After having issued two notifications — a CBDT notification on December 24 and another by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) on January 16 —  the Centre is now organising a roundtable meeting on angel tax exemption framework to incorporate the majority view.

To be organised by the DIPP, representatives from leading startup-related associations, India Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA), iSPIRT, NASSCOM, TiE, Indian Angel Network, and community media platform LocalCircles, are expected to participate in the roundtable.

In its January 16 notification, DIPP, while announcing amendments to the angel tax exemption norms, which earlier required an IMB approval, invited comments and feedback from everyone in order to tackle the issue.

The Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance officials will also supposedly attend the roundtable to enter into a common ground and help release the final notification.

While all the above-mentioned associations have written multiple letters to the DIPP, recently around 70 startups along with iSPIRT and LocalCircles also wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting to look into the angel tax issue and resolve on priority.

Speaking to Inc42, Sachin Taparia, chairman, LocalCircles said, “For the last two days, I have been meeting with the DIPP officials. While Section 56(2)(viib) was added in the first place to discourage money laundering, in order to draw a fine line between the shell companies and genuine startups, we have demanded that all the startups that are Level 1 DIPP recognised should be immediately exempted from the purview of Section 56(2)(viib) upon the submission of the certain documents for two previous financial years.”

The five documents that Taparia mentioned in his submission are:

1. Audited Financials
2. All monthly payroll records including names and PANs of all employees
3. Monthly expenses
4. All TDS returns
5. All GST Returns (If registered for GST)

Earlier, speaking to Inc42, 3One4 Capital founding partner Siddarth Pai said that the current restriction imposed on angel investors such as minimum income in the previous year should be INR 25 Lakhs ($35.15K) and not INR 50 Lakhs ($70.3K) as mentioned in the recent notification.

Similarly, keeping the Indian scenario in check, the minimum net worth of angel investors should be minimised to INR 1 Cr ($140.6K) from the existing INR 2 Cr ($281.2K).

After consulting the stakeholders, the DIPP is expected to release another notification on or before February 11. It remains to be seen if the CBDT also releases another notification clearing issues pertaining to discounted cash flow valuation method or not.

The post DIPP To Hold A Roundtable To Discuss Angel Tax Exemption Framework appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We bring to you the latest edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

In one of the biggest Indian startup fundings this week, Pune-based online kid clothes retailer Firstcry received commitments of $396 Mn (INR 2,824 Cr) in a Series E round from Japanese conglomerate SoftBank. Out of this, SoftBank has already invested $149.2 Mn (INR 1,064.9 Cr) and is expected to transfer the remaining $246.49 Mn (INR 1,759.2 Cr) as and when called for in the next two years. The company has now been valued at about $849 Mn.

In all, this week 24 startups raised $202.5 Mn and two startup acquisitions took place in the Indian startup ecosystem altogether. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amount.)

Indian Startup Fundings Of The Week

Clovia: Delhi-based lingerie startup Clovia raised $10 Mn (INR 70.8 Cr) in a Series B funding round led by AT Capital. Existing investors Ivy Cap Ventures and some private investors also joined the round. The funds will primarily be used for its product and technology development, scaling up the brand portfolio, expanding to newer geographies, increasing operational efficiencies and strengthening the team.

Rooter: Delhi-based sports engagement company Rooter raised $141K (INR 1 Cr) from Anthill Ventures. The startup will use the funds to focus on its growth in India and expand its footprint to Europe with partners in that region. Rooter will also use the funds to expand its client base to B2B customers and focus on growing its social feed.

M1xchange: Mumbai-based TReDS (Trade Receivables Discounting System) platform M1xchange raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding from Mayfield India and SIDBI Ventures. With the funds, M1xchange will further invest in technologies such as blockchain, enhance its network and boost business growth for the company. Vikram Godse, managing partner, Mayfield will join the board of directors of M1xchange.

Kapiva Ayurveda: Mumbai-based ayurvedic healthcare and wellness startup, Kapiva Ayurveda, received funding commitments of $2.3 Mn (INR 17 Cr) from a group of investors, including early-stage investment firms, Fireside Ventures and Mohandas Pai’s family office. Kapiva’s existing investors including Maninder Gulati, chief strategy officer at OYO Hotels and Homes, and Madhusudan Kela, chief strategist at Reliance Capital, among others, have also participated in the latest round of funding. The company plans to use the fresh funds to strengthen its presence in existing markets across major retail formats, while also adding to its product portfolio through the launch of teas and juices, among others.

Rapido: Bengaluru-based bike taxi app Rapido raised $10 Mn (INR 70.08 Cr) in a fresh round of funding led by Hong Kong’s multi-strategy private investment office, Integrated Capital. Existing investors Skycatchr, AdvantEdge and Astrac Ventures also participated in this round of funding. Rapido will use these funds to expand across all major cities in India, aiming to reach 25 cities by the end of this year.

FreshMenu: Bengaluru-based foodtech startup Foodvista India Private Limited, which runs FreshMenu, raised $1.64 Mn (INR 11.7 Cr) in a Series B1 funding round from US-based venture capital firm Lightspeed Ventures and its Indian unit Lightspeed India Partners. The shares have been issued at a nominal value of INR 100, with a premium of INR 2,490.86 per share.

Groww: Bengaluru-based Data science-backed mutual fund investment platform Groww raised $6.2 Mn (INR 43.7 Cr) in a Series A round of funding led by Sequoia Capital. Y Combinator, Propel Venture Partners and Kauffman Fellows also participated in the round. The funds will be used to build technology to scale and introduce new investment options such as stocks.

Truebil:  Mumbai-based ecommerce platform for buying and selling used cars, Truebil, raised $14 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in a mix of equity and debt Series B funding round led by Japanese investor Joe Hirao, as the company plans to foray across five other Indian cities and strengthen its technology-based stack. Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital, Kae, Shunwei Capital, and Tekton had also participated, in the round.

Bounce: Bengaluru-based bike and scooter rental platform Bounce raised over $7 Mn in a Series B round. Chiratae Ventures, Accel India, Sequoia India and On Mauritius participated in the Series B round.

REVOS: Bengaluru-based smart mobility startup REVOS raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai-based early-stage investment firm ITI Growth Opportunities Fund. SUN Mobility backed by Chetan Maini also participated in the round. Mohit Gulati, managing partner and chief investment officer at ITI GO, will join the board of REVOS as part of the funding.

AgNext: Chandigarh-based AgNext raised an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from venture capital fund Kalaari Capital as the agritech startup seeks to further expand its product portfolio. AgNext is currently focused on horticultural, floricultural, and plantation crops, as well as select row crops, with an initial customer base across India and strong inbound interest from other geographies.

Liquiloans: Mumbai-based peer-to-peer lending startup Liquiloans raised $1.68 Mn (INR 12 Cr) in a Pre-Series A round led by Matrix Partners, with the participation of investors like Freecharge founder Kunal Shah, Renaissance Group chairman Abhishek Dalmia and Jitendra Panjabi. The company plans to use the fresh funds to establish itself as a trusted brand and build credibility in the market as a new P2P player.

5C Network: Bengaluru healthtech startup 5C Network raised an undisclosed amount of seed-stage funding from Unitus Ventures, Axilor, and Ahmedabad Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), as it aims to expand its service across cities and integrate more innovative solutions into the platform.

LegitDoc: Bengaluru-based blockchain startup LegitDoc raised $206K (INR 1.47 Cr) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. Using LegitDoc, any authority such as universities can issue documents (ex. marks cards), whose authenticity can be verified publicly within 10 seconds, free of cost from anywhere around the world by a simple drag and drop mechanism.

rePurpose: Mumbai-based social enterprise rePurpose Global raised $142K (INR 1.01 Cr) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. rePurpose is a social enterprise dedicated to creating a global movement of conscious consumers and brands who go plastic neutral by financially empowering waste worker cooperatives and waste management social enterprises in South & Southeast Asia.

Giscle Systems: Bengaluru-based computer vision startup Giscle Systems raised $88.5K (INR 63 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. Giscle uses the cutting-edge technology of computer vision and data mining to provide 3 core vision services (Detection, Recognition, and Analysis).

Minocular:  Raipur-based Minocular (BlueBanyan Technologies) raised $15,466 (INR 11 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. BlueBanyan is an industrial technology company delivering real-time machine intelligence to the resources sector enabling clients to make educated quick decisions to increase productivity, reduce costs and minimize risk.

Veratech: Gurugram-based data intelligence startup Veratech raised $7,030 (INR 5 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. It is a data-driven intelligence company that provides businesses with relevant information obtained on a real-time basis with actionable insights that help them decide better and faster.

Shunya O/S: Pune-based operating system Shunya O/S raised $1,406 (INR 1 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. It is an AI integrated OS for microprocessor-based embedded devices. It has almost all features needed to run an IoT device. Features like Fota, secure boot, MAC etc which are offered by other companies as premium are included in this OS by default.

TravelShelf: Bengaluru-based SaaS startup TravelShelf raised $1,406 (INR 1 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. It is an AI-assisted SaaS platform for travel brands to conduct influencer and content marketing.

Symphony: Mumbai-based music social networking app Symphony raised $1,406 (INR 1 Lakh) in on-the-spot funding during IIT Bombay’s Ten Minute Million Challenge. Symphony is a music social networking app. It is like an Instagram and Quora for Music where users can share 30-second music stories out of 45 Mn songs with their friends and ask/answer music questions.

iKeva: Hyderabad-based coworking space provider iKeva raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Meenakshi Group’s startup fund to fund its aggressive expansion plans across Major Metros in India. It plans to use the funds to expand and set up 15 new centres in the next 12 months and strengthen its robust back-end processes and technology.

This week two other startups have reportedly raised the funds:

• Gurugram-based automobile repair and service solution startup GoMechanic reportedly raised $4 Mn – $4.9 Mn (INR 30-35 Cr) in a Series A round led by Sequoia Capital. It may use fresh funds to expand to new cities and bulk up hiring at leadership positions along with expenses on brand-building.
• Gurugram-based fresh milk startup Country Delight reportedly raised $7-10 Mn in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Matrix Partners.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Delhi-based women community startup SHEROES announced the acquisition of Bengaluru-based women health tracker Maya for an undisclosed amount. SHEROES is looking to strengthen its health product offering with the acquisition of Maya. John Paul, founder of Maya, will join the SHEROES team to enhance its product leadership.
• Ahmedabad-headquartered ecommerce major Infibeam has sold its subsidiary Infinium India Ltd (IIL) to Ingenius E-commerce Pvt Ltd, which runs Tradohub, a B2B aggregator for industrial goods, in a deal worth $8.4 Mn (INR 60 Cr). With the acquisition of IIL, Tradohub expects to strengthen its technology capabilities and expand the existing merchant base and distribution across other product segments including but not limited to IT products, appliances, software, consumables and services.

