the blockchain entrepreneurs, developers and exchanges in India.

Although earlier in February 2018, Niti Aayog announced its plans to roll out a discussion paper on blockchain technology, but no step has been taken so far on these lines.

The Opportunity Gap

According to  Nitin Sharma, founder of Incrypt, blockchain projects are creating new job categories, leading to hiring more full stack, front-end and back-end engineers globally.

“At a time when IT services industry is losing jobs, India needs to move fast in putting in place appropriate regulations to manage risks and attract global investment in the blockchain,’ he added.

The report further mentioned that globally, the blockchain developers are being provided with several open source and freelance job opportunities to support large public blockchain projects like Ethereum, Stellar, Neo, EOS, etc.

There are also hundreds of emerging Initial Coin Offering (ICO) projects that need technical, marketing or advisory talent.

The only glitch for Indian developers here is that many of these projects come with token-based incentives, that is the payment is often in cryptocurrencies.

“An Indian developer may be able to receive tokens but if there is no legal way to convert it into Indian rupees, a majority of prospective professionals may be deterred by the possibility that these incentives may be worthless in India or whether the government will consider their work non-compliant in any way,” the report said.

Brain Drain? Nothing New For India

Brain drain, as a term, came into existence in the 1960s when the skilled workforce of developing nations started emigrating to the rich countries in search of better job opportunities and living conditions.

India has suffered brain drain for long. First, it was the IIT/ IIM students who in thirst of million dollar packages didn’t shy to move out of the country. However, in the last few years, a change has been observed. Several degree holders from prestigious institutes of India have shunned good packages in their quest to start up their own venture.

The PM Narendra Modi’s Startup India movement has further given the hope to the new entrepreneurs for a sustainable and effective startup ecosystem in near future.

While the government is quite progressive when it comes to fintech, AI, ML, and IoT startups (as observed in the union budget 2018), cryptocurrencies and blockchain are yet to be focused upon.

[The development was reported by ET Tech.]

The post Blockchain: India Likely To Suffer Brain Drain As 80% Developers Prepare To Move Abroad appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Rajasthan government has been making continuous efforts to bring the state’s youth into the mainstream by supporting them in improving their employability and opening up job opportunities for them. Now, the state government has announced a two-day job fair on July 26-27 as part of Rajasthan Digifest in Bikaner.

Digifest is a flagship event of Rajasthan government that was started in 2016 to strengthen the technology and IT ecosystem in the state.

The state Department of Information Technology and Communication (DoITC) is organising the fourth edition of Rajasthan Digifest in Bikaner at the Government Polytechnic College in the city. The event will provide opportunities to aspiring students, IT professionals, emerging entrepreneurs, and business dignitaries of the state to brainstorm, network, and get their ideas noticed.

Apart from the job fair, Rajasthan Digifest Bikaner will host events such as TecRush, Hackathon 5.0, e-Mitra Hackathon, Eduhack, Green-A-Thon, Technology Exhibition, and Startup Fest.

Rajasthan Job Fair: Where Talent Meets Opportunity

The Rajasthan Job Fair aims to bring together recruiters, tech managers, and candidates with the aim of providing the state’s youth opportunities to bag job offers from various well-known companies.

According to a DoIT&C official, “One will have a golden chance to interact directly with recruiters across the nation. The platform will not only accelerate the hiring process but will also provide insights on what leading companies are looking for. Each learner is invited to Rajasthan Job Fair to write a new chapter in their life.”

The fair will not only provide on-the-spot job offers but will also train candidates to improve their future job prospects. There will be multiple training and grooming sessions for the candidates.

From resume-making to building effective communication skills, the candidates will be trained and prepared for all aspects of job hunting. Those who are unable to secure job offers will be given tips and tricks on increasing their employability quotient.

Who Should Attend The Rajasthan Job Fair, Bikaner?

The candidates participating in the Rajasthan Job Fair, Bikaner, must be Class XII passouts; there is no minimum experience criteria.

The participants need to register themselves online beforehand or on- the- spot via the Job Fair website. They will receive a registration number, which needs to be shown at the registration counter at the venue.

The selection process will start from 9 am on both the days (July 25-26). The participants will be given predetermined time slots for interview sessions and must come with their CVs and other relevant documents.

More than 280 companies will be participating in the job fair. This includes names such as Oppo, Idea, VIVO, AU Small Finance Bank, IDFC, IndusInd Bank Amazon, Flipkart, and DigiLearnings, among others.

Each candidate will have an opportunity to apply to a maximum of three companies. Based on the interview, the candidate may either get an on-the-spot offer or could be shortlisted for further rounds.

So far, more than 50K candidates have already registered for the job fair in Bikaner.

Hoping To Cross The Milestones Achieved In Jaipur, Sikar, And Udaipur Job Fairs

Earlier this year, the state government had organised job fairs in Jaipur (March), Sikar (June) and Udaipur (July).

