Gurugram-based online used car platform Spinny, on Thursday (August 6), announced that it has acquired rival Truebil for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition comes at a time when the used car market has gained momentum due to a change in personal transport preferences due to Covid.

Truebil cofounder and CEO Suraj Kalwani said in a press release, “We realised that by augmenting each other’s capabilities, we could accelerate towards building the country’s largest and the most trusted used car brand.” 

Truebil was founded by Kalwani along with Himanshu Singhal, Rakesh Raman, Ravi Chirania, Ritesh Pandey, Shanu Vivek, and Shubh Bansal in 2015 as an omnichannel marketplace for pre-owned cars. 

With operations in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi NCR, and Truebil was clocking INR 250 Cr+ in annual sales before the Covid outbreak. The company had raised close to $24 Mn in the course of five years, including $ 4 Mn in debt funding from investors such as Kalaari Capital, Inventus Capital, Kae, Shunwei Capital among others.

Spinny was founded around the same time by Niraj Singh (Founding partner at Outbox Ventures), Mohit Gupta (Ex-Flipkart) and Ramanshu Mahaur (Ex-Adobe) as an technology-enabled full-stack pre-owned car platform that uses the online-to-offline (O2O) model to help customers discover cars online on Spinny’s website and make the final purchase offline at a Spinny Car Hub. Currently, Spinny has nine car hubs that operate across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

Commenting on the acquisition, Spinny cofounder and CEO Niraj Singh said in a press release, “Given Spinny is still in its early days, we will let the Truebil platform keep operating as an independent brand for now. We will reassess merging within the Spinny brand umbrella after some time.”

In March 2020, Spinny announced the completion of a $43 Mn Series B round led by Nandan Nilekani’s venture fund The Fundamentum Partnership. The round saw participation from existing investors Accel and SAIF Partners. Accel and SAIF Partners had co-led the company’s $13 Mn Series A round in April 2019. 

With this acquisition, Spinny becomes the only used car startup in India which follows a full-stack retail platform model and operates on the organised side of the market.

Other major online used car marketplaces in India are Cars24, CarDekho, Droom, Quikr, Olx, Mahindra First Choice Wheels, among others.  

Industry trends suggest that the used car segment is poised for growth owing to the Covid-19 crisis, with consumers preferring to use their own transportation. 

Players like Mahindra First Choice recently started 34 stores in a single day across Kanpur Ludhiana, Jagdishpur, Kapasan, Nashik and Chirawa among other cities. Meanwhile, Shashank Srivastava, executive director, marketing & sales, Maruti Suzuki India, told Financial Express said that booking/inquiry for used cars had gone up to 115% during the Covid crisis.

The trend is similar across the world in the used car segment. US-based online used car player  Carvana saw a $1.12 Bn spike in its revenue from $986 Mn in the year-ago quarter largely riding on the sales during the pandemic. “With coronavirus we’ve seen an additional shift in desire to purchase vehicles online,” said Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia, whose company has grown by triple digits for six years running.

Meanwhile, Cazoo, an online used car retailer announced a new funding round of $116 Mn in March making it the fastest unicorn in the UK.

The post Spinny Acquires Truebil To Challenge Auto Giants In Used Cars Segment appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Global tech giant Microsoft is reportedly looking to acquire all of TikTok’s global businesses, including its India and Europe entities. The news comes just a few days after Microsoft confirmed that it is exploring discussions with ByteDance for acquiring TikTok’s United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand businesses. Microsoft had said that it would be completing these discussions by September 15, 2020.

According to a Financial Times report, Microsoft is currently pursuing discussions for acquiring businesses for all the countries where TikTok operates in. Citing a source close to ByteDance in India, FT stated, “There was a “deal in the works’ with Microsoft for TikTok India but that if it fell through, ByteDance could sell TikTok India either to foreign investors or Indian buyers. ByteDance would then license its technology to the company and share revenue.”

If the deal doesn’t go through, Reliance Jio might be one of the contenders for acquiring TikTok’s India business. With Jio venturing into multiple digital consumer business announced at it’s AGM last month and the slew of US BigTech investments, TikTok would fit in well with its digital ambitions for India.

Also Read: [Deep Dive] Reliance Jio’s Digital Empire And How It Stacks Up Against The Competition

TikTok, owned by Beijing-headquartered multinational technology company ByteDance, was among the 59 Chinese apps banned by the Indian government on June 29 on the grounds of threat to the data sovereignty and security of the country.

Besides TikTok, UC Browser, ShareIT, ES FileExplorer, Clash Of Kings, Helo, Likee, CamScanner, Shein were also among the banned apps. TikTok, which has over 200 Mn monthly active users in India, was by far the biggest casualty.

ByteDance had launched TikTok in India in 2018 after the acquisition of Musical.ly. Since then, it claims to have over 2 Bn global downloads by April 2020, of which India accounted for almost 30% of the total app installs. The ban on TikTok is estimated to have caused a loss of $6 Bn for ByteDance.

Just last week, Indian government had reportedly sent 80 questions to the banned applications, touching upon areas such as “company”, “ownership”, “services & security”, “privacy policy” and “data-related information”. Prior to that, the banned apps were also asked to prove their credentials as an independent entity with no links to the Chinese state.

TikTok India’s head, Nikhil Gandhi, had earlier said that the company hadn’t shared the data of Indian users with any foreign government, nor would it do so if asked in the future. “Throughout the duration of our operations, we have demonstrated an unequivocal commitment to complying with the local laws, including data privacy and security requirements,” Gandhi wrote in an official blog post.

Since the ban on Chinese apps, Indian homegrown apps like — Chingari, Mitron, Bolo Indya and Trell, Roposo have reported steep rises in the number of users. It has also attracted short video plays by ShareChat, which launched Moj, Gaana which debuted HotShots, MX Player with MX Taka Tak and Dailyhunt, with Josh. Indie apps like Vee Tok, Veer, TipTop and Punch form up the tail of this market, with each app eyeing a share of the 200 Mn Indians that were forced to migrate from TikTok. Many of these startups have gone on to raise funds from some marquee global & Indian investors.

Also Read: The Hunt For A ‘Made In India’ TikTok

The post Microsoft To Acquire TikTok’s India Business As Well? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“For MyGlamm, the starting point is commerce, and trying to come to a content community. For POPxo, the starting point is content. We are a brand of content and we were finding ways to monetise it. It is a coming together of both these strengths.” — POPxo founder Priyanka Gill.

Content and ecommerce often go hand-in-hand for niche verticals and as seen in the Inc42 Playbook on the direct-to-consumer (D2C) segment, this is a key ingredient in the marketing strategy for brands. Looking to create a niche for itself in the beauty and personal care segment through content and community, Mumbai-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand MyGlamm has acquired Delhi-based women-focused digital media and ecommerce platform POPxo for an undisclosed amount.

Darpan Sanghvi of MyGlamm told Inc42 that this is a 100% acquisition, but POPxo will remain an independent entity and continue to operate as it is. With this acquisition, POPxo CEO and founder Priyanka Gill will be joining MyGlamm as a cofounder.

Gill will be managing creative, marketing, community, design and other such aspects of both POPxo and MyGlamm. She will also continue leading the POPxo Team. Meanwhile, Sanghvi will manage distribution, finance, tech, supply chain, technology, data science and other such aspects of both the businesses.

Post the acquisition Chiratae Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and Neoplux Venture Capital join MyGlamm’s existing investors — Bessemer Venture Partners, L’Occitane, Mankekar Family Office, and Tano Capital LLC. Sanghvi noted that POPxo’s backers will invest in MyGlamm in the upcoming rounds, but did not specify the combined valuation of the entity.

Why MyGlamm Is Acquiring POPxo

Together MyGlamm and POPxo claim to have a community of nearly 50 Mn customers, primarily women. While MyGlamm makes and sells beauty products across makeup, skincare and personal care, POPxo has built a steady audience for content consumption and claims to have a network of 75K influencers on its marketing platform Plixxo. The companies believe that both businesses will blend well to create a strong women-focused platform equipped with the 3Cs — content, community and commerce.

In a conversation with Inc42, MyGlamm’s Sanghvi and POPxo’s Gill explained that the acquisition will help them combine their forces to become a much stronger women-focused platform beauty platforms that create a much pleasant and stronger journey for online customers.

Sanghvi further explained that a key part of being a D2C brand is to continue to engage with the customer and not just transactionally. Therefore, the company has been trying to boost engagement essentially by leveraging content and building a community, which is then used for ecommerce.

POPxo had also launched an ecommerce platform to sell private label merchandise in 2018, but it has been unable to make a big mark in this sector. Gill noted that the deal will also help the company expand the ecommerce vertical with MyGlamm and Sanghvi’s understanding of the business.

The Role Of Content In D2C Ecommerce 

POPxo was founded in 2014 by Priyanka Gill, whose first brush with digital media happened with launching eStylista in the UK. She was joined by Namrata Bostrom (who left the company in March 2017) in founding POPxo – an English and Hindi language platform (app+desktop) for women in the ages of 18-35 to connect over issues related to fashion, entertainment, relationships, lifestyle. It has raised nearly $12.4 Mn across 7 funding rounds.

It had last raised $5.5 Mn (INR 37 Cr) in Series C round led by Neoplux and  OPPO. IDG Ventures India, Kalaari Capital, GREE Ventures (Japan) and Summit Media also participated in the round.

POPxo currently claims to have nearly 43 Mn monthly active users (MAU) across all platforms. Every month, the team creates over 1500 stories, 80 videos resulting in users spending over 3 Mn hours consuming POPxo content. MyGlamm’s founder and CEO Sanghvi also boasted that POPxo videos get nearly 100 Mn viewers every month which will help a D2C brand like theirs get organic traction.

MyGlamm was launched in 2015 as a marketplaces for cosmetics but later expanded its offering to include skin and personal care products. The brand has over 2000 points of sale (PoS) and 300 retail outlets across 50 cities in India, along with nearly 600 stock keeping units (SKUs). The company claims to have grown over 400% in the past 12 months to record an annualised revenue of INR 140 Cr in FY20. The company has not filed its financial report with the ministry of corporate affairs yet.

It has raised nearly $32 Mn in funding across 6 rounds, It has raised $14.47 Mn (INR 100 Cr) in Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and the Mankekar family office at a  $72.35 Mn (INR 500 Cr) valuation. In March 2020, the company had also raised INR 13.5 Cr ($1.7 Mn) in a mix of debt, equity, and preference shares from venture capital company Trifecta Capital.

