SaaS unicorn Freshworks has asked a US court to dismiss a plea filed against it by rival Zoho Corporation, a Chennai-based SaaS company. In March, Zoho filed a case against Freshworks at the California Northern District Court under the Defense of Trade Secrets Act, accusing it of accessing and using confidential customer data. Now, Freshworks has said that Zoho’s plea lacked “specificity and particularity” in its allegations. 

According to the case filed by Zoho Corp earlier this year, files of which were accessed by Inc42, the company accused Freshworks of building its business through theft and misuse of Zoho’s confidential business information.

Freshworks was founded by two former Zoho employees, Girish Mathrubootham, formerly a vice president of product management at Zoho and Shan Krishnasamy, who was Zoho technical architect working under Mathrubootham. Both of them had worked in Zoho from 2001 to 2010 before founding Freshworks.

Zoho has alleged that Freshworks used its non-public financial information to gain the trust of investors, which in turn, helped the company seal its first round of funding. Freshworks raised $1 Mn in its first round of funding, a Series A round back in 2011, led by Accel, an early and growth-stage venture capital firm. The company has raised a total of $484 Mn in nine funding rounds from six investors. The company’s most recent funding, worth $85 Mn, was in January 2020 from a Secondary Market round, led by Steadview Capital. 

“After leaving to start Freshworks, Mathrubootham improperly included Zoho confidential revenue figures in early Freshworks investor pitch materials to secure initial investments, leveraging his work at Zoho and suggesting his new startup would perform like Zoho,” the lawsuit read.

In response to Inc42’s email in March this year, Zoho had said, “Recently, compelling evidence has emerged that Freshworks has stolen customer data from Zoho and attempted to contact those customers. We are investigating the extent of the data theft. To protect customer data, we were compelled to immediately sue Freshworks to stop their illegal and immoral behaviour. We cannot discuss this further, as it is now a legal matter.”

In its response filed on July 16, Freshworks accused Zoho of expanding one alleged incident of customer data theft into a broader case of trade secret misappropriation.

As of March, Zoho was also engaged in a legal tussle with US-based sales and marketing platform HubSpot over the names of one of its suit tools. Both companies offer marketing and sales services under the “Marketing Hub” banner. However, HubSpot, which launched its Marketing Hub product in July 2018, has accused Zoho Corp of trademark infringement.

The post Zoho vs Freshworks: Indian SaaS Giants Continue Battle In US Court appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Delhi high court has directed blocking of 50 websites which were alleged to be using Indian ecommerce unicorn Snapdeal’s registered trademark. 

The order, passed by the single judge Bench of Justice Rajiv Shakdher, came in response to a suit filed by Snapdeal in the court, after it had discovered 50 rogue websites which were “inter alia degrading its goodwill and infringing its registered trademark by offering fraudulent prize schemes, lotteries and luck draws in a manner which tends to portray that they either emanate from it or are connected with it,” the complaint filed in the court read. 

Snapdeal said that the rogue websites were, in addition to harming its commercial interests, were also defrauding gullible customers who might participate in the fraudulent schemes and lotteries, believing them to have been launched by Snapdeal. 

The court also noted that the continuation of the fraudulent prize schemes and lotteries could end up affecting several people who would be deluded into believing that the schemes were launched by Snapdeal. 

The court order noted that the defendants (rogue websites) were “injuncted from carrying on their activities either under the plaintiff’s trademark or any other trademark which is deceptively similar to the plaintiff’s trademark. Furthermore, defendant numbers 51 to 60, who are the domain registrars, are directed to suspend/block the domain names of those defendants which are registered with them.”

The court also gave leave to the plaintiff (Snapdeal) for approaching the court in the future, in the event that it finds other such rogue websites conducting similar activities illegally. The matter was renotified for hearing on September 4. 

Meanwhile, Snapdeal has had its own share of run-ins with the Indian law. Last year, the company was made party to a contempt case where two sellers had flouted a court order and allegedly listed counterfeit Hindustan Unilever (HUL) products on the platform. 

HUL claimed that the two sellers had listed duplicate Indulekha-branded hair oil and hair cleanser on Snapdeal’s platform. Besides Snapdeal, HUL also called for legal action against Snapdeal’s logistics partner in the case. 

While Snapdeal maintained that it was merely a marketplace and did not sell the products, HUL claimed that Snapdeal had facilitated the logistics, advertising and managed the listing of the products, so it could not absolve itself of responsibility.

The post Delhi High Court Directs Blocking Of 50 Rogue Websites Using Snapdeal Trademark appeared first on Inc42 Media.

There’s something to be said about freedom of speech online — or lack thereof — when a powerful startup can use its muscle to act against critics on social media. If indeed the so-called protectors of speech and expression in the digital age can be coerced into deleting posts and content to protect the interests of one company, then what hope do people have in getting their voices heard.

We have seen social media platforms being twisted and manipulated for political gain, but even companies have a lot riding on reputation management in the online world. As highlighted in the incident involving angel investor Dr Aniruddha Malpani, edtech giant BYJU’S and Microsoft-owned professional social network LinkedIn.

Over the last few weeks, Malpani has been in the limelight for alleging BYJU’S had got his LinkedIn account deactivated and banned for posting allegedly defamatory content against the edtech unicorn. “I have a clear conscience about my posts on #LinkedIn about the #toxic #work #culture at #Byju’s. I just said the truth, with the hope that this would goad them into action. Sadly, they have chosen to make matters worse by punishing me by forcing #LinkedIn to delete my account,” Malpani tweeted on July 21.

Though there is no proof of BYJU’S involvement in Linkedin taking down his account, it raises questions over why a platform run by a multinational company such as Microsoft should oppress the voice of any user, even if it may be critical of another business. Though LinkedIn is strictly limited to professional networking, deleting accounts is only seen when fake users pop up.

Assault On Online Freedom Of Speech?

But it’s just not LinkedIn in question. According to a Medianama report, even Twitter’s legal team has sent notices to users talking against BYJU’S, which noted that tweets critical of the company violated Indian law. The publication had reviewed four of these emails sent over the past few months which included off-the-cuff comments on its business and an allegation that it was promoting “fake news”.

Though BYJU’S has declined to comment their involvement in the Twitter reports, it has maintained a studied silence on the LinkedIn fiasco.

The LinkedIn-Malpani-BYJU’S debacle has thrown light on a larger issue on the internet — freedom of speech and expression. Malpani told Inc42 that the problem in this issue is not that his account got banned, but the lack of accountability and answerability on LinkedIn’s part. He has been repeatedly trying to reach out to the company in an attempt to restore his account, but has only received templated responses time and again.

Not Just LinkedIn To Blame

It raises questions on how social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook decide on what passes the test and what does not. It also raises questions over what’s the redressal mechanism available on these platforms.

Further, there’s the issue of India’s intermediary guidelines, which force social media companies to take down content on the request of the government and law enforcement agencies. If indeed companies have an issue with a particular series of posts, they can take it to court and get the content removed legitimately. Realising the implications of this power over customers and other businesses, even the US Congress recently probed tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook over free speech and online privacy.

In 2018, PepsiCo sued Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others for comparing snack brand Kurkure to plastic. Similarly, other content such as reviews of the Baba Ramdev biography ‘Godman to Tycoon’ were deemed to be defamatory and taken down. As reported by Medianama, the Bombay high court had directed a YouTube creator in January this year to takedown a video reviewing Parachute coconut oil. In its decision, the high court had maintained that “the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression is not an unfettered right” and that maligning a product may not be covered under any guarantees by the constitution.