Other Developments Of The Week

• Tamil Nadu launched its Startup and Innovation policy 2018-2023 with a mission of providing an enabling ecosystem for startups registered in the state and to make Tamil Nadu a global innovation hub for startups’ by 2023. The new policy includes setting up of a startup fund, to be called Tamil Nadu Startup Fund of Funds, with a corpus of INR 250 Cr ($21 Mn) for investments in startups.
• Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal launched the Assam Startup initiative, including state-level hub for entrepreneurship development, The Nest. The state-owned incubator seeks to augment the business environment by promoting idea generation to startup companies and help them establish and accelerate their growth and success.
• Maruti Suzuki announced the launch of its Mobility & Automobile Innovation Lab (MAIL) as part of a program to promote innovation in India for automobile and mobility space. It is an initiative by Maruti Suzuki to identify innovative and cutting edge solutions through startups, which are futuristic and customer oriented.
• Hyderabad-headquartered IT park developers Meenakshi Group launched its venture fund, Meenakshi Multiples Startup Fund to invest $10 Mn (INR 71.39 Cr) in promising startups. Going forward, the dedicated investment team of the group, comprising finance and legal professionals along with analysts, will lead more investments. The group has already made investments in a few startups.
• Delhi-based early-stage consumer technology venture capital fund AdvantEdge Founders announced its second fund, AdvantEdge Founders Fund II with a target of raising a corpus of $42 Mn (INR 300 Cr) with a focus on mobility. The mobility first Transformation Fund will focus on investing in early-stage startups across the shared mobility, smart cars, digital auto and logistics domain.
• Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India launched its startup accelerator and incubation programme called Surge. The Surge will pick up 10–20 early stage startups twice a year and invest $1.5 Mn (INR 10.6 Cr) in each of them at the start or very early stage of the programme. The startups will also have access to an advanced management programme (AMP) by Sequoia’s US unit.
• Espark-Viridian is back with the fifth edition of #AccessXcceleration, inviting early-stage startups across all sectors to participate. The acceleration programme will roll out two modules providing participating startups with a dedicated mentor who would provide them with business insights, problem-solving strategies, individual mentoring sessions, besides guiding each business idea based on their specific needs.
• Mumbai-based POWERED accelerator has announced nine women entrepreneurs participating in its second cohort to develop their businesses and deliver access to energy solutions across India. This includes Dr. Vanita Prasad, founder and director, REVY Environmental Solutions; Monika Jha, founder and CEO, Cydee Technologies Pvt. Ltd and more
• Gastrotope, the agrifood startup accelerator founded by Taizo Son’s Mistletoe, Rajesh Sawhney, and Infobridge, has picked five startups for its first cohort. The five selected startups are Brown Foods, Credible, Fasal, Occipital Tech and Triton Foodworks.

Stay tuned for the next week edition of Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week!

The post Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [21-26 Jan] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We bring to you the latest edition of Movers and Shakers of this week.

In one of the most interesting developments in the job market of the Indian startup ecosystem, Walmart-owned ecommerce company Flipkart has made yet another shuffle in its internal companies. Flipkart has promoted Rishi Vasudev, the head of its fashion department, to also lead the lifestyle and fashion categories of Myntra-Jabong.

Vasudev is now the third senior Flipkart employee to be given additional duties at Myntra-Jabong after Flipkart merged operations of the two online fashion retailers in 2018. The company has already moved Amar Nagaram to succeed Ananth Narayanan and brought in Ayyappan R to head category management at Myntra.

On the investors’ front, early-stage venture capital firm, Kalaari Capital has brought in Saurav Banerjee, former co-CEO of NDTV, Sreedhar Prasad, previously the head of consumer markets and internet business advisory at KPMG India, and Devneet Bajaj, the founder of agri-tech startup MITRA, as venture partners.

The new hires will primarily mentor portfolio companies and strengthen Kalaari Capital’s investment team, which will continue to focus on fintech, health-tech, agritech, digital content, deep-tech and consumer internet startups.

Also, Muthoot Capital Services Ltd an NBFC appointed Dr. Kandathil Mathew (K M) Abraham as a non-executive independent director on the board of the company effective from January 18, 2019.

Here are the other movers and shakers of the week.

Kumar Kushal Joins Belfrics Group As CTO

Malaysia-based global blockchain infrastructure and technology solution provider Belfrics group has appointed Kumar Kushal as the chief technology officer.

With experience of more than 15 years, Kushal has been an expert in building focused, result oriented technology teams and business development teams for global businesses by attracting and incentivizing the best global talent; driving business outcomes and revenue realisations through innovative technology solutions with differentiated product and service portfolios.

He has earlier worked with Reliance Group as CTO and is also the CTO of  Tiller Capital, a New York-based multibillion-dollar investment house with a diversified portfolio in technology, financial services, telecommunications and infrastructure.

In his new role, Kushal’s mission is to grow Belfrics into a global market leader in blockchain technology-driven business solutions. He plans to hire hundreds of hands-on Java resources in Bengaluru to deliver the current business pipeline Belfrics have from USA, Africa and MiddleEast.

PaisaDukan Appoints V. Balakrishnan As An Advisor

Mumbai-based peer-to-peer lending marketplace PaisaDukan has appointed V. Balakrishnan as a member of the Advisory Board.

Balakrishnan has held leadership positions in finance and is an expert in corporate finance, international taxation, risk management and mergers and acquisitions. Balakrishnan has founded Exfinity Venture Partners where he currently serves as a partner and chairman of the firm.

He has also worked with Finacle and Infosys, for a long time.

Stay tuned for the next week’s edition of Movers and Shakers of the week!

The post Movers And Shakers Of The Week [21-26 Jan] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We bring to you the latest edition of News Roundup: Indian Startup Stories Of The Week!

In one of the most important developments this week, the government may finally be paying heed to requests by Flipkart and Amazon to defer the February 1 deadline for implementation of the changes in the foreign direct investment (FDI) policy for ecommerce as it is reportedly planning a two-month extension of the deadline. The two ecommerce companies have been offering huge discounts to overhaul their large inventories as they both operate as online marketplaces partnering with large online vendors such as Cloud Retail, Appario and WS Retail.

In another update, the Indian government may allow single-brand foreign retail firms to open online stores before setting up brick-and-mortar shops in the country as part of its larger initiative to attract big investments in the single-brand retail sector.  The relaxation, however, would be subject to a condition that a foreign entity would have to bring foreign direct investment (FDI) in excess of $200 Mn within the first 2-3 years.

Here’s a look at the other important developments for the week.

Important Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week

OTT Companies, Internet Lobbies Oppose Regulation Demand By Telcos

The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Broadband India Forum and the Asia Internet Coalition have opposed suggestions by telecom operators that Over The Top (OTT) service providers should be licensed and regulated. AIC maintained that OTT service providers should not be subject to fresh regulations since they are not comparable to the services offered by telecom operators.

RBI Supports New Players In Retail Payment Systems

The central bank invited public comments on the ‘Authorisation of New Retail Payment Systems,’ a draft policy paper for private parties that seek to minimise the concentration risk in the country’s retail payments such as UPI, IMPS, NACH, IMT, etc. However, this would need interoperability between all the platforms, it said. The central bank has further stated that the norm could allow multiple entities to set up payment systems in India.

Supreme Court Backs Delhi HC Stay On 2016 Arrest Of MakeMyTrip VP

The bench also threatened to slap fines on the department for not following the procedure and going overboard in its zeal to collect taxes, but later relented after senior advocate K. Radhakrishnan said it was the “unkindest cut” after the court had dismissed his appeal. The bench emphasised that the department cannot arrest without following the law.

Ola And Uber’s Tussle With Karnataka And Maharashtra Authorities

• The Bombay High Court has asked Maharashtra government to speed up its decision around fare-fixing for app-based ride-hailing companies such as Ola and Uber. The High Court has given a window of eight weeks to the government.
• The transport department has reportedly said that the leading players, Ola and Uber, are not actively showing interest to ensure their driver partners disable the child lock system. Therefore, the department has issued notices to both the cab aggregators, asking why their licence should not be revoked for not complying with the new rule.

US Concerned With Indian Ecommerce Restrictions

The United States government has expressed reservations about India’s tough stand on ecommerce players and has told officials in New Delhi that the revised regulations will slow down investment plans of US-based retailers Amazon and Walmart

The Future Plans Of Paytm And Paytm Mall

• Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma forecasted that his newly launched wholesale entity will add up to 15% GMV towards the company’s ecommerce business, Paytm Mall. He also reportedly rubbished speculation that the company is planning to exit from the online marketplace business due to declining sales and growing competition.
• Paytm after its foray into Canada and Japan is reportedly considering expanding its digital payments services into 1-2 more developed markets in 2019. The company’s chief financial officer (CFO) Madhur Deora said that “the company is currently working on building a scalable business.”

Google’s Dedication To India: Advertising Expenses And More

• Google plans to bring more transparency to election ads and the company, in a blog post, said that it will introduce an India-specific Political Advertising Transparency Report and searchable Political Ads Library which will be a one-stop shop for comprehensive information about who is purchasing election ads on Google’s platforms and for how much.
• The company spent $75.7 Mn (INR 540 Cr) of $154 Mn(almost half the total amount) on offline media advertising — including television, print, radio, and outdoor — till November 2018. It spent $46 Mn (INR 330 Cr) in 2017 on offline channel advertising. Digging deeper, the report said that around 70% of its digital spend was on its own platforms and the remaining 30% went to other publishers.

Spotify May Launch In India On January 31

The preparation plans were accidentally made public through its India terms and conditions page. However, the page has now been replaced by the previous terms and conditions. The development comes right after the company signed a global content deal with New Delhi-based film and music company T-Series. This move will allow Spotify users to gain access to T-Series’ catalogue of Bollywood and regional songs, and is being looked at as a step to initiate its launch in the country.

OYO Begins Philippines Operations

The company has now started listing hotels in Philippines, with most of the hotels located in capital Manila. Inc42 observed that the company has been on a hiring spree since December 2018 as it said that it is “now expanding to new international markets aggressively with a goal to establish a strong global footprint.” The bookings were also seen open across Booking.com, Hotels.com, Goibibo.com, Agoda, FindHotel, Expedia.co.in etc at various prices.

Microsoft India Launches Project ReWeave

The platform hosts an array of handloom products created by the weaver communities, showcasing traditional designs and products created from natural dyes. Microsoft has been training weavers in the use of natural dyes to enable them to make newer and sustainable handwoven products, the company said in a statement.

Oracle Plans Data Centre In India

The data centre will be looking at Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) workloads, and the company is also testing for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), along with other modalities before it is opened for the market.

Other Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week

Hotels Group’s Boycott Of Swiggy, Zomato Enters Second Week

A boycott of food delivery players Swiggy and Zomato by the Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association is now well into its second week as restaurant owners refuse paying the high commissions demanded by the two companies. The association has also reportedly said it would not increase food prices as demanded by Swiggy and Zomato to accommodate the high commissions.

OLX To Double Sales Team In 2019

The company has seen fast growth in its real estate listings in terms of average ticket sizes and expects to expand listings to 25 cities in India. The new sales team will be responsible for onboarding builders, professional sellers, tenants and engaging with the local real estate communities with a focus on premium developers. The team will also assist the sellers in understanding the challenges faced by them and train them on the tools available on the platform to increase visibility with buyers.

MeitY Asks Google, Facebook To Pull Down Content About Fake Food

The ministry has issued the order to Google and Facebook to take down fake contents on the platforms that spread misinformation regarding safety and quality of food in India. “It has come to our notice that some miscreants are misusing various social-media platforms for circulating fake and objectionable material, including false and malicious videos regarding safety and quality of food available in India,” an official said.

Ola Seeks To Expand Ola Credit As An NBFC

Ola has applied for a permit to launch an NBFC as it is looking to deepen a short-term credit service it currently provides on a pilot basis to riders on its app, under Ola Credit/Postpaid. The company is now looking to launch a credit card in partnership with a bank and sell insurance to its driver-partners as well as riders. At present, it also offers a trip-insurance service to customers.

ShareChat Bans 50K Users As Part Of Clean Content Drive

The company reportedly banned the profiles after running a campaign, encouraging users to identify and report problematic content and users of recently added eastern Indian languages. It had similar drives in other languages as well but did not share the number of profiles taken down. ShareChat uses algorithms to pick up 50-60 signals while skimming through content on its platform, which remains unencrypted. Problematic content is bucketed to categories of porn, violence, fake news, hate speech, spam, impersonation and so on.

Mukesh Ambani Urges PM Modi To Take Action For Data Localisation

During the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, Mukesh Ambani addressed the gathering and invoked Mahatma Gandhi’s struggle to liberate the country from political colonisation, and said that India now needs a new movement against data colonisation. Calling data the new wealth, Ambani said, “For India to succeed in this data-driven revolution, we will have to migrate the control and ownership of Indian data back to India. In other words, give Indian wealth back to every Indian.”