Sanghvi claimed that POPxo’s challenges when it came to ecommerce included logistics, supply chain and more, which MyGlamm will hope to fix. POPxo is said to have been getting 10K orders per month organically, but this could not be independently verified by Inc42.

While MyGlamm’s Sanghvi believes that the company has been doing well in engagement during the ecommerce journey and post-purchase through content, but lacked when it came to getting women to discover their brand. The POPxo acquisition will help MyGlamm reach its target audience using content and turn them into meaningful customers. Sanghvi also claimed that this acquisition would help MyGlamm save up on nearly $4 Mn to $5 Mn in market costs annually.

The post How MyGlamm Is Ramping Up Its D2C Ecommerce Ambition With POPxo’s Acquisition appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based online marketplace for perishable goods FreshToHome is raising a fresh round of capital from Ascent Capital India.

According to ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, FreshToHome Foods Private Limited has been granted the permission from stakeholders to offer and issue one or more tranches 3,16,712 non-cumulative optionally convertible redeemable preference shares (OCRPS) at a face value of INR 10 each and a premium of INR 3534.48 each worth INR 122,25,79,350 ($16.2 Mn) to Ascent Capital Advisors.

The attached valuation report shows that the fair value per equity share is INR 952, with an enterprise value of INR 1,830 Cr ($244 Mn). The company filings showed that the funds are being raised for the growth, expansion, marketing and general corporate activities of the company.

Post-investment, Ascent will hold 4.61% stake in the company, while 95.384% stake is held by FreshToHome’s Singapore parent.

Prior to this, FreshToHome has raised nearly $31 Mn till date. It had raised $20 Mn in Series B funding round from Iron Pillar and Japan-based ife media platform ZIGExn Joe Hirao, in 2019. The company was planning to use this fund to diversify their product offerings in various other fresh and chemical-free food categories, and also expand its presences within India and overseas, especially the UAE.

The same year, FreshToHome had also raised $11 Mn in Series A led by CE Ventures with participation from Das Capital, Kortschak Investments, TTCER Partners, Al-Nasser Holdings, M&S Partners, Al-Nasser Holdings & Abdul Azeez Al-Ghurair from UAE, PLB other Asia and Valley-based Investors.

FreshToHome was founded in 2015 by Shan Kadavil and Mathew Joseph. The company aims to leverage artificial intelligence and the internet of things (IoT) into the cold chain, food safety and sourcing processes. The filings revealed that the company manages to sell nearly 10K tons of produce per year,  and has close to 95% qualified cohort retention and doubling every year. The corporate affairs filing also added that FreshToHome has 12 Lakh registered users.

India is currently the world’s largest producer of milk, the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables and has a substantial production of marine agriculture, meat and poultry products. Overall, the cold chain market for perishable products logistics is projected to reach INR 2,618 Bn by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 14.8% during 2019-2024 in the country.

FreshToHome competes with the likes of ZappFresh, Licious, BigBasket, etc which also cater to the perishable meat industry. There is a $50 Bn opportunity in the fragmented Indian fish market and the $30 Bn market size in poultry.

The post Exclusive: FreshToHome Is Raising $16.2 Mn From Ascent At $244 Mn Enterprise Valuation appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-headquartered edtech decacorn BYJU’S, late on Wednesday (August 5), announced that it has acquired Mumbai-based online coding platform WhiteHatJr for $300 Mn. 

With the acquisition, BYJU’S aims to expand its product offerings, as well as widen its base in India and the US where WhiteHatJr already has a presence. BYJU’S will also make investments in WhiteHatJr’s technology platform, product innovation while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. 

BYJU’S is a significant player in India’s burgeoning edtech space catering to learning needs by offering online lessons to school-going students, as well as comprehensive courses for competitive exam preparation. The company, founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath, launched its platform in 2015, and now boasts of 64 Mn students cumulatively learning from the app, 4.2 Mn annual paid subscriptions and an annual renewal rate of 85%. 

BYJU’S claims to be creating personalised learning programs for students based on their proficiency levels and capabilities which help them learn at their own pace and style. The company says it doubled its revenue from INR 1,430 Cr to INR 2,800 Cr in FY 19-20. As of May, the company was raising funds at a $10 Bn valuation. 

With the WhiteHatJr acquisition, BYJU’S will gain access to seven lakh registered users on the platform, benefiting from around 7,000 online classes every day. By teaching the fundamentals of coding, WhiteHatJr helps children aged 6-14 build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online. According to the company’s founder Karan Bajaj, inculcating coding in schools’ curriculum could further an active paradigm of learning instead of the passive one prevalent in India. 

In an interview with Mint, BYJU’S co-founder Byju Raveendran also stressed on the importance of teaching coding to young children. “Even though students might not take up coding as a career option, it eventually helps them become active learners. Most of the changes in our traditional school curriculum in the last few decades were focused on passive learning methods, but we believe that the future of learning must be based on active learning methods.”

WhiteHatJr recently announced plans to expand to other global markets like Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand after witnessing growth in the US for its one-to-one online coding classes. After launching their courses in the US, since February this year, the company claims to be growing at more than 100% MoM in the country. 

Raveendran attested to the fact that the WhiteHatJr acquisition will help his company in its expansion plans. “The WhiteHatJr course format is very different from our current course format and offers live one-on-one classes, and there is a huge opportunity to scale this product not just in India, but in foreign markets as well. As part of our international expansion plans, we will be able to scale our offerings to new countries with the acquisition.”

The Edtech Wave In India

India witnessed the first signs of the edtech wave 10-15 years ago with the widespread adoption of smart boards and enterprise resource planning software (ERP) in physical classrooms. Soon, the popularity of ‘coaching classes’ for various competitive exams saw similar offerings for exam preparation being offered online, with live video sessions and mentor feedback pushing the demand for online learning platforms.

From then to now, as per DataLabs by Inc42+ estimates, there are a total of 4,450 edtech startups operating in India at present spread across various segments such as — test preparation, online certification, skill development, online discovery, and STEAM kit and enterprise solutions.

In the current scenario, test preparation and online certification startups are holding the majority market share. According to the ‘Future Of India’s $2 Bn Edtech Opportunity Report 2020’, capital inflows into the test preparation and online certification segments are comparatively higher. Together, K-12 and test preparation combined will make 66% ($1.3 Bn) of the total online education market size in 2021, the report noted.

BYJU’S, which is the world’s highest-valued edtech company — it was valued at $10.5 Bn after its fundraise from US-based venture capital firm Bond in June this year — has also expanded its suite of offerings over the years. In June, the company launched BYJU’S Classes to offer personalised after school tuition classes for students in the fourth to 10th standard, besides its other offerings for the school-going students as well as those preparing for competitive examinations. Now, with the acquisition of WhiteHatJr, BYJU’S is looking to expand into yet another relatively untapped segment in the edtech sector — coding. 

BYJU’S & Unacademy The New Super Apps

Lately, BYJU’s seems to be a pioneer in the M&A play. In June, the company was reported to be in talks to acquire another edtech startup, the New Delhi-based two-year-old startup Doubtnut for a deal expected to be worth more than $125 Mn. 

Last year, the company acquired US-based learning platform Osmo for $120 Mn as part of its international expansion plans. In 2018, the company acquired math learning startup Math Adventures. In 2017, BYJU’S also acquired US-based online tutoring app TutorVista and Edurite from Pearson (Edurite was acquired by Tutorvista in 2007 and Tutorvista was acquired by Pearson in 2013). In the same year, the company also acquired student assessment platform Vidyartha. 

A closer look at the companies acquired by BYJU’s would reveal that the focus seems to be on assimilating younger startups with niche offerings, whether it be Doubtnut, which reported a spike in users from tier 2 and tier 3 cities since it allows students from the sixth to 12th grade to solve math and science problems in local languages, or the most recent acquisition of WhiteHatJr, which focuses on one of the most in-demand technical skills in our times – coding. 

As for TutorVista, the platform gets around 70% of its users from the US, making it a viable acquisition for BYJU’S as it tries to further its global presence. Similarly, Math Adventures’ model involves a facilitator taking one class out of the allocated weekly math classes in schools and making students understand concepts they had learnt in the conventional class, but by using activities.

Shedding light on his philosophy behind mergers and acquisitions, Raveendran said that the focus for a deal is on whether the two companies have a complementary nature which could help scalability. “If a potential acquisition or merger fits into our strategy of building a product focused on the same age groups, brand vision, and demographics, then we will surely examine it. So, in the future, we will also look at companies that fit into our long-term vision of helping students get access to different learning formats of online learning.”

A similar trend can be witnessed with another Bengaluru-based edtech startup Unacademy. Last month, the company acquired PrepLadder, a postgraduate medical entrance exam preparation platform for $50 Mn. The acquisition is expected to strengthen Unacademy’s presence in the medical entrance examinations categories such as the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for medical postgraduate courses. 

Earlier this year, Unacademy acquired edtech startup Kreatryx to strengthen its presence in the GATE and ESE segments in the test prep market, and Mumbai-based competitive programming platform CodeChef.

With the assimilation of a range of offerings in the edtech space, platforms like BYJU’S and Unacademy are seen to be moving closer to becoming ‘Super Apps’, those with a multitude of offerings that will give students a variety of choices and a complete learning experience. 

So would the larger drive of consolidation in the edtech space by ‘Super Apps’ see the sector in India become a duopoly. “We’ve seen this trend with a lot of digital companies in other sectors as well, whether it be ecommerce or food delivery. The strong ones become stronger because scalability isn’t an issue for them and the weak ones eventually die a slow death,” said Santosh, adding that that the trend of M&A at play currently could unwittingly organise the edtech space. 

“We saw a similar thing happen with ecommerce, where Amazon and Flipkart are now getting the smaller sellers and kirana stores on their platform. Similarly, the aunty who gives tuitions to kids from the neighbourhood could soon be roped in by BYJU’S. Coaching classes could be subsumed under the online learning space. It depends on the bigger players on how they exercise their power on whether an Indian edtech market with just two or three major players would be a good or a bad one,” he added.

The Rise Of Mergers And Acquisitions In Edtech

There’s been a recent wave of mergers and acquisitions in the Indian edtech sector, with DataLabs by Inc42+ estimates revealing that between 2014 and H1 2020 a total of 42 edtech startups underwent mergers or acquisitions.

While initial public offerings (IPO) and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are two of the most prominent exit strategies in any startup ecosystem around the world, the fact that very few edtech companies globally, even fewer from India have gone the IPO route make it the road less travelled. The same is true for BYJU’S, with Raveendran confirming that the company need not do it soon to give an exit to early investors, while the company is profitable and generating net cash flow. 