YouTube was  also caught in another BYJU’S-related scandal where videos of a BYJU’S sales manager abusing a junior employee were taken down indiscriminately. All instances of the video have been wiped out from YouTube, Dailymotion and Reddit, where it was being circulated. Users on Reddit have also alleged other instances of posts in relation to BYJU’S being deleted or taken down.

Inc42 reached out to Linkedin seeking clarification, but the company sent a templated response, “LinkedIn is committed to keeping our platform safe, trusted and professional. We have clear terms of service and professional community policies that we expect all of our members to adhere to. We can confirm that this account has been restricted and cannot comment further on member accounts due to our Privacy Policy.”

LinkedIn’s professional community policies mostly include generic community guidelines like acting responsibly, being trustworthy, being safe, respecting others rights and following the law.

So on what basis was the account deletion enforced by LinkedIn? And shouldn’t it have to furnish proof of said violations before deleting someone’s life’s work? If LinkedIn indeed wants to remain a career enabler, such moves rob it of credibility.

Finding The Right Way To Moderate

The pandemic has pushed social distancing to another level. In times like these, people’s dependence on social networking platforms has increased manifold. Though these platforms are owned by private multinational corporations, they’re still public in nature. Therefore, they need to be more accountable and responsible in terms of managing it and not oppressing voices.

According to Malpani, he has recommended that LinkedIn bring in a democratic solution which allows five representatives from the company and five users to decide what should be removed from the platform. This model is somewhat similar to Facebook’s Oversight Board that reviews appeals from users, whose account has been removed from Facebook and its subsidiaries. This board is an independent body whose decision Facebook will have to follow unless it could violate any law.

On the other hand even the legal route is an impossible fight to win considering LinkedIn’s terms and conditions state, “You are responsible for anything that happens through your account unless you close it or report misuse.” With no redressal system, the only way to solve such problems on LinkedIn is to prevent it in the first place.

While reports about problematic work culture in unicorns and other prominent startups are no secret, there has not been much said about such a work culture, as it could damage the company’s valuations and hamper its ability to attract further investments.

Malpani maintained that he does not have any problem with BYJU’S, but has raised issues that he feels are symptomatic across the startup ecosystem and unicorns.

“I have nothing against BYJU’s, I just take BYJU’s as representative (of the issue of corporate governance). I am sure others must be equally bad. You know why? Because everyone is now trying to copy BYJU’s. So they put someone who used to work at BYJU’s and they used to copy and paste all their mis-selling techniques and all the rubbish they used to do because this is the best way to make money very quickly,” he said.

The investor also said while he is in a better position than others to take the fight to LinkedIn, others may not have the time, means or inclination to get into a protracted fight. And therein lies the major issue. This issue is not just about LinkedIn banning an individual, but shows a greater problem around freedom of speech without having any form of redressal mechanisms in place.

Social media platforms have too much power and at the same time none, at least as long as companies can stroll in and demand that criticism needs to be removed. Whereas the issue can be ignored to a certain extent, but when authentic criticism can be similarly suppressed, then there’s no way that social media platforms can claim to be paragons of free speech.

The post An Angel Investor’s Tryst With BYJU’S And LinkedIn; The Free Speech Conundrum appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last Friday (July 31, 2020), Gurugram and New York-based online travel aggregator Yatra received a letter from the Nasdaq stock market notifying the company has not maintained a minimum closing bid price of $1 per share for the past 30 business days. 

According to Nasdaq listing rules, listed companies have to comply with a minimum bid price of $1 per share. If a company fails to maintain this minimum bid price requirement for 30 consecutive business days, a notification letter is issued to the company as in the case of Yatra.

Yatra is now given an initial period of 180 calendar days (till January 25, 2021) to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. If Yatra’s ordinary shares close at $1 or more for at least 10 consecutive business days before January 25, then the company will be considered compliant with the minimum bid price requirement and the shares will continue to be eligible for listing on the Nasdaq capital market. 

Post this initial 180 days period, there is no guarantee whether the company will be considered for an additional 180 day compliance period or not. If Nasdaq decides to not provide such an additional compliance period, then Yatra’s ordinary shares will be subject to delisting. 

Yatra has announced the closing of its underwritten public offering of $11.5 Mn in the last week of June 2020. The company had offered 14,375,000 of its ordinary shares at a public offering price of $0.80 per share. Yatra had intended to use the net proceeds from this offering for general corporate and business purposes.

Just weeks before the public listing announcement, Yatra canceled its ongoing merger with Ebix. The company also filed a plea seeking ‘substantial’ damages for Ebix’s alleged breach of deal terms. In 2019, Ebix had agreed to buy Yatra at an enterprise value of $337.8 Mn.

In June, Yatra has also said that it is in a strong financial condition to weather the Covid-19 storm. The company reported its total available liquidity to be at $32.5 Mn (as of June 4, 2020), while its monthly run-rate operating fixed cost was approximately $1.2 Mn. This means that the company claimed to have enough runway to last for at least 26 months.  

To achieve this financial stability, Yatra had implemented certain cost-saving measures starting in April, including salary cuts by half and freezing salary hikes. 

Founded in August 2006 by Sabina Chopra, Manish Amin and Dhruv Shringi, Yatra provides a full range of travel-related services such as domestic and international air ticketing, hotel booking, homestays, holiday packages, bus ticketing, rail ticketing, activities, attractions, and ancillary services.

The post After Failed Ebix Merger And Covid-19 Impact, Yatra May Face Nasdaq Delisting appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Anyone who has spent some years in the Indian education system has benefited from the affordable and accessible textbooks and guides published by S. Chand. 

With over 12,000 titles in the school and education category published last year and over 50 Mn books sold, the publishing arm of S. Chand Group is a major force in the Indian textbook market. Founded by Shyamlal Gupta, it has become a household name and most students would be familiar with the brand and the pedigree. But does that guarantee success for S. Chand in the bustling edtech market? 

Chand’s multipronged edtech approach is fairly new and naturally there are many questions — why did a leading Indian educational publisher enter the digital education space and how it will compete against heavily-funded, tech-centric startups. 

Speaking to Inc42, Vinay Sharma, business head of digital services at S. Chand, said it is a natural transition. As a content company, the logical move was to go from providing content in physical media to multimedia in the digital space, which is fast becoming more prevalent among users in the current times. 

“We have created decades of expertise and understanding of the Indian education sector. We have top quality content, and a huge distribution network along with an incredible brand that is recognised for its high-quality educational content. We want to leverage these strengths to transition from only being a publishing leader to a complete content services leader,” Sharma added. 

Chand currently has three digital products including a hybrid school education solution Mylestone, student-focused learning application Learnflix, and pre-school centric solution SmartK (yet to be launched). And beyond this, the company has invested in edtech startups at various stages and across segments. Its portfolio includes multiple edtech startups including test prep startup Testbook, Ignitor, Flipclass, and Smartivity Labs. According to Sharma, Ignitor has built its expertise in creating platforms that can deliver various content formats and assessments on mobile devices, S. Chand’s Learnflix app has even leveraged Ignitor’s platform to offer its content digitally.

Chand is targeting schools and students with its edtech products and is also looking at at-home learning kits, similar to Smartitivity Labs. 

Mylestone: Digital Offering For Schools

Launched in 2016, S. Chand’s Mylestone platform is a hybrid curriculum solution for schools which includes textbooks, workbooks, digital content, teacher training manuals and assessment tools  — essentially everything that school needs to offer remote education. The product is focused on serving schools in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where the company provides them with complete process, tools, and teacher training and support to ensure they are able to deliver quality education and achieve the right learning outcomes. 

Post Covid-19, Mylestone has also been integrated with video conferencing facility and school curriculum, textbooks and guides, teacher schedule and training have been brought online. Also, the company’s in-house academic consultant team which supports clients in the implementation of the curriculum has created new lesson plans and are working with teachers to help them conduct online classes. 