Uber Introduces The All New Uber Fleet App In India

The new app was built in partnership with Fleet owners and features a simple and elegant design. The Uber Fleet app is a complete end-to-end experience with greater usability, enhanced technology and new features that allows Fleet owners to better manage their vehicles and drivers.

Stay tuned for the next week edition of News Roundup: Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week!

The post News Roundup: 11 Indian Startup News Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [21-26 Jan] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Undoubtedly, the Interim Budget 2019 is going to be the populist one — a budget to lure the common man and regain the waning trust of the middle-class working Indian. However, the Modi government, a favourite of the corporates and startup ecosystem stakeholders, is also known for holding its ground on the schemes and initiatives it has introduced.

Therefore, the upcoming Budget is going to be a mixed bag, which would attempt to bode well for the Indian startup ecosystem as well as the common man, particularly farmers and the working class.

The government is expected to boost its flagship programmes and schemes such as Digital India, Make in India, Startup India, and MUDRA in the Interim Budget 2019 (expected to be vote-on-accounts), to be presented by the interim finance minister Piyush Goyal on February 1.

One of the biggest stakeholders in the ecosystem, fintech startups, are waiting with bated breath for the Budget, and they have their views and demands, which Inc42 has collated in this article. “With the Union Budget round the corner, the startup sector is keenly awaiting the policies the government will lay down,” said Kumar Abhishek, CEO and co-founder, ToneTag, a startup that designs cashless and contactless payments solutions.

With a total of 3.7 Bn UPI transactions last year, and the December volume standing at 4x of the transactions in January 2018, fintech startups continued their parabolic growth curve. The growth curve of payments startups, in 2018, though, was definitely not the same as was observed in 2017, when digital payments seemed to be on steroids owing to the demonetisation effect.

As Aadhaar-enabled eKYC by private companies has been suspended by the Supreme Court and the applicability of the new amendment is limited to the banking and telecom sector only, in this Budget, fintech startups are expecting the government to incentivise sectors such as payments and lending further.

Here is a detailed look at what fintech startups want from the upcoming Budget:

Incentivise Digital India, MUDRA, And Other Schemes

According to Bala Parthasarathy, CEO and cofounder, MoneyTap, while Aadhaar-enabled verification will free up banks and finance companies to carry out eKYC and eSign, significantly reducing costs for them, GST slabs may become lower for businesses.

According to Abhishek, fintech startups are expecting a faster and easier method for procedural clearance and license approvals. “They are also looking for an increase in allocation of funds towards the adoption of new technologies such as AI and blockchain. With the success of the Digital India scheme, the industry is looking for an allocation of adequate funds to further the cause,” says Abhishek. Increased investments in training, research, and skill development in areas such as big data, IOT, robotics, and other digital tools will act as a facilitator of startup growth, he added.

Startups also want easing of unnecessary regulatory supervision and government interference so they can operate without any pressure.

Simplify TDS, Repayments In Online Lending

While the banking sector has been a distressed sector for the past few years, with non-performing assets (NPAs) growing exponentially, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) too are now feeling the heat of the liquidity crunch in the country. Gaurav Gupta, cofounder and CEO of online lending marketplace MyLoanCare (.in), says, “Post the IL&FS crisis, NBFCs’ source of financing has dried up and this is further impacting an already struggling sector.”

Gupta also thinks that the current crisis facing the real estate sector can have a detrimental effect on not just infrastructure development but can result in a far-reaching crisis for the innumerable SMEs who work in the sector as suppliers and vendors to developers. “While the RBI has shown its commitment towards addressing capital requirements of NBFCs in other sectors, it remains to be seen if it will extend a helping hand to the real estate sector by enhancing the financing limit of NBFCs to developers or by providing a refinance window for non-consumer loans by NBFCs,” he adds.

The RBI recently agreed to defer Basel III implementation by one more year. This will reportedly expand the lending capacity of Indian banks by $52.24 Bn (INR 3.7 Lakh Crore).

Speaking to Inc42, Shivashish Chatterjee, founder and CEO of DMI Finance, says, “Any delayed application of the Basel III norms that facilitates greater availability of capital is good news in the short term as long as banks leverage the added buffer to increase their exposure to NBFCs, which is not an assumption we can make automatically.”

So, how can Interim Budget 2019 help boost the lending space and, specifically, tech-oriented lending startups?

Rajat Gandhi, founder and CEO of P2P lending startup Faircent.com, opines that to encourage lenders, the finance minister must consider tax exemptions for investments in P2P lending, allowing defaulted loans to be considered as capital loss when filing returns, and providing special tax rebates to lenders who fund loan requirements of MSMEs. “This will increase investments by lenders in P2P lending, unlocking the supply side and thereby putting pressure on rates and easing the current liquidity crunch,” adds Gandhi.

Reiterating Gandhi’s views, Amit Sachdev, CEO and cofounder of online business lending startup CoinTribe, says, “We hope that this year’s Budget will suitably address two long-pending requests of the online lending industry. First and foremost, the government should eliminate the need for SMEs to pay TDS (tax deducted at source) on all interest payments due on business loans. This TDS payment makes the loan repayment process very complex for SMEs, most of which can’t afford the services of highly-paid accountants.”

Sachdev says that the online lending platforms should also be given access to low-cost funds from government schemes such as MUDRA and the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE). These funds are only available to banks and NBFCs as of now, and a substantial part of them remains unutilised. SMEs are a key driver of economic growth and providing them access to low-cost funds in a simple, convenient manner will go a long way in enabling them to contribute more meaningfully to the economy and generate employment in the country, he explains.

Ensure Sustained Growth Of Digital Payments

While lending, insurance, and banking are the old monks of the financial services sector, it is the fast-changing digital payments technology, led by startups, which is redefining the terms for the entire sector. The technologies introduced by payments startups are paving the way for the old guard corporates to adopt later.

In recent years, digital payments have grown to such a level that the government is now considering making the Payments Regulatory Board (PRB) as independent as the RBI — the PRB is currently under the control of the RBI.

There is a sound reason for this move. According to NITI Aayog, the digital payments industry to hit $1 Tn by 2023.

Harshil Mathur, CEO and cofounder, Razorpay, says, “Since the 2018-19 budget, there’s been a sustained push towards a digital-first economy, which is remarkable. From seeing Indians become more comfortable with making C2G (consumer/citizen to government) payments online to the RBI’s efforts at forming a committee to deepen digital payments in the country, it’s been a fairly interesting year.”

In the upcoming Budget, Mathur wishes that the government addresses the angel tax problem. Secondly, considering how the UPI is being embraced by businesses and consumers, resulting in larger transaction volumes and increased P2M (Person-To-Merchant) adoption, it would be good if the government took steps towards making UPI the de-facto mode for all online payments soon, says Mathur.

Making RuPay essentially listed in all plastic card-based digital payments and UPI the default payments mode are some of the demands that Indian payments startups have been asking for lately. In the draft ecommerce policy, the government had even proposed to make RuPay card availability at payments gateway mandatory for ecommerce companies. However, the draft is being reworked now.

Ravi Vishvanathan, CFO of PayMate, a cloud-based platform enabling B2B payments and credits for SMEs, enumerates a number of probable inclusions in Budget 2019:

• Employment: SMEs/MSMEs registering new employees in the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) scheme may get reimbursement for the employer’s contribution to PF
• Additional tax deduction on salary paid to new employees
• Tax benefit for timely repayment of loans by SMEs/MSMEs
• Interest subsidies for MSMEs on credit up to a limit
• Inspection/scrutiny by government departments may be made an exception for MSMEs
• Depreciation allowance on fresh capital expenditure by SMEs/MSMEs
• Credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs

Continue With Other Reforms

The goods and services tax (GST), which, when introduced, had given sleepless nights to SMEs and startups, has been continuously reformed based on feedback from industries. Angel tax exemption is another area where the government has taken a number of initiatives to safeguard startups. However, it’s not been enough. Startups and angel investors have been demanding some kind of legislative reform to shield startups from Section 56(2)(viib) which embodies the angel tax.

Vivek Tiwari, MD and CEO, Satya MicroCapital, says, “We expect the government to introduce measures to reduce the compliance burden and ease working capital blockages, with possible reductions in tax rates in the 2019 Union Budget.”

He adds that the government must also consider reducing GST rates in the forthcoming budget. Considering the difficulties faced by SMEs in the country, the finance minister is expected to increase the sales threshold for compulsory GST registration from INR 20 lakh to somewhere between INR 50-75 lakh. Further, the government should also look at introducing a concessional tax scheme for small service providers.

Mathur avers it is important for the government to recognise the immense potential of fintech lenders in improving financial inclusion and credit penetration in the country. Thereby, the government should encourage them with prudent policies to benefit the sector. “I hope the upcoming budget continues to incorporate new policies and regulations that will create new opportunities and boost our digital payment ecosystem,” says Mathur.

Cryptocurrency is another area where the government has not come up with any clear regulation. As of now, the RBI has banned banks and payments companies from extending any services to crypto entities.

This move clipped the wings of crypto startups in India even as they were taking off. It resulted in leading crypto companies having to shut shop or relocate. The ones that survived were forced to restrict their services to crypto-to-crypto trading, thereby incurring losses as the transaction volume of crypto-to-crypto is far less than that of fiat-to-crypto.

Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO of Mumbai-based crypto startup WazirX, says, “I hope the Garg Committee submits its regulation report before the Budget 2019 session. If that happens, then I’m confident that our finance minister will address the cryptocurrency issue in the Parliament and ensure that we take a positive and progressive step to shape the future of digital assets in India.”

However, in the current scenario, the Garg Committee is unlikely to submit its report on crypto regulation in the country before February end.

In other news, more money is expected to be infused in the banking system this Interim Budget 2019. The middle class is also expecting the government to increase the tax exemption threshold from INR 2.5 Lakh ($3.5 K) to INR 5 Lakh ($7 K). At the same time, experts believe that the finance minister might set a revised fiscal deficit target  to 3.2% from the existing target of 3.3%.

Stay tuned to Inc42 for all the upcoming Budget-related updates!
Tell Us Your Expectation From The Upcoming Budget

The post What Fintech Startups Want In Budget 2019: Tax Rebate, Liquidity And Policy Reforms appeared first on Inc42 Media.

While Walmart-acquired Indian ecommerce company Flipkart works on getting compliance for its operational model under the new changes of FDI policy in ecommerce, another examination for it by National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) may come to a final conclusion soon.

On August 29, soon after the Competition Commission of India approved the Flipkart-Walmart deal, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) had filed a petition against CCI in the NCLAT asking for the reversal of the Walmart-Flipkart deal.

The CAIT petition alleged that CCI has been ignoring the alleged predatory activities of both Walmart and Flipkart carried out in the past. It also said that CCI has also ignored detailed objection by CAT against the deal.

After multiple hearings and extensions, NLCAT’s two-member bench headed by Justice S J Mukhopadhaya concluded its hearing on Thursday (January 25) after taking note of submissions made by both sides. However, the bench said it will be open to the parties to file a short written submission, not more than three pages, by January 29, 2019.

In the earlier hearings, NCLAT had asked Wal-Mart International Holdings Inc to file its explanation for its business model in India. At the same time, CAIT was asked to file its understanding over Walmart’s business model in India.

In its reply filed before NCLAT, CAIT had alleged that Walmart has been found “guilty of predatory behaviour” in countries like Germany, Mexico and South Africa and “may repeat such behaviour in India” through its acquisition of online major Flipkart.

However, Walmart said its business model and activities in India were different from its newly-owned subsidiary Flipkart’s. Another restriction for Walmart comes on account of FDI restrictions, which prohibit it from selling directly to consumers.

Another traders organisation, All India Vendors Association (AIOVA) had also filed a complaint with the CCI alleging Flipkart’s indulgence in predatory pricing and favouring its own brands.