On the other hand, the M&A strategy allows edtech startups to acquire competitors and their niche capabilities, thus gaining market advantage. 

Arpit Jain, CEO and co-founder of SplashLearn, an online K-5 math learning program told Inc42, “Acquisitions are mainly done to acquire niche capabilities, or for a growing customer base. Whereas mergers can be done to gain inroads into an alien market with the partner company providing the know-how, and dealing with the local nuances.”

“With so much movement and potential in the edtech sector, consolidation within the industry is possible, with companies finding technology, talent, and offerings complementary to each other. Another ideal exit for an Indian edtech company can be, to be acquired by a global education company,” Jain added.

For the smaller edtech startups, the Covid-19 induced growth in online learning has seen many of these companies utilise the spike in user growth and revenue to exercise their exit options. He further added, “A lot of the smaller startups which we see being acquired now, they’ve probably exited at the peak, as the shutdown of schools and colleges in the past 5-6 months of the pandemic has seen the edtech space boom in India.” 

“This is because many of the extra-curricular activities for school-going students weren’t possible because of the lockdown, so naturally, these edtech offerings were natural alternatives for students to make use of their time, also for working professionals looking to upskill and everyone else,” said Santosh N, managing partner D and P Advisory LLP and external advisor, Duff and Phelps, a financial consultancy firm. 

“These platforms offering niche services in the online learning space must have seen a growth in users. This would have helped them get a better valuation and deal. For the larger companies, it’s plainly about consolidation and increasing their bouquet of services,” he added. 

According to DataLabs analysis, test prep and K-12 edtech startups combined are estimated to be worth $1.3 Bn by 2021. Further, according to a study by KPMG, the estimated market size for the online certification and the reskilling industry is estimated to be $463 Mn (2021) growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38% since the year 2016. The edtech sector is blowing hot during the lockdown with the very visible consolidation wave by the bigger players. Whether this trend proves beneficial or detrimental for the online learning space in India in the coming years remains to be seen. 

The post How BYJU’S Is Leveraging Acquisitions To Build An Edtech Empire appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The ministry of agriculture, on Thursday (August 6), announced that it is planning to invest nearly INR 36.71 Cr in 346 agritech startups and startup working in allied sectors like agro-processing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, farm mechanisation, waste to wealth, dairy, fisheries among others. 

The ministry also highlighted that it has already invested INR 11.85 Cr in 112 startups so far, and will be investing additional INR 24.85 Cr in 234 startups soon. The investment will be a part of a ‘component, innovation and agri-entrepreneurship development programme’ under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in this domain by providing financial support and nurturing the incubation ecosystem.

“The Union government accords very high priority to the agriculture sector. In order to contribute directly and indirectly to enhancing the income of farmers by providing opportunities to them and to provide employment to youth, start-ups are being encouraged,” the ministry said in a press statement. 

The programme will offer two-months-long “agri-preneurship orientation” with a monthly stipend of INR 10K, along with mentorship on financial, technical, intellectual property (IP) related issues and more. It has also set up 24 RKVY-RAFTAAR Agribusiness Incubators (R-ABIs), which will offer a seed-stage funding up to INR 25 Lakh.  Of this, 85% will be through grants while the remaining 15% contribution will be from the incubatee.

For an idea or pre-seed stage startup, the programme will offer funding up to INR 5 Lakh — 90% in grants and 10% contribution from the incubatees. Some startups are already being incubated under this programme. 

These include veterinary doctors’ platform Activx Animal Health Technologies branded as Vetzz, SNL Innovations  — InnoFarms they provides processed fruit and vegetable pulp, eco-friendly water retention polymer platform EF Polymer, AI-powered waste management system company A2P Energy Solution, data analytics platform Agsmartic Technologies, and Kyari Innovations that mitigated human wildlife conflicts. 

“Besides the above mentioned six startups, there are many more with innovative solutions to improve the farming ecosystem and augment farm household incomes,” the ministry of agriculture said in the press statement. The ministry believes that these startups will generate employment and contribute to enhancing the income of farmers.

According to DataLabs by Inc42+ report, the agritech startups raised $244.59 Mn in 2019, representing an increase of over 350% from the previous year. Some of the startups in this domain are AgNext, Aquaconnect, Fasal, Intello Labs and others.

The post Indian Govt To Invest INR 36 Cr in 346 Agritech Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Every brand has started taking small measures in becoming sustainable. During Covid we have seen more focus on health and natural products and thus I believe sustainability could be a strong motivating factor for customers to choose a brand in the next couple of years,” Taran Chhabra, founder, Neeman’s.

Neeman’s, the sustainable shoe brand, is looking at the pandemic as a gamechanger for its shoes produced with sustainably-sourced merino wool and other recycled materials. Chhabra is a firm believer in the future of the fashion industry being sustainability and explained just how many levels of checks the shoes go through before hitting the market. 

The recently funded startup was born out of Chhabra’s fascination with the various shoe trends and designs around the world. Though he was working in the US in 2018 — around the time of Neeman’s inception — he told Inc42 that he always wanted to come back to India and do something for the society at large.

In his research, he saw the shoe industry is dominated by synthetics, which has a lot of impact on the environment. India has been noted to be the second-largest producer of synthetic fibre contributing over 7.64% of global production. The realisation led him to launch Neeman’s along with Amar Preet Singh.  

Though the hazardous effect of synthetic fibres have been pointed out by many leading organisations such as American Chemical Society — that warned of the danger of plastic pollution — and Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemikalieinspektionen), it’s still the most prevalent way of making shoes today. 

“Sustainable footwear is the need of the hour and it’s important for all of us to realise how small changes in our lifestyle can have massive impacts in saving the environment,” explained Chhabra.

With the pandemic, the startup shifted its focus improving internal operational changes and product innovations, improvement and design. It told Inc42 that, thanks to this focus, it will be launching new products in the next couple of months.

Here are a few excerpts from Inc42’s conversation with Taran Chhabra, where he explains his business, ideology and its business and more

Inc42: Ecommerce has taken a major hit in the pandemic in India. How are you countering the issues and challenges in the times today? What is your strategy to survive in the harsh market conditions?

Taran Chhabra: After some amazing months, we took a sudden dip and went to near-zero during Apr and May this year. That didn’t stop and discourage the team here at Neeman’s. We started working on improving our internal processes and started working more towards product development and improving our existing range of shoes. The market hasn’t come back to normal yet, but we do see 70-80% of demand coming back.

Inc42: Exactly how are you ensuring that the materials used in your shoes are sustainably-sourced?

Taran Chhabra: After a lot of trial and error, we found that merino wool was the best choice for our mission and along with that, we use castor bean oil and recycled rubber for our soles and all our packaging is made with recycled waste paper.

The fibre obtained from the Merino sheep’s fleece is super soft compared to traditional wool and can be worn all year round. The hair of Merino sheep regulates its temperature according to the weather to suit the human temperature. Plus in many cases, it’s healthy for the sheep to be shorn off their wool for their survival. 

We ensure that all our wool is non-mulesed and no sheep are harmed in making our shoes. All the wool that we buy from Australia is from family-owned farms and it has a quality number associated with it. Using that quality number we can actually trace the wool all the way back to the farms from where it was sourced. Additionally, the wool we source has a non-mulesing certificate that means that the wool was sourced using the best practices and from the upper body of the sheep. And that is when AWI is satisfied, it comes and checks the practices we are following using the quality number.

In fact, we also pass this information to our customers so that they can also see where the wool has been sourced from.

Inc42: What are you trying to accomplish with sustainable materials? What is the real advantage—all material needs to be processed with chemicals or other techniques—what is the real advantage then? 

Taran Chhabra: We here at Neeman’s are on a mission to use materials which occur naturally within nature or materials which have lost their lives and we bring them back via recycling them.

Our focus here at Neeman’s is to choose better and sustainable materials such as merino wool in making our shoes. Though the process cannot be 100% carbon neutral and we are not claiming to have achieved it but it is a process and a journey that we have begun and we are optimistic that we will be able to slowly reduce and streamline the entire process.

While initially, we were building our product from the ground up and thus we scouted best from across the world, but now we are working towards building up our product in India itself.

Inc42: Please elaborate on opportunities in the India market as compared to the US, especially for a brand such as Neeman’s?

Taran Chhabra: USA is the largest market for footwear in the world, but India isn’t far behind. We here in India have started valuing for better products and Indian brands which create better products. Hence there isn’t a better time to start something here in India.

While the US has evolved more for eco-friendly shoes, the advent of Covid has led to an awakening of sorts for nature-friendly products amongst more countries. This wave can be seen in India too where consumers are getting to a point where they have started valuing brands with better ideas and better products.

Inc42: Take us through your journey with Neeman’s so far? How have you grown in the past year?

Taran Chhabra: We launched in Dec 2018 and in the 20 months of our journey post-launch there have been many exciting rides. Within a year of our launch, we have educated millions of consumers across the country on why ‘Natural Materials and Sustainable fibres’ are the future in wearables and fashion.

Our customers have been our biggest advocates and our Re-order rate of over 20% within a short period of time speaks volumes of why our customers love us. We have grown 18% month over month since our launch. Plus, we have 98% of five-star ratings from our existing customers.

Inc42: Tell us how hard or easy has the journey of building a sustainable brand in India been so far? In a market dominated by names such as Nike and Reebok, how do you plan to capture users and make your space?

Taran Chhabra: India is a wide market and our people are slowly but steadily keen to explore brands which are Indian and have something innovative and clear, differentiator. We have used content marketing to our advantage and focused on how we can narrate our story and reach out to our target audience across various demographics. 

Inc42: How did you convince the users of the viability of your product? Tell us about the pricing model of the startup?

Taran Chhabra: We have dug deep into how we could build a community for Neeman’s and preach how amazing our shoes are. We have used influencer marketing and social media marketing to dig deeper to connect with different audiences. Our shoes start from INR 4000 in pricing and are on par with various other international brands which sell in India. We have spent our efforts on driving a story on how amazing the shoes are instead of focusing on the price.

Inc42: You recently also picked up funding for your startup. How difficult is it to convince investors on investing in a business that is into sustainable footwear?

Taran Chhabra: Frankly, it wasn’t easy considering the premium pricing of our shoes and also starting on a journey that hasn’t been chosen before. We did get told that this concept wouldn’t work in India by several major names. But we were confident in the product we were building and the support we had from our existing customers.

We have raised after spending a good 24 months bootstrapping, building an in-house team, creating a deep product-market fit and identifying a set of Investors we believed in would be backing us for the long haul.

