India’s directorate general of civil aviation or the DGCA had introduced Drone Regulations 1.0 last year — it was the first-ever policy that governed flying of civic drones legally across the country. It was supposed to be the one policy that changed the game for drones in India and startups that are working with drones hailed the drone regulations at the time.

Besides marking no-fly zones, listing out the necessary approvals, the regulations promised a ‘Digital Sky’ platform, which would give the authorities a clear view of all the drones in the air. The government introduced an NPNT — No Permission, No Take-Off — compliance as well.

However, with the Digital Sky platform working only in beta currently and simply accepting applications for UIN (Unique Identification Number) and UAOP (Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit), there’s a feeling that the drone regulations hasn’t turned out as expected.

Speaking to Inc42, numerous drones startups moaned the absence of the fully-functional Digital Sky platform, an essential part of Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR 1.0) with some calling it a “non-starter”.

Some drone startup founders pointed out there are remain numerous small gaps which make it impossible to operate drones in accordance with CAR 1.0, and this is not the first criticism levelled at the implementation of the drone policy in India.

Is It Viable To Operate Civic Drones?

In the absence of a fully-functional Digital Sky, is it viable to operate civic drones legally? Responding to an RTI query, the DGCA averred that after complying with all the necessary compliances, owners and operators are allowed to fly drones based on day-to-day permission.

According to the RTI response, “Acceptance of RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) Model is made prerequisite to ensure it meets all equipment criteria indicated in the CAR 1.0. The OEM (original equipment manufacturer) is required to show compliance to para 15 (of CAR 1.0) which delves into the minimum standards required for manufacturing of RPAS and Chapter 6, 7 and 8 of the DGCA RPAS guidance manual.”

It adds that the owner or operator acquiring the models will be able to apply for local acquisition, UIN and UAOP and day-to-day permission.

As of now, the DGCA has provisionally accepted three Micro category drones and one Small category drone, reveals First Appeal. The four companies that have successfully become NPNT-compliant are Ideaforge, Aarav Unmanned Systems, Skylark Drones, and Asteria Aerospace.

No Request For Drone Pilot Training: Govt  

Other than flying Nano drones below 50 ft and Micro below 200 ft in uncontrolled space, the drone operators are required to acquire the UAOP. The remote pilots of such drones (Micro, Small, Medium, and Large) are required to be trained only by DGCA-approved flying training organisations.

The Digital Sky platform has currently listed around 32 such DGCA-approved FTOs and 34 approved trainers. According to CAR 1.0, the remote pilots are required to have passed matriculation and must be 18 years of age. The pilots will be educated on subjects such as radio telephony, flight planning and ATC procedures, basic knowledge of principles of flight and aerodynamics for fixed-wing, rotary-wing and hybrid aircraft.

The practical training shall comprise of a drone in-flight having live components, and/or simulated flight training to demonstrate control of drones throughout its operating conditions, including safe recovery for emergencies and system malfunction.

While many of the startup founders have raised questions pertaining to the lack of infrastructure for training in the past, in a separate RTI response, the DGCA disclosed,

Till date, no request has been received to conduct RPA training by an FTO in accordance with FTC 1 of 2019 and CAR Section 3 Series X part 1 (Drone Regulations 1.0).

The DGCA had released the Flying Training Circular 1 dated January 30, 2019, which describes the procedure for any DGCA-approved FTO to seek permission for drone training. It also added that preparing a drone training facility is beyond the scope and functions of DGCA. However, DGCA shall approve facilities that are meeting the requirements under the circular and CAR.

Getting Take-Off Permission Is No Less Than Winning A War 

The Indian government has undoubtedly understood the importance of civic drones and the emerging industry as Ashutosh Sharma, secretary to the government (ministry of science and technology) recently announced a government project to digitally map the country with a resolution of 10 cm, using drones and technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data.

The project, which is expected to cost INR 1000 Cr, is also mapping the entire Ganga basin from the source to its end, 25 km from either side of the banks with an accuracy of 10 cm. “The need to have a digital map of India was felt as it would enable better decision making in the government. The map will have all types of records including land details, socio-economic data, road network, etc,” Sharma said.

However, besides these pilot projects, the drone industry and startups are yet to take off at large. The hurdles start with the registration process at Digital Sky which is error-strewn and has a bad UX, often showing no response at all.

The Increasing Cost Of Drone Innovation In India

This is just the beginning, after the painstaking online registration on the platform, comes the struggle of acquiring permits, certifications and licenses. It’s a throwback to the pre-globalisation era where a business would have to queue endlessly to get permits. Many startups may not have the wherewithal to sustain themselves through this process and continue their innovation.

While drone system applicants need to have equipment type approval (ETA) from the wireless planning and coordinating wing within the department of telecommunication for operating in the de-licensed frequency band(s), operators seeking to buy drones from abroad must have an import license from DGCA.

After getting the approval and license, the operators are then required to obtain a security clearance from the ministry of home affairs, essential for obtaining the UINs.

As mentioned above, for categories other than Nano drones, operators/owners are also required to apply for UAOPs. Further, the owners, operators are required to intimate local police stations 24 hours prior to conducting any operations.

Besides, the CAR 1.0 has also laid out a series of minimum essential hardware design features which very few drone manufacturers currently comply with, especially Chinese manufacturers, which are the biggest drone providers for India. Among these norms are:

• Global navigation satellite system for horizontal and vertical position fixing
• Autonomous flight termination system or “Return Home” (RH) option
• Flashing anti-collision strobe lights
• Radiofrequency ID, GSM SIM card and NPNT compliant for app-based real-time tracking
• Fire-resistant identification plate inscribed with UIN
• Flight controller with flight data logging capability
• Secondary surveillance radar transponder or automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS–B) out equipment
• Barometric equipment with capability for remote subscale setting
• Geo-fencing capability
• Detect and avoid capability to stop collisions with buildings, structures

At a time when the government claims to follow “Minimum government, maximum governance”, these exhaustive rules and licensing criteria on a case-to-case basis with manual checking is seemingly going towards 1960s era of the so-called ‘License Raj’ and brings in plenty of scope for irregularities, corruption and human error, something which the government is looking to eliminate in many departments.

And if there’s still any doubt that India’s drone sector is a long way away from sustainability and growth, all these regulations govern drones for VLOS (or visual line of sight) flights. With even these being unviable, initiating experimental BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flights remains a pipe dream.

For many startups, BVLOS flights — with its broader applications such as live mapping, navigation assistance, security, and weather prediction — are the bigger opportunity. On the other hand, VLOS flights are ideal for deliveries over smaller areas, farmland surveillance and other applications.

The DGCA claims to have started testing BVLOS flights internally. But given the slow pace of drone development so far, startups are not too optimistic. There’s little thought paid by the government to the increasing cost of drone innovation, and drone startups may end up drowning before they can take off.

The post The Sorry State Of Drones In India: Startups Stuck In License Raj Amid Rising Cost Of Innovation appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In August, WeWork made an enthusiastic filing of draft papers for initial public offering (IPO), which, however, was postponed following the responses of investors. The situation has become worse for WeWork CEO Adam Neumann, who is on the verge of being asked to step down.

Multiple media reports have said that WeWork directors have been planning to meet for a meeting to propose Neumann to step down as CEO. This is also being supported by WeWork’s largest investor, SoftBank Group, led by Masayoshi Son.

However, not everyone is against the CEO as reports have surfaced that some members of the WeWork board that aren’t affiliated with SoftBank are aligned with Neumann to retain his post.