CAIT continues to target ecommerce companies and their Indian acquisitions as it recently urged Union Minister Suresh Prabhu to examine Amazon and Samara Capital’s acquisition of Aditya Birla’s retail chain More.

However, these ecommerce companies are left out to dry by the government since the December 26 circular in which the changes in ecommerce FDI policy targetted deep discounts being offered by large online marketplaces as it prohibits ecommerce marketplaces from dealing with exclusive vendor-partners. The circular is set to come into effect from February 1, 2019.

The circular specifically targets the control marketplaces enjoy on inventory and pricing, directly or indirectly. With the discussions on deadline extension underway, tough times are cornering ecommerce giants.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post NCLAT Reserves Order On CAIT’s Petition Against CCI Approval Of Walmart-Flipkart Deal appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), an all India body of hotel owners and operators, has alleged that more than 200 hotels have ended agreements with hospitality chain OYO over mismanagement of contracts, arbitrary charges and other disputes, industry associations said, adding that others want to exit contracts but are stuck for various reasons.

Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, vice president of FHRAI, reportedly said that the protests are more dominant in the south and the west, but hotels in the north are also aligning with the protests now. “Notices have been sent by the company to some as they are trying to scare the hotels, but you cannot force anyone to do business with you. They are showing their might and trying to arm-twist smaller hotels,” he added.

However, OYO spokesperson told Inc42 that there was no such trend and claimed that beyond some isolated cases in Rajasthan which were ended on account of breach of contract over repeated offenses.

The South India Hotel and Restaurant Association (SIHRA) representative claimed that about 60-70 hoteliers have ended agreements with OYO in the region. The associations have also alleged breach of contract, arbitrary revisions of commission rates, stopping minimum guarantee amounts, threatening legal notices, mismanagement of accounting and endorsement of unlicensed bed and breakfast accommodation.

A source close to the development at OYO told Inc42 that the company has internally calculated termination of contracts and has found only 15 such contracts in the last year.

An OYO spokesperson said that it has been engaging with the FHRAI, the apex body, and its respected executives on the potential of a larger discussion by inviting all hotel chains who lease or franchise in the country. However, the company “will not acknowledge, recognise or engage with the state/ city/ segment association that can be formed overnight by people with vested interests.”

The SoftBank-backed hotel chain also said that it has individually reached out to the hotels and is solving the issue amicably, or in some cases, part ways amicably. The company alleged that  “most of the association representatives leading this public uproar are people who operate competing assets and using the garb of the association to veil their competing business agendas (conflicts of interest) and protect their vested interests.”

At the same time, the report cited some members of hotel association claiming that OYO had responded to complaints with threats of defamation suits. An OYO partner said that he is considering ending his agreement with the company, as 60-70% of margins had eroded because of wrong rates and that he’d got threatening emails and messages when he expressed concern.

The Budget Hotel Association of Mumbai has said about 40 hotels have ended contracts with the company in the city. And now the association is collecting documents and agreements from OYO partners, as the hospitality chain controls their Google listings and they want to ensure, that in case of ending the contracts, the hotels can take back their credentials and continue their own businesses.

The cause for conflict of hotels, associations and OYO came to light in December 2018 and since then has continued to cause mayhem in the hospitality industry. However, it is suspicious to notice no names of OYO’s direct competitors such as Treebo Hotels, FabHotels etc have emerged yet.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Hotel Lobby Claims Over 200 Hotels End Agreement With OYO appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After a year of global scandals, doubts, data concerns, privacy hindrances and bidding adieu to top-level executives, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is looking to integrate Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp and directly control the issues of the three entities.

A NewYork Times report citing people involved in the effort said that Zuckerberg’s move requires thousands of Facebook employees to reconfigure how WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger function at their most basic levels. This involves the unification of underlying messaging infrastructure while they continue to function as stand-alone apps.

The company is in the early stages of the integration but plans to complete it by the end of this year or in early 2020. Zuckerberg, who has been under attack for recent data breaches, now wants all its applications integrated with end-to-end encryption, on the lines of WhatsApp’s encryption which prohibits anyone else except the participants of the conversation to see the messages.

With such integration, Zuckerberg, reportedly, wants to increase the use of social network. Note here that the number of social media users worldwide in 2018 is 3.196 Bn, up 13% year-on-year.

The company wants users to rely more on the Zuckerberg-led Facebook’s social media ecosystem, which records billions of users across the world. The company reportedly believes that if users interact more frequently with Facebook’s apps, the company may also be able to build up its advertising business or add new services to make money.

In a statement, Facebook said it wanted to “build the best messaging experiences we can; and people want messaging to be fast, simple, reliable and private. We’re working on making more of our messaging products end-to-end encrypted and considering ways to make it easier to reach friends and family across networks.”

Zuckerberg reportedly believes tighter integration will benefit Facebook’s entire “family of apps” over the long term by making them more useful. He had first floated the integration idea for months and began promoting it more heavily to employees toward the end of last year.

“As you would expect, there is a lot of discussion and debate as we begin the long process of figuring out all the details of how this will work,” Facebook said in a statement.

However, the plans are not yet on the level of realising plans for profits, but is looking at a more engaged audience could lead to new forms of advertising or other services for which Facebook could charge a fee.

The integration and efforts of end-to-end encryption can be seen in the light of numerous apologies Mark Zuckerberg issued in 2018 across the world, in several meetings, publicly and privately, for the Cambridge Analytica debacle which compromised the personal data of more than 87 Mn Facebook users.

Zuckerberg also went through hours of explaining his business, plans to improve data security and more to the US Senate. Even in India, the company has been answering regular notices by the government agencies on its data security plans and has been stuck in limbo for launching payments services of its chat-messaging service WhatsApp in India.

The company also recently came up with plans to help governments in ensuring a free and fair election, including India. The company has already said goodbye to WhatsApp and Instagram founders, who left the company high and dry in the middle of a controversial year.

[The development was reported by NewYork Times.]

The post Zuckerberg Plans Next-Gen Integration Of Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp And Instagram appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Honorable PM Narendra Modi-led government has launched several important initiatives such as Startup India, Make In India and Digital India over the last few years to boost the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem. More than 20 states have implemented policies and schemes under Startup India that have accelerated the growth of the local startup ecosystem in their respective states.

As a result, today India has 7200 tech startups, 210 incubators and accelerators, 13 Atal Incubation Centres, 19 Technology Business Incubators, 374 Atal Tinkering Labs and 350+ co-working space operators. Even with 40,000 startups and an impressive YOY growth rate, India has a long way to go before it can catch up with the US and China.

Ahead of the upcoming general elections as the Honorable Finance Minister Arun Jaitleypresents the interim budget on February 1, here are some of my observations as expectations.

In line with the constitutional convention, I do not expect a new policy framework to come into effect post the interim budget. Nonetheless, I wish the Minister announces supportive policies that remove angel tax, streamline decision-making process for faster execution of existing schemes, increase the revenue bracket for startup tax holiday and bring taxation on VC investments at par with listed equities.

Remove Angel Tax

US data shows about $25 Bn invested by 300,000 angel investors in 70,000 companies and about $85 Bn invested by VCs in 7,000 companies. India, on the other hand, saw $13.7 Bn being invested across 820 companies in 2017.

The Government needs to formulate policies that help startups with easy access to growth capital and combine them with compliance processes that are hassle-free, transparent and seamless. Recent developments in ‘Angel Tax’ have left the Indian startup ecosystem in a delicate situation that threatens the survival of many early-stage startups while pushing away angel investors.  What we need is an effective and integrated policy-making and implementation with different policy-enforcement entities aligned together viz Central and State governments, the Income Tax department, among others.

To promote the Indian startup ecosystem, the government needs to remove ‘Angel Tax’ and keep regulatory requirements to a minimum so that the startups can focus on building a globally competitive businesses and angel investors can focus on finding the right startups to back.

Startup Tax Holiday

Increase revenue bracket for tax holiday

The early years of a startup do not generate significant profit thus making the ‘Tax Holiday’ redundant. The government should change the current revenue bracket from INR 25 crore to INR 100 crore allowing startups to take a tax break for any 5 years within the first 10 years of existence.

Remove Taxation on ESOPs

Government should provide tax benefits to employees who take the risk of joining a startup in the early stages by leaving a comfortable and secure job at a large company. As startup exits are difficult, we need to do away with taxation on ESOPs to promote talented individuals to take the risk of joining a startup and reward them accordingly.

Bring Taxation on VC Funds at par with Listed Equities

Investments in listed equities are taxed at 10% – 15% while investments by venture capital and private equity funds are taxed at 20% if held for more than two years. We need to bring taxation on investments from VC funds at par with equities to trigger the growth pace of the Indian startup ecosystem. By doing so, we can give a push to family offices and local investors in addition to attracting inflow of foreign funds.

Allocate Funds for Startup Skill Development Programs

Over 3 lakh new jobs are expected to be created by startups by 2020. Once the startup is able to survive the initial couple of years and sustain itself, the next stage of growth requires the hiring of talented people. While Bengaluru and couple of other cities have shown that they have the ability to attract such talent for startups to grow, the government needs to enable talent development programs that will allow startups from Tier 2 / Tier 3 cities and beyond to hire talent with the expertise to take local startupsto the next stage of growth.
Tell Us Your Expectation From The Upcoming Budget

Identifying key focus areas and allocatingsignificant funds/grants through the National Skill Development Corporation for specific technical and vocational programssuch as AI, ML, big data, genome technology, blockchain, among others, will positively impact the next wave of technology startups. Moreover, the labor laws need to be reformed tohelp startupswho increase their scale of operations and ramp up hiring from a few employees to few hundred employees in a short period of time.

Create more Awareness of Intellectual Property

1.4 Mn patents were granted in 2017 globally. The patents granted by India touched 12,387 in comparison to China’s 420,144 and 318,829 by the United States. While India continues to move up the Global Innovation Index, the government needs to give a bigger push to promote innovation programs and streamline processes.

The Startup India scheme has enabled patent filing through fast track examinations, 80% rebate in fees and on-boarding facilitators to help startups. However, creating more awareness initiatives about the benefits of intellectual property with a focus on quality rather than quantity is the need of the hour.

Execution of Existing Schemes

Appoint VCs to manage FFS

The Central Government launched INR 10,000 Cr Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) in 2016. About INR 1611 crore has been committed to 32 AIFs and 170 startups have been funded so far. The government should appoint professional investors who have strong experience in managing venture capital funds to manage FFS with relevant checks and balances in place.

Governing bodies for faster decision making

Total of 15417 startups have been recognized under the Startup India scheme and disbursements of allotted funds has picked up pace in the 2018. Successful execution of Ayushman Bharat-National Health Protection Scheme, smart cities, GST, digitalization and skill development initiatives will positively impact the productivity.

However, more needs to be done to execute existing schemes at a much faster rate by reducing processing time and creating governing bodies for faster decision making.

For example, as an advisor to Wadhwani Foundation, I had the opportunity to work with SMEs in the automotive and manufacturing sectors and MSME scheme execution issues persist. Under the ‘Rs 1 crore loan in 59 minutes’ MSME scheme by the government, 1.12 lakh MSMEs have received approvals but the paperwork following the approval is a long and tiring process resulting in just over 40,000 sanctions. Again, execution is important and disbursement of loans must take place within seven days as promised.

In conclusion, economic growth and job creation for India will come from innovations driven by startups in the next decade. India has jumped from the 100^th place to 77^th on the ease of doing business and moved up to 57^th rank on Global Innovation Index.

By implementing some of the changes suggested above and related, the government will be successful in bringing about progressive growth, stability and maturity in the Indian startup ecosystem that it really deserves. I hope and expect the FM will announce measures that will put the Indian startup eco system on an upward curve. 
Tell Us Your Expectation From The Upcoming Budget

The post What Startups And Investors Need From Our Finance Minister appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-headquartered online travel company MakeMyTrip posted financial results for the third quarter of the FY2018-19 with a 31.4% Y-o-Y growth in adjusted revenue, reaching $179.9 Mn.