Inc42: Where have you set up the manufacturing plants for Neeman’s? How are you ensuring sustainability while sourcing these shoes from across the world?

Taran Chhabra: Our shoes get manufactured in a couple of countries. We start with sourcing Australian merino wool and then we make 6-7 types of merino wool fabrics. 

See, it is a process as I have said before. We have already taken a giant leap with our product already. We are not claiming that our processes are 100% carbon-free, nobody in the entire world can do that right now. So what we did was we identified a problem and started looking for solutions in India. During this we found that we do not have the expertise in making these kinds of fabrics in India today and so we travelled and picked up sources, countries and manufacturers who knew about working with merino wool and we started working with them and set up the entire supply chain.

We understand that there is a certain amount of carbon footprint involved in traveling and making these shoes from multiple parts of the world, but having said that we are working with several major Indian companies in getting them up to speed on how to make this in India.

It is a work in progress and hopefully, by the end of this year, we should have a ‘Made in India’ Neeman’s shoe as well.

Inc42: What about using sheep farmers and shepherds in India for acquiring wool? It may not be the same quality of wool but have you looked at the sustainable fibres in India as well?

Taran Chhabra: The reason we picked merino wool and we go for extremely fine and premium quality merino wool is that it is 60% in diameter of a human hair. That is the level of quality we work with because we are not just aiming at sustainability but comfortability as well.

In India, the type of sheep that are raised and bred, their fleece is a lot thicker so what happens is that material can only be used in winters. For example, you cannot wear a sweater directly in contact with your skin. 

That is the reason we chose wool that is extremely fine and soft. Although, there are a few people who have reached out to us who are trying to breed merino wool sheep in India, but the weather conditions here do not allow the sheep to be bred.

Inc42: There is a notion and thinking that sustainable products are not only hard to manufacture but also hard to monetise. Is that true in the case of Neeman’s? If not, how did you balance the two? 

Taran Chhabra: Synthetics are cheaper and easy to source. Hence they have been resorted to by most brands. Sustainable materials do come at a fair price when made in smaller quantities, As we start scaling more the price of the materials could be brought down a little. 

The post With ‘Make In India’ Plans, Neeman’s Blends Sustainability With Comfort For Its New-Age Shoes appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Even as speculation is rife that Microsoft may buy out ByteDance’s business in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and even India, the US tech giant is now reportedly close to investing $100 Mn in Indian social media platform ShareChat

According to a Mint report, Microsoft would just be one of the investors in ShareChat, and the $100 mn funding would only be one-third of what the social media startup is looking to raise in its latest round. ShareChat’s existing investors are expected to join Microsoft in the round, which could see ShareChat becoming the latest startup in India’s unicorn club. 

The company’s last funding round was in August last year, when it raised $100 Mn in a Series D round led by Twitter, with existing investors Shunwei Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Capital, India Quotient and Morningside Venture Capital also investing further. That funding pegged the company’s valuation at $650 Mn. 

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

ShareChat did not respond to queries about the fund raise.

Microsoft Betting Big On Social Apps?

Interestingly, ShareChat launched its short video app Moj on June 29, the same day as the ban on TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps in the first wave of the ban.

ShareChat’s Moj has seen a massive spike in users since launch as users gravitated to homegrown alternatives. Since its launch on June 29, the app has garnered 22 Mn downloads, according to data on app analytics portal Sensor Tower. While both ShareChat and Moj are positioned as ‘Made in India’ on the Google Play Store, ShareChat’s investors in previous rounds include Shunwei Capital, a Chinese venture capital fund run by Xiaomi cofounder Lei Jun, as well as Chinese electronics giant Xiaomi. 

With Chinese internet giant ByteDance coming under deep scrutiny in the US, the company is looking to sell its regional businesses to Microsoft. ByteDance apps TikTok, Helo and CapCut were among the 100-plus Chinese apps banned by India over the past two months. 

With its India business crippled, ByteDance is speculated to be in talks with Microsoft to sell the India unit to the tech giant along with other regional businesses. Reports this week suggest ByteDance could sell TikTok India either to foreign investors or Indian buyers. ByteDance would then license its technology to the company and share revenue.”

ShareChat Growth In Lockdown

Founded by IIT-Kanpur alumni, Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Singh and Ankush Sachdeva, in 2015, ShareChat is a regional language-focussed social media platform, which banks heavily on user-generated content. It boasts features like anonymous chat, direct messaging, original video content under the banner of ShareChat Talkies. It was also a part of the 2018 edition of the most coveted list of India’s most innovative startups — 42Next by Inc42.

Days after the ban on TikTok in July, ShareChat claimed to have seen a growth rate of 500,000 new users per hour, with Indian users scurrying to TikTok alternatives in the short video sharing space. Accessible in 14 regional languages, ShareChat’s core base is in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. The app currently has more than 100 Mn downloads on the Google Play Store, and is ranked fourth on the ‘top free’ apps chart on the Play Store. The same ranking features sister app Moj in the third spot. 

The post ShareChat To Join Unicorn Club With $100 Mn Microsoft Infusion appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After cheaper entry-level subscription plans for its Indian users, online streaming giant Netflix has launched a Hindi interface to further the platform’s appeal in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 

Last month, the platform was testing a ‘Mobile+’ plan for Indian users priced at INR 349/month. Subscribers to the plan are able to watch high definition (HD) content on the platform, on a single device at a time.

Besides this, the company has four subscription plans, ranging from INR 199 to 799/month. While the plans worth INR 199, 349 and 499/month allow users to stream content on only one device, the higher-prices plans worth INR 649 and 799/month allow users to stream HD content on two and four devices simultaneously. 

The platform offers viewers the choice to view their interface in 27 global languages. On Netflix, members can set up to five profiles in each account, and each profile can have its own language setting. Users outside India will also have the option to switch their user interface to Hindi.

The massive 68.64% of India’s 1.3 Bn population living in rural and semi-urban areas and consuming content primarily in native languages has become the quest for the Indian companies, particularly for the broadcasting, media and entertainment industry.

That said, when it comes to video streaming, platforms adopting regional languages in addition to Hindi and English was expected and seen as a natural progression.

Focus On Regional Content

According to a KPMG study, 30% Indians consume content on OTT in their preferred language which is other than English and Hindi. Currently, India has over 40+ OTT video streaming players, of which over 30 players offer content in regional languages, according to DataLabs by Inc42+’s, OTT Landscape In India Report.

OTT platforms such as Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Voot, SonyLIV, YouTube, Zee5, Mx Player, Mubi, Jio Cinema have emerged as key players in the regional video content streaming industry.

The industry also include players like Manorama Max, Hoichoi, Addatimes, Primeflix, Ullu, Sun Nxt are capitalising on core regional content. These platforms do not offer content in English languages, but only the default display language in most platforms is English.

As highlighted in one of previous coverage, India’s regional OTT market market is divided under four segment:

• International players experimenting with regional languages
• Local players aiming to gain an edge on the regional user base
• Core regional players finding their niche within 3-4 languages
• Regional content aggregators

In an attempt to attract more Indian audiences, Netflix has been extensively working towards adding more regional content on its platform as well. Last year, Netflix had mentioned its plans to launch 22 original movies and 11 series from India by 2020.

The company was also in talks with Network18’s Viacom18 for a multi-year partnership to source around 10 shows, mainly in Hindi. It partnered with several production companies in India to bring more original content for its users in India. For instance, through its partnership with Tipping Point, the digital content arm of Viacom18 Studios, the company launched three original series — ‘Jamtara — Sabka Number Aayega’, ‘She’ and ‘Taj Mahal 1989’.

The company also entered into a long term partnership with Karan Johar’s digital content company — Dharmatic Entertainment to create a broad range of new fiction and non-fiction series and films exclusively for Netflix subscribers. The company has also signed up for launch of over 6 Bollywood movies on its platform including –  Janhvi Kapoor starrer ‘Gunjan Saxena’.

Recently, Netflix also signed a deal for an entire floor with WeWork’s Nesco coworking centre, purchasing new office space in Goregaon, Mumbai. The new office space will be used by Netflix for visual effects work, a domain witnessing increasing demand across the country. The work will be carried out in collaboration with another company, Anibrain. Netflix also owns a flexible workspace for 100 seats at The Executive Center at Maker Maxity in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and a 9,000 sq ft separate office in the same complex.

The rapidly expanding presence of Netflix in terms of workspaces, and the rolling out of India-specific subscription plans, rising focus on regional content — have a lot to do with the company’s India outlook. Inc42 reported that the company was in talks with Network18’s Viacom18 entertainment network for a multi-year partnership to source at least 10 shows, mainly in Hindi. 

In the last few years, the global video streaming company has been betting big on India — in terms of money as well as the content strategy for Indian viewers. Last year, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings had said that the company would invest INR 3000 Cr to produce original content for the Indian market over 2019-20.

The post Netflix Adds Hindi Interface, Eyes India’s Regional OTT Market appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a follow-up to the Indian government’s ban on Chinese apps, Xiaomi India said it is developing a new version of its MIUI software to adhere to the ban. Xiaomi India Head, Manu Jain, posted a statement on Twitter on Friday announcing that the company is complying with the ban.

“We want to clarify that none of the apps blocked by the Indian Government are available for access on any Xiaomi phones launched in India,” Jain said. “We are developing a new version of MIUI that will be built without pre-installation of any of the blocked apps.”

MIUI is the operating system that Xiaomi runs on its smartphones, and is an important part of the company’s business model. The company preloads a suite of its own apps onto phones it sells in India. These include apps meant for video and music playback, security, web browsing and also Xiaomi’s own ecommerce store, Mi Store.

Important news about #Xiaomi phones in #India:

1) None of the blocked apps will be available.
2) MIUI Cleaner app is not using Clean Master app banned by Indian Govt.
3) 100% of Indian user data stays in India.

A new version of MIUI coming soon! Please read & be informed. pic.twitter.com/2tYHFwKjTG

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) August 7, 2020

Jain said that the company has been storing data of Indian users in the country since 2018 and will continue to do so. He also claimed that such data has never been shared with anyone outside of the country. Jain also clarified about MIUI Cleaner app is in no way related to the Clean Master app that has been blocked in India. Xiaomi says the MIUI cleaner app is only using definitions that are vital to the functioning of the app, and to eliminate the confusion, will be removing those definitions from the MIUI Cleaner app.

He said the company “reserves the right” to take legal action against those spreading misinformation about its apps and the ban.