Recently, the Rajasthan job fair was organised in Udaipur on July 4, 2018. According to reports:

• A total of 18728 applicants registered for the job fair
• Out of these, 7K applicants participated in the fair
• 1,530 spot offers were made by companies after taking students through screening rounds
• Another 2,005 applicants were shortlisted for further interview rounds by the participating companies

With the Rajasthan job fair in Bikaner, the state government is looking to break these records and bring more on-the-spot offer for the participants.

Editor’s Note

When it comes to innovation, Rajasthan has always set its standard high. Technological advancements have always been a top-notch priority for the Rajasthan government and the Rajasthan IT Day and Digifest are a reflection of this.

These events have helped the state government gain an understanding of how it can improve its existing plans and programmes to offer maximum benefits to the upcoming generation.

Apart from this, the Hon’ble CM Vasundhara Raje has also taken several steps to boost the state of entrepreneurship in Rajasthan, thus creating more avenues for job creation. Most recently, Rajasthan was ranked 9th in the DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) and World Bank-released ease of doing business index for states.

Rajasthan is now eyeing the top slot in the DIPP’s much-awaited State Startup Ranking framework in the long term. However, in the near term, the goal is to increase the number of employed youth in the state and the Job Fair Bikaner is just the right place to start.

Interested candidates can register for the event here.

The post 100 Companies, 2 Days: All Roads For Rajasthan Youth Lead To Digifest Bikaner Job Fair appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After Treebo’s Twitter followers were buzzed on Saturday morning with news of a mass layoff of 150 employees, the hospitality company finally issued its official response on the matter today (July 23).

In a media statement, a Treebo spokesperson said that the company has laid off about 10% of its 800-strong workforce, which comes to 70-80 employees.

There are currently 800 people working at Treebo. These layoffs are in line with the company’s efforts to double down on its technology products and processes even as it looks to rationalise costs.

Founded in June 2015, Bengaluru-based Treebo Hotels is a technology-enabled budget hotel brand with close to 10,000 rooms and 400 hotels in over 85 cities operating exclusively under its brand.

Treebo founder Sidharth Gupta did not elicit any response to the queries sent by Inc42, till the time of publishing this article.

As the company spokesperson said, Treebo has made significant investments in technology products and process innovations since the early days of its journey, even when it was small in scale. These capabilities have not only helped the startup grow rapidly but have also made it lean and efficient as a company.

“This, in turn, has allowed us to now take a critical look at our payroll and other costs, and rationalise them in line with our future plans, thereby driving better economic health,” the spokesperson added.

According to reports, the layoffs have been across multiple functions — including technology, quality assurance, and business development — and across locations. The management has offered two months’ salary as a severance package to the laid-off employees.

“We have tried our best to offer them a smooth exit through things like an appropriate severance package, accelerated vesting of ESOPs for colleagues nearing vesting milestones, and assistance in finding the next opportunity,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier, in April 2018, MakeMyTrip had delisted Treebo from its platform, in lieu of an exclusive contract with OYO. OYO is now rapidly expanding its operations across international borders. After Malaysia, Nepal, Dubai, and China, reports surfaced saying that the company is also looking to expand its presence in London.

After raising a $34 Mn Series C funding in August last year, Treebo acquired online events discovery platform Events High in an attempt to expand its offerings amid close competition with its arch-rival OYO.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Treebo Hands Out Pink Slips To 10% Of Its Workforce appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Even as the UPI showed a stellar growth of 30% in June, reaching 246.37 Mn transactions, the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) is now trying to make these figures more real by blocking same account transactions.

In a circular issued to banks, NPCI said that transactions in which the payer and payee accounts are the same will be blocked from August 1.

“While analysing the transaction patterns, we have observed instances wherein both the credit and debit accounts are the same… customers are sending money from their account to the same account… these transactions do not serve any use case and also add unnecessary load on the system,” read the circular.

Further, the NPCI said that all such transactions would be blocked in the UPI central system and has also asked payment service providers and banks to block such transactions at their end.

To explain how these transactions take place, the NPCI said that transactions are being done between the same UPI accounts or, in some cases, from the ID to the account number, but the underlying account is the same. There is a third way in which users carry out such transactions — by sending money to another ID that is connected to the same bank account.

Such transactions have been largely attributed to the attractive cashbacks being offered by multiple non-banking private entities. To discourage users from conducting multiple, unnecessary transactions for cashbacks, the NPCI wants to stop transactions that don’t serve any known use case.

This comes at a time when the NPCI is expected to launch an upgraded version of UPI — UPI 2.0.

Inc42 had earlier reported that the NPCI showcased a presentation of UPI 2.0 to some top bank officials on July 3 and is expected to launch it on July 13. With UPI 2.0 rollout, banks and fintech companies will have to update their existing systems to incorporate the changes in line with the new version.

UPI 2.0 will have additional features such as generation of collect payment requests along with invoice/ bill attachment, a one-time mandate with block functionality, signed intent/quick response code, addition of overdraft account type in UPI, and foreign inward remittance.