For the fiscal quarter ended December 30, 2018, the NASDAQ-listed company increased its gross bookings to $1.4 Bn, a 16.67% Q-o-Q growth against $1.2 Bn in the Q2 FY2018-19 ending September 2018.

At the same time, MakeMyTrip’s loss for Q3 FY2018-19 recorded a 34% control reaching $29 Mn against $45 Mn in Q3 FY2017-18. However, the total revenue of the company for Q3 FY 2018-19 was $124.8 Mn, a 27% Y-o-Y decline against $171.4 Mn in Q3 FY2017-18.

The recorded fall in total revenue might be due to the reduced revenue from hotels and packages for the quarter which fell 49%, reaching $58 Mn against $113.72 Mn in Q3 FY2017-18. Also, the financials revealed that in Q3 FY2018-19, the personnel expenses for the company also increased by 10.2% to $29.6 Mn in Q3 FY19.

But this did not have much impact on the company’s overall financials. Interestingly, the company’s stock also went up by 11%, post announcement of the Q3 FY2017-18 financials.

Deep Kalra, Group Chairman and Group CEO said, “Our focused execution during the quarter has allowed us to gain further market share, reaccelerate the year on year growth rate in total gross bookings, adjusted revenue, standalone hotel room nights and drive greater marketing and promotional spend efficiencies to further narrow our operating losses.”

Other Key Metrics of Q3 FY2018-19

• The standalone room nights increased to 6 Mn, a 27.1% YoY growth
• Air ticketing – flight segments increased by 19.4% YoY,  reaching 10 Mn, against 8 Mn in Q3 FY18.
• The revenue for flights segment increased to $43 Mn, against $40 Mn in the quarter last year
• The bus ticketing – travelled tickets increased by 58.3% YoY, reaching 16 Mn from 10 Mn in the same quarter of FY18.
• Marketing and sales promotion expenses decreased by 54.4% to $49.7 Mn
• The company’s results from Operating Activities was a loss of $36.57 Mn, against $48.2 Mn in the same quarter for FY18.

Dwindling State Of Online Hotel Booking Sector

A report by Praxis Global said that online travel market in India, led by flight and hotel aggregators, is expected to touch $13.6 Bn by 2021, and will account for almost 43% of the total travel category in the country.

However, with the start of the year 2019, the online hotel booking companies like OYO, MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo are facing a thrashing from the hotel associations across the country.

The Sikkim Hotels & Restaurants Association (SHRA) has recently agreed to not continue conducting business with Goibibo-MakeMyTrip (Go-MMT) until the concerns raised by the association are resolved.

Also, the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), an all India body of hotel owners and operators, has alleged that more than 200 hotels have ended agreements with hospitality chain OYO over mismanagement of contracts, arbitrary charges and other disputes.

Amid such a volatile atmosphere, it is worth asking that will MakeMyTrip be able to maintain its growth in the next quarter? Also, one company that is still aloof from all this discussion is Yatra which posted a strong control over its losses in Q2 FY2018-19. Well, this is a story for some other time!

Stay tuned!

[With inputs from Meha Agarwal and Aditya Kondalamahanty]

The post MakeMyTrip Cuts Losses In December Quarter, Stock Surges 11% appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Never dream of becoming something, if you dream, dream of doing something.”

These words from Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been the foundation for India’s ambitious startup campaign — Startup India, Standup India.

Aimed to make India, one of the largest and vigorous startup ecosystems in the world, PM Modi’s flagship initiative Startup India programme took a slew of policy initiatives to build a strong, conducive, growth-oriented environment for Indian startups and thereby help generate lakhs of job opportunities in the country.

Launched on January 16, 2016, the initiative marked its three-year anniversary last week.

The 19-point Startup India Action Plan envisaged several incubation centres, easier patent filing, tax exemptions, ease of setting-up of business, an INR 10,000 Cr ($1.45 Bn) corpus fund, and a faster exit mechanism, among other things.

And if we look back, it has been a phenomenal growth story so far, especially for a country that was ranked below 100 by the UN Ease of Doing Business Index and had only four states with definitive startup policies three years ago.

Despite all the existing gaps and ongoing challenges such as data protection, angel tax, pending policy approvals and more, today, India has climbed up to the 77th position in UN’s Ease of Doing Business Ranking. It has also been attracting globally-acclaimed investors, multinationals leveraging Indian tech startups to supplement their technology, and is home to more than 39K startups, according to Inc42’s The State of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018 Report.

Not convinced! Let’s have a look at a few numbers!

• Between 2016-2019, 15,113 startups were recognised under the Startup India programme across 492 districts in 29 states and six Union territories
• 55% of the recognised startups are from Tier 1 cities, 27% from Tier 2 cities, and 18% are from Tier 3 cities
• 13,176 recognised startups have reportedly created 1,48,897 jobs with an average of 11 employees per startup
• 45% recognised startups have at least one or more women directors
• 24 Indian states have introduced a startup policy
• The government made 22 regulatory amendments and approved 1,275 patent rebates in the last three years
• More than 288.16K registered users are there on the Startup India hub
• Startup India Hub has addressed 121.83K queries and facilitated 673 startups
• More than 233.27K have registered under the Startup India learning programme

(Source: Startup India)

Here’s a glimpse of Startup India’s journey so far:

Startup India: Enabling A Conducive Ecosystem Beyond ‘Jugaad’

The Startup India Action Plan intended to build a strong support ecosystem that is conducive for the growth of startups and supports the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country. It emphasised on self-compliance, which made the team working at the Startup India Hub a key stakeholder in the ecosystem to work in a hub-and-spoke model and collaborate with various enablers.

With the introduction of the Fund of Funds worth INR 10,000 Cr, the Indian government took the first step in making startups a viable means of livelihood and not just ‘jugaad’ (a Hindi word meaning an improvised or impromptu solution to something). Also, it made the youth of the country look at entrepreneurship as a viable career option.

At the same time, government think tank NITI Aayog launched the Atal Innovation Mission to foster innovation among budding entrepreneurs at the grassroots level. As part of this, 5,441 Atal Tinkering Labs have been set up across the country. In the Union Budget for 2018, the government also allocated $480 Mn (INR 3414.19 Cr) for new-age technologies to further support innovation in the Indian startup ecosystem.

Under the Startup India programmed, startups were defined and redefined. For instance, the startups’ age was also increased from 5 to 7 years (10 in the case of biotech). The government has taken various initiatives to boost the growing startup culture in the country such as fast-tracking of startup patent applications, income tax exemption, and self-certification. It also launched the Startup India Hub to bridge the gap between various stakeholders of the startup ecosystem.

And if that’s not enough, the buzz generated by the programme helped open up a lot of opportunities for startups. Take funding, for instance — according to Inc42 DataLabs, between 2016 and 2018, over $30.3 Bn was invested in Indian startups across 2,550 deals. Also, VC investments saw a moderate rise despite an overall fall in funding in 2018, which indicates a positive sentiment among the investors in the near term.

Startup India: Impact On Individual States

In the past few years, several states have taken the onus to build their own incubators, coworking hubs, etc, to boost the innovation in the state. Earlier, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman had asked local MPs to set up coworking spaces in their constituencies.

Recently, Rajasthan launched Bhamashah Techno Hub, one of the largest incubators in the country, and Kerala launched one of the biggest coworking spaces in India. Karnataka announced a credit line of INR 2,000 Cr ($281 Mn) for the startup ecosystem in the state, with an aim to have at least 20,000 startups by 2020.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat are some other states that offer end-to-end support to startups and have come up great initiatives to boost their respective ecosystems.

DIPP’s State Startup Ranking Framework: The Game Changer

At the core of the Startup India programme are the state startup policies, which the states have started to take seriously under the overview and guidance of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Centre.

Before Startup India was launched, just four states had their startup policies in place and today, 24 Indian states have introduced their own policies.

The DIPP recently released the State Startup Rankings on the basis of the Startup Policy Framework for 2018 under which Gujarat was rated the ‘Best-performing state’, while Karnataka, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Kerala took the title of the ‘Top-performing states.’

One of the interesting aspects of these rankings was the DIPP’s effort to highlight the strength and weaknesses of each state in a separate state report, in which they highlighted the steps forward for the state to perform better.

Policy Changes Making Slow Progress

Inc42 in its annual year-end series ‘2018 in Review’, noted that the pace of policy formulation has been slow in the country. While some of these policies, like Drone Regulations 1.0, are already in effect, others have been drafted, are being redrafted, or are pending approval. The list includes:

• Personal Data Protection Bill
• Ecommerce Policy
• Epharma policy
• Electric Vehicles Policy, FAME II Extension
• National Electronics Policy
• Draft PSS Amendment Bill and more

On one hand, the lack of policies in these sectors such as epharma and electric vehicles (infrastructural) has been keeping many investors away and on the other, angel tax is a big issue for the startup ecosystem.

The Startup India programme has, in fact, been facing a serious threat because of the angel tax issue and angel investments have been declining in the last two years. Recently, the DIPP issued a notification easing the angel tax exemption process. However, the notification has limited appeal. It neither caters to the concerns of all the startups facing angel tax issues nor addresses the core concern — the DCF (discounted cash flow) valuation method.

Further, this existing angel tax exemption mechanism is applicable only to those DIPP-recognised startups whose aggregate amount of paid-up share capital and share premium after the proposed issue of share does not exceed INR 10 Cr ($1.4 Mn).

Additionally, the approval mechanism will also be applicable to startups incorporated before April 2016. Initially, the exemption was restricted to a maximum 3-years for startups.

Startups that were born before 2012 and those that have received assessment orders have already been excluded from the exemption mechanism.

Is Indian Startup Ecosystem Gunning For The Number 1 Slot?

Overall, Startup India has provided a major push to the country’s entrepreneurial and innovative spirit. According to Inc42’s State Of The Tech Startup Ecosystem Report 2018, India now has 26 unicorns and more than 31 soonicorns. Overall, startups have created a value of $130 Bn.

With global investors such as Sequoia Capital, SoftBank, Tencent, and Alibaba bullish on the Indian tech and consumer internet segment, we are also seeing startups come up in core manufacturing to leverage the Make In India campaign. Just last year, India surpassed Vietnam and gained the second position in the mobile manufacturing segment.

Also, the Indian government’s attempts to build exchange programmes with foreign startups in countries like Germany and SAARC nations has opened new doors of opportunities for the stakeholders in the startup ecosystem.

The formation of international startup corridors with countries like Japan, the US, the UK, Israel, and Portugal, among others, will certainly boost the startup and cross-border investor sentiment as well.

Even as the Modi government enters the last phase of its current term, there are a plethora of issues such as pending policies, angel taxation, infrastructural and bureaucratic hurdles that startups still have to face and need to be resolved at the earliest.

According to a survey of 15K startups, only 18% of the respondents said they actually benefited from the Startup India scheme. Only 163 startups had benefited from the Fund of Funds in the last three years till December 31, 2018, and the fund allocation and distribution is coming down further. This poses a question over the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the scheme.

The government needs to address each of these concerns before we can even think of an ecosystem like that of Israel or Silicon Valley.

Gender parity is still an issue in the startup ecosystem and the revelations of #MeToo left the Indian startup ecosystem disturbed.

But amid the good and the bad, the Indian startup ecosystem continues to grow manifold and carve out an ever-expanding niche for itself in the global ecosystem.

The article has been co-written by Bhumika Khatri and Suprita Anupam.

The post How Successful Is PM Modi’s Startup India Programme? Here’s The Numberspeak appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Cisco’s chairman emiritus John Chambers was awarded the one of the most prestigious civilian honours of the country – the Padma Bhusan award – in light of his contributions and support to India-US trade relations.

