Mumbai-based cryptocurrency exchange aggregator, CoinDCX recently announced that Insta (formerly known as DCXInsta), has recorded a 38% MoM in growth since its inception in 2018.

Sumit Gupta, cofounder and CEO of CoinDCX, in a press statement, said that its product (Insta) witnessed a 62% MoM growth after the Supreme Court verdict. With more Indians interested in participating in the global crypto economy following the Supreme Court lifting of the banking ban in India in March, Gupta said that it becomes crucial to have a reliable on-ramp and off-ramp solution to fuel the national crypto adoption.

CoinDCX’s Insta which was launched on August 15, 2018, is a fiat-crypto exchange product that lets investors trade in INR. For instance, users on its platform can purchase 100+ cryptocurrencies at competitive prices with close to zero deposit and withdrawal fees. Also, the company said that coins on Insta are protected through CoinDCX’s best-in-class security measures.

Besides CoinDCX, other crypto exchange platforms like WazirX, Unocoin, Bitbns, Cashaa, Oropocket among others have also witnessed a surge in users and transactions after the Supreme Court verdict. Plus, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many Indians spent more time at home, where they began exploring other alternative investments. For instance, the trading volume on Mumbai-based WazirX rose 400% and 270% month-on-month in March and April. The company claimed to have to facilitate around 60 Mn trades per day as compared to 20 Mn before March.

Recently, Blockchain.com also revealed that India, Peru, Indonesia, where some of the top countries to have witnessed an increase in crypto wallet transactions. Followed by Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Japan, the Philippines, Venezuela, Bangladesh, and Bulgaria among others. Further, it stated that the total number of unique blockchain wallets created is more than 52 Mn.

But, all this growth seems short lived for cryptocurrency exchange platforms, as uncertainty surrounds these platforms. The Indian government is most likely to ban cryptocurrencies in the coming months, with the draft ‘Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2019.

On the bull run, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) at the time of writing was $12,278 with a market cap of, compared to last week (August 11, 2020) which stood at $11.865, with a market cap of $219 Bn. Now the question remains if this surge continues will BTC cross $15K by the end of this year.

#Bitcoin rocketing through 12K on Monday morning is much more energizing and a large cold brew.

— Tyler Winklevoss (@tylerwinklevoss) August 17, 2020

On the other hand, in a survey conducted by Plan B, where a total of 22,635 took part in a Twitter poll, showed that more than 72% of bitcoin investors are bullish about the cryptocurrency and will hold onto it even if the price somehow drops to zero.

Ethereum (ETH), on the other hand, was priced at $430.95, with a market cap of $48 Bn at the time of writing, compared to last week (August 11, 2020), where the price of the cryptocurrency was $389, with a market cap of $43 Bn.

Cryptocurrency News Of The Week:

Paytm Payments Bank Blocks Customers Over Crypto Trading 

India’s digital bank Paytm Payments Bank has been reportedly been blocking customers’ accounts for suspicious activity of cryptocurrency trading. According to Coin Crunch India, in its Twitter post, said that many users have been reporting that the company is freezing their bank account with suspicion of crypto trading activity. This, however, has instigated fear among a few investors, as crypto trading is not illegal in the country. Further, the post stated that banks are not restricted. However, banks can act in their own interest so users are advised to take caution.

Coinbase To Offer Loan To Buy Bitcoins 

San Francisco-based Coinbase, recently announced that it will be offering Bitcoin-backed cash loans to select customers starting from next month. Accordingly, customers from 17 states, including Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey among others, have been invited to join the waitlist to borrow up to 30% of their bitcoin holdings. The maximum loan is $20K at 8% for one year with no credit check.

US Central Bank Working On Developing Digital Currency 

In a recently published transcript from Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard, the US central bank stated that it has been working on creating a digital dollar. At the ‘San Francisco’s Innovation Office Hours’ webcast, she said that the authority has been collaborating with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) towards building a central bank digital currency (CBDC) codebase. Further, she stated that the coronavirus outbreak was a reminder of how far behind the country is with regard to digital currency payments.

The post Cryptocurrency This Week: After Supreme Court Verdict, CoinDCX Records 62% MoM Growth & More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

On August 15, when India celebrated its 74th Independence Day, the country’s drone policy silently took a giant leap. Now, over 70% of India’s landmass of 3.28 Mn sq Km is open for drones to operate. Under the Digital Sky plan, companies can now get single-window clearance for drones which comply with India’s ‘no permission, no take-off’ (NPNT) protocol to operate in areas demarcated as green and yellow zones.

However, drone flights over urban areas, near defence and strategic installations, airports and border areas, which are categorised as red zones, will need clearances from relevant security agencies before take-off, as per an ET report.

The move also comes ahead of the Phase 1 launch of the Digital Sky drone platform, planned for October 2. As envisioned in the Drone Regulations 1.0, the Digital Sky programme will bring airspace management, post-flight data submission and other features to the government’s drone flight management.

Big Push For Drone Startups

The opening up of green and yellow zones comes as India’s drone industry, which can now manufacture or purchase NPNT drones. So far, the industry has been holding out from making the switch, given the lack of permissions through the platform.

Currently, just about 40 drone startups are active in India. Over 90% of them are startups that do not have the luxury of burning cash on trials and experimental runs in this regulatory uncertainty.  Moreover, the lack of governmental support is a crucial growth hurdle for drone startups as this has limited funding for the sector.

This is more evident in the “Drone Technology: India Opportunity Report 2019”, by DataLabs by Inc42. According to the report, the total funding raised by drone startups in India from 2014 to 2018 was just $16.56 Mn which accounts for a mere 2.26% of the total deeptech funding ($732 Mn) in this period.

How The ‘No Permission, No Take-off’ Protocol Works?

•         A drone user will have to install the Digital Sky App provided by DGCA
•         Submit the pilot registration number with all the details of the pilot
•         Submit UAV/drone UIN number with all the details
•         Request for permission before flying
•         Current location is transmitted to the server
•         The server checks whether its green zone, yellow zone or red zone
•         If everything seems OK then the permission is sent with a notification to the user app

Another Digital Strike On China?

The NPNT condition comes as a deadly blow for drones from China’s DJI and France’s Parrot, which will become illegal as they are not compliant with NPNT. Besides these, consumer-grade drones are also being imported by individuals from China due to the price advantage. 

Speaking to Inc42, Vipul Singh, cofounder and CEO of Aarav Unmanned Systems said the flux in Digital Sky is typical of a government initiative. “The tender was recalled and revised. Now the contract is to be given to someone for the development and maintenance of the Digital Sky.”

Drone Tech Flying High In India

In May 2020, waking up to the use of drones in the fight against Covid-19, the ministry of civil aviation and directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) launched the GARUD portal. The platform provides fast track exemptions to government agencies for using drones in their operations against the pandemic.

GARUD or ‘Government Authorisation for Relief Using Drones’ was supposedly developed by the National Informatics Centre in eight days.

Drones were also extensively used by state governments to deliver essentials during the pandemic. Maharashtra partnered with California-based medical product delivery company Zipline to launch a logistics network of autonomous drones for delivery services across the state. The drones will be used to make on-demand deliveries of blood products, vaccines and life-saving medications. 

Meanwhile, hyperlocal delivery platform Dunzo is also warming up to the idea of using drones with the help of management consulting firm Alternative Global India (AGI). This will be the first step to turn Dunzo’s delivery dream into reality.

Bengaluru-based B2B ecommerce startup ShopX has also collaborated with aerospace and robotics company Omnipresent, to start its last-mile drone delivery trial from September 1.

In a press statement, ShopX and Omnipresent said that it has developed a drone delivery system called ‘AirTrain,’ which would bridge the logistics gap from the warehouses to retail outlets in a seamless manner. With this, small retailers and kirana stores will be able to choose ‘Drone Delivery’ as an option and get a wide range of products delivered in 30-60 minutes.