“This was a huge step-up from our hybrid curriculum to a completely online curriculum —- this is something which we would have done in a year’s time, but thanks to covid-19 we were able to do it in a month’s time,” said Sharma. 

Mylestone is currently working with 400 schools, 6K teachers, and 1.5 Lakh students. Further, depending on the grade, Mylestone is priced at between INR 1400 – INR 4000 per student, and the school has to pay INR 1 Lakh for curriculum implementation and teacher training that the S. Chand’s inhouse team provides. 

Learnflix: Digital Offering For Students

The second part of the equation is the Learnflix app, which offers maths and science learning modules based on CBSE syllabus for students in classes 6 to 10. Some of the features of Learnflix include unlimited practice tests, animated videos, quizzes, revision notes/summaries, sample papers, in-depth focused and actionable analysis, ebooks, personalised learning journey, and remedies to master development areas. 

Targeted at school students, Learnflix is currently priced at INR 1,999 per class per year (for classes 6 – 8) and INR 2,499 per class per year (for classes 9 – 10).  S. Chand has positioned Learnflix as an affordable digital education product, in line with the brand’s legacy of offering affordable books. 

“It has always been our vision to provide quality education at an affordable price. Even back in 1939, S. Chand started with a vision to provide Indian author books to students at a very affordable price. Keeping up with that trend, we have priced Learnflix at one-tenth of our competitors’ (like BYJU’S and Toppr) products,” said Sharma. 

The third vertical within the S. Chand edtech play is SmartK, a pre-school in a box concept including interactive educational toys, curriculum, multimedia content, teacher manual, tablet PC and a soon to be launched mobile app. It is a balanced games and activity-based program which provides a stimulating environment for the language, intellectual, social-emotional and physical development of the child. 

Strategic Partnerships For The Future

Talking about future plans, Sharma said that the company’s plan has always been to offer an end-to-end education solution to its customers whether it is school, teacher, or student. “We will make sure that we’re providing them our content and education product across various formats like books, ebooks, mobile apps along with all content types including written, multimedia, assessments etc,” he added. 

Many are expecting the education sector to move towards a hybrid model where students will have a combination of offline and online interactions — new models will come up as hybrid learning gains adoption. For S. Chand, the investments it has made in edtech platforms are seen as synergies. S. Chand has plans to launch a digital product in the test prep segment. Given the group’s existing market share in test prep books and investments in Testbook, this launch is expected to happen soon, he added. 

S. Chand & Company had invested in the Pre-Series A funding round of Testbook in 2016. Further, the company had also invested about $3 Mn in educational toys company Smartivity Labs and holds 23.29% shares in it on a fully diluted basis. Smartivity Labs specialises in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) educational DIY toys, augmented reality-enabled activities, and internet-connected toys. Such educational toys are also a major part of S. Chand’s pre-school product SmartK. 

Chand says it supports its portfolio through strategic tie-ups like bundling Testbook’s online test prep offerings with S. Chand’s R. S Aggarwal series of textbooks. Expanding on this partnership, Testbook cofounder Ashutosh Kumar said that S. Chand has been instrumental in taking the startup’s brand and name to remote corners of India through the textbooks. 

“We bundled Testbook Pass subscriptions to more than 2.5 Mn books of a renowned author R.S Aggarwal (under S. Chand publication). With majority of our users coming from smaller towns of India where it was very difficult to reach audiences through digital channels but this strategy worked pretty well,” Testbook cofounder Kumar added. 

Started in 1939, S. Chand has seen over 80 years of transformation and shifts in the Indian education system, and it’s taking its time spreading the edtech empire, even as it balances its core business with a pan-India distribution and sales network consisting of over 5K distributors and dealers. To make the change to digital, it’s taking the smart approach of looking for partners. “We do have synergies with the investee companies, we help them with our strength and we also leverage their strengths,” said Sharma.

The post How Legacy Publisher S. Chand Leveraged Startup Partnerships For Its Multi-Product Edtech Play appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Billionaire Yuri Milner-led DST Global is reportedly in talks to invest $400 Mn in Indian edtech giant BYJU’S, valuing the company at $10.5 Bn. According to a Bloomberg report citing sources, the deal could be signed as early as this weekend.

With this transaction by DST Global, BYJU’S will be the second most valued Indian startup, and joining Alibaba-backed digital payments giant Paytm and OYO in the decacorn club. DST Global has also invested in high profile companies like Alibaba, Facebook, Twitter, along with Indian companies like Flipkart, Ola, Swiggy and Udaan, all of which are in the unicorn club.

The development comes a month after BYJU’S raised $23 Mn in Series F from Mary Meeker’s BOND Capital. According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, BYJU’S recorded an approval to raise $23 Mn with 8,070 Series F preference shares at face value of INR 10 from Bond Capital Asia Holdings Limited. The company said it would utilise funds to meet the working capital and business expansion plans.

New Focus For Edtech

The fundraising comes at a time when BYJU’S is facing heavy competition from edtech startups amid rapid adoption of technology products and services for remote learning. Keeping this in mind, the Indian government has announced a forward-looking National Education Policy, which updates the 1986 policy and brings in some much-needed changes to back remote or digital learning. The National Education Policy (NEP), released on Wednesday (July 29), has a special focus on digital education and remote learning along with the question of equitable access to education given the digital divide in India.

The primary objective of the NEP 2020 is to bring in major reform in school education, where board exams will be low stakes and would test actual knowledge instead of rote learning. Schools will also have 360-degree holistic progress cards, track learning outcomes through a national assessment center called PARAKH and more. The policy also seeks to overhaul edtech in public colleges and schools to increase access for disadvantaged groups, while online learning content will be available in regional languages.

Will Edtech Growth Continue At Same Pace?

Edtech startups will need to review their models, course content and structure as well as subject matter itself in light of the new NEP 2020. Given this, the next few months would involve restructuring the learning modules according to the new policy. As of now, BYJU’s has over 57 Mn registered users and around 3.5 Mn paid subscribers. The company claims to have annual renewal rates of 85% and says it has doubled its revenue from INR 1430 Cr in FY19 to INR 2800 Cr in FY20. It has raised $1.4 Bn till date from investors such as General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Tencent, Naspers, Qatar Investment Authority, and Canada’s Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) among others.

Besides BYJU’S, other edtech startups have seen massive growth and adoption in the past few months. According to SimilarWeb, based on a study of 35 top online learning platforms, the edtech segment saw a 26% increase in user visits between April 2019 to March 2020, as compared to April 2018 – March 2019. Further, the first 28 days of lockdown in India edtech segment saw 128.8 Mn visits (on average, 4.6Mn daily visits) as compared to 102.2 Mn average visits between April 2019 – Feb 2020.

As schools and colleges shifted to online classes and resources to continue educating students amid the pandemic, the engagement metrics of the segments have also improved. Bounce rate saw an improvement of 8.5% after lockdown and usage pattern also shifted from 68.29% mobile web users till February 2020 to 51.75% users on desktop during the lockdown.

According to the report, before Covid-19 lockdown, seven out of 10 top edtech players were focussed on school-level online learning. Vedantu, LearnCBSE, BYJU’S, Toppr, Tiwari Academy, Meritnation and Gradeup collectively captured 51.25% of the traffic share. In comparison, the two most popular test prep startups Unacademy and Embibe attracted 13.05% of the traffic. Udemy (9.29%) was the only massive open online courses (MOOC) platform to feature in the top 10 list.

The post DST Global Looks To Infuse $400 Mn In BYJU’S At $10.5 Bn Valuation appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Homegrown hotel and hospitality unicorn OYO will be merging its hotel booking business and apartment-rental operations OYO Life in Japan in the aftermath of the pandemic. The company will also be promoting OYO Life country head, Ryoma Yamamoto, to the CEO position of the combined entity called OYO Japan.