Chambers has been very vocal supporter of the Indian startup ecosystem, and has repeatedly said that India could be on its way to displacing Silicon Valley as the tech and innovation centre of the world. He also believes that startups will act as the new driver of growth and job creation for India.

At the recently convened Vibrant Gujarat Summit, Chambers encouraged Indian startups to look at foreign markets especially the US, as the competition in mature markets will help them grow their product faster.

“If it works in the US it will work anywhere in the world,” he reportedly said, as the event.

Chambers has himself taken led the expansion of two Indian startups – Lucideus and Uniphore – in US markets through his venture fund JC2 Ventures. Under his mentorship, Uniphore currently has an annual revenue of $9 Mn and Luceidus has a revenue of about $3 Mn.

In 2018, Chambers had led a $5 Mn investment round in Lucideus. The company which is backed by a clutch of global executives such as Google’s Rajan Anandan, Facebook Messenger executive Anand Chandrasekaran and FreeCharge’s ex-CEO Govind Rajan.

Following the announcement of the award Chambers tweeted: “It’s a tremendous honor to receive the Padma Bhushan award. I’ve always believed in India & it’s been incredible seeing the transition the country has made from slow follower to fast innovator. I’m lucky to be part of this incredible success story.”

The Padma awards are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri.

The awards are given in fields of activities such as public affairs, social work, science and engineering, medicine, litereture, sports, trade and industry and more. The awards are announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year.

The awards will be conferred by the President of India at ceremonial functions which are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around March or April every year. This year the President Ram Nath Kovind will confer 112 Padma Awards.

The post Cisco’s John Chambers Named For Padma Bhushan Award appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Crypto world is full of twists and turns. Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, an entrepreneur turned cryptocurrency enthusiast who is running for the US president in 2020 is currently running from the US law, living in exile on a boat somewhere.

McAfee is one of the strongest supporters of Bitcoin and the underlying technology—blockchain.

However, there are numerous other enthusiasts who have taken a U-turn pertaining to the cryptocurrency.

Starting from Bill Gates — once a great believer in Bitcoin — now in the footsteps of investor Warren Buffet, and economists Paul Krugman and Robert Schiller, another billionaire George Soros who was once a stoic critic of Bitcoin has now changed his mind and has invested in cryptocurrency as well.

Now, Soulja Boy, a 28-year-old rapper who best-known for his debut single “Crank That,” is now cynical about Bitcoin. “You’re not going to get the same returns as you would if you had gotten in on it early because it became mainstream and everybody know about Bitcoin now,” Boy recently commented .

Last year, Boy had dedicated a complete song titled “Bitcoin,” describing how Boy made $1 Mn off of Bitcoins.

BitTorrent ICO On Jan 28

San Francisco-based BitTorrent which manages the largest P2P file sharing network and BitTorrent communication protocol has introduced a new crypto token called BitTorrent (BTT) along with an extended version of the BitTorrent protocol in order to create a token-based economy around the usage of networking, bandwidth and storage on hundreds of millions of computers on the internet.

The ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is set to begin on January 28, 2019. Based on TRON-TRC10, while the total supply of BTT would be 990 Bn, the initial circulating supply will be 9% of the total supply.

With BTT in hands, BitTorrent consumers will be allowed to bid and receive bids for their bandwidth, which would work in tandem with crypto wallet and bidding engine.

Davos 2019: ‘Bitcoin Is The Most Liquid Currency’

As expected, as CEO and founder of BitPesa, Elizabeth Rossiello is appointed to co-chair the Global Council on Blockchain of World Economic Forum, when it came to the crypto panel discussion at the annual summit of WEF, Davos 2019, there was already a positive mindset towards crypto.

Unlike the last year’s topic which was ‘The Crypto-Bubble’, this time it was ‘Building a Sustainable Crypto-Architecture.’

Speaking on Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, there were mixed reactions from panellists. While criticising Bitcoin, Jeremy Allaire, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Circle Internet Financial, USA said, that it does not solve the problem it was meant to. “It ain’t bulletproof,” he said.

Further, “besides the security issue, think of businesses credit cards, central bank’s digital currencies are doing,” he added.

Highlighting the importance of Bitcoin, Rossiello said, “We don’t want to replace fiat currencies. There is a need for sovereign currencies; but, what is the best method of delivery? Is it the sovereign digital currency or is it working with fiat currencies making a pathway through a digital middle currency which is what we use Bitcoin for.”

In another CNBC debate, Jeff Schumacher, founder of BCG Digital Ventures said, “I do believe it will go to zero. I think it’s a great technology but I don’t believe it’s a currency. It’s not based on anything.”

Robinhood Crypto is Coming to New York

US-based financial services company  Robinhood which last year had launched its own crypto platform — Robinhood Crypto — has now been conferred a virtual currency license, also known as the BitLicense, and a money transmitter license in New York.

This will allow New Yorkers to invest in cryptocurrencies on the Robinhood platform. The company currency offers seven cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum,

Meanwhile, the price of Bitcoin remains almost the same, as it was last week — $3.6K.

The post Cryptocurrency This Week: BitTorrent ICO On Jan28, Bitcoin Enthusiast John McAfee In Exile And More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The tech industry was taken to surprise this week after reports surfaced that Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg is planning to integrate the operations of Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. With this move, Zuckerberg is looking to take direct control of the issues related to these three entities.

Citing unnamed sources, media reports stated that several Facebook employees will have to reconfigure and understand the basic level functions of the three entities. The functions of the underlying messaging infrastructure will be merged while the services continue to operate as standalone apps.

According to reports, as a part of this merger plan, Facebook is also planning to introduce end-to-end encryption for Instagram messages.

At the same time, Facebook is also changing the manner in which removes content from Facebook Pages that violate the community standards. Facebook will be introducing a new tab on Facebook Pages named ‘Page Quality’. The tab can be used by page admins to understand what content has been removed and which posts were considered as fake news. It will also inform the page managers which content was demoted by Facebook algorithms even if it didn’t get removed.

The company is also reportedly looking to introduce ways to make it difficult for users to duplicate or make similar content from earlier Pages which have been closed down.

Meanwhile, Huawei’s Consumer CEO Richard Yu, reportedly said that the company is aiming to claim the top position in the smartphone market even without the US market by this year or next year.

We’ve kept you updated on the latest news from the Indian startup ecosystem. Here’s Inc42’s weekly roundup of the latest news from the international technology and startup ecosystem for the week of January 21-27:

Airbnb Acquires Denmark-Based Startup Gaest

Online community marketplace Airbnb has acquired Denmark-based startup Gaest with an aim to expand its diversity. The financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Gaest, which was founded in 2015, offers a marketplace-style platform that can be used for booking venues in hourly or daily styles to organise meetings and events. According to reports, this acquisition will help Airbnb expand its services into the business market and also increase its revenues.

Apple Reshuffles Its Project Titan Team

US-based Apple has reassigned 200 employees who were working to develop the company’s self-driving car under ‘Project Titan’. According to reports, some of the employees have been moved to other Apple projects while the rest of the group has been laid off. The numbers are, however, yet to be disclosed. “As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” said Apple spokesperson.

Verizon To Reduce Workforce By 7%

US-based Verizon Media Group, which was formerly known as Oath, is reportedly cutting down its workforce by 7% which is nearly 800 employees. According to the company spokesperson, this decision will mark a strategic step towards better growth, development, and innovations for the company.

Go-Jek Looking At First Close At $920 Mn

Indonesia-based ride-hailing platform Go-Jek is reportedly looking at the first close of its fundraise after existing investors Google, Tencent, and JD.com agreed to invest around $920 Mn (INR 6, 525 Cr) in the company. This funding will come as a part of the company’s plans to raised $2 Bn (INR 14,185 Cr). Citing unnamed sources, media reports claimed that the deal will boost Go-Jek’s valuation at around $9.5 Bn (INR 67,380 Cr). The company plans to use the funding to expand and strengthen its presence in new markets as well as develop its fintech offerings.

Google To Expand YouTube TV Services Across US

Google’s live television streaming service YouTube TV is rolling out its services across other markets in the US. According to reports, the company will start expanding its services across 95 markets, which covers over 98% of the US households. The service was launched in April 2017. Currently, it is spread across 100 markets in the country. According to the company, it will now also offer local coverage by taking feeds from popular broadcasters such as CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX.

[Stay tuned for the next week’s edition of Around The Tech And Startup World!]

The post Zuckerberg To Integrate Messaging Operations, Airbnb Acquires Gaest: News From Tech And Startup World appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We are living in an era of disruption, and as a part of it, the advertising industry has also witnessed a rapid transformation over the years. The online ad-spend numbers in India are going up year-on-year and a major share of the Indian marketers’ budget is being allocated to Digital ads (as high as 87% of the total budget).

These points justify the adoption of newer advertising modules/products. In addition, some factors like Indian marketers observing a high re-engagement on mobile apps and the ever-increasing Internet user base support the need to engage using newer mediums.

With advertising technology evolving more rapidly and getting more sophisticated than ever before, new channels and devices are now offering more opportunities for advertisers to connect with customers in many ways. Now as we move in 2019, let’s take a moment to look at some of the interesting AdTech trends ahead of us this year:

Ecommerce Companies Taking A Different Route And Becoming Ad-Companies

In 2019, ecommerce companies would rework their strategy around brand partnership and product placement on their websites, and how these two can work together to achieve the desired result.

Ecommerce players would be able to leverage sophisticated technology to maximize revenue from all visitors on the website even if they don’t buy – as long as retailers can show value from impressions.

Ecommerce giant Alibaba is often referred to as an ad company, instead of an ecommerce company. Reason being that 60% of the Alibaba’s revenue actually comes from ads, not the products sold.

Transparency, Transparency And Transparency

All the major stakeholders in the ad-tech ecosystem, whether it is marketers, publishers or consumers, everyone wants more transparency. Marketers want to know exactly where their ads are being positioned. Also, which advertisements are working the best and how much is the contribution of each ad to the revenue.

Publishers in the ad-tech ecosystem want to know how audiences interact with the ads on their websites and how much revenue is really being generated for partners. And finally, Consumers want to know more about their data, and how it is being used.

With the rise in demand for more transparency in the ecosystem, we can expect to see new solutions, strategies and partnerships emerging in 2019.

Not Just Advertising, But Ads Will Also Tell Stories

If one was to look at the success of direct-to-consumer companies, it is easy to figure out the reason behind their success. It is not their product offerings, but their communication through storytelling that makes them successful. By matching quality product with a unique and shareable story, these companies have carved out a niche in the market. Consumers are exposed to a great number of discounts all over the internet.

Therefore, to stand apart, Ads need to be personalized to the point of telling a story to the individual consumer. This means creating a full funnel ad experience – through data. Therefore, in 2019, the best ads will not just advertise products, but also entertain, educate, and inspire consumers.

In short, while other trends will emerge in the coming year, these trends would certainly shape the Ad-tech space in a big way. Being aware of these key trends and adapting at the right time is essential for continuous development, and further succeed in 2019.

The post AdTech Trends To Watch Out For In 2019 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The year gone by gave the Indian startup ecosystem many crucial milestones and things to celebrate. With deep-pocketed investors such as SoftBank, Alibaba, and Naspers, among others, being bullish on Indian startups, big, fat cheques have become par for the course in the Indian startup ecosystem.

According to Inc42 DataLabs’ latest annual Indian Tech Startup Funding Report, 637 unique startups were founded in 2018 and over $11 Bn was invested across 743 deals. In comparison, 2017 saw $13.5 Bn invested across 885 deals.

The deals and funding in 2018 may have been lower than 2017, but what more than made up for it was the fact that 2018 saw the making of the largest number of unicorns in a single year in India. The most notable names among these were — Udaan, for being the fastest to enter the unicorn club; OYO, for its international expansion spree; Zomato, for gaining profitability; and Freshworks, for its new launches all around the year.