The post India’s Digital Sky Drones Platform Goes Live For Startups, Drone-Makers appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based business ledger app Khatabook has most definitely made its mark on the Indian startup ecosystem by gaining a super high valuation of $300 Mn with nothing to show in the revenue column on the balance sheet.

Since its launch in 2018, the startup has managed to attract $173 Mn in funding across six rounds from some of the biggest investors in the startup ecosystem including Sequoia Capital’s Surge, DST Global, Falcon Edge Capital, Facebook cofounder Eduardo Saverin’s B Capital Group, Tencent Holdings, Better Capital, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Snapdeal cofounder and CEO Rohit Bansal among others.

Former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also an investor in Khatabook that aims to bring small and medium enterprises (SME) into the digital world. The company largely works on a model to create a loyal base of digitally-savvy sellers, who can later be lured into subscription-based monetisation or upselling. The startup claims to have close to 20 Mn (2 Cr) registered merchants using its services in nearly 11 languages.

Last week, the company’s latest catalogue maker for shop owners called ‘Dukaan by Khatabook’ made its debut on the Google Play Store and has already crossed 16K downloads in the first week. The app allows users to create an online store in 15 seconds and carry on their business online.

Dukaan by Khatabook seems to be simple to use for shopkeepers and has earned an average rating of 4.8 on the Play Store. But the big issue here is that there’s already an app called Dukaan which has been around since June 2020. Launched by GrowthPond (MyDukaan.io), the app which is also called Dukaan also promises that sellers can launch online stores in under a minute (30 seconds).

If the JioMeet-Zoom UI similarities were striking, this takes things to a whole new level.

From the colour palette of the UI to the layout, there are more than a few similarities between the two. A closer look at the photos on the Google Play Store shows that Khatabook has not even bothered to edit out MyDukaan.io’s URL from the screenshots it has updated on Google App Store.

Besides this, the description of Dukaan by Khatabook is also very similar to GrowthPond’s MyDukaan.io app. Moreover, Dukaan By Khatabook seems to have even been inspired by the MyDukaan.io’s app icon too.

KhataBook To Face Legal Action Over Plagiarism

In a conversation with Inc42, GrowthPond founder Suumit Shah revealed that he has known Khatabook’s cofounder and CEO Ravish Naresh since 2014. The two had been in touch and on friendly terms, and Shah even handled some growth marketing for Khatabook. Shah said that the two had frequent interactions.

Shah further alleged that not only was Naresh aware of GrowthPond’s app development, but he also knew about the traction it had received after launch. “Over the past 2 months, we have seen tremendous traction since publishing our app on Play Store on 9th June 2020. In this short time frame, we have signed up over 2.5 Lakh businesses, who digitised over 2 Mn products and have helped drive over INR 20 Cr in GMV,” the MyDukaan.io founder claimed.

Two months after the launch of ‘Dukaan’, Khatabook went on to launch ‘Dukaan by Khatabook’ on Google Play Store on August 11. Shah said he reached out to Khatabook personally as well but did not receive any response. The legal notice accessed by Inc42 highlighted that GrowthPond had trademarked the name Dukaan, Dukan, MyDukaan, MyDukan and its variants.

In response to Inc42, Khatabook reiterated that Dukaan is a brainchild of Khatabook. “Khatabook denies all allegations made by Growthpond as false and baseless. Khatabook reserves its right to initiate appropriate legal action, both civil and criminal in nature, against Growthpond, Risemetrics (Rankz.inc)  and others associated with them.”

The statement further added Khatabook had engaged Growthpond and Risemetrics Inc, which has developed the Growthpond’s Dukaan app. The two companies were already consulting with Khatabook in the capacity of a digital marketing agency.


Sources close to the matter alleged that Khatabook had plagiarised its user interface in the past too to create its existing applications, naming Sequoia Surge-backed Inodensian business ledger app BukuKas and Bengaluru-based staff management tool Pagarbook. Khatabook did not respond to the queries raised by Inc42 on these allegations.

Khatabook is not the only company to be caught up in such allegations of data theft or plagiarism. India’s biggest SaaS unicorns Zoho Corp and Freshworks have been embroiled in a lawsuit in the US since earlier this year. This year alone, insurance tech Acko has made similar allegations against former employees who now run Onsurity Tech.

In the case of Khatabook launching a platform like Dukaan seems like a logical progression as the core focus of the startup is on small businesses and shop owners, but did it overlook the potential plagiarism risk given the need to rapidly launch the product?

The post Khatabook’s $300 Mn SMB Empire In Plagiarism & Trademark Violation Trouble? appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Pune-based fintech startup First Principle Labs (FPL) Technologies, on August 18, announced that it has raised $10 Mn in funding from Sequoia India, Matrix Partners India and Hummingbird Ventures. The company, in a press statement, said that it will be utilising the fund to further scale up its engineering and product development teams and customer acquisition. With this latest funding round, the company clocked total funding of $15 Mn till date.  

Prior to this, in September 2020, the company had raised $4.5 Mn in funding from Sequoia India and Matrix partners among other angel investors. At the time, the company had plans to launch consumer credit cards through bank partnerships. 

Today, along with the funding announcement, the company also has announced the launch of its mobile-first metal credit card called ‘OneCard,’ which would be available across 12 cities, including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Indore, Jaipur and Kolkata. The company said that it plans to expand into other geographies in the coming months.  

With this, users can now apply for a credit card via the OneScore app (free credit rating and credit scoring platform), which is currently available on both Android and iOS platforms. 

OneScore, which was launched in July 2019, in the span of one year has acquired close to 2 Mn users. In December 2019, the company had tied-up with global fintech giant Visa to launch this product, which claims to offer contactless transaction experience for users. 

At the time, FPL had said that it would provide its customers with a mobile application to manage aspects of their credit life cycle. Also, the digital credit card is said to leverage Visa’s technology and global acceptance footprint to make it available for a wide range of use cases. 

Founded in 2018, FPL Technologies was founded by Anurag Sinha, Rupesh Kumar and Vibhav Hathi in September 2018. With the launch of ‘OneCard,’ FPL Tech aims to disrupt the market by making agents or sales marketing professionals redundant in the process. 

Offers Seamless Experience, Control & Reward Programme 

Focusing on providing a seamless experience for the digital-savvy young audience, FPL competes with the likes of other fintech startups, including Cred, Orangepay, Copenhagen Fintech, Verifi and Netpay among others. According to Research and Markets, the credit card user base in India is expected to reach 47 Mn in 2020, growing at a CAGR of more than 25% during 2020-2025. The growth of the market is said to be fuelled by the millennials who typically purchase products first and pay later.   

FPL said that its cardmembers can control every aspect of their OneCard from a mobile app, be it domestic or international transactions, deactivating their card, enabling online/offline transactions, paying their credit card bill and more. Further, it said that there are no annual or joining fees and forex markup rate of 1% is among the lowest in the market. 

In addition to this, FPL’s OneCard also offers a reward programme ‘OneRewards,’ where it claims to award 5x points on the top two spend categories each month. Accordingly, the points would be credited and redeemed on the OneCard mobile app, with no redemption fee. Further, the company said that with the issue of fractional points, no spend ever goes unrewarded.  

The post FPL Tech Raises $10 Mn Funding From Sequoia, Matrix & Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Amid these stressful times, the mental health landscape, which has been predominantly dominated by counselling centres and specialist clinics, has taken a turn. Just like retail brands and outlets, mental health counselling has moved online to stretch the reach of startups operating in this space. As evidenced by the growth witnessed by mental health startups, mental wellness seems to be on the radar for most Indians. From individuals to school going kids, teens, corporate professionals, influencers, entrepreneurs and celebrities, are now looking to seek professional help at their ease and convenience. The stigma associated around mental health is slowly getting eliminated from the equation.