Earlier last month, the government blocked apps include popular short-video platform TikTok, which is owned by Chinese startup Bytedance. Apps like Tencent’s WeChat, Alibaba Group’s UC Browser and UC News have also been banned by India. Further, Xiaomi’s apps, including Mi Browser Pro and Mi Community, were among the apps that were on the banned list.

The post Xiaomi India Head Says It Will Bring Updated MIUI Excluding Banned Apps appeared first on Inc42 Media.

While 2020 has been disastrous in many ways for businesses, the changes in the consumer behaviour are expected to remain in place for many more months. In fact, some sectors and brands have seen higher adoption than before simply because of their digital nature and that’s exactly what men’s grooming startups have also banked on. While the lockdown ensured that no individual is headed out for the night, a quick glance through Instagram can confirm the prominence of the #guybeauty trend, with influencers and even bigger fashion brands promoting men’s grooming and beauty regimes.

In the male grooming industry, the attention has shifted from simply aftershave lotions and hair gels to products focussing on beard care, hair care, bath products and more in the past few years. According to a 2018 ASSOCHAM report, the men’s grooming market in India has been growing at a CAGR of about 45%. At INR 16,800 Cr in 2018 in India, it is expected to touch INR 35K Cr by 2021.

As the wide-spectrum of products for men’s grooming get traction, the newer trends like DIY grooming products, natural products, environment-friendly packaging and products etc have started creating differentiation. This is further complemented by massive traction brands such as The Man Company, LetsShave, MensXP, Zlade, and Bold Care recorded after the lockdown restrictions were eased in May.

New Trends Driving Men’s Grooming Industry

Talking to Inc42, multiple brands noted the surge in DIY grooming products, thanks to the restrictions on movement. For instance, The Man Company founder and MD Hitesh Dhingra noted that the company has witnessed a strong tailwind towards DIY products. “So there is a serious uptick towards Razors and our newly launched DIY kits (face care and foot care) Another category that has seen unprecedented growth is the hygiene products,” he added.

Similarly, LetsShave founder and CEO Sidharth Oberoi noted that LetsShave saw a boom in shaving, grooming, self-care categories, including razors, blades, disposable razors, shower- body wash, shampoo, and face care- face wash, face scrub products. “The demand and searches of our LetsShave Evior Face Razor hit the never-seen-before record and we ran out of stock within 15 days after the operations resumed in May. Face Razor sales are up by 400 % and are growing month-on-month,” he noted.

The wave of Indian male grooming industry has been led by D2C brands, which have built their businesses around offering male-focused products. As recently noted by Inc42+, most D2C startups focused on FMCG have tapped into the market by using effective marketing and branding efforts. They have created a niche for themselves within a few years of starting up by identifying areas that don’t have too much competition and carved a niche.

Another newbie in the space, health and sexual wellness products maker Bold Care’s Rahul Krishnan told Inc42 that the company is seeing a lot of interest for its “Complete Sexual Wellness Kit”. This kit contains both prescription medicines and natural supplements for complete sexual health enhancement,” he added.

In terms of more new trends with the focus coming on natural products, the brands noted that toxin-free products and more have gained the centre of attention. 

MensXP’s founder Angad Bhatia said that natural products with toxin-free and cruelty-free ingredients, devoid of harmful parabens and sulphates have now become the default choice for many men. While many brands are going this route, the differentiation now comes through in brand identity, content, customer experience and engagement. .

Zlade cofounder Suraj Chaudhari agreed that there is a definite focus on products with organic and natural formulations. “People want clean products free of harmful chemicals, and the brands are ready to offer them just that. We introduced completely natural shaving prep products which are free of harmful chemicals, artificial foaming agents etc. We will also see more emphasis on sustainable packaging going forward in this industry,” Chaudhari said.

The Man Company’s Dhingra said that usage of natural ingredients in the products never really lost its sheen. “Customers expect honest products made with real ingredients. Also, the brand has to get more conscious towards sustainable packaging so single-use plastic definitely needs to be kept in mind,” he added.

Covid-19 Lockdown Brings Growth

With the closure of salons as well as beauty/skincare-product retail shops and outlets because of COVID-19, almost 90% of the grooming-industry market was shut down in the month of March and April 2020. However, since reopening in May, the brands have seen a huge influx of demand. 

LetsShave’s Oberoi told Inc42 that after resuming operations in May, the company saw an unprecedented rise in the number of orders and a 4X increase in the revenue post-COVID versus before the lockdown.

Bhatia of MensXP added that the five-month-old ecommerce platform had reached a monthly order volume of over 20K orders with almost 20% repeat during the pre-Covid era. “Primary categories/products that fueled a suite of ‘Direct to Consumer’ offerings in the grooming, footwear and unique accessories like bar boxes and more,” he added.

With lockdown restrictions eased in June and July, MensXP saw a slow start but has now reached almost 75% of its pre-Covid sales numbers with better repeat percentage and higher average selling price. He also noted that there has been a shift in the primary products or categories in the post-Covid world with categories like home, WFH accessories, products for hobbies such as urban farming being seen more prominently in orders, while grooming is showing strong growth.

The Man Company’s Dhingra said the company saw a 200% growth between February and July 2020. Similarly, Zlade cofounder Suraj Chaudhari told us that the company’s average order value post-Covid has grown to INR 650-INR 750, a 49% increase compared to pre-Covid period. 

Currently, the company is seeing a 37% – 40% repeat rate, with a 33% increase in monthly orders post-May. Chaudhari also noted that the company’s return on Advertisement had increased by 82% in April and May.

Bold Care claimed to have seen a monthly growth rate of around 200% – 300%. Founder Rahul Krishnan says that during this period, it saw higher than average retention. “The retention has always been high in the men’s category, on average across brands it is somewhere close to 30-35% and we are doing much higher than that.”

The Challenges And Path Forward For Male Grooming

Men’s grooming market is estimated to be around INR 10,000 Cr in India and is expected to have a double-digit annual compounded growth rate in the next few years. More men are overcoming challenges around online shopping and digital payments as well as the hesitation in trying new products. The lockdown has afforded them the time to experiment. 

But MensXP’s Bhatia noted that the main challenges in selling male grooming products are countering traditional biases through an expanded conversation around beauty.  He also noted that Fast-moving consumer trends is both a challenge and a huge motivation to innovate both in terms of products and product experience. “A more democratic distribution system with digital commerce becoming a bigger factor; 1-to-1 targeting allows for identifying and answering grooming problems/ issues that haven’t been addressed so far due to scale,” he added.

The Man Company’s founder Dhingra noted that the penetration in Tier 2 markets is a hurdle. However, the projected growth of this category does give hope. Dhingra added that direct-to-consumer channels are creating a space for the mass premium categories like beard management which were non-existent a few years back. “Educating men about new products and their usage. All this content goes a long way in breaking mental barriers and making things normal and acceptable.” 

The post Men’s Grooming D2C Brands Go Eco-Friendly As Lockdown Shifts Male Beauty Trends appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The Indian government’s AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, meant to boost the adoption and development of Indian applications over foreign ones, has announced the final winners of the hackathon hosted on Friday (August 7). 

The ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge’ saw participation from 6,940 tech entrepreneurs and startups across the country. The mega challenge had entries for nine different categories — Business, eLearning, Entertainment, Games, Health, News, Office and Work from Home, Others and Social. 

Jury members who were experts from Industry, Academia and Government evaluated the Apps, shortlisted after the screening, through presentations made over 5 days from July 31 – August 4, 2020. 

In a virtual event, the winners were announced across categories:

Entertainment:

1. Caption Plus
2. Meme Chat
3. FTC Talent

News:

1. Logically: check fakenews and verify facts
2. IsEqualTo: Daily News, Quiz, and GK for students

Games:

1. Hitwicket Superstars -3d cricket strategy game
2. Scarfall – the royale combat
3. World cricket championship 2- WCC2

Office:

1. Zoho workplace
2. SureMDM

Health:

1. StepSetGo
2. iMumz

Elearning:

1. Disprz
2. Kutuki Kids Learning App
3. Hello English; Learn English

Business:

1. Zoho Invoice, books & expenses
2. Mall91
3. GimBooks- easy invoice manager

Social: 

1. Chingari
2. YourQuote
3. Koo

Others:

1. MapMyIndia
2. AskSarkar
3. MyITreturn

Beyond the major categories, the MyGov team also announced a special award across categories— Most promising apps.

1. Entertainment- Docubay and Boom
2. News: Paperboy and LetsUp
3. Games: kite fly, donkey master, math games
4. Office: Kaagaz Scanner, Iamhere and Spark.Live
5. Health: Aurum, SastaSundar
6. Elearning: ChalkLit, eMedicoz
7. Business: Lynk My Business and Boomer- build a website; website builder
8. Social: Mitron and Hidoc Dr- medical learning for doctors
9. Others: Life Hacks and xploree AI keyboard

Launched on July 4, days after the government banned 59 Chinese apps citing threats to data privacy of users, the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge was launched to identify the “best Indian Apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world-class Apps in their respective categories.” 

The competition would have apps being ranked, on the basis of their performance, useability and features, on category-specific leaderboards, with cash prizes and incentives on offer for the best performing applications. 

The government has allocated INR 20 lakh, INR 15 lakh and INR 10 lakh for the first, second and third-placed apps in each category. Winners of other sub-categories won INR 5 lakh, INR 3 lakh and INR 2 lakh for first, second and third position, respectively.

The post Meet The 24 Companies Which Won AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Challenge appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Indian Software Product Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT), a policy and research institute focused on ensuring India’s growth as a hub for new generation software products, has submitted a representation to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, urging the government to bring in reforms for India’s software product industry. The representation has the assent of 121 Indian software products and SaaS (software as a service) companies such as  ZOHO, Freshworks, Tally, Kissflow, Quickheal, Busy, Intellect and Chargebee, among others. 

In the representation, iSPIRT has talked about two specific regulations for software companies in India, which are believed to be creating hurdles in the ease of doing business. These regulations are the SOFTEX forms filing for international trade and TDS on domestic software product sales. 

According to an iSPIRT press release, the SOFTEX forms, which are supposed to be filed by software exporters according to RBI norms, don’t serve a purpose with the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) scheme now lying defunct. The forms were introduced to measure the quantum of exports, but with the coming of the GSTN system, the export quantum of any product and service can be measured directly from the GSTN invoice of the exporter. 

“SOFTEX form puts an unnecessary burden on software product companies for compliance and a substantial extra cost of compliance. STPI interference is unrequired for software product companies,” says iSPIRIT in its press release. 