The NPCI also planned to enable UPI-based payments for inward international transactions.

Credit Suisse predicted that India’s digital payments industry, which is currently worth around $200 Bn, is expected to grow five-fold to reach $1 Tn by 2023.

The continuous growth in digital payments in India has been largely attributed to the UPI. But, with the NPCI combating fake transactions, the real UPI growth figures will tell the true story after August.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post NCPI To Block Same Account UPI Transactions From August 1 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Soon after its three-day Big Shopping Days sale (July 16-19), Flipkart is now ramping up its preparations for its Big Billion Days sale in October and plans to increase its total headcount of delivery and warehousing executives to 100K.

Reports cited sources as claiming that the company expects this year’s Big Billion Days sale to rake in 80% higher sales than last year, with respect to gross merchandise value (GMV) and the number of units sold.

Flipkart reached an estimated $1.5 Bn in GMV during its Big Billion Days sale event in 2017.

“Big Billion Days is the biggest opportunity where the company can do one month’s number in just five days. They have already started hiring manpower as they need to be trained for 30-40 days to reach operational efficiency level,” the source added.

The development comes at a time when Flipkart is aiming to triple its sales to $17.6 Bn by 2021 to maintain a lead against Amazon India and Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall.

At present, Flipkart indirectly employs 30K-35K delivery and warehouse executives, whom it calls ‘Wishmasters’.

“This will be the biggest hiring of the delivery workforce so far, because volumes for this (BBD) sale are expected to be the highest this year,” report added.

An email query sent to Flipkart didn’t elicit any response till the time of publication.

Inc42 had reported that the company expects about 45% ($7.4 Bn) of its 2020-21 GMV target to be contributed by mobile phones, followed by large appliances, and fashion at $2.7 Bn and $2.6 Bn, respectively. Groceries are expected to contribute another $1 Bn.

A recent Forrester report said that Flipkart’s standalone market share was estimated to be 31.9% at the end of 2017 while Amazon India’s was 31.1%.

Logistics for hiking up sales is a key area of focus in the ecommerce sector; this has even led to the creation of an entire logistics industry servicing ecommerce players.

However, Flipkart has been locked in a logistics war with its subsidiary, eKart, and has plans to further strengthen its delivery services.

In March, Inc42 had reported that Flipkart was planning to set up a 4.5 Mn square feet state-of-the-art logistics park in Bengaluru.

The company claimed in a statement that the logistics park will house several Flipkart fulfilment centres and improve supply chain efficiency. It will also reduce costs by deploying mechanised warehousing, acting as a freight aggregation and distribution hub, and leveraging technology for intelligent transport systems.

Flipkart, with its 41 fulfilment centres, is in direct competition with Amazon India. Amazon India currently has 56 fulfilment centres in over 13 states with close to 13.5 Mn cubic feet of storage space; it aims to close 2018 with 67 fulfilment centres.

The sales war between Flipkart and Amazon reached a fever pitch during the recent concurrent sales organised by the two companies. While Flipkart held its Big Shopping Days sale from July 16-19, Amazon organised its Prime Day sale for the first time in India from July 16-17. Amazon offered its customers more than 200 exclusive new product launches, thousands of deals, and video and music selections especially curated for Prime Day.

 [The development was reported by ET.]

The post Flipkart Gears Up For Big Billion Days Sale, To Hike Delivery, Warehousing Headcount To 100K appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Here is Inc42’s latest edition of startup events coming up this week.

But before we dive into what’s in store for this week, let’s catch up on the successful events of the past week.

Inc42 successfully hosted its third session of Open Office Hours on Saturday (July 21) and it was a great experience for the team to hear to meet our readers and startups enthusiasts.

Even as we listened to several startups that pitched their ideas to us, it was great to catch up with our regular readers and get insights into what new we can bring to them. Such interactions also go a long way in boosting our morale and encouraging us to keep bringing to you more indepth, well-researched, value-added stories on the Indian startup ecosystem. After Saturday’s Open Office Hours, we’re all the more charged up about our mission.

While the last week was a little dull, we are here to help you mark your calendars for the week ahead!

Rajasthan DigiFest In Bikaner

The Rajasthan Digifest is back with a bang and will be hosted in the historic city of Bikaner on July 25 and 26. The Digitfest will feature a host of interesting competitions and events such as:

Hackathon 5.0: Hackathon 5.0 will be a 24 hour non-stop coding marathon providing an excellent platform to brilliant coders, developers and designers to derive innovative solutions and take home prizes worth INR 32.5 Lakh, along with an opportunity to work with Rajasthan government.

Coders, developers, and designers will be given a chance to use their cutting-edge techniques and innovative methods to build solutions around themes such as Bhamashah, e-Mitra, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, AR/VR, blockchain, machine learning, data warehouse, and data mobility.