While many industry experts and psychologists believe that technology may not always replace face-to-face interaction when it comes to mental wellness and serious disorders, in recent times, it has increased the convenience, choice and flexibility for individuals looking for respite with the Covid-19 crisis. In fact, the global conversation around mental health and loneliness in light of the lockdowns around the world have also erased the stigma factor to a large extent.

While mental health startups such as Wysa, YourDOST, Mindhouse and others have seen rapid adoption, the startups that worked in the physical world had to rethink operations first, before thinking about catering to the new audience.

For mental wellness startup Trijog which was running camps and clinics for individuals, corporates and institutions, it was time to switch its business to 100% online. And the Mumbai-based startup managed to do this in a matter of four weeks to completely move to virtual counselling. Prior to the lockdown phase, the company earned 30% of its business through online counselling and 70% through visits to its centres, training institutes and camps. It had to go through a complete restructuring, and it took 28 days for the company to align with the pandemic times and go online.

“To ensure high quality experience for our users, we had to increase our training support for our in-house team, alongside enhancing the tech capabilities. While the app and the online tools took care of the front end, we made sure that our back end was strong and had to redesign the entire system of operations,” said cofounder Arushi Sethi, who is also a board member at the World Federation For Mental Health (WFMH).

Trijog: A Multifaceted Mental Wellness Play 

Founded in 2015 by mother-daughter duo Anureet Sethi and Arushi Sethi, Trijog is backed by GHP Group led by Yugank Sharma. Pre-Covid, only its webinars and online therapy sessions were conducted virtually, but after the pandemic, the company had to realign everything, and now it claimed to have reached a phase where it can accommodate both online and offline services as per patients convenience, including in-centre counseling, corporate wellness, institutional wellness, trainings, campaigns and others.

Today, Trijog earns revenue from multiple touch points across each of its five revenue verticals, and its costs for individuals range from INR 1500 to INR 3000. In the corporate segment, its clients include Aditya Birla Group, Unilever, Essel Group, WeWork, TATA, Euro School, Oberoi International School, Emotion Matter Foundation and World Federation For Mental Health among others.

For Trijog, the primary challenge is not outcome related since it has trained professionals to handle that aspect, however the company has to put in efforts to bring individuals to the point of mental healthcare. In India, the market is still in the nascent stage, and a lot of awareness and community driven initiatives is said to fuel the growth. Trijog said that its campaigns and outreach programmes have helped them in their conversions. For instance, one such programme during the recent lockdown was the nationwide pro bono initiative, where it offered free phone counselling sessions for a duration of 20 minutes per person.

In March and April, because of this campaign Trijog was able to touch the lives of over 500 users. Besides setting up back end internal ERP tech and quality assurance for the wing department or vertical, Trijog had to digitise everything, including data management system, which used to be stored offline and online (cloud migration), patients counselling session reporting and internal training support and comply with data compliance, backend for client management and customer satisfaction through mobile app, all developed in house, which is headed by Sahej Sethi, director, head business practice and marketing at Trijog.

For each stage, Trijog had to solve a separate set of challenges. For instance, its coaches and psychologists, who were familiar with one-on-one sessions in physical clinics, had to go through extensive training to ensure quality and outcomes in the online environment.

“We set up a complete web-based interface which gave students the details of the training — schedule, subject and details of classes on per-class and subscription basis,” shared Arushi, pointing at the shift to online classes. Currently, it uses Zoom to conduct these sessions (one-on-one as well as batches), but the cofounder said that in the coming days the company plans to set up its own video platform for experts and learners.

In an experimentation mode, Arushi claims that the way things are going at the moment and how Covid-19 changed their business overnight, Trijog has decided to redesign its processes every six months, where it plans to amalgamate both conventional intervention and tech to offer holistic mental health services for the masses.

Going Back The Omnichannel Way 

Initially, Trijog started its journey with a four member team, and was catering to only two verticals, including one-on-one therapy sessions and corporate mental wellness. It had about 240 clients through both these verticals. Last year, after the addition of schools and online therapy sessions, the company added 5K new users and since then claims to have touched lives of close to 7 Mn people through its online campaigns and reach. Today, it has a team of 52 employees, Trijog has catered to over 26,700 users across verticals.

Going forward, in the next six months, Trijog is looking to raise its next round of funding. The cofounder told Inc42 that it plans to double its team size by 2021, along with its plans to expand its services internationally, and running national and global awareness campaigns. Also, in its newly launched Trijog Training Institute, the company envisions certifying at least 500 practitioners, who will help grow its team as well as service India’s burgeoning mental health landscape.

According to FutureWise Research, the global mental health market is expected to touch $4.5 Bn by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate of over 13%. The report further stated that the blend of advanced behavioural software solutions with the conventional behavioural health solutions is expected to enhance effectiveness and productivity, thereby fueling the growth of the mental health industry.

From September 1, 2020 onwards, Trijog will also be resuming its offline operations to go for a complete hybrid model.

“At the end of the day, technology or online therapy has its limitations, and will not be able to replace the human interface. For critical cases, behaviour therapy is a must. We can not forget about that market,” Arushi added.

The post Why Mental Health Startup Trijog Is Banking On Omnichannel Even As Mental Wellness Goes Virtual appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Even in the harsh reality that surrounds businesses today with the markets and economies suffering unprecedented loss and slowdown, there is a ray of hope when it comes to innovative startups. With the pandemic and lockdown forcing various businesses to shut shop, startups have stepped up to solve the challenges at multiple levels. 

In times like these, the keen eye of the investors has shifted towards startups that are providing solutions that will help both businesses and, in turn, economies revive their growth. And a few such startups can be found at Cisco LaunchPad, a B2B corporate accelerator programme, which recently concluded its 6th cohort of startups in a live virtual event. 

Sruthi Kannan, head, Cisco LaunchPad inaugurated the event saying, “To be successful in this post-Covid world, it is time for us to go back to the drawing board and rework the strategies. In startup terminologies, this is the time to pivot and create a profound impact not only for the startups but also for bigger enterprises.”

Held on August 10, the event brought forth the role of Cisco LaunchPad’s mentors, tech integration guidance, joint GTM strategy, investor connections and more, in the journey of the growth and scale of the startups from the cohort.

Through the course of the six-month-long structured programme, the Cisco LaunchPad focusses on core technology domains such as — cloud, networking, collaboration software, cyber and data security, IoT, mobility, data centres and analytics.

The Cisco LaunchPad Startup Showcase Day

The Cisco LaunchPad Graduation showcase saw presentations from all the five graduating startups — Eder Labs, Vernacular.ai, Clean Slate Technologies, SatSure and Probus.

It also saw speakers such as Debjani Ghosh, president of NASSCOM, who gave her perspective on industry startup collaborations followed by Deepak Bagla, MD and CEO, Invest India with his insights on entrepreneurship, innovation and more. 

Towards the end of the showcase, Kannan announced that Vernacular.ai was inducted into the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community. The community is an invitation-only group of the world’s most promising startups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of technological and business model innovation.

The Sixth Cohort Startups Of Cisco LaunchPad

Eder Labs

With the rise in the adoption rate of AI across industries, privacy needs more attention than ever. In early 2018, it started experimenting with different approaches to perform privacy-preserving machine learning. In the past two years, Eder Labs has worked with advanced technologies such as secure multiparty computation, fully homomorphic encryption, federated learning, and trusted hardware-based methods to achieve privacy.

Clean Slate Technologies

Envisioning a GPS platform for the indoor world, Clean Slate helps factories and warehouses track things, claiming to provide seven times better accuracy than traditional technologies.

The startup has produced solutions with Kreto sensor tags, inLocate 6.0 tracking middleware engine and inLog visualisation platform. The startup provides the customers access to any module of inLog platform to improve the utilisation of their MHE (material handling equipment) fleet, minimise inventory inaccuracy and improve productivity and safety of their workforce.

Probus

With the belief that the loss suffered by the Indian economy due to power fluctuations and distortions in supply can be prevented through digitisation and automation, Probus IoT is working on enhancing the power distribution infrastructure.