The institute added that the TDS levy on domestic software product sales was hindering the growth of the industry, causing “huge friction to the expansion of Digital India concept as it hinders trade of software products digitally. If a business wants to buy any physical product (e.g. mobile phone or laptop) online, you can swiftly do it without deducting any TDS. However, if a Business buys a software product online, a TDS of 10% under section 194J by the buyer is required.” 

“The SaaS-based, software product industry can create another software boom for India and fulfil the 5 Trillion economy dream by 2025. SOFTEX and TDS are huge burdens and must have been removed long back,” said Suresh Sambandam, CEO of OrangeScape

iSPIRIT added that while the institute was expecting the government to swiftly bring in reforms after the ‘National Policy On Software Products’ came into force in February last year, the same hasn’t happened. 

“Zoho’s mantra from day one has been ‘made in India, made for the world’. In SaaS Software business all transactions are digital. We can’t create globally competitive businesses with the level of compliance we have today in India. Minimum (digital) governance is truly needed,” said Jai Anand, CFO, ZOHO Corporation

Last year, the government approved the National Policy on Software Products 2019 with an outlay of INR 5,000 Cr fund, aimed at nurturing 10K startups in the software product industry and generate 3.5 Mn employment by 2025.

“National Policy on Software Products 2019 as approved by the Cabinet aims to encourage innovation, startups and creation of intellectual property (IP) by developing greater collaboration between government, industry, academia and other stakeholders,” Information Technology Minister of India, Ravi Shankar Prasad had said in a tweet.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) was planning to deploy the INR 5,000 Cr corpus into at least 50 daughter funds that would comprise of SEBI-registered Category 1 and Category 2 Alternative Investment Funds, by the last quarter of the current financial year. These AIFs will then invest in startups in the software products sector.

The post Policy Think-Tank iSpirt, 121 Indian Software Product Companies Urges Govt To Bring In Reforms appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We bring you the next edition of the movers and shakers of the week.

This week, Sequoia Capital India announced the addition of three key senior leaders— Gayatri Vasudeva Yadav as Chief Marketing Officer, Ajey Gore as Operating Partner, Technology and Shweta Rajpal Kohli as Head of Public Policy.

Yadav was last working with Star India, where she led Marketing and also served as President, Consumer Strategy & Innovation. She started her career in Procter & Gamble in Brand Management and later joined General Mills India where, as Chief Marketing Officer, she was responsible for launching the Pillsbury brand and for creating multiple categories in the then-nascent packaged foods market.

In addition to her role as CMO for Sequoia Capital India, Yadav will also work closely with the portfolio CMOs to help them launch and grow brands.

Gore, who served most recently as the Group CTO of Gojek, joins Sequoia Capital as Operating Partner, Technology, based in Singapore.  He founded CodeIgnition, which was acquired by Gojek, and prior to that served as CTO for hoppr (which was acquired by Hike Messenger) and Head of Technology for ThoughtWorks.

He will work closely with portfolio CTOs and CPOs by providing insight and expertise in building and scaling engineering, data science, product and design functions, and helping our CTOs build and mentor high-performing teams.

He will also help Sequoia expand the focus on Technology along with the director of technology, Anandamoy ‘Roy’ Roychowdhary, who has led this function for Sequoia India for the last seven years. Roy has transitioned into a full-time investment advisory role as a Principal with the Surge team, focused on SaaS, AI, dev tools and infrastructure investments.

The company has also created a new role focused on public policy. Kohli has joined as Head of Public Policy, based in New Delhi. Prior to this, she was with Salesforce, where she was the Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for India & South Asia; earlier in her career, she was the Head of Public Policy for Uber for India & South Asia.

Kohli will work with industry bodies and associations and will facilitate dialogue and collaboration between our startups and governments in India and SEA to enable progressive policy frameworks to strengthen our startup ecosystem. She will also advise Sequoia portfolio companies on public policy and regulatory topics. 

Further, this week, Uber announced that it is recruiting 140 more engineers for its tech teams in Bengaluru and Hyderabad to build cutting-edge products in areas such as rider and driver growth, delivery, marketplace, customer service, digital payments, risk and compliance, safety, and finance technology. 

Here are the other movers and shakers of the week.

Paytm Appoints Bhavesh Gupta As SVP & CEO Of Lending

Noida-headquartered Paytm has announced the appointment of Bhavesh Gupta, as Chief Executive Officer of the company’s lending business. 

Gupta will develop and expand Paytm’s lending services to strengthen the company’s vision of financial inclusion. Under his leadership, the company will continue to simplify, innovate, and bring new credit products to millions of Indians & SMEs in partnerships with other banks and NBFCs. He will be reporting to Amit Nayyar, President at Paytm.

With over two decades of experience, Gupta has led the digital transformation journey of some of the top retail banks and NBFCs in the country. Most recently he served as the Founding Member & CEO of Clix Capital, where he focused on building a well-diversified NBFC in digital consumer and MSME lending along with urban affordable housing segment driven by cutting edge technology and analytics to deliver simple, fast, innovative, and customised solutions to customers. 

Prior to this role, he was Founding Member and Head – SME & Business Banking at IDFC First Bank for two years. He has spent more than a decade at ICICI Bank where he played a senior role across retail banking, both on liabilities and lending side of the business.

In the lending business, Paytm, in partnership with Bank and NBFCs has launched Paytm First Credit Card, Paytm Postpaid, Personal Loans, and Merchant Cash Loans.  

MPL Appoints Himanshu Raj To Head Brand Communications

Esports startup Mobile Premier League (MPL) has appointed Himanshu Raj as HeadBrand Communication. In his new role, he will be responsible for taking MPL’s reputation and messaging forward through strategic corporate reputation management campaigns, as well as positioning the brand as a thought leader in the booming Indian esports universe.

He has earlier been associated with a diverse range of industries such as technology, sports, aviation, retail, FMCG, and hospitality. He has led brand communications for Zeta, Flock, IBM Labs (India/South Asia), as well as managed reputation for brands like Nike, Procam, Speedo, Philips R&D and several other brands that are global leaders in their respective categories. 

Over the years, he has also been associated with several leading sporting events including the Karnataka Premier League, Bengaluru Bulls Pro Kabaddi team, Elite football league of India, Indian, Rugby India, Mahindra Racing, Aircel Chennai open, JK tyres (Motorsports) and many more.

MPL is a Mobile Gaming and Esports platform with over 40 Mn registered users and currently has over 50 games, including titles like FreeFire and World Cricket Championship. 

Anoop Seth Joins Sterlite Power’s Board of Directors

Global power transmission player Sterlite Power announced the appointment of Anoop Seth as an independent director of the company. He will advise the Board and leadership team on matters related to strategy and growth.

With a career of over 35 years in financial services and several infrastructure sectors, Seth is a distinguished leader in the infrastructure and finance sectors. He has held leadership positions in companies such as AMP Capital, Bank of America, Bechtel Corp, IDFC, Reliance Industries, Standard Chartered Bank, and IL&FS Energy.  

He completed his MMS from BITS Pilani in 1982 with a major in Finance, and Executive International Management Programme from INSEAD, France in 1993.

Stay tuned for the next edition of the movers and shakers of the week.

The post Movers And Shakers Of The Week [August 3-8] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

With tighter scrutiny of Chinese investments coming into local Indian startups via tax havens like Mauritius, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has returned the applications of several Indian startups who were applying for the Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) license. Some of these Indian startups are Sequoia-backed BharatPe, Google Capital-backed CarDekho and digital banking startup Jupiter backed by Sequoia and Matrix Partners, sources aware of the developments told Times of India. 

Many Chinese venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funds are registered in Mauritius. With weaker norms to counter money laundering, many of these funds are on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list. These concerns have seen the RBI return three applications for NBFC licenses. 

“Mauritius being in the grey list was a concern for the RBI. But recent political issues have made it more sensitive. The regulator hasn’t rejected these applications but has indicated the applications have to wait longer before a review,” one of the sources cited above said. The border clashes between Indian and Chinese armies in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley in June have seen India try to limit Chinese influence in its economy. For this purpose, the government has made mentioning the ‘country of origin’ for products mandatory for ecommerce companies, to help the consumers make an informed decision, while the government consistently ups the ante against Chinese imports and calls for an ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ or self-reliant India. 

Last month, the government also barred state-run telecom firms such as BSNL and MTNL from using equipment from Chinese telcos such as Huawei in their mobile network infrastructure. 

Tensions against China arose in April itself when India revised its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy to prevent ‘opportunistic’ takeover of Indian firms reeling from the financial disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown. According to the amendment, companies in neighbouring countries wanting to invest in Indian firms would require the prior approval of the Indian government. At the time, China called the move a violation of international trade principles. 

Expecting a decline in Chinese investments into the Indian startup economy, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), last month, was in talks with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to deliberate whether state-run insurers and pension funds can be allowed to invest in government-backed startup-focused fund-of-funds.

The post To Limit Chinese Money, RBI Halts NBFC Licenses Of Mauritius-Backed Indian Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

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

Edtech platform Springboard has raised $31 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Telstra Ventures with participation from Vulcan Capital and SJF Ventures, and returning investors like Costanoa Ventures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), 500 Startups, Blue Fog Capital and Learn Capital.

It plans to use the latest funding to work on student employability in a changing job market both in India and around the world by creating new hiring-focused products and strengthening employer partnerships to help graduates land their dream careers. In order to facilitate this plan, the company has also been building an innovative platform, including a hireability forecaster, Springboard Introductions for personalised introductions and job referrals.

Overall, $55.4 Mn was invested across 13 Indian startups this week, and three acquisitions took place. (This funding report is based on startups that disclosed funding amounts).

Indian Startup Funding Of The Week

1. Springboard: $31 Mn
2. FreshToHome: $16.2 Mn
3. Eduvanz Financing: $3 Mn
4. Wobot Intelligence: $2.5 Mn
5. Yulu Bikes: $796K
6. EasyPolicy: $726K
7. Bolo Indya: $500K
8. Data Sutram: $226K
9. Phable Care: $162K
10. Beewrks: $150K
11. Origo Commodities: $86K
12. Zo Rooms: $73K
13. Probus Smart Things: Undisclosed

• FreshToHome: Bengaluru-based online marketplace for perishable goods FreshToHome is raising nearly $16.2 Mn (INR 122,25,79,350) from Ascent Capital India. According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42,  the fair value per equity share is INR 952, with an enterprise value of INR 1,830 Cr ($244 Mn).