TecRush: The three-day mega IT carnival will kick off with a unique technology run — TecRush. The fun run has been designed with the agenda of providing an incredible amalgamation of sports, technology, and entertainment, all at one place, for the state’s residents.

TecRush, in addition to the run, will give opportunities to participants across categories — young, old, women, and children — to compete in more than 50 activities held across four zones, and a chance to win over 5000 awards.

State-of-the-Art Exhibition: The Digifest will also feature a technology exposition for tech wizards, students, and those interested in technology from across the country. Startups can exhibit their innovative product/s or entire product line at the exhibition. The exhibition is a must-visit and seeks to encourage and bolster innovation and collaboration in various industries and sectors.

Job Fair: Spread over two days, this mega job event will witness over 150 companies from across sectors such as information technology, banking, retail, manufacturing, and pharma come under one roof. The top employers at the fair will be Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Genpact, Vodafone, Axis Bank, and AU Small Finance Bank, among many more.

Emitra/ITGK Hackathon: This six-hour activity will encourage the participation of e-Mitra kiosk owners to pitch their innovative ideas on how to enhance and simplify the usage of e-Mitra services using electronic media.

The participants can develop a module, guide, or video tutorials on how e-Mitra services can be made more accessible and easier to use for the people. Ideas are invited in categories such as e-service delivery, IEC using electronic media, and banking facilities.

EduHack: This hackathon will provide a collaborative and competitive environment to participants and enable them to implement out-of-the-box ideas and come up with extraordinary solutions. The solutions can be in the form of new learning software, new teaching methods, a smart algorithm, or anything that will help the state’s education system.

Green-a-Thon: The 24-hour coding competition will bring forward green ideas, aimed at making the world more sustainable. Participants will be offered a platform to showcase their ingenious solutions related to sustainable energy as well as environmental issues.

Startup Fest: The Startup Fest will host multiple knowledge-sharing and educational sessions/panel discussions. Global business leaders, tech mavericks, government change makers, startup geniuses, and corporate tycoons will share their experience and views on startups with young participants keen on entrepreneurship.

Date: July 25-26, 2018

Venue: Government Polytechnic College and Industrial Training Institute, Bikaner

TechTales and Cocktails – Fintech in 2018

This event will host two exciting panel discussions featuring distinguished venture capitalists and founders including Sanjay Swamy of Prime Ventures, Vikram Vaidyanathan of Matrix Partners, Lizzie Chapman from Zest Money, and Shashank Kumar of Razorpay, among others.

Venue: LetsVenture Online Pte ltd, 2nd Floor, SNC House, Raja Rammohan Roy Road, Bengaluru

Date: July 26, 2018 | 5–8 PM

Stay tuned for the next version of our weekly series Indian Startup Events Of The Week!

The post Startup Events To Attend This Week: Rajasthan DigiFest Beckons With Hackathons, Job Fair, And More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram and Mumbai-headquartered SaaS-based platform VTION has raised $280K in a funding round through AngelList India.

Founded in 2016 by Manoj Dawane and Rajshree Dave, VTION focuses on media consumption measurement techniques and audio analytics.

The startup will utilise the funds to expand its product line in the Indian market and abroad. It will also use the funds to recruit its next level team, patent applications in select countries, and expand its product roadmap into adjacent digital areas.

The investment round saw the participation from investors such as Rahul Khanna of Trifecta Capital, Rajeev Arora of Paramount Wheels, and Electrolux former CEO Ram Ramsundar, among others.

Angels in Stockholm, Dubai, and the US also participated in VTION’s latest funding round. This marks the global appeal of products and services emerging from India.

“Manoj is a great example of a domain expert who has leveraged his global network to solve a grave problem in the radio and audio media analytics space. I’m really excited to have led the Syndicate from AngelList and to be a part of the early growth story of VTION,” said Prakhar Agarwal, Investments Lead, AngelList India.

More On VTION

VTION has launched its product suite with an SDK/application combination along with a real-time analytics dashboard. It has had successful trials and validations of the technology globally with eminent global research agencies over the last two quarters.

In April 2018, the company was also recognised as one of the top three innovative companies to have filed a patent in India by the Start Up ICT Awards conducted by ASSOCHAM, overseen by MEITY and Ericsson in April 2018.

According to Manoj Dawane, CEO and founder, VTION, broadcast radio and audio streaming are growing by leaps and bounds in India. Both of these verticals are based on advertising revenue as a primary contributor as of now.

“Hence, there is a need to get fair estimates of audiences & listenership, such that advertisers can target their media plans and broadcasters can have sharper programming insights,” he added.

Manoj further emphasised on the need for a patent technology that can measure, as a third party, the usage of audio streams that come from music streaming applications. VTION has a technology that can address the above challenge for measuring audiences on radio and audio.

In Competition

VTION competes closely with Zapr, which is also a part of GSF Accelerator.