The startup aims to reduce the number of breakdowns and energy losses, as well as enable electric utilities to provide reliable last-mile connectivity and more. Going forward, the startup plans to strengthen its communication and software tech and expand to different geographies.

Vernacular.ai 

With voice coming into focus in a contactless world Vernacular.ai aims to be the leading voice-driven automation platform. Last year, this Series A-funded startup launched its product Vernacular Intelligent Virtual Agent (VIVA) — a multilingual AI platform — helping automate repetitive call centre queries. With the claim of having achieved a high level of accuracy in understanding and solving customer queries and concerns, the product supports over 10 Indian languages and over 160 dialects.

SatSure

Founded in 2017, SatSure aims to democratise the power of data from space, focussing on the sustainability of food, water, and climate security. Its geospatial big data platform combines satellite imagery, proprietary algorithms, with IoT, drone imagery and more to generate near real-time location-specific insights.

Details From Cisco LaunchPad’s Sixth Cohort

The Cisco LaunchPad cohort took off with a two-day bootcamp which briefed startups on the modules, practices and experiments they will undertake during their tenure. Through the course of the programme, the startups received monthly connect sessions to discuss and brainstorm about various use cases, bottlenecks and probable solutions amongst each other as well as with the experts and mentors.

“Until February, startups were at Cisco’s campus physically to learn the nuances of doing business and create solutions from Cisco’s mentors, SMEs and leadership. By mid-March, as the pandemic wreaked havoc, Cisco LaunchPad along with the startups resorted to the virtual mode of interaction and collaboration over Cisco’s conference platform WebEx,” Krishna Sundaresan, VP engineering, Cisco, told Inc42.

Though the programme was forced to adopt a hybrid online-offline model for this cohort due to the pandemic, the companies quickly adapted to the changes and ensured a seamless process of the learning, growth and interactions. The startups participated through webinars, physical and virtual learning sessions. 

“The 6th cohort of Cisco LaunchPad saw the arrival of some exciting startups who are advocates of solving myriad modern-day challenges and problem statements harnessing the very best of cutting-edge technologies. We are extremely proud to be associated with these startups who are racing ahead of time and creating solutions that are practical, scalable and efficient,” added Cisco’s Kannan.

The accelerator programme is currently accepting applications for its 7th cohort, interested startups can apply now.

The post Five Startups Graduate From Cisco LaunchPad’s 6th Cohort During A Virtual Graduation Showcase appeared first on Inc42 Media.

DrinkPrime, a Bengaluru-based water purifier startup, raised INR 21 Cr in a Pre-Series A round from Omidyar Network India and Sequoia Surge on Tuesday (August 18, 2020). The funds will be used to strengthen its team and invest in its growth plans.

Founded by Vijender Reddy Muthyala and Manas Ranjan Hota in 2015, DrinkPrime aims to use technology to make drinking water affordable without the hassle of installation or periodic maintenance, while ensuring high-quality drinking water. Its service is currently operational in Bengaluru and the company plans to use the funds to expand to the top ten Indian cities and expand its product portfolio.

The cleantech startup creates smart water purifiers, leveraging Internet of Things (IoT) technology and a seven-stage filtration process to give its customers access to clean drinking water on tap.

The integrated technology also helps them monitor the quality of the water they consume every day. The startup offers a ‘subscribe-to-use’ model to ensure the consumers do not have to bear high upfront costs.

“We are currently operating in Bengaluru and looking to expand to multiple geographies this year. Now with a much more robust product, our customers’ love for DrinkPrime is pushing us to grow rapidly,” said Vijender Reddy Muthyala, CEO and cofounder of Drink Prime in a statement.

Muthyala also added that they aim to reach a million households in the next couple of years. Additionally, the startup also aims to work towards curbing the death of children from diarrhea or any water-borne diseases.

“Clean drinking water is a basic right and yet an unsolved problem for millions of Indian households. We believe that DrinkPrime’s innovative direct-to-consumer business model, which makes quality drinking water more affordable, will help improve the lives of India’s next half billion, that is those belonging to the lower 60 % of India’s economic distribution,” said Badri Pillapakkam, investment partner, Omidyar Network India in a statement.

The post DrinkPrime Raises INR 21 Cr From Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Surge appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In the past two months, popular brands like Diaego, Airtel, PepsiCo, Coca Cola and Adidas have reportedly reduced their advertising on Facebook and Instagram. The move is in line with their parent companies’ decision to avoid being related to objectionable content. 

The pushback against Facebook has come after multiple allegations of widespread hate speech, disinformation and toxic content on the platform. Global spirits making company Diageo has confirmed to ETPrime that advertising on social media platforms have been put on hold by the company globally, which includes India.

“From July 1, we paused all paid advertising globally on major social media platforms. We will continue to discuss with media partners how they will deal with unacceptable content,” Diageo India spokesperson reportedly said. Advertising is said to make a major portion of Facebook’s revenue, the company reported its ads revenue to be over $70 Bn in 2019.

Hate speech is a long-standing problem of all social networking platforms. But Facebook, specifically came under the scanner for the company’s inaction towards a post from American President Donald Trump that seemed to be calling for violence against people protesting the police killing of George Floyd. 

This led many of the Facebook employees to resign from the company as a sign of protest and one engineer even said that “Facebook is hurting people at scale”. These displays of protests and distrust in the company’s content moderation practices eventually lead to a movement called Stop Hate For Profit. 

In June 2020, a group of civil rights organisations appealed businesses to put a pause on their Facebook advertising for the month of July.  Following which, over 1100 companies including major corporations, small businesses, and 100+ nonprofits and countless individuals expressed solidarity with the movement. 

Some of the major brands which participated in this movement were Unilever, Verizon, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Clorox, Adidas, Ford, Denny’s, Volkswagen, Mozilla, Microsoft and more. The movement has now started to grow beyond the United States, into Europe and in other areas. “Facebook’s attitude towards addressing how their algorithms push hate, violent conspiracy theories, and disinformation is transparently inauthentic,” the coalition noted. 

In India, a recent report by Wall Street Journal has alleged Facebook of preventing takedown of hate speech content posted by members of India’s ruling BJP, even if it conflicted with the organisation’s global guidelines on hate speech. The company is now facing the prospect of being summoned by the parliamentary standing committee on information technology to answer questions on the alleged collusion.

The post Airtel, Pepsi, Coca Cola Pause Advertising On Facebook, Instagram appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In just over half a decade (2014-2019), India has shown a great appetite for technology, data and the internet. The internet paved the way for thousands of startups to rise over the past decade, address unique problems, transform entire industries and create new segments!

From having a handful of tech companies to dozens and now thousands of innovative new ventures, India’s startup ecosystem grew immensely in the past decade. From 29K startups in 2014, the number has grown exponentially from 2015-2018 and will touch 55K startups by the end of 2020.

With overall funding skyrocketing to touch $63 Bn between 2014 to H1 2020 alone, India has seen entry of 34 startups in the unicorn club having a combined valuation of $115.5 Bn.

Celebrating the success of the startup ecosystem in the last decade, we are happy to announce the launch of the second edition of our flagship report — The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem, 2020.

The report will act as a go-to-guide for just about everything one may want to understand about the Indian startup ecosystem. With deep, data-driven insights to influence strategic decision-making in governance, investments, growth, and other core aspects driving the Indian startup ecosystem.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

The State Of Indian Startup Funding

It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that 2020 has brought some very unprecedented changes in the business world. For Indian startups, the funding winter this year has begun in the middle of sweltering summers. While the ecosystem has come a long way since 2014, going through the golden period of funding between 2015 and 2017, after a couple of years of slow but mature growth, 2020 has been a year of decline.

Over the years, the growth of startups has brought in more international investors and boosted their confidence towards India. Fundraising reported by SEBI-registered (Category 1) venture capital funds grew from INR 326 Cr in 2014 to over INR 2,703 Cr in 2019 — an 8x surge in five years. Also, the share of actual capital raised to commitments in 2014 was 35% compared to 61% in 2019, indicating the growing investor interest towards investment opportunities in India.