It is to be noted that WeWork’s IPO plans were reportedly pushed for postponement by SoftBank itself. SoftBank’s enthusiasm for a listing had waned as bankers have slashed the valuation they believe WeWork can attain when it lists. Neumann reportedly flew to Tokyo to meet Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son to discuss the plans.

It is being speculated that Son’s move against Neumann is an effort to prevent the company from going public. This would be a better plan for SoftBank as it would prevent a writedown for SoftBank, which last invested in WeWork valuing the company at $47 Bn earlier this year.

The investor sentiment with draft filings has made it hard for WeWork to even get a valuation of more than $20 Bn with potential public investors. WeWork’s IPO plans brought huge wave of criticism for the way it obscured key details about the economics of the business. In particular, Neumann owns several commercial properties that he leased to WeWork, and he has sold significant amounts of his equity ahead of the public stock offering.

WeWork India was launched in September 2017 as a brand franchisee controlled by Buildcon LLP, which is owned by real estate billionaire Jitu Virwani and son Karan Virwani.  Other reports recently speculated that WeWork is in talks to buy around 70% of WeWork India at a valuation of about $2.75 Bn.

In India, the company is dealing with increasing competition from established rivals 91springboard, Awfis and OYO’s Workspaces and Innov8 coworking properties. In 18 months, WeWork India has grown to have 25K members in 21 locations in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.

The India unit is projected to grow to 90K seats by March next year. The company has also lined up expansion plans across Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune in the second half of 2019. According to a study by real estate consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and WeWork, the coworking industry in India was likely to attract more than $400 Mn in investments by 2018.

The post Will WeWork CEO Adam Neumann’s Exit Affect Indian Coworking Industry? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Most great business ideas fall by the wayside because of a lack of funding. And the question one might ask is why — if the idea is great — do investors not end up backing a startup?

Simply put, arranging seed funding is no cakewalk. Besides a strong idea, startups also need to have a powerful pitch deck to impress seed funding investors. And each deck requires meticulous work and revisions depending on the investors being pitched to.

What Is A Seed Funding Deck?

The first thing founders need to understand is that a seed funding pitch deck differs from other presentations. It makes the first impression of the startup. It is a brief presentation that a founder or entrepreneur presents to potential investors, partners and cofounders to give them an overview of the business plan at the early stage as well as the roadmap and plans for the future.

The objective of the pitch is to bring investors on board for seed funding, which will be the foundation for the new company. The seed funding pitch deck is mostly created using common software such as PowerPoint, Prezi or Keynote, but one can also use Adobe Indesign to create impactful presentations – whether for in-person pitches or virtual presentations.

There are a lot of things to keep in mind when making a seed funding deck. These include certain things that should be part of your deck and some that should be avoided at all costs. Seed stage investors are very particular about their time so your seed funding presentation should be concise but also have all the necessary details that an investor would need.

But naturally many first-time founders and new entrepreneurs may have plenty of doubts about how to approach investors for seed funding. Here are some dos and don’ts to keep in mind while forming a seed funding deck for the perfect presentation:

Dos — Things To Do In A Seed Funding Pitch Deck

Know Your Target Audience

Before going into the presentation, it’s necessary to do some research on the investor and what they might be looking for. Take a look at their track record and what kind of startups they have backed in the past. This way, startups can assess investor needs and create a deck accordingly.

Engaging Story

Narrate an engaging story that appeals to investors emotionally. If you have an interesting story and they connect with the same, your chances of getting funded increase drastically.

Focus On The Presentation Core

Try to explain the idea clearly, the aim and vision of the startup, the strategy to reach users and milestones at the beginning of the presentation. The rest of the pitch can delve into the details of the market opportunity and the business in detail.

One Idea Per Slide

Focus on only one idea in each slide to keep the design of the deck minimal. A lot of different information in a single slide can confuse investors and make them lose interest in the pitch. Keep investor attention confined to the point by limiting content on each deck.

Consistent Theme And Design

All slides need to have a consistent theme which extends to fonts, the colour scheme, the size of icons and boxes, and text formatting throughout.

Don’ts — Things To Avoid In A Seed Funding Pitch Deck

And here’s what not to do in a pitch deck:

Don’t Read The Slides

 The pitch deck is not a teleprompter and it would be a grave mistake to assume that investors aren’t paying attention to the deck. Let the slides speak for themselves — the founders need to expound and build on the idea being presented.

Don’t Boast Or Brag

 Try not to make the pitch into a commercial about the startup. Investors also want to make money from their investments, so the goal is to bring the potential of the idea to the fore. Don’t boast about the company or idea; let the numbers do the talking.

Keep It Short And Snappy

Obviously, startups might have a lot of information to convey to let investors, but the trick is to know what to say, and what to leave for after the presentation. The pitch usually continues beyond the presentation through open discussions, so the funding pitch deck itself needs to be brief and to the point.

How To Make The Perfect Funding Pitch 

A perfect seed funding proposal consists of not more than 12 to 13 slides that follow a certain order. Here is how startups can build a proposal for seed investors:

1. Intro slide
   Introduce the business idea. Three things that should be available on this slide are:
   A. Logo
   B. A motto or a one-liner
   C. Contact information
2. Vision
   The vision can be a one-liner or even an image that founders elaborate on in person. It shows why the company was created, and why the market needs it.
3. Problem
   This slide tells investors the problem that the startup is trying to solve. Founders and pitch makers will also have to prove to investors that the problem is worth solving in the context of the market.
4. Solution
   After stating the problem, it’s time to emphasise the solution to the problem. This is crucial for all startups — no matter the sector or domain. The pitch deck needs to be specific about the solution offered, and why the approach is different from any competitors.
5. Demo
   Telling investors about the product is one thing; the best part about a pitch is actually showing them any proofs-of-concept or a working prototype. For example, if it is a new product, show investors how it works while explaining a few important details about it.
6. Business Model
   How does a business or startup plan on making money — investors love to see how their returns will come in.  Give investors a revenue timeline or roadmap and the path to profitability.
7. Market Opportunity
   In this slide, talk about the total addressable market (TAM) which signifies the revenue opportunities for a product. Let them know about the size of the market and its availability. Also, explain the channels being used to reach the market along with the distributors or vendors that will be used by the startup to reach the market.
8. Competition
   A startup also has to contend with pre-established players that are working on the same or similar problem. Inform investors about the competition for market share and the competitive advantage for the startup. Make them realise how the product or idea is different and/or stands out.
9. Case Studies And Testimonials
   Evidence in the form of traction or customer testimonials is a necessary step when seeking seed funding. It shows that your business model is working and that the market is responding to it.
10. Roadmap
    The slide must include a roadmap marking the significant milestones that the startup has achieved and the landmarks that it wishes to achieve in the future.
11. Team And Leadership
    Give investors some information about the team and the leadership behind the idea. It’s important to highlight achievements as much as possible, without entering the bragging territory.
12. Funding
    This is where startups need to specify the range of funding. Put the requirement on the table and wait for counter offers from investors, if any. It’s also essential to specify where the funds will be used by the startup.
13. Contact Information
    This slide is just to close the presentation, leaving investors with your contact information, website’s URL, e-mail address and more.

When thinking about how to approach investors for seed funding, make sure the seed funding deck follows the above-mentioned guidelines. After getting these in order, all a founder needs is confidence to go forward and make the pitch.

The post The Essentials For Making A Seed Funding Pitch Deck appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Growth stage VC firm Avataar Capital Management has launched its first investment fund of $300 Mn, named Avataar Venture Partners I. For this fund launch, the company has on-boarded a global fund of funds HarbourVest Partners as an investor. 

The new fund will focus on making $10Mn – $30Mn growth stage investments into B2B and SaaS companies with a minimum of $15 Mn annual recurring revenues and plans of global expansion. 