Zapr is a mobile app that aims to monetise by making TV advertisements viewing interactive. The startup claims to be India’s largest media consumption repository and audience targeting platform.

In March last year, Zapr raised around $8 Mn as part of a primary and secondary investment by Star. It also counts Flipkart, Saavn, Micromax and Mu Sigma co-founders, Dhiraj Rajaram and Ambiga Dhiraj as its investors.

The SaaS market in India is expected to reach $1 Bn by 2020 and to cross $50 Bn in the next 10 years. SaaS accounts for only 9% of all software sales at present.

A March 2016 report published by Google and Accel Partners predicted that the global SaaS industry is set to become a $132 Bn revenue industry by 2020, and India is likely to contribute 8% of the global SaaS revenue by 2025.

The post SaaS Startup VTION Raises Funding From AngelList India And Foreign Angel Investors appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The power duo of the Indian digital payments industry — SoftBank and Paytm — are now collaborating to launch a mobile digital payments service in Japan by the end of 2018 as SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son seeks to expand the company’s presence in the sector.

Softbank-Paytm’s new digital payments system in Japan will use artificial intelligence (AI) extensively to offer mobile payments and other financial services.

With it’s Japan foray, Paytm could expand its portfolio to add financial services such as lending, insurance, and others.

Even though an announcement is reportedly imminent, dozens of Paytm employees are working in Tokyo on getting the service up and running.

With the new payments service, SoftBank wants to give Paytm a launchpad to take its service to global markets.

A SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment on the development while an email query sent to Paytm didn’t elicit any response till the time of publication.

In Japan, some regulatory changes set to come into effect in the next two years are expected to accelerate a shift to digital payments, resulting in huge interest from a variety of players, including banks, in starting digital payments services there.

Japan-based Line and flea-market app Mercari have been trying to explore the launch of digital payments in the country.

At a global level, Paypal Holdings, Ant Financial, Tencent Holdings, and Paytm are some of the biggest players in digital payments, but within limited geographies. Apple and Samsung Electronics have made forays into digital payments as well but failed to gain a significant market share.

SoftBank is one of the biggest investors in India and has made several bets, including Ola, Uber, Paytm, etc, through its global $100 Bn SoftBank Vision Fund.

SoftBank, which had invested $2.5 Bn in Indian ecommerce company Flipkart in August 2017, is now selling its 23.6% stake to Walmart, which is set to acquire a 77% stake in the company.

One97 Communications, which owns the Paytm brand, raised $1.4 Bn from SoftBank last year in exchange of a 20% stake.

Paytm’s good days started with the demonetisation announced in November 2016. Since then, the company has been on a huge growth trajectory, diversifying its portfolio into insurance, lending, payments bank, events etc.

With its latest tie-up for a mobile digital payments service in Japan, it looks like Paytm may be eyeing expansion of its services to other international markets as well.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post SoftBank & Paytm To Launch Mobile-based Digital Payments Service In Japan appeared first on Inc42 Media.

At a time when the Centre is working on rolling out an ecommerce policy and a think tank is already in place, a case of fraud and theft perpetrated jointly by a current employee of Amazon India and a former delivery boy has come to the fore.

Reports have surfaced that an Amazon employee and a former delivery executive were arrested for allegedly cheating the company and its customers. They would collect items scheduled for return before authorised personnel could pick up the product and steal them.

Police have said that the current Amazon India employee who was arrested would allegedly provide the accused with details of customers who wished to return their products.

An email query sent to Amazon India didn’t elicit any response till the time of publication.

How The Accused Cheated Customers & Amazon India

On July 21, a complaint was filed by Ambika Saraf, an authorised representative of the Amazon branch at Nehru Place, alleging that an imposter posing as a delivery executive had collected a camera that was scheduled for return from a customer named Gaganpreet Singh.

Anto Alphonse, deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka), said that the customer received a call from one Gaurav, who posed as a delivery boy, saying he would come to collect the camera.

At the same time, Amazon’s authorised delivery executive Jasvinder Singh also called Gaganpreet and came to collect the same camera. Following this, Gaurav was arrested when he came to collect the camera at Singh’s shop in Dwarka.

An investigation into the case revealed that Gaurav worked as an Amazon delivery executive between 2015 and February 2018 in the Lawrence Road area where a person named Raju Singh was his store manager. After quitting his job, Gaurav was jobless for a while and he hatched the idea for the fraud along with Raju.

Raju would pass him the details of customers who wished to return bought items and Gaurav would collect the article from the customers before the authorised delivery boy could arrive.

The DCP also said that on July 20, the accused allegedly cheated a customer named Sanjay Kumar Bansal, a resident of Dwarka, by collecting a mobile phone worth INR 36,000 that he wished to return to Amazon.

During interrogation, Gaurav revealed that he has cheated several customers this way and would sell stolen mobile phones and laptops in Gaffar market, New Delhi.

Gaurav and Raju would split the amount received from stolen articles, the police said.