With such huge money at play, the Indian startup ecosystem has a lot to lose due to the pandemic. It has already left millions of people jobless and created a liquidity crisis in many places. Covid-19 has created a new market in almost every sense, for instance, once-lauded metrics such as the gross revenue and total addressable market has been usurped by sustainability-focussed goals like EBITDA and economies of scale.

The numbers make it quite evident that investment activity in startups is slowing down post the pandemic. Therefore, in a scenario (i.e. Case 1) where high ticket value investments in established startups will continue to flow along with greater investor confidence towards the beneficiary sectors such as edtech, fintech, online gaming and OTT, ecommerce and enterprise tech. The total capital raised by Indian startups in 2020 is estimated to reach $11.3 Bn in this case, which can be termed the best-case scenario, an 11% decline compared to the previous year.

On the contrary, in Case 2, high ticket size investments will take a hit and there will be only moderate investor confidence towards the beneficiary sectors. Under this scenario, the total capital inflow in Indian startups is expected to dip in 2020 by as much as 36.2% compared to 2019, to reach $8.1 Bn. In both scenarios the total capital inflow in Indian startups for the year 2020 is expected to be the lowest since 2017.

State Of Unicorns And Soonicorns

From a single unicorn in 2012, 10 in 2016, India has seen 34 startups attaining unicorn status with a current combined valuation of $115 Bn.

In our recent analysis of the Indian startup ecosystem based on the current pace and growth and other factors we have identified 52 soonicorns which have the potential to enter the unicorn club by 2022.

There are 53 startups in India that have the potential to achieve $1 Bn plus valuation by the end of 2022 as per our analysis. Out of which the single highest number of startups (19) is from fintech. This is different from the same in unicorns where enterprise tech startups (7) have the highest number.

The State Of Indian Startup Hubs

As we closed the first half of 2020, Bengaluru the long hailed startup capital of India still has its crown intact with a total funding amount of $28 Bn across 1,876 deals between 2014 to H1 2020.

Lately, in addition to the top three hubs (Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Mumbai) emerging hubs such as Pune and Hyderabad have recorded a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45% and 37% respectively.

In the tier segment, Jaipur and Goa have earned their spot in the top 10 startup hubs as of H1 2020 based on the number of funding deals. Interestingly, Jaipur a tier 2 city has outperformed Kolkata— a celebrated tier 1 metro.

The State Of Indian Investor Landscape

With the beginning of a new decade in the 21st century earlier this year, the journey of Indian startup ecosystem has entered a new phase. From a handful of investors and a few startups to over 49K startups and over 2,000 Indian and international investors, the startup ecosystem has come a long way in the past five years. International investors now routinely come to Indian shores to invest in the burgeoning tech ecosystem.

While angels and corporations undoubtedly have played a big role in funding trends, according to DataLabs by Inc42 analysis, 2019 was not one of the better years for venture capitalists.

As per our analysis, till the second half of 2020, there are approximately 4,640 active investors in India. Among these, the majority or 59% (2,751) are angel investors and 18.3% (849) are venture capital firms. Overall there is a downward trend in terms of unique investor participation similar to what has been observed in 2019. However, the frequency of participation by the existing investor is on the rise.

Looking Beyond 2020

While the first decade of the 21st century was all about bringing India’s cities and metros online, the past ten years have been about using the internet to create businesses and startups and take the digital torch to Tier 2, 3 markets and rural India. India is today home to the world’s largest working population and startups are expected to take full advantage of this in the next five years.

After steady growth in 2018 and 2019, in 2020 too, the Indian startup ecosystem was expected to remain stable in terms of funding and investor interest, but the pandemic has changed the game completely. With the funding winter coming in early, there’s a bigger focus on sustainability, which is also expected to play a part in the number of funding deals.

Nevertheless, there are several positives still in the Indian market to give us hope about the future of startups. Growing from a nascent stage to a flourishing ecosystem to the current stage of maturity and stability, Indian startups have some of the best market conditions to take advantage of with digital products and services adoption at an all-time high. Once the medium and long-term pandemic impact subsides, there’s no stopping Indian startups.

By 2025, the number of startups in India is expected to cross 100K, creating more than 3.25 Mn jobs in the process. At the same time, the total funding in Indian startups is likely to increase to over $150 Bn and with the total value creation exceeding $500 Bn.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT

The post Presenting The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

When India’s coronavirus lockdown began on March 25, 2020, many companies had already volunteered to move to remote operations with employees working from home. At the time, it was being seen as a temporary adjustment, but six months later remote work is here to stay for better or for worse. 

With it came more family time, ability to work from smaller cities, zero commuting costs — these were some of the more obvious benefits. But every coin has two sides to it and in this case, the other side of remote work is employee burnout as days stretched on without that end-of-the-day feeling that comes with going to the office. 

Given that we all were in quarantine, the boundary between work and leisure has also blurred over the past few months. Juggling household chores and office calls has become a constant loop that only ends with bed time and again repeats itself the next day.

According to a survey by the National Bureau of Economic Research, an average workday for employees in North America, Europe, and the Middle East has increased by 48 minutes after lockdown, while meetings are up by 13% and people are sending about 1.4 emails per day on average. The study observed employee behavior over two 8 week periods before and after Covid-19 lockdowns. 

The Burnout Syndrome

WHO defines burnout as an occupational disease caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Some characteristics of burnout include exhaustion, feelings of negativity or cynicism towards one’s job, and drop-in professional efficacy.

Even though remote work allows employees to work in supposedly more comfortable environments, this does not reduce the risk of burnout. According to another survey by jobs platform Monster, in July 2020, over 69% of the 284 surveyed employees in the US reported burnout symptoms while working from home, 

“Although work from home may have offered you a break from the commute, office structure and your regular daily routine for the past few months, the mental break from work, as well as technology, is equally important,” Vicki Salemi, a career expert at Monster said. 

Despite experiencing burnout symptoms, 59% of the surveyed employees are found to be taking fewer leaves as compared to pre-covid times. 

Companies too have started acknowledging the psychological impact of long work hours and disappearing boundaries between work and personal life. In May 2020, Google announced one day paid leave for employees to address the remote work burnout. A similar trend is also seen in Indian startups, who are increasingly trying to make workspaces conducive for their employees. 

Startups Look At Wellness Leaves 

Like Google, Chennai-based Freshworks also offered a paid day off in July to its employees, as a way to reward employees for their long work hours during the lockdown. Yoga and fitness startup Sarva too announced paid leave to promote mental wellbeing among its employees in May. 

“We humans have never been confined to closed spaces for such a long time before covid-19. When forced into such situations, anxiety kicks in about various issues and that’s why we decided to offer a burnout holiday,” Sarvesh Shashi, founder Sarva told TOI. The company is planning to offer a similar one-day burnout leave in August as well.

Bigger companies such as Deloitte took innovative approaches by introducing a shared leave bank concept wherein employees can donate leaves and others who need leaves can avail them from the bank.

Anuradha Bharat, the head for people operations at fintech startup Razorpay told Inc42, “With the current scenario (coronavirus lockdown) continuing indefinitely, burnout is the largest concern that a lot of employees are facing as the lines between personal and professional time are blurring.” 

As a response, Razorpay announced that the second Wednesday of every month will now be a ‘No Meeting Day’ to reduce the number of internal meetings. Further, the company has also renamed its sick leaves to “wellness leaves”. Under this new format, Razorpay has expanded both scope and count of leaves needed for any employee to be fully functional at work.

“Wellness leaves cover mental health, burnout, being sick, menstrual cramps and anything else that affects people’s physical and mental well being,” Razorpay CEO Harshil Mathur noted. 