Another top executive, Ryota Tanozaki, has been promoted to serve as Yamamoto’s deputy. The SoftBank-backed company had aggressive growth plans in Japan before the Covid-19 brought out operational challenges and crippled the company.

Only last year, Yahoo had canceled its joint venture with OYO Life in Japan. Though the reason is not yet clear, an OYO spokesperson had told Inc42 that it has bought back the ownership earlier held by Yahoo Japan, in the joint venture company, OYO Technology and Hospitality, Japan.

A Bloomberg report also highlighted that the company had shut down its regional offices in Sapporo, Sendai, Nagano, Hiroshima and Omiya, Saitama Prefecture at the end of June. Tanozaki, who was then serving as the chief business officer at OYO Hotels, said that the company was looking to downsize its Tokyo headquarters. The moves are part of the company’s ongoing effort to downsize internationally as it adapts to much smaller tourism industry.

OYO has been vocal about its dried up revenues ever since the Covid-19 led travel restrictions. The company’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal had come on record in April to confirm OYO’s occupancy rate and revenues have dropped by more than 50 to 60% and the company’s balance sheet has come under severe stress. Meanwhile, startup layoff tracking website Layoffs.fyi estimates that OYO’s revenues are only at about 30% of its pre-Covid levels.

The decline in OYO’s revenues have led to furloughs, 25% salary deductions and layoffs across all 80 countries it was operating in. According to a Dallas Business Journal report, OYO laid off nearly 90% of its workforce in the US, most of whom were furloughed in April amid declining revenue as Covid-19 shut down hotels business across the globe. In China, the layoffs impacted 3000 employees.

“We knew this crisis was real and could take time, but we were hopeful that we could leverage our global resources to re-engage after the furlough… However, the reality is, the impact on our business has been deeper, and the recovery has been slower than what we had anticipated,” OYO COO Abhinav Sinha wrote in an email to employees.

In India, the company has started the year with a massive lay off round in order to cut its additional expense and clear its path to profitability. The layoffs impacted nearly 3000 employees. But currently, the sole reason to adapt to new models, layoffs and other such practices is to survive the pandemic.

In India, OYO has also adapted a hybrid workplace model to help the company operate in full capacity without compromising on the health and safety of its employees. It had also divided its workforce into three categories — corporate employees, capability functions and field staff. Dinesh Ramamurthi, chief human resources officer at OYO explained that the field staff is already stepping out and attending office following all the health and safety protocols, whereas employees in the other two categories can choose to work from home or ‘work from anywhere’.

Update: 4th August 2020

Headline updated.

The post Covid-19 Forces Oyo To Merge Japan Ops, New CEO On Anvil appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India is continuing to chip away at China’s digital footprint in India. After banning 59 Chinese apps, including popular ones such as ByteDance-owned TikTok, Alibaba-owned UC Browser and Tencent’s WeChat, last month citing data privacy concerns, India last week banned another 47 apps, some of which were ‘lite’ versions, said to be functioning as clones of the already banned apps. Now, sources have told Times of India that the government has ordered blocking of Baidu Search and Weibo, long dubbed as China’s indigenous alternatives to Google and Twitter respectively. 

“They are among the 47 new apps that the government banned on July 27,” an official source told TOI. Although, Weibo was one of the Chinese apps in the list of 59 that were to be banned according to the order passed on June 29. The two apps, flagship internet products from China where Google Search and Twitter are not accessible in the mainland, have been taken off the Google Play Store and iOS App Store in India, while internet service providers (ISPs) have been asked to block access to these apps.

Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website launched by Sina Corporation in 2009, had Narendra Modi as one of its users, when he had opened an account on the platform in 2015 ahead of a state visit to China. The app claims to have 500 Mn registered users. 

As for Chinese search engine application Baidu, the company’s CEO Robin Li visited India in January this year as part of his plans to find local expertise in artificial intelligence through tie-ups with local institutes, to help popularise the app in India. During his visit, Li also gave the keynote address at IIT Madras. 

Border tensions between the two countries in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley since June have seen India tighten the screws on the presence of Chinese internet companies and their applications in India. On Monday (August 3), it was reported that the government had sent a list of 80 questions to the banned Chinese applications, about their parent companies, countries of incorporation, and whether the parent entities are required to share data with the Chinese government. They were also asked about differences in permissions sought from Indian users as compared to users in other countries. Other questions in the list were about the apps’ policy for incident response, version update and disclosure with regard to the app providing information to India’s nodal cyber security authority, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).

Last week, it was reported that the parent companies for the banned applications had been asked by the government to prove their credentials as an independent entity with no links to the Chinese state. The banned apps were also asked about their data sharing around specific incidents such as the Pulwama terror attacks in February last year, and whether the apps had shared the data of Indian users with third parties around such incidents. A part of the government’s queries were also relating to the location of data servers for these banned applications, with the government’s concern being that the data of Indian users was being shipped offshore, and shared with the Chinese government.

The post India Blocks China’s Weibo & Baidu Search In Fresh Salvo appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a bid to take on Reliance JioMart, ecommerce giant Flipkart is setting up dark stores to expand its presences across the food and groceries segment.

A dark store is a small neighbourhood warehouse where consumers cannot enter directly and can only order online for a home delivery. BigBasket had first experimented with the dark store model in 2018. In India, dark stores have primarily been small warehouses or neighbourhood fulfilment centres serving the objective of on-demand fast deliveries primarily in a D2C (direct to consumer) model.

You can read more about the advent of dark stores and future prospects in India Inc42 ‘‘The Hyperlocal Conundrum: Kiranas Vs Dark Stores In India’s Retail Market Post-Covid’ report. The model was popularised in the US by players like Walmart (Flipkart’s parent), JCPenney and clothes with the advent of ecommerce.

According to an Economic Times report citing sources, Flipkart will be setting up nearly a dozen such small storage facilities in Delhi initially. The fast-moving goods will be frequently supplied to such small storages from the fulfilment centres outside of the city, a source added.

Without confirming the report, Flipkart spokesperson added that the company continues to invest to enhance their capabilities to deliver value for sellers and consumers. “With regard to our hyperlocal capabilities, we will be expanding to six additional cities in the coming months with a focus on a 90-minute delivery model for a handpicked assortment of products,” the spokesperson said. The company had also expressed these expansion plans while launching its hyperlocal service, Flipkart Quick.

Flipkart Quick will allow the customers to get their deliveries within two hours of ordering. For the first phase, Flipkart will be facilitating the sales of 2,000 products across several categories — grocery, fresh, dairy, meat, mobiles, electronics accessories, stationery items and home accessories. It will also be onboarding neighbourhood or kirana stores onto its network, the company had announced.

The quick service will give a slight edge to Flipkart over its competitors across segments like Amazon in ecommerce; BigBasket, Grofers and JioMart in grocery delivery; and Google-backed Dunzo and Swiggy Genie in hyperlocal deliveries. While there is no doubt that Amazon is Flipkart’s biggest competitor, but JioMart is also gaining momentum rapidly.

JioMart recorded 1 Mn downloads on Google Play Store within the week of its listings, and is now the third most downloaded shopping app after Amazon and Flipkart, respectively. Reliance’s chairperson and managing director Mukesh Ambani, during the 43rd annual general meeting (AGM), had revealed that delivering close to 2.50 Lakh orders daily across 200 cities. Looking at this, the company plans to expand its product offerings to include electronics, fashion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products.