Raju Singh was also arrested. Meanwhile, police are trying to recover the stolen mobiles and laptops.

When Ecommerce Companies Became The  Target Of Frauds

There have been reported several instances of buyers and sellers trying to cheat ecommerce companies.

Recently, Flipkart filed a criminal complaint against one of its employees and its major supplier MRPL making allegations of cheating, fraud, forgery, and breach of trust.

At the time, it was also reported that the fraud extended to other expenses incurred like excise, customs, and taxes, which were paid by Flipkart. Further, the Flipkart employee had also allegedly falsified bills, invoices, and other accounting documents to cover up the fraud.

Prior to this, Flipkart filed a complaint which led to the arrest of four people from Telangana’s Warangal district for allegedly cheating the company Flipkart by ordering high-end mobile phones and then replacing them with fake ones and claiming refunds.

In December 2015, two former Amazon employees, Atul Sharma and Naveen Kumar, were arrested for trying to cheat Flipkart of over INR 50,000 by claiming that they had been sent stones instead of the ordered product.

In October 2015, a similar incident took place when Veera Swamy of Andhra Pradesh found a loophole in the return policy of Flipkart and tricked the company for over 20 months using its return policy, which resulted in the company losing over INR 20 Lakh.

With the ecommerce market set to hit $200 Bn by 2026, it is high time the national ecommerce policy is enforced to protect companies along with other stakeholders, mainly customers and sellers.

[The development was first reported by Financial Express.]

Update 1 (23 July, 5:08 pm IST) Post publishing this news we got following response from Amazon India spokesperson:

“As India’s most trusted online marketplace we have zero tolerance towards incidents of fraud. We thank the Delhi police for their investigation and support in solving the case swiftly. We look forward to continued partnership with the police and government authorities.”

The post Amazon Employee And Ex-Delivery Boy Arrested For Cheating Customers, Company appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a step to expand its presence in high-growth geographical regions, PayU, the global fintech and e-payments division of Naspers, has acquired Israel-based payments technology company ZOOZ for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2010 by Oren Levy and Ronen Morecki, ZOOZ provides an open payments platform designed to enable merchants to connect with multiple payment providers. It also helps them consolidate and harmonise their payments data, analyse it, and make smarter data-based decisions.

As part of the deal, ZOOZ’s co-founder and CEO Oren Levy and CTO Ronen Morecki will become part of PayU’s global leadership team and will focus on technology and business development.

ZOOZ’s 70-member team of experienced technical and payments experts will also become part of the PayU team with the aim of boosting the business’s technical capabilities.

Following completion of the deal, ZOOZ will be wholly owned by Naspers. The acquisition will enable Naspers to strengthen its payments division in support of its business strategy to expand its financial services to emerging markets that have a long-term growth potential.

With the ZOOZ acquisition, PayU’s total sum of investments and acquisitions in global fintech will rise to more than $350 Mn since it initiated on a series of strategic moves across the globe in 2016 to open up access to new financial markets for its merchants.

How Will PayU Leverage ZOOZ’s Tech Assets?

After the acquisition, the ZOOZ and PayU teams will work together to create a leading, global standard payments infrastructure of the future —  a comprehensive, modular, and highly flexible payment OS platform that can support evolving merchant and broader payment industry needs.

The payment OS platform is expected to feature fraud management and real-time reporting and smart routing, etc, to enable merchant growth globally.

Laurent le Moal, CEO of PayU, said, “PayU is one of the most active investors in the fintech space and we are always looking for opportunities to innovate and support our merchant clients to grow. By working together to create the first ‘Payment OS’ platform, we will advance PayU’s mission to help build a world without financial borders.”

The development of the Payment OS platform comes in the light of a recent partnership between the companies wherein PayU merchants such as Gett and Kiwi.com got access to 2.3 Bn new customers across high-growth markets via the ZOOZ-designed PayU Hub platform.

The platform will leverage PayU’s payments infrastructure and ZOOZ’s state-of-the-art technology to open up access to new markets for its merchants. The platform looks to create a new standard for payments across borders.

Oren Levy, co-founder and CEO of ZOOZ, said, “After a year-long, productive partnership, our shared vision to create a new global standard in payments infrastructure is becoming a reality with PayU’s acquisition of ZOOZ. The unique contribution we bring to PayU is an advanced technological layer which not only help merchants worldwide upscale their operations and provide a better customer experience but also offers analytics and optimisation capabilities that equip them with unprecedented insights.”

PayU: The Journey So Far

PayU provides online payment services in 16 high-growth markets, dedicated to creating a fast, simple, and efficient payment process for merchants and buyers. PayU has over 250 payment methods and PCI (Payment Card Industry)-certified platforms.

In India, PayU claims to cover nearly 60% of the airline business and 80% of the entire ecommerce business. PayU claims that records over INR 7,500 Cr worth digital payments per month in India on its platform.