Avataar is founded by the former partner of Norwest Venture Partners India, Mohan Kumar and Freshworks former COO Nishant Rao. “Avataar was founded on the belief that to successfully build, scale and accelerate the growth of companies, entrepreneurs will need partners with operational action bias,” the founders said in a joint media statement.  

Avataar Investment Portfolio

At the fund’s closing, Avataar is said to have already acquired stakes in six B2B SaaS companies from Norwest Venture Partners portfolio including IT operations startup Appnomic, engagement commerce tool Capillary Technologies, customer relationship management software CRMNext, logistics startup ElasticRun, data analytics startup Manthan and Spa & salon management software Zenoti.

Recently in August 2019, Zenoti raised $20 Mn from Steadview Capital. Prior to this in May, Zenoti also raised $50 Mn Series C funding round led by Tiger Global Management. 

Also last year, Capillary Technologies raised about $20 Mn funding from Warburg Pincus and Sequoia Capital.

SaaS Opportunity In India

According to NASSCOM, India’s software as a service (SaaS) market is expected to grow 36% annually and touch $3.3-$3.4 Bn by 2022. This growth is expected because of cheaper workforce, abundant talent, mature sales ecosystem, and adoption of deeptech technologies in the country.

Further, according to DataLabs by Inc42, in the period between January 2014 and June 2018, Indian SaaS startups raised $2.79 Bn across 520 deals.

Also, Indian SaaS unicorn Freshworks was recently reported to be working towards an initial public offering (IPO) as early as 2021. The listing is expected to be on New York-headquartered stock exchange, NASDAQ.

This announcement was closely followed by another SaaS company Icertis joining the unicorn club in July 2019. The company has raised $115 Mn in a funding round, led by US-based venture capital firm Greycroft and PremjiInvest, to reach the $1 Bn valuation. 

Meanwhile, the oldest SaaS unicorn from India, Zoho has been busy in making new acquisitions and adding fresh line of entreprise offerings including mobile app development platform Zoho Creator, Zoho commerce SaaS platform, sales team focussed conversational AI called Zia Voice, and more. 

The post Former Freshworks, Norwest Partners Executives Launch $300 Mn Investment Fund appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Minimum Government, Maximum Governance – Prime Minister Narendra Modi”

The PM Modi-led NDA government has been continuously pushing for e-governance by trying to digitise various government processes, the latest being the population census.

Addressing the gathering at the foundation stone for a new building to house the Registrar General of India (RGI) in New Delhi, union home minister Amit Shah said the next census of India in 2021 will be a “digital census” with a mobile app used to collect data. Shah also talked about a multipurpose identity card.

Shah’s plan was seconded by Registrar General of India Vivek Joshi who said the result of the 2021 would be available almost immediately. In the pilot project “30 lakh people” were successfully enumerated using the mobile application, he added.

The Digital Census Plan For 2021

As many as 21 welfare schemes will depend on the Census, Shah said, “An app is being developed indigenously for collecting the data and in Android phones. National Population Register is being prepared for the first time in the 2021 census,” he added. The home minister said there should also be a system that when a person dies, the information is updated in the population data automatically.

Almost 33 lakh enumerators, the persons who conduct door-to-door counting, would be mobilised for data collection. A pre-test of Census 2021, which began on August 12, will go on till the end of this month.

Earlier, home secretary Rajiv Gauba had reportedly said the census is not only an exercise of headcount but also provides invaluable socio-economic data, which forms a credible basis for informed policy formulation and allocation of resources.

“The changing demography and socio-economic parameters reflected by the census help in reformulation of the country’s plans for the economic development and welfare schemes for its people,” Gauba added.

Notably, the government had said that the next census will be conducted in two phases with March 1, 2021 as the reference date. For Jammu and Kashmir, snow-bound areas of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date shall be the first day of October, 2020, the notification said.

Multi-purpose Identity Card: A Possibility?

“We do not have a scheme to introduce a multi-purpose identity cards but this a possibility, “ Shah said. He also proposed the idea of a multipurpose ID card for every citizen which includes passport, Aadhaar and the voter card.

It is to be noted that the law to enable a citizens’ register is already in place. The Citizenship Act empowers the Centre to compulsorily register every citizen and issue multi-purpose national identity cards.

To activate this plan, the government would first create a population register and in the second stage, ask people in this register to establish their citizenship. According to the government, the population register would serve as the mother database for creating the National Register of Indian Citizens by verifying the citizenship status of each and every resident.

Shah emphasised that the national register, which would list individuals according to their residence, “will help in law and order, controlling crime and for development scheme”.

Earlier, Rishikesh Patankar, VP CSC E-government services and COO of CSC Academy said that CSC is working on digitisation of services. According to Rishikesh, “Lot of government departments have files and documents that need to be digitised. We ran a small program with MeitY to digitise the contents for various government departments.”

Rishikesh also said that the seventh economic survey will cover seven Cr. households this time and for a survey of this scale, the training of educators and supervisors are being done on AWS systems.

The post India’s 2021 Census To Go Digital With Mobile App, Automatic Data Collection appeared first on Inc42 Media.

To encourage research on artificial intelligence (AI) ethics, Silicon Valley-headquartered Facebook said that it has now selected six projects from India that will focus on three key areas – governance, cultural diversity and operationalising ethics.

The company announced Ethics in AI research awards in June with a regional focus on India. It had said that the proposed budget should be within INR 10 Lakh-INR 20 Lakh. The company also said that AI technological developments pose intricate and complex ethical questions that the industry alone cannot answer.

Therefore, Facebook sought research questions in the application of AI from independent academic research institutions along with the companies building and deploying the technology.

The challenge was open to academic institutions, think tanks, and research organisations registered and operational in India. The solutions were sought across: operationalizing ethics / explainability / fairness, governance and cultural diversity.

The shortlisted candidates were reviewed by judges such as Professor Sudeshna Sarkar (IIT Kharagpur), Sunil Abraham (CIS), and Bharath Visweswariah (Omidyar Network). Here are the winners, according to reports:

1. Operationalizing Ethics / Explainability / Fairness

• Patient-Centric Frameworks for the Evaluation of AI-Enabled Medical Tests

PI: Amit Sethi, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay)

Collaborators: Swapnil Rane and Zakia Khan, Tata Memorial Centre

• Targeted Bias in Indian Media Outlets

PI: Animesh Mukherjee, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur)

Collaborators: Pawan Goyal and Souvic Chakraborty, IIT Kharagpur

2. Governance

• Ethical Implications of Delegating Decision-making Journey to AI Systems

PI: Dr Rahul De’, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore)

Collaborator: Sai Dattathrani, IIM Bangalore

• A ‘Public Law of Information’ for India

PI: Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Centre for Law and Policy Research

3. Cultural Diversity

• Mitigating Bias in Face Recognition for Vast Regional Diversity in India

PI: Richa Singh, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi (IIT-Delhi)

Collaborator: Mayank Vatsa, IIIT-Delhi

• Regulatory Impact Assessment of the National AI Market Place of India

PI: Varadharajan Sridhar, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIT Bangalore)

Collaborator: Shrisha Rao, IIIT Bangalore

According to a Gartner survey, AI adoption in organisations has tripled in the past year, and AI is a top priority for CIOs. And, AI will be one of the top workloads that drives infrastructure decisions through 2023, according to Gartner.

Major unicorns in the Indian startup ecosystem have acquired at least one AI company in the last two years. An indicator that AI and machine learning play a key role in sustaining competitive advantage and delivering the superior user experience.