In an attempt to grow stronger in the food and groceries segment Flipkart has also acquired Walmart’s B2B wholesale store, Best Price Modern Wholesale, to launch its own service ‘Flipkart Wholesale’. Now the company is finding ways to consolidate its operations. According to media reports, Flipkart may shut down unviable ‘Best Price’ stores, of which there are 28 operational across the country, or turning them into warehouses with a greater focus on ecommerce operations.

The post Flipkart Banks On Dark Stores To Boost Hyperlocal Play, Take On JioMart & Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Hong Kong-based accelerator, which is also the first international accelerator for hardware startups in India — Brinc —, is inviting applications for the third cohort of its Hardware & IoT Programme in the country. Launched in the country in 2019, Brinc accelerator has already hosted two cohorts in an attempt to boost hardware and product-based startups in the country.

The hardware accelerator that also acts as an education platform, product development studio and distribution platform for the startups. Brinc launched the programme to support startups from across sectors such as IoT, robotics and more, in association with the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM).

The programme provides comprehensive support to mid-stage startups, with working prototypes and ready to move to their design for manufacturing (DFM) phase.

The selected startups, who progress through the programme levels can receive up to $250K in investment and additional support services to develop their DFM (Design for manufacturing) products and bring their businesses to the market.

“We are announcing the third cohort of our Hardware & IoT programme to help the startups in India. The selected startups will get mentorship from the international team of Brinc. These experts will guide and mentor startups on a case to case basis via custom-designed business and technical training sessions,” head of the programme, Dr Mikhail Zenchenkov, told Inc42.

Kerala’s bullish and proactive approach for its startup ecosystem has yielded results that are acknowledged and visible to the entire country. The startups from the state have helped it counter various challenges including the current pandemic.

According to the KSUM CEO Dr Saji Gopinath, the state has added over 300 startups in the last four months alone. And out of the total over 50% are hardware startups who have pivoted their products to fight and help the state regain normalcy amidst Covid-19.

KSUM efforts towards the startups have been right from the grassroots level to helping them reach the global markets. And aiding that journey is collaborating with Maker Village and Brinc, both of which have a laser focus on hardware startups.

Mentors In The Programme Include:

• Bashar Aboudaoud, cofounder and CSO, Brinc
• Heriberto Saldivar, Managing Director, Brinc Accelerator
• Estefania Almeida, portfolio manager, Brinc
• Bay McLaughlin, cofounder and COO, Brinc
• Mikhail Zenchenkov, head of the programme, Brinc
• VIncent Gu, technical head of programme, Brinc

The Previous Cohorts Of the Programme

Having hosted two cohorts of the programme, the accelerator has helped startups from across sectors such as hardware, IoT, foodtech, manufacturing, big data and analytics, agritech, healthtech, deeptech and more.

Startups From Cohort 1

In its first cohort, the programme hosted startups such as:

• Nava: NAVA has developed a robotics solution for tapping sap from coconut trees. Not only is it solving the scarcity of manual tappers but also increasing the farmer’s income by 200% when compared to the manual tapping methods, claims the startup.
• Vacus: Vacus has developed indoor positioning technology with 30 cm accuracy to track people and assets inside premises. The product focusses on use cases of accurate accountability of assets and people thereby ensuring improvised productivity and safety/security. With paying customers in India and Singapore, Vacus has a focus on data centres, enterprises, warehousing/logistics. 

Startups From Cohort 2

In its second cohort, the programme hosted startups such as:

• Muse: Muse Diagnostics is a medical device company and has a product Taal, a digital stethoscope with an app and platform that helps health professionals screen their patients more effectively. It enables this through capturing a patient’s body sounds in high definition and then filtering, storing, sharing and analysing it at a comparable price to traditional non-digital devices.
• Peer Robotics: Peer Robotics is a collaborative mobile robotics company, bridging the gap between how humans and robots work together. The robots are capable of learning from humans in real-time, providing flexible and adaptable solutions for manufacturing, warehousing, and healthcare sectors.
• Probus: Probus has developed and implemented an integrated platform that reduces outage duration, saves transformers from getting destroyed in fires, and identifies critical assets to prevent energy losses. It helps save the utility about $70 per asset per month. 

Who Can Apply?

Focussing on startups from India, Brinc has laid down the following criteria for the startups to apply to the programme:kerala

• The startup should have a product that fits within one of the Brinc’s Hardware & IoT investment categories and addresses the clearly defined market needs
• The startup must have a working prototype or show the technical capabilities of being able to produce the product
• The startup should have a minimum market traction
• The startup should have at least two cofounders with relevant industry experience
• The startup should have a scalable, innovative business model with high growth potential
• The startups entering the accelerator programme will need to have at least one member of the team in Kochi for the entire duration

The last date to apply to the programme is August 15 and only five startups are selected for it. Apply Now before all the slots are full.

The post Brinc Accelerator Opens Applications For Third Cohort Of Hardware And IoT Programme appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The government’s push for creating an AatmaNirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India in the wake of a border standoff with China in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley has been echoed as a mantra in the country’s recently released Draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy (DPEPP) 2020. “Propelled by the recent successes in exports, India is set to realise its potential as an emerging defence manufacturing hub,” reads the draft policy, meant to serve as an “overarching guiding document to provide a focused, structured and significant thrust to defence production capabilities of the country for self-reliance and exports.”

As its vision, the document mentions making India one of the leading countries in the defence sector, including aerospace and naval shipbuilding sectors, by developing cutting-edge technologies through active participation from both public and private sector and fulfilling the twin objectives of self-reliance and exports. 

The policy mentions how Defence Procurement Procedures (DPP) over the years have aimed to develop a robust industrial ecosystem by giving preference to ‘Make in India’ initiatives. Further, Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) has provided a platform for startups to get connected to the defence establishment. iDEX has been operationalised to provide incubation and infrastructure support to startups in the defence sector. The draft policy claims that more than 50 startups are currently developing new ‘fit-for-military-use’ technologies/ products. “iDEX would be further scaled up to engage with 300 more startups and develop 60 new technologies/ products during the next five years, and their procurement DPP,” the draft policy states. 

Among its focus areas, the policy mentions indigenisation and support to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups. The policy aims to create an industrial ecosystem to indigenise hitherto imported components such as alloys and special materials, and sub-assemblies for defence equipment. The policy proposes that 5,000 such items would be indigenised by 2025. This would be done by developing an indigenisation portal for Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) with an industry interface to provide development support to MSMEs and startups for import substitution, with the provisions for these companies to enter the procurement process planning to be further strengthened in the future. 

Defence Procurement From Indian Vendors At Five-Year Low

The draft policy talks about furthering the ‘Make in India’ initiative through defence procurement at a time when procurement from Indian vendors is at a five-year low. The details tabled by Shripad Naik, former Minister of State for Defence in the Lok Sabha in February last year showed that over the last five years, while the procurement from Indian vendors had increased from 2014 to 2018, it fell by 10.8% in the fiscal year 2018-19. 

In detailing the yearly procurement, the minister had shown that while the procurement from Indian vendors was INR 39.8K Cr in 2014-15, it improved the most in 2017-18 reaching INR 43.6K Cr, but fell to its lowest to INR 38.9K Cr in 2018-19.

In a bid to cut down on defence spending through imports and seeking local solutions to the country’s defence requirements, the government, in December last year, launched the third edition of the Defence India Startup Challenge (DISC). 

The first phase of the challenge was launched in August 2018, where selected startups were awarded up to INR 1.5 Cr in the form of grants, equity, debt and other relevant structures.

Moreover, the government also incubated and mentored these startups. The winners of the first DISC were — Individual Protection System, See Through Armour and Carbon Fibre Winding, among others.