• Eduvanz Financing: Mumbai-based student loans startups Eduvanz Financing is raising $3 Mn (INR 23 Cr) 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.

• Wobot Intelligence: 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.

• Yulu Bikes: Yulu Bikes has received an approval to raise $796K (INR 5.97K) from Bajaj Auto. According to the corporate affairs fillings, the company will be allocating 895 Series A2 preference shares at a face value of INR 100 and premium of INR 66,650 to Bajaj Auto.

• EasyPolicy: EasyPolicy has received the approval of its existing investors to issue 54,54,600 equity shares at face value of INR 10 worth $726K (INR 5.45 Cr) to Unilazer Ventures, according to the corporate affairs fillings accessed by Inc42.

• Bolo Indya: Gurugram-based regional language short-video platform Bolo Indya has raised $500K Series A funding from Eagle 10 Ventures and India Accelerator Group. It will use the funding to aggressively enhance its personalisation and recommendation engine, develop language evangelists and strengthen the team. A part of the fund will also be used to broaden and accelerate product development.

• Data Sutram: Kolkata-based Data Sutram has raised $226K (INR 2 Cr) in seed funding from Indian Angel Network angels Uday Sodhi, Mitesh Shah and Nitin Jain. The company will use this funding to strengthen its platform by providing enhanced services to our consumers.’

• Phable Care: Health management platform Phable Care has raised $162K (INR 1.22 Cr) in pre-Series A from nearly 40 investors.  According to the ministry of corporate affairs’ fillings, Phable Care’s parent company Terrals Technologies Private Limited has allocated 439 Pre-Series A1 equity shares at face value of INR 100 and premium of INR 27,738 to 40 allottees.

• Beewrks: Digital contact center marketplace, Beewrks, has raised $150K from Phonon Communications. WIth this investment, Phonon aims to get nearly 1 Lakh professionals employed on Beewrks.

• Origo Commodities: Origo Commodities has raised $86K (INR 65,00,000) through non-convertible debentures from IFMR FImpact Long Term Multi-Asset Class Fund, according to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42.

• Zo Rooms: Budget hotel room has raised $73K (INR 55 Lakhs) through non convertible debentures from Orios Ventures Partners Fund I.

• Probus Smart Things: IOT enabled Smart grid automation startup Probus Smart Things has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Mumbai-based early-stage investment firm Unicorn India Ventures. The company plans to use this funding to scale up its platform and expand to new geographies.

Indian Startup Acquisitions Of The Week

• Edtech unicorn BYJU’s has acquired Mumbai-based Whitehat Jr. for $300 Mn in order to expand its offerings. After the acquisition, BYJU’S will make significant investments in WhiteHat Jr’s technology platform, product innovation, while expanding the teacher base to cater to demand from new markets. WhiteHat Jr. Founder, Karan Bajaj will continue to lead and scale this business in India and the US.

• Mumbai-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand MyGlamm has acquired Delhi-based women-focused digital media and ecommerce platform POPxo for an undisclosed amount. Darpan Sanghvi of MyGlamm told Inc42 that this is a 100% acquisition, but POPxo will remain an independent entity and continue to operate as it is. With this acquisition, POPxo CEO and founder Priyanka Gill will be joining MyGlamm as a cofounder.

• Gurugram-based online used car platform Spinny has acquired rival Truebil for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition comes at a time when the used car market has gained momentum due to a change in personal transport preferences due to Covid.

Other Developments Of The Week

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to bring startups under the purview of priority sector lending (PSL), which will allow them to borrow capital from banks smoothly.

• The agriculture ministry is planning to invest nearly $4.8 Mn (INR 36.71 Cr) in 346 agritech startups and startups working in allied sectors like agro-processing, artificial intelligence, digital agriculture, farm mechanisation, waste to wealth, dairy, fisheries among others.

• Microsoft is reportedly in talks to invest $100 Mn in Indian social media platform Sharechat. ShareChat’s existing investors are expected to join Microsoft in the round, which could see ShareChat becoming the latest startup in India’s unicorn club.

• Early-stage venture capital firm Orios Venture Partners’ has finally announced the third cohort of its seed-stage acceleration programme Misfits. The third cohort includes nine startups — Karbon Card, CityCash, MoneyOnClick, Gully Network Retail, Intelligence Node, GolBol, Krishify, Leher, YumLane.

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

• 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.

• Edtech startup Toppr has infused an additional $10 Mn into its business to launch its special operating system for schools that will allow schools to run digitally, and create a standardised and personalised experience.

• GOQii has received an internal infusion of $504K (INR 3,78,86,865) from its US-based parent company GOQII Inc, as per the corporate affairs filings.

Stay Tuned!

The post Funding Galore: Indian Startup Funding Of The Week [July 3- August 8] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In a bid to generate employment and curb the air pollution menace in the national capital, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, on August 7, announced the launch of ‘progressive’ electric vehicle policy. With this, the AAP government looks to have 25% electric vehicles on road by 2024. Kejriwal said that this will be an add on to Centre’s FAME-II scheme, where people can avail benefits under both these plans.  

The new electric vehicle policy led by AAP government will now waive registration fee, road tax and provide an incentive of up to INR 1.5 Lakh for electric cars and INR 30K for electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers and freight vehicles. It seems to be inclined with govt’s last year’s electric vehicle policy agenda. 

In addition to this, Kejriwal said that the government will also be giving low-interest loans on electric commercial vehicles. This move by the government to provide financial support is expected to fast track the electric vehicle adoption in the national capital and boost EV sales in the coming months, given the discretionary spending among the consumers caused due to pandemic. 

Many industry experts and startups also agreed that the national capital’s new electric vehicle policy is a positive step towards EV adoption. The Government of India’s energy service company EESL, in its Twitter post, recently said that this new policy would provide a boost to #eMobility in Delhi.  

The new #EV policy for Delhi heralds the transition to electric mobility in the state. The incentives for EV buyers & sellers, along with EVCI subsidies announced in the policy will provide a boost to #eMobility in Delhi. @MinOfPower @RajKSinghIndia

— EESL India (@EESL_India) August 7, 2020

Also, the AAP government announced its plans to set up ‘EV Cell’ and ‘State Electric Vehicle Board’ in its electric vehicle policy, where the government expects the registration of over 5 Lakh new electric vehicles by 2025. Interestingly, the government has also introduced ‘scrapping incentive’ under the electric vehicle policy, which it claims to be first-of-its-kind in the country.

Furthermore, in an attempt to eliminate the range-anxiety among the consumers, the Delhi chief minister also said that it will be setting up 200 charging stations in the next one years, ensuring charging stations within the radius of 3 Km. 

Jasmine Shah, the vice-chairperson of AAP government-run Dialogue & Development Commission, previously told Inc42 that Delhi has an estimated 70K e-rickshaws. The AAP-government believes that the new electric vehicle policy will further push the adoption of high-speed electric autos on the road, thereby replacing existing CNG vehicles completely. 

Last year, the AAP government had also initiated the process of procuring 1,300 electric buses, which is one of the largest such commitment made by any government, shared DDC Delhi’s Shah. 

What It Means For EV Startups?

Commenting on the new electric policy, Tarun Mehta, cofounder at Ather Energy, a premium electric two-wheeler manufacturer, told Inc42 that policy addresses the issues of accessibility for the end consumer. The additional subsidy makes EVs more affordable across the board and offering it to higher performance vehicles, will ensure that end consumers will actually purchase and use these vehicles, he added. 

“Delhi has taken a holistic approach to their policy, taking into account charging infrastructure, different automobile models and scrappage of old ICE vehicles,” said Mehta.  

Further, Mehta said that Ather will begin deliveries of Ather 450X in the coming weeks in Delhi. The state’s policy has effectively reduced the on-road cost of its scooters by nearly 15K. “We look forward to being in the country’s capital very soon,” added Mehta, enthusiastically. 

Jeetender Sharma, founder and MD at Okinawa, an affordable electric two-wheeler manufacturer, said with the incentives of up to INR 30K on two-wheelers, we expect to see an easy and faster adoption on the same among buyers now. “What is more important is to push people towards considering EVs over ICE. Once people become familiar and comfortable travelling on EVs, we can expect an overall mindset shift and a widespread benefit,” he added. 

EV battery manufacturer Log 9 Materials founder Akshay Singhal told Inc42 that fiscal incentives for the purchase of EVs is welcome, however, it is not a long term solution. Further, he said that incentives for localisation of vehicle and component manufacturing is a must. Probably, preferential incentives for indigenous vehicles depending on the level indigenisation would lead to long term benefits. 

EV charging manufacturer, Megenta Power managing director Maxson Lewis also said that the Delhi EV policy is one of the most comprehensive EV policies across India, as on date and has managed to cover most if not all components of the EV ecosystem. Further, explaining, he said, the policy has taken a practical approach to implementing rather than sticking with the ‘this is how it is defined’ approach. Few examples are the practical modes of making EV charging deploy-able within the ambit of the AC001 standard, he added.

“We at Megenta are proud to be part of the team which gave inputs to the draft policy on EV charging infrastructure over the last one year or so. Also, glad to see many of those suggestions being incorporated in the Delhi EV policy,” concluded Lewis.

[Updated April 8, 2020 15:00] Inputs from electric vehicle charging manufacturer Megenta Power added.  

The post Delhi Govt Launches Electric Vehicle Policy, Fast-Tracks EV Adoption appeared first on Inc42 Media.

We bring you the latest edition of the news roundup: Indian startup news stories of the week!

This week, the Indian Software Products Industry Roundtable (iSPIRT), a policy and research institute focused on ensuring India’s growth as a hub for new generation software products, submitted a representation to the Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. With the assent of 121 Indian software products SaaS (software as a service) companies such as  Zoho, Freshworks, Tally, Kissflow, Quickheal, Busy, Intellect and Chargebee, among others, the policy institute urged the government to bring in long-pending reforms in the software products industry, specifically asking for the removal of SOFTEX forms and TDS levy on domestic sale of software products. 

The institute, in a press release, wrote that the sentiment among the stakeholders was positive after the government, last year, passed the National Policy on Software Products 2019. However, as it now stands, many of the reforms expected to be brought in swiftly by the government haven’t come through, said iSPIRT. 

Last year, the government approved the National Policy on Software Products 2019 with an outlay of INR 5,000 Cr fund, aimed at nurturing 10K startups in the software product industry and generating employment for 3.5 Mn people by 2025.

While Indian SaaS unicorns Zoho and Unicorns were united in iSPIRT’s representation sent to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), both companies were also engaged in a legal slugfest in a US court this week. Freshworks asked the California Northern District Court to quash the petition filed against it by rival Zoho under the Defence of Trade Secrets Act, accusing it of accessing and using confidential customer data. 