The post Facebook’s Ethics In AI Research Awards: Who Are The Winners? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Silicon Valley-based VC fund Metaform Ventures is investing $2 Mn in its India Center of Excellence to conduct research on tobacco cessation and harm reduction, with a focus on smokeless tobacco (SLT) products like jarda, ghutka, khaini, etc. 

The objective of the research is to provide hard empirical data and evidence to encourage new harm reduction tools, cessation techniques and products for a tobacco-free India. 

According to Metaform Ventures, use of smokeless tobacco accounts for 90% of oral cancers in India, which amounts to about 300K deaths a year. 

Led by an angel investor and serial entrepreneur Nilesh Jain, Metaform Ventures has made investments in multiple Indian startups including healthtech startup Clinivantage Healthcare, delivery logistics company HeyDeeDee, edtech startup Xplorabox, cleantech company Log9 Materials and smart home automation startup Picostone.

“Innovative thinking and profound changes within this sector can contribute significantly to public health. Leading new research, supported by government-led policy interventions, can help deploy technology options to reduce risks and transform core SLT products,” said Nilesh.

Further, the data generated through this research is said to help regulators and product innovators, along with creating capacity for independent research in India. The research will also provide users with more options to choose from, thereby motivating them to move towards safer options and reduced harm. 

Tobacco Regulations In India

This development comes on the heels of India announcing a ban on all operations around e-cigarettes and vapes in the country. This includes a ban on “production, manufacturing, import/export, transport, sale, distribution, storage and advertising related to e-cigarettes,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a press conference last week. 

Sitharaman cited uncertain health risks and the increasing use of vapes, e-cigarettes and ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) as the reason for this ban. 

“Banning e-cigarettes while more harmful traditional bidis and cigarettes are allowed to be sold is contradictory. It is like banning a less harmful nicotine delivery system while allowing more harmful ones free market availability. This is fundamentally unsustainable as policy or a public health imperative or even in law and consumer rights,” Praveen Rickhy, convener of an ecigarette lobby group called Trade Representatives of ENDS (TRENDS) had said earlier in a media statement. 

According to the World Health Organisation, India had 266.8 Mn tobacco users and people exposed to secondhand smoke in 2018 in the $12 Bn cigarette market. 

The post Metaform Ventures Invests $2 Mn Towards Tobacco Research In India appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based nanotechnology startup Log 9 Spill Containment has raised INR 4 Cr in its Pre-Series A round of funding from angel investors Renjit Shinto and Omkar Ghaisas.

Log 9 Spill was incorporated in June 2019. The company mainly focuses on graphene-based products.

Dhananjay Sharma, CEO of Log 9 Spill, in a statement, said, “At Log 9 Spill, we are using graphene as the base material to bridge the gap between laboratory-developed technologies and market-ready products, and thus creating, manufacturing, and commercializing novel solutions for the clean-tech sector.”

The company has also developed a brand, Sorbene, to further produce oil and chemical sorbents made from graphene. The company plans to utilise this funding to set up a new production facility in Navi Mumbai for the manufacturing of Graphene-based products already in its portfolio.

It also aims to research and develop new products in the industrial spill and other domains to cater to domestic and international markets in “providing efficient oil spill clean-up solutions,” Sharma added.

“During each life cycle, our Sorbene products reduce the carbon emission to the atmosphere by at least 50% as compared to conventional products. The Sorbene pads are very flexible and can be folded and used as wipes. A single Sorbene pad can be used for 6 to 8 cycles, whereas other traditional pads can be used only once,” added Sharma.

The company has already set up a base in the domestic market by selling its sorbent pads to petrochemical refineries, marine cleanup as well as environment protection stakeholders. These pads absorb oil up to 86 times their own weight and have been tested and certified against British Standards by third-party laboratories.

The cleantech company Log 9 Spill is a subsidiary of Log 9 Materials, which was founded in November 2015 by Akshay Singhal at the IIT Roorkee’s incubation centre TIDES. The company develops nanotechnology driven products that can be used in B2B and B2C sectors. Delhi-based micro VC firm GEMsis one of the investors of the company.

Other startups working in the similar domain include Adnano Technologies, Nilima Nanotechnologies, NoPo etc.

According to a report, “Global Nanotechnology Market Outlook 2024”, by ResearchAndMarkets.com, the global nanotechnology market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 17R between 2018-2024 due to its wide range of uses.

The post Nanotechnology Startup Log 9 Spill Raises INR 4 Cr In Pre-Series A Round appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last week, the fifth edition of BIGShift was successfully hosted at DevX, Ahmedabad on September 20, 2019. The event saw the participation of startup founders, entrepreneurs, and investors who come together to discuss the state of the ecosystem in Tier 2 cities through dedicated sessions, keynotes, a panel discussion.

Also, Inc42 Mixer was organised in Bengaluru on September 19. Mixer by Inc42 enables all the co-hustlers from the startup ecosystem to help each other grow and connect over ideas, cocktails and conversations. This time Inc42 Mixer was sponsored by HSBC, Paytm, Times Internet, Amazon Web Services and NetApp.

As we step into a new week, here’s a list of new and upcoming events:

BIGShift,Vizag

Inc42 and DigitalOcean are heading to Vizag with the BIGShift tour. Vizag will be the last destination in BIGShift’s six-city tour and will focus on bringing the startups of the city and its entrepreneurs together to help them connect with each other as well as the stalwarts from the ecosystem.

Vizag is the last city in Inc42’s six-city tour of BIGShift. BIGShift has witnessed many amazing startups and budding entrepreneurs come forward to network, engage and grow with their fellow entrepreneurs. Starting from Chandigarh, BIGShift has travelled the breadth of the country with events at Nagpur, Kochi, Indore, and Ahmedabad.

The speakers for the event include names such as Anand Govindaluri, CEO, Govin Capital, MP Dubey, director, STPI, Sreedhar Kosaraju, president-designate, ITAAP, Murali Krishna, founder, Fluentgrid, and Prabhakar Jayakumar, country director, India, DigitalOcean among others. The application is free for BIGShift, Vizag.

Who Should Attend: Startup founders, entrepreneurs, investors, government officials

Date: October 4, 2019

Venue: AP Innovation Society (APIS), Vizag 

Founders Meetup By Inc42

After engaging over 30 startup founders in the last edition, Inc42 is all set to bring you the ninth edition of Delhi Chapter Founders Meetup and the first edition of Hyderabad Chapter founders meetup. As usual, the Founders Meetup is the place to engage with over 50 startup founders, entrepreneurs and investors for an evening of networking, sharing knowledge, discussing challenges, and interacting with peers.

Past editions of the Founders Meetup had hosted guest speakers such as Chaayos founder Nitin Saluja, Dineout cofounders Ankit Mehrotra, and Sahil Jain, Ibibo and INDwealth founder Ashish Kashyap, and POSist cofounder Ashish Tulsian among others. This edition of Founders Meetup in Delhi will host The Beer Cafe’s founder Rohan Narula and Hyderabad edition will host Vivek Kapoor of Dineout as the guest speaker. 

The upcoming edition of Founders Meetup, Delhi is supported by HDFC, AWS, NetApp, Times Internet and WeWork. Further, Hyderabad chapter of the Founders Meetup is supported by Dineout and Paytm.

Who Should Attend: Startup founders, entrepreneurs, investors

Date: October 3, 2019 and October 11, 2019

Venue: WeWork, Gurugram and Cowrks, Hyderabad

Future 2020 Conference, Mumbai  

Future 2020 Conference is curated to harness the growth developments of the SMEs (Small Medium Enterprises) and emerging businesses in India. With an expected attendance of over 200 business leaders from SME and mid-market organisations, this year’s agenda will focus on practical implications of implementing new technologies, and the revolutionary solutions that are transforming business productivity.