Mathur added, “While this sounds like a small change, naming it ‘wellness leave’ was a really important part of this decision to remove the stigma of sickness that discourages people from taking leave for things like mental health.” 

The post Burnout Leave, Wellness Leave? India’s Startups Wake Up To Remote Work Reality appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Online fantasy sports startup Dream11 has won the title rights for Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 after bidding INR 222 Cr (nearly $33.5 Mn), IPL governing council chairperson Brijesh Patel confirmed on Tuesday (August 18).

Dream11 is already an official partner and sponsor of the IPL. However, title sponsorship rights are different, as the company’s name will be displayed on umpire’s jerseys and various other branding material for the league such as stadium tickets, billboards, fan merchandise, among other things. The league’s name itself is rebranded to include the name of the title sponsor, as in ‘Dream11 IPL’.

The IPL title sponsorship rights offer companies an opportunity to expand their presence globally due to the sporting events’ popularity. The popularity of the event may also be increased this year as IPL will be one of the very few sporting competitions which would be happening around the time could mean that viewer interest would be very high.

The tournament is broadcast in more than 30 countries, besides digital streaming in even more countries through Disney+ Hotstar. The brand value of the IPL was $6.7 Bn in 2019, according to financial consultancy firm Duff and Phelps.

Dream11 has outbid Tata Sons, and edtech giants Unacademy and BYJU’S. According to media reports, Tata Sons had bid INR 180 Cr, whereas the two edtech companies bid INR 170 Cr. BYJU’S also sponsors the jersey of the Indian cricket team.

Interestingly, Dream11 has won the title rights at almost half the value of what former title sponsor Vivo used to pay. The mobile manufacturer had signed a deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to pay INR 440 Cr annually for five-year title rights totalling up to INR 2,000 Cr in between 2018 to 2022.

The title sponsor of IPL 2020 was left vacant after Chinese mobile manufacturer Vivo withdrew this year due to the rising anti-China sentiment in the wake of India-China standoff at Galwan Valley in Ladakh in June. What’s more interesting is that even Dream11 is not devoid of the Chinese intervention as China-based Tencent Holding is a majority stakeholder in the company.

The 13th edition of IPL is set to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from September 19 with the final scheduled on November 10. The teams have already started to assemble and will be reaching UAE after August 20.

On August 10, the IPL released a form for ‘Invitation For Expressions Of Interest (“IEOI”) For IPL Title Sponsorship Rights’. The document states that the BCCI shall not be obliged to award the title sponsorship rights to the highest bidder.

“BCCI’s decision in this regard will also depend on a number of other relevant factors, including but not limited to, the manner in which the third party intends to exploit the Rights and the potential impact of the same on brand IPL as also the fan/ viewer experience, which will be examined/ evaluated by BCCI in the course of discussions/ negotiations with interested third parties who submit an EOI,” the document read.

The post Tencent-Backed Dream11 Replaces China’s Vivo As IPL Title Sponsor appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Masai School has raised a Pre-Series A funding round of $2.5 Mn led by Unitus Ventures. The round also saw participation from India Quotient and AngelList India. The startup focuses on upskilling students from a non-engineering background, rural areas to begin their career in the IT and tech industry.

The company, in a press statement, said that it will be utilising the fund to strengthen its classroom and digital infrastructure, provide quality education to students and make them job-ready. Also, it will be using the money to expand its service offerings, including UI/UX, product management and data science, to meet the demand of companies hiring computer science graduates equipped with industry-relevant skills and attitude required for rapid growth.

Founded by Prateek Shukla, Nrupul Dev and Yogesh Bhat in June 2019, Masai School claims to train tech aspirants in full-stack web and android application development, and also help them get placed through its partner network, including Samsung, Sharechat, UrbanClap, Instamojo, Propelld, Vyapar, RevvSales, Lendingkart, Nobroker, Smallcase & PayTm Money.

Following a unique admission model, the company focuses on non-engineering, particularly  Tier II and Tier III students, who are financially underprivileged and offer them a chance to learn and get placed in a software company. In other words, the Masai School integrates the Income Sharing Agreement with the students, where it allows them to pay the course fee after they get a high paying, relevant job.

Shukla said that the company has placed more than 82% of its graduates at an average salary of INR 6.6 LPA so far. Currently located in Bengaluru and Patna, Masai claims to have trained 100+ students across four batches, with more than 50% of students from non-computer science and non-metro backgrounds.

Edtech Startups Bridging The Skill Gap 

As coding courses gain popularity in the edtech landscape, coupled with the change in the education policy and rising job uncertainty, edtech startups are now tapping into the unexplored opportunities.

BYJU’S recent $300 Mn acquisition of WhiteHat Jr is just the beginning of many such deals and investments in the Indian edtech startup ecosystem.

While the new education policy emphasis on students from class six and above to learn coding to become future-ready, there is an immediate gap in the job market as there is a shortage of engineers and researchers for the deeptech sectors. According to a market study, the shortage of skilled employees is said to rise by a staggering 200x in 2020 as compared to 2019.

Looking at the gap in the segment, a lot of upskilling edtech startups have been mushrooming in the space, which includes Accio Jobs, Masai School, Pesto, Coursera, EdX, Simplilearn, Tynker, Udacity and Pluralsight, thereby helping students become job-ready and boost their career.

According to DataLabs by Inc42’s report – The Future Of India’s $2 Bn Edtech Opportunity Report 2020, more than half of India’s workers will require reskilling to meet the talent demands of Industrial Revolution 4.0 by 2022.

The post Edtech Startup Masai School Raises $2.5 Mn From Unitus Ventures & Others appeared first on Inc42 Media.

After months of speculation, Reliance Retail has finally entered the online medicine delivery space by acquiring 60% equity stake in epharmacy startup Netmeds, formally known as Vitalic Health Private Limited, for INR 620 Cr ($83 Mn).

With this acquisition, the Mukesh Ambani-led company has got the 100% equity ownership of Netmeds subsidiaries — Tresara Health Pvt Ltd, Netmeds Marketplace Ltd and Dadha Pharma Distribution Private Limited. All these subsidiaries are collectively known as Netmeds, and are in the business of pharma distribution and sales, and business support services.

“We are impressed by Netmeds’ journey to build a nationwide digital franchise in such a short time and are confident of accelerating it with our investment and partnership,” Ambani added.

Reliance Retail, in the BSE fillings, highlighted that the acquisition of Vitalic has been through a mix of secondary purchase and primary investment, for at least 80% stake by April 2024, with an option to increase it to 100% ownership.

Also Read: India’s Healthtech Landscape In A Post-Covid-19 World

Commenting on this development, Netmeds’ founder and CEO Pradeep Dadha, said, “As a third-generation entrepreneur, I have the greatest admiration for Reliance, the biggest global Indian brand and a multinational conglomerate, which has the welfare of every Indian at the heart of its operations.”

“With the combined strength of the group’s digital, retail and tech platforms, we will strive to create more value for everyone in the ecosystem, while providing a superior Omni Channel experience to consumers. In the coming years, we will cover many more cities, serve many more customers, expand to many more categories and work to fulfil the ‘Make in India’ dream.” he added.

Netmeds’ Streak Of Losses In Last Three Years

Netmeds was founded in 2010 by Pradeep Dadha. The startup is a licensed pharmacy marketplace that offers authenticated prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medicine digitally along with other health products. The company has acquired two healthtech startups KiViHealth and telemedicine startup JustDoc. As of March 2019, Netmeds claimed to have served more than 3.7 Mn customers in over 610 Indian cities and towns.

It reported a consolidated turnover of INR 221.02 Cr, net loss of INR 184.35 Cr in the financial year 2020. Similar to FY 2020, Netmeds reported INR 304.74 Cr and INR 184.23 Cr consolidated turnover, and INR 192.95 Cr and INR 4.69 Cr net loss in the financial year 2019 and 2018, respectively. Even the subsidiaries that wholly acquired by Reliance have also reported losses in the last three years.