One of its offerings is PayUBiz, which caters to clients such as Jet Airways, Amazon, Airtel, Snapdeal, Jabong, Ola, Bookmyshow, insurance companies, etc.

PayU India also has under its aegis PayUMoney, a secure payment solution that can be used by anyone who wants to collect payments in India. The company claims to cater to over 350K plus merchants all across India.

Earlier, in September 2016, it had acquired Indian fintech company Citrus Pay for $130 Mn.

After the merger, PayU has been focusing its energies on building its consumer vertical and launched its flagship product LazyPay, an online deferral payment option, in early 2017.

LazyPay is currently live on merchants such as PVR, Box8, Zomato, Jazz Cinemas, Netmeds, Innerchef, DVois, AbhiBus, Fassos, FreshMenu, and many more.

In May 2017, PayU had invested $119 Mn in Hamburg-based technology group for digital consumer credit, Kreditech. Recently, it invested $18 Mn in Mumbai-based fintech company PaySense.

With the international digital payments market expected to reach $994 Bn in 2020, nearly two-thirds of cross-border business will come from high-growth markets like Asia and Latin America, according to a report by Accenture.

The post PayU To Explore Israel Fintech Market With Acquisition Of ZOOZ appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“The world is a book, those who don’t travel read only one page,” once said Roman philosopher Augustine of Hippo, who saw life as an opportunity to travel across the world. Novelist and MIT professor Anita Desai decoded the fun part of the journey when she said, “Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”

For a place to become a part of you, you must embrace it in its totality — its culture, people, cuisine, landscapes, et al. This, however, depends on how well you plan your trip in alignment with your interests, what experiences you incorporate in your itinerary, and the overall quality of the time you spend at a holiday destination.

Which brings us to the basic question asked by most travellers — how do you plan for a trip in a way that it becomes a part of you?

This was precisely the question that led Mohit Saxena, traveller, co-founder and former CTO of India’s first unicorn, Inmobi, to start a new luxury vacation marketplace called Rizort. The startup is looking to bridge the gap between travel planning and the actual experience at the destination.

It’s not as if other online travel aggregators (OTA)s don’t offer experiences — they do, or at least they try to. But, with competition tough in the segment, the “experience” often ends up playing second fiddle to concerns of keeping costs down and offering low-priced rooms and experiences.

“Thanks to existing OTAs, I always felt there was a lot missing in my vacation trips, in terms of experiences,” says Saxena, who recently shifted to the US to start up his new company.

Sachin Kanodia, former senior vice-president at Inmobi, joined him on this new journey along with Nishant Sameer, then a GM at Samsung Electronics.

In a conversation with Inc42, Mohit explains that the offerings of existing OTAs are generic and limited. Most marketplaces deal with competition by offering rooms at cheap prices, which is why when you book a room, you will see messages like ‘two rooms left at this price’ etc. “No matter where you go and what’s your purpose for the trip, the OTAs’ selling methodology doesn’t change,” he says.

“In the last five-six years, there has been an entire paradigm shift in the OTA space. Experience is fast becoming the core objective of travel. For instance, take Airbnb: though budget hotels have always been there, the platform is about providing a home-like experience,” adds Saxena.

The Huge Gap Between Demand And Supply

The online travel market is estimated to touch $1,091 Bn, globally, by 2022. According to a Google-BCG report, in India, the sector is set to hit the $45 Bn mark by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 11-11.5%.

However, there remains a huge gap in terms of demand and supply. This is precisely the reason a number of OTAs are differentiating themselves by offering curated, customised and experiential vacations.

While Airbnb offers curated experiences, Yatra(.com) recently launched Yatra Journeys, which provides themed experiences led by experts. Cleartrip offers ‘Local Experiences’ — typically short-duration activities ranging from a couple of hours to half a day. Then there’s Thrillophilia, a travel curator and a marketplace for operators of experiential tours in India, and PickMyTrail, which hand-crafts itineraries keeping traveller preferences in mind. There are many smaller players such as Trip38, We Are Holidays, Tripoto, Beyond Travel, and many more.

But, does the existing OTA even care about your very purpose of travelling — the intent and the experience, asks Saxena.

“When you select a travel destination, there’s usually something about the place that inspires you, around which you plan your trip. People either ask their friends or start researching the place and the experiences it offers. However, it’s a cumbersome process and doesn’t offer guaranteed satisfaction during the trip, irrespective of how well you planned it,” says Saxena.

So, while the demand side, OTAs have generic offerings irrespective of travellers’ intent of visiting a place, most of the marketplace doesn’t even meet the supply requirements.

Saxena argues that OTAs club together luxury hotels and resorts and budget hotels on the same list. This dilutes their brands completely. Also, existing OTAs drastically fail to address the demand for offbeat, luxury experiences as the selection parameters remain the same for both budget and luxury hotels.

This is precisely the reason upmarket hotels and resorts such as Four Seasons and St Regis are now actually moving away from the OTA space, explains Saxena. “We realised this big gap — that’s how the idea of Rizort was born,” he says.