The event is supported by the Indian Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Khadi and Village Industries Commission, and National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), among others. 

 Who Should Attend: Startup founders, entrepreneurs

Date: September 23-24, 2019 

Venue: The Westin Mumbai Garden City, India

Pulse42, Mumbai 

Over the past five-plus years, Inc42 has brought the ecosystem under one roof for events of all scales and for businesses across the startup lifecycles – from early-stage founders to growth-stage startups and unicorns.

But even in this hyperconnected world, entrepreneurs and investors need a little break to unwind and take a breather from the frenetic action. Sometimes, all founders need is a break from the boardroom and a chance to unwind with their peers over drinks, music and exciting conversations. That’s why Inc42 is bringing Pulse42, The Pulse of Tech, back to the financial capital Mumbai.

Some of the notable past attendees of Pulse42 include founder and partner of 100x.VC, Sanjay Mehta; cofounder and managing Partner of Blume Ventures, Karthik Reddy; Managing Director of Sequoia India, Rajan Anandan; and founder of PeopleGroup, Anupam Mittal among others.

Who Should Attend: Startup founders, entrepreneurs

Date: October 16, 2019 

Venue: Dome, InterContinental, Mumbai

Huddle Kerala, Trivandrum

Huddle is known as the platform that startups can use to reach investors, customers and the media, and it also acts as a platform to promote entrepreneurship in students, which has been one of the pillars of the Kerala government’s startup policy. The two-day conference this year will see a number of side events and activities such as leadership talks, tech talks, fireside chats, as well as speed dating with investors on a boat, startup demos, and much more.

Organised by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Huddle Kerala will host speakers from various sectors and industries, including names such as, Dilip RS, India head for Alexa Skills, Amazon, Juergen Hase, CEO, Unlimit, a Reliance group company, Rahul Narvekar, founder of Scale Ventures Fund, India Network and Julie Chappell, managing director, international markets at London & Partners, among other luminaries.

The 2019 edition continues the focus of the last Huddle on the emerging innovation and the technology that will shape the future in India such as blockchain, IoT, artificial intelligence applications, big data, robotics, digital entertainment, AR/VR, drone tech, UI/UX, egovernance and more.

Who Should Attend: Startup founders, entrepreneurs

Date: September 27-28, 2019 

Venue: Leela Kovalam, Trivandrum

The post Startup Events This Week: Founders Meetup By Inc42, BIGShift Vizag And More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-headquartered cab hailing unicorn Ola is now getting closer to its ambitions of listing publicly.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, on August 29, the company passed a resolution to allot 16,885 Series J CCPS to ARK Ola Pre IPO Fund at a nominal value of INR 10 with a premium of INR 21,240 to raise INR 36.88 Cr ($5.19 Mn).

The ARK Ola Pre IPO Fund appears to be a special purpose vehicle, set up to support Ola’s IPO plans. The fund is registered in Yeongdeungpo-gu district in Seoul, Korea. However, there are no other details available for the same.

Ola’s IPO Plans

In its filings, Ola has said that it will use the funds for general business activities. An Entrackr report cited multiple sources claiming that the company has started working on a plan for public listing. They further claimed that Ola has set up an initial team of about a dozen employees to work dedicatedly for IPO preparations.

Interestingly, the company along with it peers in IndiaTech had recently demanded that the guidelines for a public listing on Indian stock markets be changed for tech startups, specifically the rules around promoter holdings. The startups want the rule for minimum promoter holding requirement of 20% to be removed as it poses a challenge for startups who want to list themselves for stock exchange.

In July, SEBI allowed differential voting rights for startups. Differential voting rights or DVRs are like ordinary equity shares, except that the DVR shareholders have fewer voting rights as compared to the rights of an ordinary shareholder. DVR has been employed by the likes of Tata Motors and Future Retail to enable the founders to retain control of the company even when they have a minority stake.

However, it is to be noted that Ola has been at the forefront for demanding the easing of rules for startups, be it for angel tax or for public listing. Over the last few years, the company has been steadily working towards a public listing and has repeatedly talked about its ambitions.

In 2016 when Rajiv Bansal joined Ola as chief financial officer, he had said that Ola will have world-class processes in 6-8 months and we want to be ready for an IPO as early as possible.

Ola: Lessons From Uber For Loss-Based Public Listing

Founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in January 2011, Ola is now offering its services across 50 cities in India, UK, Australia and New Zealand. The company claims to complete over a billion rides annually with its over 1.5 Mn drivers. The company had been earning money on every ride since June last year.

Ola has raised over $3.8 Bn from marquee investors such as SoftBank, Ratan Tata, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors, Sachin Bansal and others. However, as the company seeks to close another $2 Bn funding round, it is struggling to avoid SoftBank from increasing its stake in the company.

Early this year, reports surfaced that Foodpanda cut marketing and customer acquisition costs by two-thirds, in line with Ola’s de-prioritisation plan for the business in terms of investment. With this, the shuffled team from Ola to Foodpanda had been shifted back to Ola.

This continued shuffling has impacted the company’s attrition rate. LinkedIn’s Top Companies List for 2019 showed that Ola is in bad shape and the cab aggregator’s performance as an employer is failing miserably. From position 5 in 2017, the company stands today at rank 19.

This, coupled with the company’s losses, is a major challenge for the company’s public listing. At a time when global giants like Uber, Lyft, WeWork have had troublesome lessons with IPOs, Ola has a hard path ahead.

The post Is Mobility Unicorn Ola Gearing Up For Public Listing? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Buttercups’ founder Arpita Ganesh took to LinkedIn to say that she is closing the Bengaluru-based online lingerie startup, a couple of months after the website was shuttered.

“10 years spent in an industry I knew nothing about when I started out, and emerging as someone who was pretty knowledgeable by the time I was done, didn’t come easy. Neither is closing my labor of love – Buttercups and moving on from what I am best known for – India’s bra lady,” wrote Ganesh.

Buttercups was launched in 2013 by Arpita Ganesh. The lingerie startup had pioneered the fitting room concept and using a multi-channel strategy for acquisition and retention, to creating a product line that revolves around design aesthetics and functionality.

Buttercups claimed to have up to 43% repeat customers. The company has raised $1 Mn from investors such as Anand Chandrasekaran, Rajan Anandan, Kanwaljit Singh, Manoj Varghese, Angie Mahtaney and others.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the company had recorded INR 41.53 Lakh revenue in FY18 against total expenses of INR 2.49 Cr.

As compared to the previous year, the company has reduced expenses by 33% from INR 3.64 Cr of FY17. However, the fall in terms of revenue was significant as the company’s revenues fell 61.7% from INR 1.08 Cr in FY17.

This could be attributed to the company’s change in strategy when it pivoted to a non-inventory model and decided to manufacture in India itself. Therefore the expenses in terms of purchase of traded goods, changes in inventory etc nearly halved between FY17 and FY18.

However, it is hard to ascertain the reason for the company’s ailing revenues. This year the company hasn’t made any ministerial filings. Over the last few months, Buttercups website had also been shut down, but Ganesh has continued to decline to talk about the reason.

As Ganesh announced the new venture, Ganesh told Inc42 that she had experience with advertising industry and therefore, is exploring a new business with her friend. The new venture— The Voice Company— has been launched in August 2019 with Bodhisatwa Dasgupta. However, the company is still under registration process.

In her social media post, Ganesh said, “I bought into his vision simply because it was my vision too. To take whatever I have learned and work with other brands and help them find their voice. There’s nothing more gratifying than giving a voice to people and telling stories for companies, small and large.”