Dadha Pharma Distribution Private Limited recorded a turnover of INR 132.52 Cr and a net loss of INR 0.46 Cr in FY20. The subsidiary has noted INR 149.05 Cr and INR 114.52 Cr turnover in FY19 and FY18 respectively, leading up to INR 1.21 Cr and INR 1.10 Cr net loss.

Tresara Health Pvt Ltd had a turnover of INR 85.80 Cr, INR 191.50 Cr and INR 78.52 Cr in FY20, FY19 and FY18, respectively, leading up to a net loss of INR 14.87 Cr, INR 10.93 Cr and INR 8.82 Cr.

Netmeds Marketplace Ltd had a turnover of INR 7.77 Cr and a net loss of INR 164.15 Cr in FY20. In FY19 and FY18, respectively, the companies had a turnover of INR 13.94 Cr and INR 10.05 Cr, and a net loss of INR 172.41 Cr and INR 59.56 Cr.

Reliance Retail believes that this investment will allow it to further enhance affordable availability of essential quality health care products and services offered by the company itself. Alongside this, the investment will also increase its digital offerings. As the Indian government is yet to launch epharmacy guidelines, Reliance did not require any regulatory approvals for the said investments.

Reliance To Challenge Amazon, Flipkart And Others

Last week, Amazon India launched its online pharmacy service named ‘Amazon Pharmacy’. The online pharmacy will be piloted in Bengaluru first and will be expanded to other cities later. Meanwhile, its rival Flipkart may also enter this domain soon.

According to an Economic Times report, Flipkart may partner with Mumbai-based epharmacy startup PharmEasy for its latest venture. Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy has held multiple rounds of discussions with PharmEasy’s founding team led by Dharmil Sheth. The ecommerce giant is reportedly open to any investment opportunity in PharmEasy, but the details for the same have not been finalised yet.

Meanwhile, PharmEasy is also in advanced discussions to sign a merger with Bengaluru-based rival Medlife to get a larger pie of the market. According to a Business Standard report citing sources, the duo has been in talks for a merger deal valued at $200 Mn to $250 Mn to create one of the largest healthcare companies. With this, Medlife will retain 20-30% stake in the combined entity, the report has added.

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

The post Reliance Takes On Amazon Pharmacy With $83 Mn Netmeds Acquisition appeared first on Inc42 Media.

As part of the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant scheme, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday (August 18) launched the INR 4.3 Cr ‘Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge’ on the lines of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation challenge, which concluded earlier this month. 

In an official statement, Prasad said the challenge calls on innovators, startups and students to use microprocessors to develop various technology products. “This initiative is aimed at not only meeting India’s future requirements of strategic and industrial sectors but also has the potential to mitigate the issues of security, licensing, technology obsolescence and most crucially cutting dependency on imports.”

As part of the challenge, which will be conducted over 10 months, the government will offer financial support of INR 4.3 Cr at various stages of development of the hardware prototype. It will also support startups through an incubation programme.

From the entries, 100 semi-finalists will get an opportunity to get a grant of INR 1 Cr, while 25 finalists will win a total INR 1 Cr. The top 10 teams entering the finale will get seed funding worth INR 2.3 Cr and one-year incubation support.

Prasad added in a tweet, the challenge gives the opportunity to develop products using IIT Madras and CDAC microprocessors. IIT Madras and Center for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC) have developed two microprocessors named SHAKTI (32 bit) and VEGA (64 bit) respectively using Open Source Architecture under the aegis of Microprocessor Development Programme of Ministry of Electronics and IT.

The ‘Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge’ is another way for the government to boost the participation of local startups in key focus areas. Open to students at all levels and startups, the challenge requires innovation based on microprocessor IPs & frugal solutions for the needs of the society. The government is seeking to create a homegrown ecosystem around microprocessors, which are used in a range of devices and are critical in electronics and parts manufacturing, which is a big focus of the Indian government in recent times.

CaptionPlus, Meme Chat and FTC Talent – mobile applications — were adjudged as winners in entertainment category under the Atmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge followed by Logically and IsEqualTo in news and Hitwicket Superstars, ScarFall and WCC2 in games categories respectively. These are Made-in-India mobile applications among 24 which have been declared as winners.

The post Startups Called For INR 4.3 Cr ‘Swadeshi Microprocessor Challenge’ appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Troubles mounted for Facebook after the peace and harmony committee of Delhi legislative assembly has decided to summon Ankhi Das, the director of public policy at Facebook India over posts and contents that fuelled discontent among citizens during the major riots in Delhi in late February. 

The committee will discuss if Facebook officials played any role in the orchestration of the Delhi riots. Raghav Chadha, the committee’s chairman, said in a tweet thread that it had received several complaints against the officials of Facebook for, “their alleged deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content in India with respect to scathing revelations made by a report in The Wall Street Journal.”

The social media platform has faced criticism over allegations that it favours the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government, to push its own business goals. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Das had opposed the removal of content from BJP leaders that qualifies as hate speech.

“Summons are set to be sent for appearance to the concerned officials of Facebook in due course to ensure their presence before the committee for participating in the proceedings and the committee shall convene its meeting this week to initiate the proceedings forthwith,” Chadha said after the meeting on Monday.

He added that the government’s aim is to take action against any potential adversity which might cause communal discord. The committee is also looking to discern if “there is any role or complicity of Facebook Officials in Delhi Riots” which took place in February earlier this year. Soon after the riots, Facebook cofounder Mark Zuckerberg is said to have made remarks about the objectionable content in a BJP leader’s Facebook post during the Delhi riots. 

Earlier this week, Das filed a complaint with the Delhi police stating that she has received multiple threats to her life and body, after reports emerged about collusion between the BJP government and Facebook higher-ups in India.

Will Facebook Suffer Revenue Loss?

With a slew of controversies in the past two months — and high-profile incidents on Facebook related to the recent Black Lives Matter protests in the US — Facebook has not only earned the ire of users and politicians. In the past two months, popular brands like Diaego, Airtel, PepsiCo, Coca Cola and Adidas have reportedly reduced their advertising on Facebook and Instagram in India. The move is in line with their parent companies’ decision to avoid being related to objectionable content. Advertising is the largest contributor to Facebook’s revenue, the company reported its ads revenue to be over $70 Bn in 2019. 

The pushback against Facebook has come after multiple allegations of widespread hate speech, disinformation and toxic content on the platform. Global spirits making company Diageo has confirmed to ETPrime that advertising on social media platforms have been put on hold by the company globally, which includes India.

“From July 1, we paused all paid advertising globally on major social media platforms. We will continue to discuss with media partners how they will deal with unacceptable content,” Diageo India spokesperson was quoted as saying. 

The post Facebook Summoned By AAP Govt Over Alleged Role In Delhi Riots appeared first on Inc42 Media.

The principal opposition party in the Indian Parliament, the Indian National Congress (INC), on Tuesday, wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding a high-level inquiry into the recent allegations on the platform wilfully neglecting incidents of hate speech from politicians of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

In a story published on August 14 by the US-based publication The Wall Street Journal, titled ‘Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics’, it was alleged that Facebook’s public policy executive Ankhi Das opposed the application of the platform’s hate speech rules on an Indian politician from the ruling party, despite the politician’s posts being found to be incendiary. 

In a letter to Zuckerberg, subsequently posted on the Congress’ official Twitter handle, the party’s general secretary KC Venugopal writes, “This is a damning and serious allegation of Facebook India’s interference in India’s electoral democracy. Further, the article quotes a Facebook Inc spokesperson Mr Andy Stone acknowledging the implicit biases of Facebook India’s leadership. It also points out that Facebook India deleted the hate speech posts, after investigative inquiries by the Wall Street Journal, which if true, is a clear admission of guilt.” 

In its demands stated in the letter, Congress has asked for a high-level inquiry by Facebook headquarters into its India leadership team and their operations. The party further asked Facebook to submit a report “to the board of Facebook Inc within a reasonable period of time such as one/two months. The report should also be made public.”