The second DISC was rolled out in January 2019 and the batch included GPS Anti Jam Device, Data Analytics for Air Trajectory, Illegal usage of Drones and RADAR – IQ Signal Generator. In both the editions of DISC, the government had shortlisted 28 startups/businesses, who got the grants for prototype development and possible commercialisation. 

According to iDEX data, 194 defence tech startups are working under ‘Startup India’, innovating in the aeronautics, aerospace and defence sectors.

The post Govt Plans Big Push For Startups To Add Muscle In Defence Production appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Mumbai-based student loans startups Eduvanz Financing is raising INR 23 Cr ($3 Mn) in Series A funding round led by Sequoia’s SCI Investment VI fund. Redwood Trust, Vistra ITCL on behalf of Unitus Seed Fund India II and QED Innovation Labs will also be participating in this round.

According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the company has already received INR 4 Lakh ($5K) from Redwood Trust in exchange for 136 Series A compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares (CCCPS). Overall, Redwood will be investing INR 12.59 Lakh ($16K) in Eduvanz Financing for 421 Series A shares.

The filings further add that Sequoia’s SCI Investment VI fund will be investing INR 17.83 Cr ($2.27 Mn) for 59,626 Series A CCCPS. Vistra ITCL on behalf of Unitus Seed Fund India II will pick up 14,678 shares worth INR 4,39 Cr ($585K) and QED Innovation Labs will pick up 2,342 shares worth INR 70 Lakh ($93K).

Eduvanz Financing will be allocating 77,067 Series A shares at a face value of INR 100 ($100.31) and premium of INR 2891.31 ($38.54) each share leading to INR 23,05,32,287($3 Mn). The usage of the funds has not been revealed in the filings, but Inc42 has reached out to the company seeking more details on the same.

Founded in 2016 by Varun Chopra, Raheel Shah and Atul Sashittal, Eduvanz Financing is a non-banking financial corporation (NBFC) and private finance company that offers low-interest student, education, career, skill development loan.

The startup uses technology to assign credit scores to loan-seeking students, based on their socio-economic and demographic background. It has also partnered with more than 80 institutes such as Imarticus, K-11, and ISBM to boost its value proposition beyond loans to offer placement and scholarship support for students.

The company received its NBFC license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2017, after which it raised $500K funding in a round led by Blinc Advisors. Last April, Eduvanz Financing had also raised $2 Mn funding from Unitus Ventures and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to expand its lending operations.

The Crunch In Students Loans

With over 33 Lakh Indian students going overseas to study every year, India is the second-largest source of international students after China. According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), tuition and hostel fees by Indian students studying abroad has increased by 44% from $1.9 Bn in 2013-14 to $2.8 Bn in 2017-18.

The spending and the prevalence of international universities are expected even more in the future, overcoming the current pandemic blues. Though loans come as a handy option for an average middle-class Indian student, it has shrunk by 25% between 2015 and 2019.

According to a Times of India report, the number of students able to secure loans from institutionalised banks has fallen to 2.5 Lakh in 2019 from 3.34 Lakh students as of March 31, 2015 due to high non-performing assets levels. The NBFCs have been filling that void to offer better financial solutions to students looking to study in India or abroad.

Interestingly, Sequoia backs another student loans startup Leap Finance, which was founded by Arnav Kumar and Vaibhav Singh in 2019. With offices in Bengaluru and San Francisco, the focus of the company is to bring financial access to Indian students pursuing higher education in international universities and colleges.

The post Student Loans Startup Eduvanz Is Raising $3 Mn From Sequoia, Unitus appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy data shows that the average employment reduced from an estimated 404 Mn during 2019-20 to 396 Mn in March 2020. In April it came down to 282 Mn. The overall job industry in India and the world has hit a wall with the pandemic rendering several roles useless in cost-cutting measures leading to layoffs.

The biggest concern for employees had been lack of clarity of the future— while most businesses are themselves unaware of what comes next due to the unprecedented crisis, the employee morale is dependent on the leadership. With the workforce moved to homes, the missing office culture, which could address concerns and help employees at an instant, has raised communication gaps. Here, players like inFeedo are trying to fulfil this address gap.

Being a part of Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 cohort, Tanmaya Jain-led inFeedo has been building an employee experience bot— Amber— to enable conversations with remote employees. It mainly focuses on predicting employee morale levels, identifies attrition levels, highlight employee pain points across teams and their managers and identifies culture, diversity and leadership gaps that often go unnoticed. 

This seven-year-old startup began with the idea of allowing companies to harness their people’s power to drive bottom-up innovation, crowd solve key problems from teams across multiple locations, and collect anonymous feedback. 

Today, with the major focus on Amber, inFeedo has built an AI-enabled engagement bot who periodically chats with employees and helps HR proactively find those who are disengaged or about to leave. 

To build trust, the data Amber collects is used solely to help employees in distress with a link to Amber’s Trust Statement that highlights exactly who in the organization can see this feedback. Jain told Inc42 that Amber comprises two tech layers for these users — the first which analyses the sentiments behind the conversations and the other which gives actionable insights based on these.

Sentiment Analysis + Predictive Analysis = Amber

“Amber connects with employees at specific and customized touchpoints to collect their experience data through a chat module. The conversations are based on the employee experience framework which has the entire question bank curated by People Science team based on seven experience drivers and 52 corresponding elements to map sentiment for HR on the dashboard,” Jain told us. 

Amber’s natural language processing and sentiment analysis model is built using inFeedo’s proprietary LexScore algorithm. On top of sentiment analysis is predictive analytics. Jain explained that sentiment analysis data is broken down into actionable reports with key insights into individual and overall organisation sentiment across demographics.

“Our sentiment analysis is built on a lexicon-based algorithm called TexSens which can decipher positive, neutral, and negative sentiment for HRBPs to take quick action,” Jain added.

The AI bot also measures actionable insights via various reports from engagement, mood, people-to-meet (high-risk employees), driver-element heat maps (on experience strategies. “Amber works on the data she collects from employees and her analysis is logic-based, pre-configured and recalibrated with time-based on organizational needs,” Jain explains. 

The Complications Of Large Workforces 

Currently, Amber engages with over 300K employees across 100 enterprises such as Airtel, GE Healthcare, Nivea, Lenovo, AXA Affin General Insurance, Tata Group, Unilever, Puma, and OYO. However, notably Amber works only with companies with minimum workforce strength of 150 or more around the world. 

But predictive models built around human behaviour and deep learning take time to refine themselves and work most effectively at scale. So the focus for inFeedo’s Amber is on larger distributed teams. The company initially started with Google, Watson & Stanford libraries to analyse sentiments however it had to rely on its in-house algorithm to improve the accuracy rates. “It took us a year and training over a million employee responses to make our sentiment analysis one of the most accurate domain-specific algorithms in the corporate context,” Jain added.

The concept for Amber was to bridge the human resource business professional (HRBP) and employee gap from 1:300 to 1:11 on average. This helps understand individual sentiment better and create better experiences. 

Currently, Amber integrates with most HRMS in the market and reaches out to employees through automated emails, SMS where her chat link is shared. Going forward, the idea is to integrate Amber seamlessly into work tools like Slack.

The Roadmap To $10 Mn Revenue

Jain told us that the company has raised INR 5 Cr ($700K) from Y Combinator and angels including Dr. Ritesh Malik (founder, Innov8), Peyush Bansal (CEO and cofounder, Lenskart), Vinod Muthukrishnan (CEO at Cisco-acquired Cloudcherry), Anand Chandrasekaran (former Snapdeal CPO and Facebook director), Sunder Nookala (CEO at OC Tanner-acquired Kwench) and Anil Advani (CEO at Inventus Law) and Siddhartha Ahluwalia (Former Co-Founder at Sheroes).

The company plans to use the funds to hire senior executives like COO, VP Engineering, VP Marketing and more to scale the organisation to 1000 customers and $10Mn Revenue. 