She said that “with Bodhi’s strange creative mind and my razor-sharp, practical one, I know we can do wonders, working besides brands. And the fact that we’re sector, scale and budget agnostic, (I hope) set us apart.”

The Voice Company, according to the company website, is an advertising platform and works with startups, poets, artists, musicians, children and specially-abled people. The Voice Company is part profit, part non-profit.

The Voice Company claims to have taken a project live for Junoon, an NGO in Bombay that educates street children by creating a picture dictionary for them.

According to a report by Franchise India, the lingerie market in India is valued at about $3 Bn, growing at a CAGR of 42.32% between 2014 and 2019. Buttercups closely competed with Zivame, Clovia, etc. However, as the future gets under the shade for Buttercups, Ganesh’s move at The Voice Company is something to look forward to.

Update: September 24 | 3:10 PM
After the publication of the story, in a LinkedIn post, Ganesh said that “the brand remains and will be relaunched soon in a new avtaar.”

The post Rajan Anandan-Backed Lingerie Startup Buttercups Shuts Shop appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Indian wealth creators, entrepreneurs should be extended all kinds of support and tax is one of the foundations … we should have more facilitating rates rather than suffocating rates of taxation,” said finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in August, supporting the corporate tax reduction proposed during the Union Budget 2019. 

True to her words, with the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 passed on September 20, the government has slashed corporate tax rates to 22% for existing domestic companies and 15% for new domestic manufacturing companies.

As Inc42 reported earlier, certain other measures have also been taken to grant tax relief to corporates, thereby making the total revenue foregone estimated at INR 145K Cr ($20 Bn).

After the government’s decision to exempt 342 startups from paying angel tax since February and further simplify the exemption process, the industry stalwarts, analysts and entrepreneurs have termed this step as another ‘bold’ and ‘path changing’ attempt for the Indian startup economy.

According to many industry leaders that Inc42 spoke to, this reform places India’s corporate taxation structure at par with some of the world’s best countries to do business in, setting India on the right growth trajectory like never before.

“India now has one of the lowest tax slabs amongst its global peers. Excess money freed up after global central bank’s interest rate cut would pour into our economy. Our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visiting the US with these policy changes at home would project India strongly on the global map. India will be on the path of growth and a lot of progress would be seen from here onwards,” said Abhishek Bansal, Chairman, Abans Group.

Here’s a brief overview of the corporate tax reforms introduced by the government with the latest amendment:

Corporate Tax Reduction: Industry Expects Make In India Boost, FDI Uptick, And More

Most of the industry people Inc42 reached out to believe that recent taxation amendments will not only improve ease of doing business but will also increase the inflow of capital in the Indian startup ecosystem. For instance, Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO, GOQii and Rajan Navani, vice chairman and managing director, JetSynthesys, are both optimistic that this step will have a positive spiral impact on creating huge employment opportunities.

“This will transform both the ‘Startup India’ landscape to a strong ‘Scale-up India’ powerhouse as well as further strengthen large Indian companies to become global behemoths,” said Navani.

At the same time, Gaurav Chopra, founder and CEO, IndiaLends and Manish Sharma, president and CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia believe that the decision will not only further India’s ease of doing business. but also provide impetus to the manufacturing sector in the country.

Ninad Karpe, partner at 100X.VC and Mandar Agashe, founder and vice president, Sarvatra Technologies brought in another growth angle here. Karpe considers the increase in the scope for CSR spend as a true game-changer and a turning point for funding for incubators. This recognises the fact that innovation is critical for India and incubators will play an important role in this context. Incubators need support from the CSR spend bucket, Karpe believes.

On the other hand, Agashe suggests corporate tax reduction will lift up the sentiments in the rural non-agricultural MSME fraternity who are often faced with a dearth of funds and it could also enhance digital payments adoption among these businesses.

“A lethal combination of the power surplus in the country, GST reforms and this corporate tax relief of 15% will make India a hotspot for FDIs due to the ease of doing business, creating a pathway for the 5 trillion dollar economy envisioned by the government,” he added.

Is Rising Fiscal Deficit A Concern?

The latest taxation amendments suggest how desperate Indian government is to take its corporate, manufacturing and startup ecosystem at par with global standards. While applauding the Modi government on its tax relaxation initiatives, Abans’ Bansal highlighted concerns over the rising fiscal deficit of the country.

“We may see fiscal deficit moving beyond 3.3% which was announced in the Union Budget 2019-20. After a reduction of corporate tax, 1.45 lakh crores of revenue loss has already been mentioned by the Finance Minister in the press briefing,” he said.

The impact of high fiscal deficit is certainly a matter of debate for analysts in the economy. For now, we may look for some answers in history. Deficit spending is one of the most important tools of Keynesian macroeconomics, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes, who believed that “spending drove economic activity and the government could stimulate a slumping economy by running large deficits.”

But is it true for the Indian economy? Here’s a look at the GDP and gross fiscal deficit trend chart for the Indian economy, over the last few years.

Image Source

Image Source

On comparing the two charts, it can be observed that in 2011-12 India’s fiscal deficit was highest at 5.91, however, the GDP growth rate fell to 5.2, much lower than 8.5 in the 2010-11 period. This was primarily due to the poor performance of the manufacturing and farm sectors.

This indicates how the Indian government has placed a clear bet on its Make In India and Startup India initiative this time to stimulate the economy.

On a positive note, India is currently on a growth trajectory in terms of GDP as indicated by the latest figures wherein the GDP of India has expanded by 2.57 times from 2004-05 to 2018-19. Further, gross domestic product (GDP) at constant (2011-12) prices in the year 2018-19 is estimated at INR 140.78 Lakh Cr showing a growth rate of 6.81 percent over first revised estimates of GDP for the year 2017-18 of INR 131.80 Lakh Cr.

However, with prevailing issues such as a continuous reduction in GST collection, bogus billings, tax evasion and fake invoicing among others, the question is will these reforms put India in better shape or worsen the situation for future generations.

The post Will Modi’s Corporate Tax Reduction Move Put India On Global Growth Map? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday clarified the Indian government’s stand on the data localisation issue, saying it will not allow “sensitive and super-sensitive data” to go out of the country.

Prasad assured that the government will not let the country’s data sovereignty to be compromised. He also pointed out that there should be a balance between data availability, utility, innovation and data privacy.

The minister was speaking at a conference on ’emergence and impact of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things’ hosted by Jaipuria School of Business. Prasad cited the example of the Indian healthcare sector where the data, if utilised properly, can lead to a breakthrough.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the ‘Howdy, Modi’ on Sunday, also stressed on the importance of data, saying that it has transformed into “new oil” and “new gold.”

The government’s stand comes amidst the heated ongoing debate on the government and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) strict demand for data localisation.

Various privacy and data protection policies that are being drafted now have noted data localisation norms as a part of their proposed regulations, including the strict data localisation stance in the draft ecommerce policy, and personal data protection bill has proposed localisation regulations based on the categorisation of data under headers such as sensitive and critical.

In June, US President Donald Trump had warned both India and China regarding their data localisation policies, which do not allow the transfer of data outside the country. The Indian government, then too, had countered that data is the new form of wealth and insisted that any discussion on its storage should take into account the requirement of the developing countries.

Last week, on Wednesday, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had sent back WhatsApp report on its yet-to-launch UPI payment platform WhatsApp Payments. The UPI management body had asked the company to make changes in its data localisation policies to get final approval.

Moreover, the Supreme Court, in August, had given a six-week deadline to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ensure if WhatsApp has been following the data localisation policies or not.