So, what does Rizort do differently from existing OTAs?

Having identified the gap from both the ends, what strategy and business model has Rizort adopted to bridge the gap? Saxena responds, “We have created one of the most unique luxury vacation marketplaces, which, instead of simply showing the user dates, rooms, and prices, starts with the very basic question we’re trying to address — What’s your intent to visit the place?”

The company has broadly classified the “intent” into eight categories and has accordingly curated its location-based experiences. For instance, if someone is planning for a honeymoon trip to Bali, the platform, once it learns of the intent, will instantly curate experiences and resort preferences accordingly. Instead of blindly showing anything and everything, it will show resorts which offer candlelight dinners or other romantic experiences.

“There is no other online platform that exists today which can actually talk about their opulence as well as users’ intent,” claims Saxena.

Besides, the travel packages offered by most OTAs are static in nature. The stay and services remain the same irrespective of the traveller’s profile, interests, and intent. For instance, most OTA offers packages with a fixed number of days and nights with some popular experiences at that destination thrown in. This doesn’t allow travellers much freedom to curate experiences as per their choice.

Rizort claims to help travellers curate not only the right destinations and resorts aligned with their interests, but also the right experiences aligned with their intent.

“We bring alive all the beautiful experiences that these places offer,” says Saxena.

Rizort: Crafting Intent-Based, Opulent Travel Experiences

With a view to leveraging the hype around virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), some online travel marketplaces use these technologies to show a 360-degree view of available hotels. However, Saxena claims that these are not really in sync with actual experience on offer.

He explains that Rizort not only uses immersive technologies such as AR and VR to showcase the opulence and experience that its curated resorts offer, but has also created immersive content around places such as Bali, Thailand and Maldives, to provide travellers with a larger context of the destination.

This, he says, bridges the “intent” and “experience” gap, giving travellers an exact idea about what experiences the resorts and destinations at large offer.

He adds that the startup selects its partners and vendors “very carefully” and works only with luxury hotels to ensure that standards and services levels are maintained.

Rizort claims to have it all sorted out, right down to the minutest detail. For instance, all transportation is WiFi enabled. “In Bali, local vendors are likely to charge you two-three times the normal rate for everything. We take care of these concerns as well so the guest doesn’t end up paying excess in such scenarios,” adds Saxena.

It has planned for redundancy within the system as well. For instance, if one taxi driver doesn’t show up in time, there is a system in place to instantly find an alternate one.

Further, every customer is given the contact of a Rizort representative who can be reached out to at all times in case of any requirement or emergency. There is also a mobile companion app called Rizort Concierge. Once a trip is booked, the customer can access the entire itinerary on it and connect with the Rizort contact either by mobile, WhatsApp, or chat.

“We make dynamic arrangements as well. Suppose you’re in Bali and, on the third day of your trip, you want to party at the fanciest nightclub there. All you need to do is just put it on the Rizort app, and we will take care of the booking process and arrangements. You can get to the nightclub within 5-10 mins,” says Saxena.

Rizort has also come up with a number of add-on services for its users. For instance, It claims to offer guaranteed priority immigration for every user who books on the platform. Users will also be escorted from the airport to the hotel in a BMW/Mercedes.

In the first phase, Rizort has zeroed in on three curated destinations — Bali, Thailand and Maldives — for its customers. While Bali is already live, the remaining two will soon be available for booking.

“In Thailand, we will be providing services to all the top islands — Koh Samui, Ko Tapu, Ko Phi Phi, Phuket, Koh Chang, Koh Phangan, Bangkok, and so on,” says Saxena. In Phase II, Rizort will cover India, Sri Lanka, Japan, and Mauritius. Phase II will be ready by Q3 this year.

Are Rizort’s ‘Opulent Experiences’ Too Costly?

All this talk of “luxury”, “opulence” and “curated experiences” makes it seem like such holidays would be steeply priced and unaffordable for most middle-class people and Millennials. Rizort, however, claims that its experiences-cum-stay are not that expensive.

Saxena explains that the entire cost of the trip must be put in context, in perspective. Of course, the resorts on offer on the Rizort platform are not on par with budget accommodation such as OYO or Airbnb. But, while making a comparison, one must also look at other factors such as the frequency of the visit as well as the value-added experience of the trip, he says.

“The cost of these experiences on our platform is actually much lesser than those offered by other players. Our experience is priceless and, most importantly, it is designed around you. Also, nothing can really go wrong as it is you who shortlists the experiences after we provide you with enough information in the form of visualisation, experience, and everything you need to decide,” he says.

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said — “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Rizort appears to have been following his advice by taking all possible steps to woo travellers with an intent looking for experiences. The startup hopes that one perfect trip will help it forge a bond with its customers for thousands of miles in the future.

The post Luxury Vacation Marketplace Rizort Is Taking A Road Less Travelled In The OTA Space appeared first on Inc42 Media.