The company closed FY20 at ARR of $1.6 Mn and claims to be growing at 100% Y-o-Y. Jain said that 30% of its revenue comes in from international customers. As per company filings accessed by Inc42, the company reported a revenue of INR 3.78 Cr in FY19 with expenses of INR 2.75 Cr, as against INR 1.2 Cr of revenue in FY18 with expenses of 1.02 Cr. 

The company’s FY20 performance couldn’t be verified with the relevant filings at the time of publishing. 

With a focus on embellishing its core product, inFeedo is looking to effectively tackle the challenges posed by remote employee engagement, the efficacy of managers and pulse surveys. Amber will reach a candidate even before onboarding to capture their experience at the pre-hiring stage. 

At the same time, manager effectiveness with the upcoming My Manager product as a key driver to understand employee-manager dynamics. “What will be added to this is personalised views which allow the HR admin to share detailed feedback through reports to the manager. Further, managers will be nudged with insights and lessons on performing better,” he added. It is also looking to add Pulse surveys with email automation and integrations and let organizations customize these templates for multiple sorts of templates. 

As per Deloitte India’s 2020 Workforce and Increment Trends Survey, attrition at an all India level in the current fiscal year is about 15%. Involuntary attrition (layoffs, restructuring, etc.) has increased to 20% of the total attrition which will go up further. 

The negative sentiment combined with the remote workforce has increased the need for better employee engagement and wellbeing management.

“With COVID-19 setting in the new remote work normal, how Amber stands apart from its competitors is its empathetic persona that allows her to not just ask but also respond to the feedback from employees. It helps HR establish a human connection and solve the mental wellness issue that social isolation can exacerbate,” Jain explained.

The post How Y Combinator-Backed inFeedo Is Fixing Employee Engagement For Large Remote Workforces appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Delhi-based video analytics platform Wobot Intelligence has raised $2.5 Mn in pre-Series A round led by Sequoia India to strengthen its proprietary technology platform and expand globally.

A part of the fund will also be used to make some key executive appointments, expand its sales and marketing efforts, as well as broaden and accelerate product development to cater to more use cases and customers.

Wobot Intelligence was founded by Adit Chhabra, Tapan Dixit, and Tanay Dixit. It offers AI-powered video analytics tools that can be incorporated into existing CCTV or other forms of camera systems to monitor process compliance while detecting and tracking anomalies in an organisation’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) — hygiene, safety, productivity, and customer experience to customers across industries.

The company has a workforce of more than 60 people, and has completed the installation of its video analytics solutions for big brands like Kitopi, CultFit, Rebel Foods, Travel Food Services, EatFit, Blue Tokai, Apparel Group, Max Estates & Housing, and more. Even Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) had signed up with Wobot to monitor the food production process across its several base kitchens.

Wobot’s cofounder and CEO Chhabra said, “Wobot’s vision has always been to create a transparent and seamless workplace with 100% process compliance where the camera acts as a third eye and provides continuous feedback for employees on the job. This does not necessarily mean only pointing out violations but also giving a pat on the back for following the right SOPs and adhering to compliances.”

Prior to this, the company had previously raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round led by Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal’s investment arm Titan Capital. Commenting on the latest funding, Ashish Agrawal, principal at Sequoia Capital India, said that computer vision has seen tremendous advances in recent years, resulting in widespread adoption for varied enterprise needs.

“This includes process compliance in areas such as security, manufacturing, and retail. Increased concern for hygiene and safety post-Covid-19 has heightened the importance of process compliance. Sequoia India is excited to partner with the Wobot team as they build a global SaaS business serving this enterprise need,” it added.

Wobot competes with Vidooly Delhi-based Corseco, San Francisco-based 3VR,  IntelliVision, Duranc, Staqu, Emza Visual Sense, Uncanny Vision, and Cognitifai London, among others.

Recently, Vidooly introduced its latest offering COVIDSHIELD, which is an AI-powered video analytics solution to ensure that there are no Covid-19 preventive measure violations in an enterprise. The company had told Inc42 that they will be expanding the use cases of their latest offering to offer an organisation management solution.

The post Video Analytics Platform Wobot Bags $2.5 Mn Led By Sequoia appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Trouble may be looming on the horizon for cryptocurrency trading platforms in India, with the government reportedly moving into advanced deliberations over a bill from last year which seeks a complete ban on virtual currencies. 

The bill, entitled, “Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019,” was drafted by an inter-ministerial committee headed by former Finance and Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg. Lawyer Mohammed Danish, the co-founder of Crypto Kanoon, a crypto regulatory media platform, had filed an RTI application with the Department of Economic Affairs to establish whether media reports suggesting that the government had begun consultations on the bill were accurate. 

In his RTI, Danish had inquired, “Has any cabinet note been sent for IMC (inter-ministerial consultation) on the legal framework of cryptocurrencies/virtual currencies?” and, “Does this cabinet note seek inter-ministerial consultation on Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019? If not, what is the purpose of this cabinet note?”

In its reply to Danish’s RTI, the Department of Economic Affairs wrote, “The government had set up an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) for examining the issue of cryptocurrencies. The report of the IMC on VCs (virtual currencies) has since been submitted by its members but is awaiting approval of the government. The report and bill will now be examined by the government through inter-ministerial consultation by moving a cabinet note in due course.”

The proposed bill calls for a complete ban on all cryptocurrencies and related activities such as mining, holding, advertising, promoting, buying, selling and providing exchange services, among other things. Indian institutions have long been hostile towards cryptocurrencies as it is believed that such currencies are used for anti-social purposes such as funding terrorist activities, a fact backed through evidence collected by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental organisation to combat money laundering. These supposed ramifications are believed to be a consequence of cryptocurrencies being outside the purview of any country’s central bank, the lack of any underlying fiat, episodes of excessive volatility in their value, and their anonymous nature which goes against global money-laundering rules.

In March this year, the Supreme Court quashed a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular from 2018 which had ordered a banking ban on cryptocurrencies in India. Since the SC order, there has been a spurt in cryptocurrency-related activities in India, with some crypto exchange platforms reporting a 400% spike in trading activity. It remains to be seen if the positive outlook for cryptocurrency exchange platforms in India will hit a roadblock with the coming of a blanket ban on virtual currencies possibly in the upcoming monsoon session of the Indian Parliament, the dates for which are yet to be notified

In other news, Bitcoin is trading at $11,135 at the time of writing, reporting a marginal increase of 1.69% from last week, when the price of a Bitcoin was $10,949. Bitcoin’s market cap is $205.46 Bn.

Ethereum is trading at $391.52, reporting an increase of around 24% from last week, when the price of Ethereum was $316.6. Ethereum’s market cap is $43.86 Bn. 

Ripple CEO Says Cryptocurrencies Gaining Momentum As Trust In Fiat Currencies Erodes

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of global payments system Ripple, has said that in an uncertain world where the global economy is witnessing a downturn due to the financial disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, governments were seriously considering the blockchain technology. Garlinghouse, in a series of tweets, while commenting on a Bloomberg article which detailed the pros and cons of potential alternatives to the dollar such as gold, yuan and crypto, said that with the erosion of trust in the global financial system, people will inevitably gravitate towards cryptocurrencies. “It addresses frictions (settlement, transparency, among others) that were assumed VERY hard to solve before. Crypto is up 80% while USD is down 3% YTD,” Garlinghouse wrote in a tweet. 

Garlinghouse admitted that the US dollar’s dominance as the backbone of the global financial infrastructure wasn’t going to be lost anytime soon to other assets such as gold, the yuan or crypto, among others, anytime soon. “But is it weaker today?” he asked. Evidently, as the dollar index, which measures the greenback against a host of leading currencies, had its worst month in a decade in July, as it lost more than 4%. It is down 10% from its peak in March.