The post Country’s Data Sovereignty Cannot Be Compromised: Ravi Shankar Prasad On Data Localisation appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Fraud investigation startup AdvaRisk has raised $700K seed round led by Sprout Venture Partners. SEA Fund and angel investors such as former managing director of Multiples Alternate Asset Management Sharad Bhatia and Axis Bank’s former deputy managing director Varadarajan Srinivasan also participated in this round. 

AdvaRisk will use the fresh funds for product development, ramping up of sales and business development teams.  

Commenting on the fundraise, Vishal said, “the need of the hour is an effective and a proactive credit monitoring solution for preventing frauds that plague our financial system and adversely affect our economy. We, at AdvaRisk are developing solutions that enable lenders to prevent future frauds and maximize recovery from non-performing assets.”

Founded in 2016 by Vishal Sharma and Rahul Metkar, AdvaRisk is developing an AI-driven platform for fraud prevention, detection and recovery in corporate loan portfolio of digital lending companies. 

Talking about the investment, managing partner of Sprout Venture Partners, Sahil Gupta said, “Advarisk aptly addresses fundamental needs of financial investments; to improve underwriting measures and to actively monitor portfolio for early identification and minimizing future distress.” 

Cyber Attacks On The Rise 

As India’s fintech sector does emerge as a promising trillion dollar opportunity, the concerns around data privacy have also increased. Earlier this August, Truecaller has encountered a serious bug which led to automatic creation of UPI accounts for its users. However, the company later disabled the new update which had triggered this bug. 

This was closely followed by reports of two more fintech startups – Chqbook and Credit Fair to have undergone a data breach. A web privacy research group vpnMentor had said in blog post, “our team discovered that both Credit Fair and Chqbook’s entire databases were unprotected and unencrypted. Credit Fair uses a Mongo Database, while Chqbook uses Elastic Search, neither of which were protected with any password or firewall.”

According to a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), a total of 5,917 bank frauds were reported last year and about 33% of these cases were cyber frauds. To address such issues, the RBI has announced plans to create a central registry to monitor digital payments related frauds.

In May, India was reported as the second most cyber attacks affected country between 2016 to 2018. The average cost for a data breach in India has risen 7.9% since 2017, with the average cost per breached record mounting to INR 4,552 ($64).

The post AdvaRisk Raises $700K Seed Round Led By Sprout Venture Partners appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Strategic Ventures Fund II (SVFII) has launched a $50 Mn growth accelerator early-stage fund for entrepreneurs and startups in the countries, which are a part of Indo-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

SVFII, with the fund, aims to support early-age startup with a strong user base. The fund is expected to utilise its network of sponsors, board members and co-investors to back and boost the sales of the portfolio companies.

“SVF II reflects its GPs strong belief in entrepreneurship as a vehicle for creating new businesses, enhancing the efficiency of existing businesses and increase productivity parameters using technology as a lever,” the company said in a press release.

The early stage startup fund will be focusing on technology-driven, technology-enabled, technology differentiated companies across industries which have the potential to scale up significantly with the assistance of accelerants SVFII intends to provide.

SVFII, a private equity fund managed by Frontline Strategy, has also got Startup-O ⁠— a startup assessment and venture building platform in South East Asia region — on board as its technical advisor. The technical advisor will help startups get co-investors for subsequent investment.

The company aims to add “value though sales funnel enlargement would be a key metrics while evaluating an investment”

Atim Kabra, director of SVFII, said, “We will have value addition of algorithmic process-driven funnel to shortlist companies for evaluation through our technical advisors. Further deal curation will be done by a highly experienced, multi-skilled team with a stellar track record in early-stage investing.”

The SVFII is set up by Chairman of Satin Creditcare HP Singh, founder of Frontline Strategy Funds Atim Kabra, chairman of Aeries Technology Group V. Raman Kumar and cofounder of Aravali Investment Management Mukesh Dave.

J. Diwan, founder of Odyssey Asset Managem Atim Kabra, Director of SVFII, Vipin Aggarwal, Jyoti Prakash, Dinesh Kamath will form the core of the investment team based in India.

The post Strategic Ventures Fund II Launches $50 Mn Accelerator For Early Stage Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-based ecommerce platform ShopClues has received a fresh equity infusion of INR 7.86 Cr from its US-based parent entity.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, on September 11, the company issued 4,320 equity shares at a nominal value of INR 10 and a premium of INR 18,190 per share to Clues Network Inc.

ShopClues was founded in July 2011 by Sandeep Aggarwal, while Radhika Aggarwal and Sanjay Sethi joined as cofounders. It is a managed marketplace that aims to provide a unique online shopping experience to its customers. Sandeep exited the company after a spat with the board in 2016 and Sanjay Sethi took over the role of CEO. The company has raised over $1 Bn in funding from investors such as Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners, GIC, and more.

Over the past two years, ShopClues has steadily lost momentum, with the orders dropping to less than 30K per day. In a high cash burn business such as ecommerce, ShopClues was losing money every month.

In November 2018, ShopClues had reported a total income of $37.7 Mn (INR 273.3 Cr), an increase of 46% from $25.81 Mn (INR 187.1 Cr) in the previous year. It also narrowed its net loss by 40% to $28.17 Mn (INR 208.14 Cr) for FY 2017-18.

Over the last few months, multiple reports said that ShopClues in talks for a possible buyout by Snapdeal. Prior to this in April too, ShopClues was said to be exploring a buyout by Snapdeal but the deal reportedly fell apart because of financial terms.

The company had recently laid off nearly 150-200 employees. The majority of the layoffs are said to be in the operations team. “Our customer NPS has been increasing steadily in these two years while our workforce has dropped by 50% in the same time period. Our focus has been profitability and this year we plan to achieve that,” the spokesperson told Inc42.

After the recent layoffs, ecommerce unicorn ShopClues is looking to raise a new investment round. As ecommerce platforms are witnessing restrictions from different ministries, these emarketplaces have been raising the demands for a consolidated set of guidelines.

The commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal recently said that his ministry is working on a national ecommerce policy, which will be ready by June 2020. Moreover, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) and consumer affairs are having parallel discussions to frame another set of policies for these companies.

The post Amid Falling Growth, ShopClues Gets INR 7.8 Cr Infusion From US-Parent appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Seed money or seed capital plays a crucial role when it comes to translating an idea to a business. Not just this, when to raise seed funding is significant enough to define the health of the business. But first, let’s address why seed funding is so important.

Why Seed Funding Is Necessary?

Seed funding is the early-stage investment that a startup needs to get off the ground and gain some traction. It is a very important stage in the journey of a startup as it allows them to grow, work on the product or idea, develop a team and look into other aspects that are responsible for the functioning of a company.

In most cases, the amount of money needed to set up a business is more than what the founder or their family members can put in. This is where seed capital from outside sources, such as crowdfunding, venture capitalists, bank loans and angel investors, come into play. But, before approaching any of these sources, it is crucial to know if the startup is ready for raising seed funding.