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.

Unicorn Roundup 

Flipkart To Consolidate Walmart Wholesale Operations 

After a bizarre reverse acquisition which saw Flipkart buy out parent company Walmart’s B2B wholesale chain ‘Best Price’, the ecommerce giant is now looking to consolidate its operations with its own. Flipkart may do this either by shutting down some of the 28 ‘Best Price’ stores across India which are unviable or converting them into warehouses with a focus on ecommerce operations. 

Last month, Flipkart acquired parent company Walmart’s B2B wholesale chain, ‘Best Price Modern Wholesale’, to launch its own service ‘Flipkart Wholesale’ in a bid to expand its presence in the food and retail segment. Flipkart Wholesale is expected to launch operations on a pilot basis this month in the fashion and grocery categories. Further, Walmart India employees are expected to join the Flipkart group next year in Bengaluru.

Plans are also afoot to help Flipkart take on rising online grocery player and a potential competitor in the ecommerce space, JioMart, with the former looking to now set up dark stores to expand its presence in the food and grocery delivery segment. A dark store is a small neighbourhood warehouse where consumers cannot enter directly and can only order online for home delivery. These small storage facilities function as neighbourhood fulfilment centres, further a direct to consumer (D2C) business 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.

BYJU’S Leveraging Acquisitions To Build Edtech Empire

With its recent acquisition of online coding learning platform WhiteHatJr for $300 Mn, Inc42 took a deep dive into BYJU’s strategy behind mergers and acquisitions (M&A), how the focus seems to be on assimilating younger startups with niche offerings, and the larger trend of M&A in the Indian edtech sector and whether this could see the sector become a duopoly in the coming years. 

This week, BYJU’S also made news for another, less positive development. An angel investor Dr Aniruddha Malpani, long critical of BYJU’S many moves on his social media handles, was blocked by Microsoft-owned professional networking platform LinkedIn. Malpani alleged the hand of BYJU’S in getting LinkedIn to block his account, since he posted several posts critical of the edtech decacorn on his platform. Both BYJU’S and LinkedIn offered templated responses to Inc42 as we analysed the developments and the larger freedom of speech conundrum on online platforms. 

Fintech Roundup 

RBI Brings Startups Under Priority Sector Lending

During his monetary policy statement, RBI governor Shakitkanta Das said that startups would be brought under priority sector lending for banks to help these companies tide over the financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 disruption. Das also said that an ‘Innovation Hub’ would be set up to promote innovation across the fintech sector. 

Previously, Infosys cofounder and former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Kris Gopalakrishnan warned that almost 25% of the Indian startups have less than six months of runway left, and could end up in serious trouble if the disturbance caused by the Covid-19 pandemic continued.

More announcements were made by RBI governor Das this week during his monetary policy statement. The Governor talked about a soon-to-be-launched pilot for offline-based digital payments, to help their adoption in areas with no internet access or patchy network. This would be done with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) looking to add near-field communication (NFC) capabilities to its payments infrastructure to take on its rivals Visa, Mastercard and another NPCI-owned service Rupay.

Using the NFC feature, Visa, Mastercard and RuPay offer contactless tap-and-go card payments at the point-of-sale (PoS). The introduction of NFC payment system will allow NPCI to expand UPI’s reach to offline merchants by tapping the PoS ecosystem.

Regional Imbalance In Digital Payments Adoption

The Digidhan database maintained by the IT Ministry to track the growth of digital payments across the country has revealed stark imbalances among states when it comes to digital payments adoption. While Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have been recording the highest number of transactions per person, Chhattisgarh and Jammu & Kashmir have been amongst the states with lowest transactions. Even North-Eastern states of Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya have recorded the lowest digital transactions.

The NPCI has been going all out in trying to enhance the adoption of digital payments across the country. Whether it be the plan to pilot offline-based digital payments through cards and mobile wallets using the NFC technology, or the launch of new features such as UPI AutoPay, which enables e-mandate for recurring payments up to INR 2,000 on the UPI network, plenty of steps have been taken to power digital payments adoption. The UPI is also showing positive signs of growth, having powered 1.5 Bn transactions in the country in July, worth INR 2,90,537 Cr. In June, UPI recorded 1.34 Bn transactions worth INR 2,61,835 Cr, according to the data shared by National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI). In May, UPI had over 1.23 Bn transactions worth INR 2.18 Lakh Cr.

However, with 250 Mn transactions monthly through QR codes, the volume of transactions made with Bharat QR is still “very low”, a report by an RBI special committee added. It said that India has deployed over 20 Mn UPI QR since March 2018, of which 2 Mn have been deployed by acquiring banks.

Ecommerce Roundup

Delhi Govt Could Partner With Online Grocery Delivery Platforms

The Delhi government is reported to be in talks with online grocery delivery platforms BigBasket, Grofers and JioMart after it approved the ‘Mukhyamantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojana’ last month for home delivery of rations to the beneficiaries. The companies have been asked if they would be willing to partner with the government and provide end-to-end logistics for the programme in a bid to modernise the public distribution system (PDS). If the partnership for the scheme comes through, the online grocery delivery platforms would help the government in delivering rations to an estimated 1.7 Mn households who are beneficiaries of the PDS. 

Delhi HC Directs Blocking Of Rogue ‘Snapdeal’ Websites

This week, the Delhi high court directed blocking of 50 websites which were allegedly using Snapdeal’s registered trademark for offering fraudulent prize schemes and lotteries on their websites. Snapdeal filed a case in the court, saying that the ‘rogue’ websites 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.

International Roundup

At 2.7 Bn, India Reports Most Game Downloads In The World 

According to a recent report by app analytics firm Sensor Tower, India recorded 2.7 Bn gaming app downloads in the second quarter (Q2) of 2020, the most in the world, followed by the US (1.4 Bn) and Brazil (1.2 Bn). India has seen a 50% growth in gaming app downloads from the last quarter when the number of downloads stood at 1.8 Bn.  

The demand for gaming apps, like other mobile applications, has seen a spike during the coronavirus pandemic and resultant country-wide lockdowns around the world. Interestingly, India, the US and Brazil are also the three countries with the most number of Covid-19 cases in the world.

India Asks TikTok And Co For Relationship Status With Chinese Govt

The Indian government has sent a list of 80 questions to the 59 banned Chinese applications such as TikTok, UC Browser, WeChat, among others. The questions are divided into categories such as “company”, “ownership”, “services & security”, “privacy policy” and “data-related information”. Through these questions, the government has asked the banned applications to disclose the location of their data servers, beneficial owners, countries of incorporation, as well as differences in permissions sought from Indian users as compared to those sought from users in other countries. 

The list of questions is the latest salvo fired by the Indian government, as scrutiny over the data sharing policies of Chinese applications continues. Last week, the government asked the applications about their data sharing around specific incidents, such as the Pulwama terror attacks last year, and whether they shared the data of Indian users with any third parties, before or after the incident. 

Meanwhile, some of the names in the fresh list of another 47 Chinese applications banned by the government last week, have been revealed by some sections of the media. These include ‘cloned’ versions of the 59 banned applications from last month, and some more Chinese apps including ByteDance-owned video editing app CapCut, Xiaomi’s Mi Browser Pro, as well as Chinese flagship internet products, Weibo and Baidu Search, among others.

Netflix Introduces Hindi Interface

After cheaper entry-level subscription plans for its Indian users, online streaming giant Netflix has launched a Hindi interface to further the platform’s appeal in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Last month, the platform was testing a ‘Mobile+’ plan for Indian users priced at INR 349/month. Subscribers to the plan can watch high definition (HD) content on the platform, on a single device at a time. 

The massive 68.64% of India’s 1.3 Bn population living in rural and semi-urban areas and consuming content primarily in native languages has become the quest for the Indian companies, particularly for the broadcasting, media and entertainment industry. More insights about the demand for regional content from OTT platforms can be found in Inc42’s OTT Media Landscape Report.

The post News Roundup: Indian Startup News Stories Of The Week [3-8 August] appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After the infusion of INR 40 Cr fund from Paytm parent company One97 Communications, Bengaluru-based wealth management company Paytm Money started its stockbroking operations earlier this week. As part of its introductory offer, the company said that it will be offering stockbroking at lower brokerage charges.

In a Business Standard report, Paytm Money said that it will be charging its customers INR 15 per trade, against INR 20 per trade charged by others. Also, it said that the investors will have to bear INR 250 annual charges plus goods and services tax (GST) annually, compared to INR 500 charged by other brokers. The one time account opening fees would be INR 150+GST, compared to INR 300+GST, which is 50% lesser than the industry price.

Founded in September 2018, Paytm Money was launched as a mutual funds platform. It sells mutual fund plans directly to consumers via a low-cost regular plan that eliminates the expenses of distributor commissions. The company was previously led by Pravin Jadhav, who was the director and cofounder of Paytm Money who led a team of over 250 employees, but he exited the company in April 2020.

Previously, Jadhav had informed Inc42 that Paytm Money added 3 Mn users in the span of 11 months, and 85% of its transactions are under INR 500.

Is Paytm Money On A Customer Acquisition Spree? 

Many industry experts said that traders prefer the discounting broking model any day as the brokerage charges are flat, irrespective of the trading volumes. Paytm Money’s stockbroking entry into the broking industry poise a huge challenge for other players in the market.

According to Karvy Wealth report, individual wealth in India is expected to touch INR 762 Cr, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)of 14.19% by FY23, and is most likely to double in size. Today, the market is burgeoning with broking companies, including Paytm Money, Upstox, Cube Wealth, INDWealth, Groww, Kuveram Wealthy, SAS Online, IIFL, Zerodha, Beeline Broking, Angel Broking, TradingBells, Karvy Stock Broking, Sharekhan among others.

However, in reality, the largest share is still held by the private and public banks, both in terms of investments and the transaction value. “The ecosystem isn’t growing. Until we find the ecosystem, it’s not a big industry; it is dominated by offline-driven business,” said Nitin Kamath, cofounder of Zerodha, one of the largest digital broking companies in India.

Further, Kamath said that spending money to acquire customers is not half the job done, a concept familiar to all in the consumer services world. It holds especially true in this segment because customer stickiness is a problem. “When people lose money in the stock market, the activity drops and leads to customer exits. And businesses have to spend again to regain this customer,” added Kamath.

The post Competition Hots Us As Paytm Enters Stock Broking Operations appeared first on Inc42 Media.