China’s Central Bank To Use Digital Currencies To Counter Alibaba & Tencent Dominance

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), is reportedly planning to use its digital currency electronics system to counter the dominance of Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent in the country’s digital payments sector. The report comes only a few days after it was reported that PBoC had promoted an antitrust investigation against both companies’ digital payments platforms, Alipay and WeChat Pay for suppressing competition in the sector. PBoC will use the DCEP to provide banks equal opportunities in the field of digital payments as it earlier did to technology giants.

The post Cryptocurrency This Week: India Could Ban Virtual Currencies & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After having a rough patch due to the Covid-19 pandemic, hotel and hospitality unicorn OYO seems to be getting back on its feet. The company has recently announced that it will be rolling back the 25% salary deductions they had introduced in April 2020. This salary reinstatement will be in a phased manner depending on the employees’ CTC, and will be starting off from August payroll.

Employees earning upto INR 8 Lakh with a fixed compensation will start getting their salaries without deduction from this payroll. The company later confirmed that it will comprise 60% of its workforce in India and South Asia.

According to a Mint report citing sources OYO India CEO Rohit Kapoor and chief human resource officer Dinesh Ramamurthi had announced this salary deduction roll back in a Town Hall held on Tuesday (August 4).

Meanwhile, employees earning above INR 8 Lakh will see a phased reversal in pay cuts, with half of the 25% deduction restored from October, and the remaining restored effective December 2020.

Besides OYO, even travel aggregator ixigo and edtech startup upGrad have reinstated the employees’ salaries from July.

Due to Covid-19 and the resultant travel restrictions, OYO faced a massive crunch in its cash flow and revenues. The company’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal had come on record in April to confirm the 50 to 60% drop in OYO’s occupancy rate and revenues. He had also specified that the company’s balance sheet has come under severe stress. Meanwhile, startup layoff tracking website Layoffs.fyi had estimated that OYO revenue was at about 30% of its pre-Covid levels.

The decline in OYO’s revenues led to the salary cuts, furloughs and layoffs across all 80 countries it was operating in. This has also led to the company rethinking their working model and has adapted to a hybrid workplace model to help the company operate in full capacity without compromising on the health and safety of its employees.

Under the latest hybrid model, it has divided its workforce into three categories — corporate employees, capability functions and field staff. The field staff is already stepping out and attending office following all the health and safety protocols, whereas employees in the other two categories can choose to work from home or ‘work from anywhere’.

This has also limited/eliminated OYO’s requirement for office spaces. The company has confirmed that it is revisiting its contracts with landlords across India to arrive at mutually acceptable terms. So far, it has already given up on its two office spaces in Gurugram, including its head office in Udyog Vihar, and is in talks to renegotiate on another. The company will now be relying on its coworking space arm OYO Workspaces to offer a workspace to its employees.

The post OYO To Revoke Covid-19 Salary Deduction In Phased Manner, Starting This Month appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Last week, the Indian government banned nearly 47 mobile applications for cloning the 59 Chinese apps that were banned in June 2020. And now Economic Times has accessed a list of which names 15 of the 47 apps banned in the latest round. The apps on the list are a mix of different versions of already banned apps and some more Chinese apps including ByteDance-owned video editing app CapCut, as well as Xiaomi’s Mi Browser Pro.

Further, India has also barred the ‘pro’ or ‘lite’ versions of TikTok and fellow ByteDance app Helo that were banned in June. Moreover, the ban on Mi Browser Pro is the second app by Xiaomi that has been banned after the Mi Community app was axed in the first round of bans.

Xiaomi, which launched its first devices in India in July 2014, is currently the largest smartphone brand by market share in India with nearly 27% of the market, followed by Samsung, which holds over 22% of the market. Xiaomi also claims that 99% of its smartphones are made in India, even though the MIUI operating system and its applications are largely developed in China and run by a Chinese entity.

The latest list of banned apps also includes photo editor AirBrush, tech conglomerate NetEase, SlidePlus by QuVideo Inc, multiplayer game Heroes War, Meipai video recorder and editor, and camera app BoXxCAM, which is owned by Meitu. India has also banned Baidu Search and Weibo the Chinese-run alternatives to Google and Twitter.

“We will take a call on further action if any of the apps try to come back with different names,” a government official was quoted as saying by ET. Further, the government is also said to be keeping a tab on nearly 275 Chinese apps for any possible violations in relation to data security and user privacy.

The list of the watched apps includes popular multiplayer action game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), backed by Chinese internet company Tencent, short video sharing application Zili, which is owned by phone-maker Xiaomi, Alibab’s AliExpress ecommerce platform, as well as ByteDance apps like Resso and ULike. “The government may ban all, some or none from the list,” a source close to the development told Economic Times.

The rising geopolitical tension between India and China has been instigated since border clashes between the two army troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June. The clashes have led to massive anti-China sentiment in the Indian market, with members of the Indian political brass also calling for a boycott of Chinese products and services.

Besides apps, even smartphone brands have come under the hammer when it comes to the anti-China wave. The most recent casualty is BBK Electronics’ Vivo, which has withdrawn as the title sponsor for the Indian Premier League 2020 tournament, set to be held in UAE.

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Indian internet company and parent of jobs portal Naukri.com, Info Edge, on Tuesday, announced a qualified institutional placement (QIP) to raise up to INR 1,875 Cr. ($250 Mn).

In an exchange filing, the company informed that the Fund Raise Committee, at its meeting held on August 4, had approved the opening of the QIP. The floor price per equity share has been fixed at INR 3,177.18 per share. 

The company, in the exchange filing, further informed that the Fund Raise Committee would meet on August 7 to consider, determine and approve the closing date of the QIP. On Tuesday, Info Edge shares closed trading at ₹3,200.05 apiece, up 1.43% on the BSE.

In a prospectus filed with the stock exchange, the company said that the amount raised through the QIP would be used for funding business activities and general corporate purposes in line with the company’s growth strategy. 

Info Edge runs online classified businesses such as Naukri.com, 99acres.com, Jeevansathi.com, and Shiksha. The company also counts foodtech unicorn Zomato and insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar in its portfolio, besides edtech venture NoPaperForms and B2B ecommerce platform ShopKirana.

Last month, Info Edge invested $6.33 Mn in video and live stream-led social commerce platform BulBul. The company invested the amount through IE Venture Fund I. As part of the agreement, Info Edge acquired 416 ordinary shares and 2002 Series A Preference Shares, through a mix of the primary and secondary mode of acquisition. Info Edge has a 17.82% stake in the company.

In June, during an investor presentation for results of the fourth quarter (Q4) of the fiscal year (FY) 2020, Info Edge revealed that its investments had grown 2.29x in six years since FY14, from INR 336 Cr in FY14 to crossing over INR 1,000 Cr in FY19 with INR 1,037 Cr in the year and INR 1,108 Cr in FY20. The company said that despite an adverse impact on operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown, it was seeing growth opportunities through investments in technology-oriented and innovation-oriented startups.

Overall the company has 21 active investments worth INR 1108 Cr at the end of FY20. In January this year, the company launched the INR 100 Cr IE Venture Fund to invest in tech-enabled startups which create, market and distribute innovative products and services that benefit consumers at large. The investments through the fund include Dotpe Pvt Ltd (INR 10.4 Cr), Qyuki Digital Media Pvt Ltd (INR 25.2 Cr), Intellihealth Solutions Pvt Ltd (INR. 3.7 Cr), Fanbuff Esports India Pvt Ltd (INR 3.5 Cr), and BulBul (INR 63.3 lakhs).

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