The Right Timing For Seed Funding

It is believed that whenever a startup can raise money, it should. But, there are a few things that entrepreneurs should keep in mind to increase their chances of getting what they want from who they want. A startup must first know if it is ready for seed-stage financing or not. And this is just about answering a few questions:

1. Is The Right Team in Place?
   Having the right human resources to work on ideas or product is crucial. With the right team, treating employees with respect, loyalty and care is essential, so that they are just as invested in the company as founders are.
2. Has The Startup Worked With Industry Experts?
   Take valuable feedback from experts in the field including advisors, angels, partners and industry players. This way, startups can improve the product or idea before taking it to the market or early-stage investors. The expert network will also help founders in gaining credibility.
3. Is There A Prototype?
   If you have a product or software that you are wanting to implement, what stage of production is it in? You need to have at least a working prototype which will be showcased in front of the potential investors. Going to an investor meeting without a working product drastically reduces your chances for seed-stage funds.
4. Have The Potential Investors Been Vetted?
   When it comes to sitting for an investor meeting, it is best to do some research beforehand about potential investors. This would also help build a relationship with investors before the pitch. Investors will be more inclined to come on board with the startup when they see the work shining through, and when they know that startups have done their due diligence.
5. Is There A Story For Investors?
   Investors love to hear a good story. If founders can move them emotionally with the unique vision, story and idea behind the startup, then that would get investor attention. But investors can also easily see through dishonest presentations.
6. Has The Product Been Tested?
   It is always a good option to test the product before planning on raising seed capital. Getting to know customers’ needs and behaviour will allow startups to present a real-world scenario of the effectiveness of the product. This is part of the market research that should be carried out before a product launch, which helps founders understand:

• Demand for the product
• Sign-up and pre-sale numbers
• Is there any competition?
• How the product is different

If startups can replicate the sales process and cycle in the future, then investors will get a better idea of the issues they might face and be able to tackle them accordingly.

By and large, startups and founders must prepare well before pitching to raise seed funding. No matter how big of an investment the idea demands, there are many seed funding companies in India and the world that will be ready to support it, provided it make sense to them.

The post When Is The Right Time For Startups To Raise Seed Funding? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted as the CEO of the ride-hailing company in 2017, is reportedly looking to invest in multi-brand cloud kitchen startup Rebel Foods, earlier known as Faasos. The two parties are said to be in advanced talks, according to an ET report.

After his exit from the top position at Uber, Kalanick founded real estate tech company City Storage Systems, through which he will be buying small stake in Rebel Foods as part of a previously disclosed $125 million round of funding,

Pune-based Rebel Foods, founded by Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee, operates multiple quick-service food brands independently, facilitating deliveries through its app or through the likes of Zomato and Swiggy. Currently, it has nine in-house brands including Faasos, Oven Story, Firangi Bake and Mandarin Oak.

With over 175 cloud kitchens across 12 cities in India, the company claims to receive almost 30K orders a day. In terms of valuation, it’s in third position in the foodtech space after Swiggy and Zomato.

According to a Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings dated September 17 accessed by Inc42, Rebel Foods recently raised funding of $25.4 Mn (INR 169.13 Cr) from Goldman Sachs Asia Strategic, $16 Mn (INR 108.9 Cr) from Irving Investors, $176K (INR 1.17 Cr) each from Arvind Bhaskar and Dan Jacob, and $81 K (INR 54 Lakh) from Christopher Golder, as part of its Series D.

The first $20 Mn tranche was already received by Rebel Foods from its investors. Other investors in the cloud kitchen company include Lightbox Ventures II, Lightbox Expansion Fund, SCI investments VI, Sequoia Capital and Evolvence Fund II.

Rebel Foods has been trying to explore international growth at the time when the food industry is coming to terms with the growth potential of cloud kitchens. The company’s idea and execution has attracted bigger players to experiment with the cloud kitchens as well, with Swiggy having launched its cloud kitchen service Access and Zomato’s cloud kitchens continuing to attract customers.

Moreover, OYO might also pick up stake in FreshMenu and start experimenting with its own cloud kitchens, which are currently operating on a small scale.

Recently, Ola’s Foodpanda has cut down marketing cost, along with customer acquisition costs by two-thirds, to focus on its own private labels and cloud kitchens which include The Great Khichdi Experiment, Lovemade and FLRT brands, and continue to leverage Ola’s base of customers.

The post Uber Cofounder Travis Kalanick Likely To Invest In Rebel Foods appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Reliance Jio-owned conversational AI assistant Haptik has acquired an AI recommendation chatbot Buzzo.ai for around $3 – $4 Mn.

Mumbai-based Buzzo.ai was founded by Vivek Arya and Anand Ramachandran in 2016 and offers personalised recommendations to users, based on insights extracted using artificial intelligence algorithms on user reviews across the web.

Haptik cofounder Swapan Rajdev said the acquisition would allow Haptik to enhance its voice and chat offerings for ecommerce, and also strengthen its multilingual customer service experience.“Over the last 18 months, we have been primarily focused on customer service AI solutions. But given our mission to enable the paradigm shift from clicks to conversations, commerce was always the next frontier,” Rajdev said in a press statement

Buzzo’s recommendation engine works across shopping, travel, entertainment and food verticals. “In 2016 we were looking for a new problem to solve in the same area and found that conversational commerce was still a wide open space. We were confident that our approach would lead to genuine end-user impact, and combining that with the world moving to being voice first, we knew we were on to something.” Arya said.

“As creators of technology, the only way to see the fruit of our work is with massive scale. And that’s what got us excited about Haptik, particularly after their alliance with Reliance Jio.” he added.

Founded in 2013 by Aakrit Vaish and Rajdev, Haptik lets customers chat with voice assistants to complete daily tasks such as online shopping, travel bookings, food delivery among others. The company claims to have reached over 100 Mn devices and processed more than 2 Bn conversations till date. Some of its notable clients and enterprise partners include Samsung, Oyo Rooms, KFC, Coca-Cola, Tata Group, and Club Mahindra among others.  

In April 2019, Reliance Jio had announced acquiring 87% stake in Haptik for about $100 Mn. At that time,  the company said that this partnership will give a boost to Haptik’ s existing enterprise grade business, as it continues to build innovative AI solutions for corporates globally.

Later in July, Haptik had acquired a Los Angeles-based conversational AI startup Convrg, to strengthen its operations in North America. “We’ve been doing business in North America for a few years now, but given the nature of the market, we knew we needed a dedicated full-time operation there,” Vaish had earlier said in a media statement.

According to filings accessed by Inc42, in FY18 Haptik reported a total revenue of INR 4.58 Cr (189% increase from FY17) and expense of INR 27.85 Cr (10% drop from FY17). Its net losses for FY18 stand at INR 22.54 Cr.

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To enable Indian businesses to attract more foreign investment, the Indian government has simplified the client verification requirement for such deals. Under the new rules, overseas investors would not need to complete know your client (KYC) process as per Indian law, but instead can buy depository receipts (DR) of Indian companies based on identity proof established with authorities in countries of their residence.

The new regulation has been introduced under the prevention of money laundering act (PMLA) to ease the entry procedure for overseas investors.

A DR is a negotiable certificate issued by a bank representing shares in a foreign company traded on a local stock exchange. The depositary receipts allow an investor to hold shares in the equity of other countries.

Indian companies such as ICICI Bank, Infosys, Tata Motors, Wipro and MakeMyTrip already have depository receipts listed on the US stock market.

Backing Up The Depositary Receipts Scheme, 2014

Last month, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had assured that the depository receipts scheme of 2014 will be operational soon under Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) guidelines to enable local companies to have access to foreign funds through most common depositary receipts — American depository receipts (ADRs) and global depository receipts (GDRs).

In 2014, former finance minister, the late Arun Jaitley, had liberalised the investment in DRs by allowing any Indian company— listed or unlisted— to issue depository receipts. However, the scheme was never fully operational and became a major setback for Indian corporate. From 2013 to 2018, only one company raised $185 Mn on the New York Stock Exchange.

Sandip Bhagat, a partner at law firm S&R Associates, told ET that the amended rule would prove to be beneficial for the listing of depository receipts in western markets, but it might not make the cut for private placements. “KYC requirements based on home country requirements is a great idea where the securities are publicly traded, as the regulatory oversight is high for markets involving retail or public investors,” Bhagat added.

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