Without any further ado, let’s take a look at the Indian companies which entered the unicorn club in 2018.

Indian Startups The Turned Unicorn In 2018

Billdesk

In June 2018, reports surfaced that digital payments company Billdesk was raising a $250 Mn funding round led by Visa, at a valuation of $1.5 Bn-$2 Bn. Later, in November that year, the company confirmed an undisclosed investment by Visa. In total, BillDesk has raised $257.5 Mn funding since its launch.

On Jan 17, 2019, reports surfaced that CCI has approved Visa’s investment in Billdesk. At the same time, Springfield has acquired 3.28% while Claymore would hold less than 10% stake in Billdesk.

Billdesk is currently working to develop new product lines for its payments and loyalty businesses and is also expanding its footprint into other geographies. In the fintech segment, Billdesk is giving tough competition to PayU, CCAvenue, and others.

In FY18, the Indian fintech unicorn reported revenue of $132.6 Mn (INR 929 Cr) for the year ending March 31, 2018. This was a 15% increase over the same period in FY17 when it reported revenue of $135.7 Mn (INR 950.6 Cr).

The company claimed to process payments worth almost $50 Bn every year as of November 2018.

BYJU’S

BYJU’S gained its unicorn status in March 2018 and later in December 2018, raised a mammoth $328 Mn funding round led by Canada Pension board’s investment arm, CPPIB Investment Board Private Holdings, Naspers Ventures BV, and General Atlantic Singapore TL Pvt Ltd taking its valuation to $4 Bn.

Excluding Walmart owned Flipkart, BYJU’S is currently the fourth most-valued unicorn in India after Paytm, Ola, and OYO. It has so far raised more than $895 Mn since its launch.

The e-learning platform offers numerous online secondary and senior secondary courses suited to the Indian schooling system along with online study material for competitive examinations such as IAS, CAT, GRE, etc. Study material from classes IV-X for both CBSE/ICSE students is also available on the platform.

The edtech unicorn is now looking to expand its presence in the local as well as cross-border edtech segment through the acquisition route. So far, it has made four acquisitions in the edtech space including the Bengaluru-based Vidyartha (SPAN Thoughtworks Pvt Ltd), TutorVista, and Maths Adventures, along with the US-based OSMO, with which it went international.

With OSMO, BYJU’S is expanding into a new age demographic and entering the world of younger kids (the 3-8 age group). The company claims to have over 30 Mn registered students and 2 Mn annual paid subscribers. It reported revenue $69.4 Mn (INR 490 Cr) for the financial year 2017-18, a 97% rise from the previous financial year.

Freshworks

B2B software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Freshworks is currently on an expansion spree and is looking to improve its products as well as its revenues. In 2018, it made five new launches to complement its existing suite of products: Freshworks360, Freshconnect, Unified Marketplace Platform, Freshping and Freddy, got tagged as a unicorn with a $1.5 Bn valuation (July) and also claimed an ARR of $100 Mn.

So far, Freshworks has gained $249 Mn in funding since its launch in 2010.

Freshworks, which has been scaling both locally as well as internationally in regions such as the Middle East and South Africa, also opened data centres in Sydney (Australia) and in Mumbai last year. The company also invested in expense management startup Fyle while CEO Girish Mathrubootham invested in intelligent apparel company Turms.

For the period ending March 31, 2018, Freshworks also turned profitable while reporting revenue of INR 259.29 Cr in FY18. This was a 30% increase from the preceding fiscal when its revenue stood at INR 199.62 Cr.

OYO

OYO has brought about a revolution in the Indian budget hotel industry. The year 2018 was all about international expansion (to seven countries, to be precise), testing the waters in new segments such as events (OYO Auto Party), and giving its employee ESOPs worth $7 Mn.

In September 2018, OYO received $800 Mn from SoftBank Vision Fund, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed India Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Greenoaks Capital. It also received a commitment of an additional $200 Mn from undisclosed investors, bringing the total to $1 Bn in this round. With this, OYO’s total funding raised since launch has reached $1.5 Bn.

As of now, the company has 3.3 Lakh rooms in 500 cities across the world.  OYO also made three acquisitions in 2018 (Novascotia Boutique Homes, AblePlus, Weddingz) and gifted its team with 2,000 stock options, which were added to its ESOP plan.

However, 2019 might be a bit tougher for the company as the hotel associations across the country and The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) are considering legal action against it for large-scale breach of contract and predatory pricing. Also, the Income Tax department has slammed a notice on OYO for non-deduction of tax deducted at source (TDS) on payments made by the company in 2016-17.

But the non-stoppable OYO is looking to expand internationally further with Philliphines and then there are also reports of it entering the coworking vertical with acquisition of innov8. Will OYO be able to focus on its expansion plans further this year amid all this mess?

Paytm Mall

Based on China’s TMall retail model, Paytm Mall started operating as an independent entity (from parent company Paytm) and a consumer shopping app in February 2017. As of April 2018, the company had a reach to over 700 towns across 19,000 pin codes in the country. At the same time, it raised a massive $445 Mn funding from SoftBank and Alibaba to mark its entry into the unicorn club, thereby taking the total funding raised so far to $645 Mn.

In March 2018, Paytm Mall launched a new model of retail allowing customers to walk into brick-and-mortar stores, scan product QR codes, browse information, and make purchases via the Paytm Mall app. Further, in May last year, it also announced to launch its PoS terminal.

After achieving annualised gross sales in $3.5 Bn in June 2018, the company is aiming for a three-fold rise in the same to $10 Bn by March 2019.

Pine Labs

In June 2018, fintech startup Pine Labs marked its entry into the unicorn club with a $125 Mn investment from Paypal and Temasek.  In 2018, it raised more than $200 Mn in two tranches — including $125 Mn in May from Temasek and PayPal Holdings Inc and $82 Mn in March from Actis Capital and Altimeter Capital. This took the total funding raised so far to $223 Mn.

Pine Labs uses payment partners to provide integrated payment gateway services and enables merchants to connect their respective bank accounts to provide an end-to-end service to their customers. Having had a first-mover advantage, Pine Labs currently holds a 16% market share of digital transactions at brick-and-mortar retail stores.

In 2018, the company expanded its presence to Dubai and Malaysia and now intends to enter Southeast Asia. It also tied up with Google when it launched Google Pay in India.

Although the startup showed profitability in FY17, it is currently struggling to cover up the losses it incurred in FY18. It competes with players such as Mswipe, Ezetap, PhonePe, and more.

PolicyBazaar

PolicyBazaar is one of the first entrants in the Indian online insurance space. The company got tagged as a unicorn in June after a $200 Mn funding round by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Vision Fund, thereby taking the total funding raised so far to $346.6 Mn.

The company now has ambitious plans to grow at a CAGR of more than 80% over the next three years, reaching 10 Mn transacting customers by 2020.

It is now exploring the health tech and services segment as well. It launched its new healthcare business — DocPrime — last year with a $50 Mn investment. It was speculated that PolicyBazaar plans to work with China’s Ping An Insurance Group, which owns and operates Ping An Good Doctor — the world’s largest healthcare portal — to strengthen DocPrime. It must be noted that Ping An Good Doctor is also backed by SoftBank.

PolicyBazaar is also planning to sell medicines online, thus challenging existing players like 1mg Technologies, NetMeds etc.

Swiggy

Swiggy closed 2018 with a massive $1 Bn funding round led by Naspers, raising its valuation to $3.3 Bn. However, it entered the unicorn club in June with a $210 Mn investment from Naspers and GST Global at a $1.3 Bn valuation. It also raised a $100 Mn funding round in February last year.

This took the total funding raised by Swiggy to $465.5 Mn since launch. Swiggy is now looking to strengthen its technology and focus on building a next-generation AI-driven platform for hyperlocal discovery and on-demand delivery.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, it launched new features in 2018 such as a meal planner named Swiggy Scheduled, a loyalty programme called Super, and a Swiggy Packaging Assist Programme for its restaurant partners. It also piloted its B2B food aggregation programme Swiggy Cafe.

The foodtech unicorn is now looking to test the waters in the hyperlocal segment, starting with medicines and grocery deliveries. It also plans to offer UPI-based digital payment solutions to its delivery partners. It posted a 220% increase in its revenue in FY18.

Recently, Swiggy came into the spotlight for the wrong reasons after some of its disgruntled delivery executives got involved in a skirmish with the staff of Bengaluru-based Empire Hotel and allegedly vandalised the latter’s property. Also, nearly 500 small to mid-sized restaurants alleged “misuse of dominant position by food delivery companies, including Swiggy, Zomato, UberEATS, and Foodpanda.”

However, Swiggy is going strong and expects another year of rapid growth ahead.

Udaan

B2B ecommerce marketplace Udaan emerged as one of the most-talked startups last year. The company took just 26 months to attain a $1 Bn valuation, making it the fastest company to become a unicorn in India.

In 2018, Udaan raised two rounds of funding: $50 Mn Series B funding in February and $225 Mn in September, taking the total to $285 Mn.

The startup runs a web platform connecting SMBs, manufacturers, wholesalers, traders, and retailers. It currently functions into two categories: mobile accessories and fashion products.

As of February 2018, Udaan had a seller base across 80 cities and delivers to more than 500 cities, with an average order value between INR 6K -7K.

Zomato

Zomato marked a re-entry into the unicorn club in 2018. The company earlier attained the unicorn status in April 2015 with a $50 Mn funding. However, in 2016, it suffered a massive loss which resulted in a fall in valuation to $500 Mn, a rollback of operations from almost nine countries, and the shifting back its focus to the Indian market.

The strategy worked wonders. Not only Zomato revived its position in the Indian foodtech segment but also achieved profitability in FY18. At the same time, it caught the eyes of investors, grabbing more than $410 Mn across two rounds of funding. This took the total funding raised so far by Zomato to $443.8 Mn since its launch.

Zomato shut down its cloud kitchen vertical in 2018. At the same time, the company took the acquisition route to strengthen its delivery fleet, notching deals such as foodtech startup TongueStun ($18 Mn) and drone startup TechEagle. Last year, Zomato also had to contend with the resignation of cofounder Pankaj Chaddah, who left after spending 10 years at the company.

Zomato also faced some heat in 2018 when a video showing one of its delivery executives eating food out of delivery boxes went viral. The company said it would introduce tamper-proof tapes to ensure such an incident doesn’t occur again. In the long term, Zomato is looking to tap the offline segment and has launched Zomato Events, which takes in a multi-city food carnival named Zomaland.

These startups which made it to the unicorn club and are now moving towards expansion and profitability serve as an inspiration to Indian entrepreneurs wanting to start their own ventures. Besides, the big-ticket fundings they have garnered bore well for the Indian startup ecosystem at large.

Going forward, in 2019, the ecosystem will be looking towards these companies as pillars of success showing a guiding light to the upcoming generation of entrepreneurs.

The post The Indian Startups That Turned Unicorn In 2018 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last week, Inc42 successfully hosted the fifth edition of its Founders Meetup, which revolved around the theme of Startup Resolutions for 2019.

The event saw participation from around 50 startup founders and hustlers who came together to discuss their goals for 2019.

Inc42 also hosted the 23rd episode of Ask Me Anything (AMA) with Siddarth Pai, the founding partner of 3one4 Capital, to discuss the impact of angel tax on startups and investments.

With a new week upon us, we bring you all the upcoming startup events. Mark your calendars!

Convergence India 2019 Expo

The 27th Convergence India Expo will be hosted in Delhi to highlight the latest trends and technologies in telecom, broadcast, cable and satellite TV, cloud and big data, IoT, etc.

The event will also provide a platform for participants to engage with digital innovators, international business experts, telecom and broadcasting experts, leaders from IT, internet and IoT industries.

Over 1,500 delegates and 25K visitors are expected to participate in the three-day event.

Key Speakers: Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, minister of commerce and industry and civil aviation; Manoj Sinha, minister of communications and minister of state; Aruna Sundararajan, telecom secretary and chairman of the Telecom Commission; Ram Sewak Sharma, TRAI chairman and many others

Date: January 29-31, 2019

Venue: Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

POWER2IDEA- The B-Plan Competition 2019

Gurugram-based Innolabz is all set to organise its POWER2IDEA competition with an aim to develop extraordinary ideas.

In a bid to encourage the Indian youth to become more inventive and creative, the event will provide a platform for incubation and investment to deserving entrepreneurs.

The participants will be shortlisted upon submission of the business idea, its objective, projections, and roadmap. These shortlisted candidates will get the opportunity to pitch their idea before the jury panel of Innolabz. The winner will be awarded a cash prize worth INR 30K ($423) and free incubation and mentoring support by InnoLabZ Ventures for six months.

Who Can Attend: Students, working professionals, and entrepreneurs

Date: January 31- February 2, 2019

Venue: Hansraj College campus, Delhi

Active Office Hours with Prime Venture Partners

Bengaluru-based early stage fund Prime Venture Partners is organising Active Office Hours this week. During the event, the participants will get an opportunity to have a 30 min one-on-one brainstorming session with any one of the partners or investment team members to discuss all things related to startup.

The company is calling upon early stage entrepreneurs with doubts and questions on the business model, GTM, pricing, hiring, fundraising etc to participate in the event. However, it must be noted that the event will not include fundraising pitch. The application deadline for the event is on January 30, 2019.

Prime Venture Partners is looking to shortlist companies on the basis of their application and is looking to accommodate about 15-20 startups.

Who Should Attend:  Startups, entrepreneurs

Date: February 2, 2019

Venue: Prime Venture Partners, Whitefield, Bengaluru

Stay tuned for the next edition of Events to Attend!

The post Startup Events This Week: Convergence India 2019 Expo And More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

IndiaTech, a lobby group that aims to create a level playing field for domestic startups, is now seeking the support of various government departments to ease listing norms for consumer internet ventures.

In the last one month, the lobby group has reportedly held multiple talks with policymakers tasked with regulating the country’s startup ecosystem, including the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the commerce ministry and NITI Aayog.

It is now looking to submit a white paper on the same in the next few weeks. Rameesh Kailasam, the chief executive of IndiaTech, reportedly said that they have been reaching out to all stakeholders and educating them on the need for reform.

IndiaTech was conceptualised in 2016 by Flipkart’s cofounder Sachin Bansal. The aim was to form a trade association to solely fight for local consumer Internet sector companies such as Flipkart and Ola, with the Indian government to create favourable laws against global competitors.

According to those familiar with the group’s views, the group behind Indiatech believes that if home-grown Internet firms do not succeed, India will likely lose $10 Bn of FDI per year, $1 Bn of tax revenues per year and a million jobs that could have been created based on the numbers extrapolated from China.

The new set of discussions focus more on the lines of policy recommendations as the group believes that the easing of listing norms is primarily for mature, high-growth internet companies that already command significant valuations and are recognised as leaders of their particular segments.

It is to be noted that under the present regulations, the companies looking to list have to meet certain mandatory requirements such as promoters have to own at least 20% of the venture and they need to have net assets and show profitability for at least three years.

However, startups can list through qualified institutional placements (QIP) where at least 75% of the stock has to be offered to institutional buyers. Additionally, the largest stakeholders in the startups will also have their shares in the venture locked in for a period of three years.

In fact, in high-growth ventures, it is often the investors that own the largest amount of stock in the company, rather than promoters.

SEBI had been in talks with the National Stock Exchange (NSE) since 2018, discussing the changes needed to be included in the Emerge ITP platform to help the startups scale up. At the same time, it has also discussed with stock exchange regulators Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) for launching a startup platform to help the listing process by tech startups working across sectors such as IT, ITES, biotech, 3D printing, spacetech, and ecommerce among others.

SEBI has recently changed the listing norms for startups, where proposed changes include renaming the ‘Institutional Trading Platform’ (ITP)to ‘Innovators Growth Platform.’

With regards to IPO’s in India by startups, 2017 proved to be a blockbuster year with a record 122 companies raising a staggering $10.85 Bn through IPOs, however, 2018 witnessed the bigger performance.

An EY India’s IPO Readiness Survey Report showed that India IPO activity was at a comparably higher level and saw 90 IPOs raise $3.9 Bn, driven by solid activity in Q1 18.

In 2018, startups like SaleBhai, Smaaash, IndiaMART, E2E Networks etc led some interesting start to their IPOs.

The post IndiaTech Seeks Easier Listing Of Consumer Internet Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In line with reports of the government weighing an extension of the deadline for changes in FDI policy for ecommerce to come into effect, domestic ecommerce companies such as Snapdeal and ShopClues along with other social ecommerce startups like Shop101 have opposed such extension.

The companies have reached out to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) lauding the changes as well as opposing any extension.

On December 26, the government notified changes in FDI rules for ecommerce which prohibits large online marketplaces from controlling inventory of its partner sellers and also from having any exclusive product launches. The changes are set to come into effect from February 1, 2019.

However, leading marketplaces, Amazon and Flipkart had sought an extension of the deadline as these changes would require changing their business model and an overhaul of their inventories.

Later the reports surfaced that government is studying such extension and may extend the deadline by two months. This hasn’t sat well with other stakeholders like traders’ body Confederation of All Indian Traders (CAIT) which has written to the Prime Minister’s Office urging his office not to grant more time to the e-tailers.

Earlier, CAIT had threatened a nationwide agitation if any extension is given to these ecommerce companies.

Now, smaller companies like ShopClues has said that these are large companies, they knew what they were doing and their argument that the law will hurt SMEs is wrong and therefore, the deadline should not be extended by even a single day.

Snapdeal founder has said that immediate and thorough implementation of Press Note 2 is important to ensure growth and survival of India’s small businesses through genuine online marketplaces.

Other players such as Limeroad, Wooplr and Fynd have also written to the ministry and some online-only brands have raised concerns over the issue.

On the other hand, the United States government has expressed reservations about India’s tough stand on ecommerce players and has told officials in New Delhi that the revised regulations will slow down investment plans of US-based retailers Amazon and Walmart.

In December, the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) had said that the new ecommerce rules being discussed by DIPP are regressive and that they could potentially harm the consumers. The Forum said that the rules can create unpredictability and might have a negative impact on the growth of the online retail market in the country.

On the global front, ecommerce rules have also put India in a tighter position after China joined the World Trade Organisation’s talks for developing trade rules for ecommerce. India has been opposing cross-border data flow, preventing data localisation and protection of source code, over which 76 countries are now bonding.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post FDI Ecommerce Circular: Domestic Cos Oppose Extension Of Feb 1 Deadline appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-headquartered healthy food supplier NutriTap has raised $282K (INR 2 Cr) in a seed funding round, founder and CEO Rajesh Kumar told Inc42.

The funding round was led by angel investor Apoorva Patni, Sameer Khetarpal (director Category, Amazon) and senior members of McKinsey & Co, Google etc.

Founded in 2017 by Kumar and Medha Mishra, NutriTap offers nutritious food products and beverages on tap through state of the art automated retail machines. The company has begun its operations with a focus on corporates and has already installed 50 vending machines across 34 offices/institutions in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai.

The company will soon start its operations in Bengaluru as well and is in under discussions with its present clients as well as other newer ones. A 10-member team is looking to use the fresh seed funds to scale up in Mumbai and Bengaluru while developing its tech-integrated platform.

NutriTap: A Shift Towards Better Corporate Lifestyle

Kumar told Inc42 that in his own experience, he has seen people, especially mobile/working population, struggle to eat right once they are out of the home, which is for 70-80% of their day time. It’s primarily driven by lack of time and availability of choices, he explains.

This is the problem Kumar with his NutriTap team is looking to solve. For this, the company has created an integrated tech solution-app/technology platform which makes people aware of nutrition value they get from the food they choose to eat and IoT enabled food kiosks at the offices/public places from where they can pick the right food.

“We are providing a platform to organic/health food/wellness partners, many of those lesser known, through our food kiosks and also enable them to raise awareness about health/their products through kiosk integrated digital media. It’s a win-win proposition for both our customers and our partners,” Kumar says.

However, after floating the idea, one of the biggest challenges for the team was to find the right set of healthy products which fit into consumer profile and create awareness about those. Kumar explains, “The different corporates/institutions have different DNA depending upon location, the profile of the people, perks they get etc.”

The company took its time in examining the brands, their products and develop its portfolio of partners and set the supply chain right.

Challenging The Stalls In/Outside Offices

As NutriTap looks to expand its presence to top tier cities such as Hyderabad, Chennai and Calcutta as well, the company is looking to set its demand and supply chain straight. At present, the company is in works to manufacture its own vending machines in Coimbatore and may soon roll it out in the next two months.

To set its demand side, the company offers products like sandwich, flax seeds, healthy juices, etc across more than 20 product categories, with over 70 product varieties and 100s’ of flavours across the range of INR 20 – INR 150.

On the supply side, the company has a set of runners who maintain the IoT vending machine remotely as they use a dashboard to keep a check on the products and their requirements. Kumar told Inc42 that one runner can usually handle eight NutriTap machines.

The company is looking to close the year with $1 Mn run rate and with that, is also running few pilots with bus chains, hospitals etc to further enhance its growth.

However, one of the biggest challenges for the company is to make employees choose healthy offerings over the stalls which offer cheap tea, samosas, bread pakoras as alternatives. For this, Kumar believes, HR and admin of the companies can come together to develop nutritious food choices. NutriTap also leads educational drives with the support of its nutritionists to increase the awareness of the use of healthy food products.

Healthy India: The Need Of The Hour?

As the increasing modern-day working population becomes health conscious and demands for Gluten-free, fat-free, carb-free, and organic products, the statistics show that more than half of urban population today suffers from lifestyle diseases in India and this proportion is rising rapidly.

Diet and lifestyle are major factors thought to influence susceptibility to many diseases. Some of the common diseases encountered because of occupational lifestyle are Alzheimer’s disease, arteriosclerosis, cancer, chronic liver disease/cirrhosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, nephritis/CRF, and stroke.

According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2015-16, 11% of women (1 in 10) and 15% of men (1 in 7) of age 15-49 are hypertensive.

Kumar says, “We see tremendous opportunity because of captive consumers, better user experience and almost nil cash burn. India has around 7,000 large corporates (with over 70K offices), more than 60K colleges and over 5,000 fitness centres.”

According to a report by business consultancy firm RNCOS titled “Indian Snacks Market Forecast to 2023,” healthy snacks segment holds very small share in the total snacks market, however, this is set to change rapidly. Along the same lines, ‘Beverages: Indian Scenario’ report, says that the health beverages market currently stands at $300 Mn and is the fastest growing market among beverages.

To understand how big the market is and who is the health-conscious eater, a health tracking app HealthifyMe collated data for 2017 from nearly 4 Mn users over 200 towns and cities to find that Kolkata eats the healthiest followed by Pune and New Delhi.

The market of healthy products is wide and includes large chains like Cure.Fit’s Eat.Fit which offers meals with a detailed analysis of calories, fat, carbs, proteins etc. We also have beverage products like &Me, SapFresh etc which use superfoods and healthy drinks to help India’s health.

According to a TechSci Research report “India Organic Food Market Forecast and Opportunities, 2020”, organic food market in India is projected to grow at a  CAGR of over 25% between 2015-20. Growing health consciousness is the key factor surging the demand for organic food products in India.

However, one edge that NutriTap has found in its business is the vending machine to reach to the health-conscious Indians. Kumar said, “US has around 7 Mn F&B vending machines, 2.5 Mn machines in Japan and 250K vending machines in China as compared to around 2,000 vending machines in India. Literally, we have miles to go.”

The post Exclusive: Health Food Vendor NutriTap Raises Seed Funds From Apoorva Patni, Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.