Congress also asked Facebook to publish all instances of hate speech since 2014 (the year BJP came into power) that were allowed on the platform, adding that while the internal investigation is underway, the company should consider delegating its India operations to a new team to ensure that the investigation’s findings are not influenced. 

Facebook’s Patchy Record In Countering Hate Speech In India

Earlier today (August 19), it was reported that the peace and harmony committee of the Delhi legislative assembly had summoned Facebook India’s public policy executive, Ankhi Das, over posts and contents that fuelled discontent among citizens during the major riots in Delhi in late February.

The committee will discuss if Facebook officials played any role in the orchestration of the Delhi riots, which happened in February this year. Raghav Chadha, the committee’s chairman, said in a tweet thread that it had received several complaints against the officials of Facebook for, “their alleged deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content in India with respect to scathing revelations made by a report in The Wall Street Journal.”

Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on information technology has decided to look into the allegations that Facebook does not take any action against the hateful comments posted by legislators of the ruling party, to seek favours from the Indian government. The committee is led by Thiruvananthapuram Member of Parliament and member of Congress, Shashi Tharoor.

Notably, this is not the first time that Facebook has been accused of promoting hate speech in India. Last year, a report by non-profit rights group Avaaz suggested that Facebook was letting many incidents scot-free, even as the company claimed to have taken action against  65% of the hate speech on its platform before anyone reported it.

The post Congress Asks Facebook India To Probe Hate Speech Allegations appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Sachin Bansal-led financial service company Navi Technologies is looking to add two more companies in its bucket list. The company is said to be in talks to acquire two private life insurance companies Future General Life Insurance and DHFL Pramarica Life Insurance to expand its loan offerings.

Notably, Bansal had acquired Mumbai-based insurance company DHFL General Insurance for INR 100 Cr ($14 Mn) in January 2020. The company was owned by Kapil Wadhawan-led Wadhawan Group Capital (WGC) until last year, but it decided to exit the group, selling a the stake to employees. The unit was then renamed as Validus Wealth after the transaction.

Wadhawan Group Capital has been known for over three decades for offering affordable housing finance to the middle and lower-income category. The parent company WGC also owned financial services companies such as Aadhar Housing Finance (sold to Blackstone), Avanse Financial Services (sold to an affiliate of Warburg Pincus Group), DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers, DHFL General Insurance (sold to Navi Technologies) DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance.

According to an Economic Times report, WGC is now looking to offload DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance as it is facing insolvency proceedings in the National Companies Law Tribunal. Besides this, selling this business will be another step towards debt resolution for the company.

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is also looking to sell its life insurance business to reduce its debt. The report adds that State Bank of India (SBI) and Premji Invest have shown interest in the acquisitions as well.

However, it is still not clear whether Navi Technologies will acquire the stakes in its individual capacity or as a part of the consortium. Sector regulator Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) norms allow private equity companies to come in as promoters as well.

Since beginning life as BAC Acquisitions in Bengaluru in December 2018, Navi has made it clear that it intends to go for a full banking license as well as keep tech at the centre of its operations. Bansal is said to have poured in over $450 Mn into Navi as investments to develop its products. Overall, the company has raised close to $582 Mn from investors like Gaja Capital, World Bank’s investment arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) and others.

Following the Flipkart strategies, Navi Technologies has also acquired a streak of companies. Among the acquisitions by Navi are Essel Mutual Fund, Essel AMC, Chaitanya Rural Intermediation Development Services (CRIDS) along with its wholly-owned subsidiary Chaitanya India Fin Credit Pvt Ltd, DHFL Insurance and Mavenhive.
Some of the acquisitions such as Essel Mutual Fund and Essel AMC have not been approved by SEBI. The acquisitions, however, have been cleared by Competition Commission of India (CCI).

Read more about Navi Technologies and Sachin Bansal’s $100 Bn Ambition here.

The post Acquiring Life Insurance Companies Next In Line For Sachin Bansal’s Navi appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In another fillip to PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ vision, the US-based tech giant Apple is reportedly planning to manufacture its iPhone 12 Series in India. The ‘Made in India’ iPhone 12 models would be ready by mid-2021. 

According to a Business Standard report, Apple’s Taiwanese contract manufacturer Wistron will start manufacturing the new iPhones in its Narasapura plant near Bengaluru. Further, the company is also planning to hire 10,000 employees and invest INR 2,900 Cr in the new plant. The manufacturing facility is expected to be fully operational by October this year. 

iPhone 12 is the latest of the company’s offerings to be manufactured in India. The company started manufacturing phones in India for the first time in 2017, with the iPhone SE at Bengaluru’s Wistron facility. It was later expanded to another contract manufacturer, Foxconn’s plant in Chennai. Last year in October, Apple started manufacturing the iPhone XR locally in India. 

Reports suggest that a revamped channel strategy and local manufacturing will ensure duty benefits and much-streamlined operations for Apple in the country.

In August last year, Apple announced its plan of investing $13 Mn (INR 1000 Cr) in India to launch an online retail platform and open three-company owned stores in India. The upcoming Apple Stores will be launched in Mumbai, followed by Delhi.

In terms of domestic manufacturing, Apple with its manufacturing partner Foxconn will be investing $1 Bn in India to export ‘Made in India’ iPhones around the world. Foxconn’s factory in Chennai will be used as a manufacturing unit for Apple’s product. Apple’s other component suppliers will also be investing in the venture.

With its more than 500 Mn smartphone users, India has emerged as one of the biggest markets for electronics manufacturers. 

India An Alternative To China?

The local production of iPhones in India comes amid reports suggesting that the country is trying to position itself as an alternative to China for manufacturing needs of multinational companies. With increased global scrutiny over China’s role in failing to contain the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, the Indian government has been trying to lure global technology companies to set up bases in India, promising them various incentives if they choose to do so. 

In June, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced the launch of $6 Bn plan to boost electronics manufacturing, saying it would start by offering five global smartphone makers incentives to establish or expand domestic production.

The government is offering a production-linked incentive (PLI) worth 4% to 6% of additional sales of goods made locally over five years, with 2019-2020 as the base year. 

The government had said that it was planning to help five global smartphone manufacturers set their production facilities in India with the PLI scheme. This would reportedly include major global players including Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi, Foxconn, Wistron and Flex, which had shown interest in applying.

If reports are to be believed, the government’s promised incentives to electronics manufacturers have attracted investments worth over $1.5 Bn to set up mobile manufacturing units in India. The investments have come from companies such as South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc, among various others. 

However, according to a survey by financial services company Standard Chartered PLC, Vietnam remains the most favoured destination, followed by Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand, for global businesses to set up shop. 

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Last night, Reliance officiated its entry into the online medicine delivery market by acquiring epharmacies startup Netmeds. While everyone is fussing over Reliance’s segway into this segment, other epharmacies companies Medlife and PharmEasy have pulled up their socks to seek the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approval on their merger.

After months of speculations, there is finally some light on the prospects of Medlife and PharmEasy merger. The companies, in the documents submitted to CCI, noted that Medlife will sell 100% shares to PharmEasy’s parent company API Holdings, In return, it will get nearly 19.59% ownership in the combined entity.

Though other transactional details of the potential merger have not been revealed, media reports suggest that it could lead up to $200 Mn to $250 Mn and could value combined entity at $1 Bn

Big Players Find It Hard To Stay Away From Epharmacies

Both PharmEasy and Medlife are prominent online healthcare startups, which have been running in the market aligned with other startups like 1mg and Netmeds. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online medicine delivery services have noted a strong uptake. This is one of the reasons why Amazon Prime, Reliance and even Flipkart have been adamant on entering this segment.

Only last week, Amazon launched its online pharmacy service named ‘Amazon Pharmacy’. The online pharmacy will be piloted in Bengaluru first and will be expanded to other cities later. Meanwhile, its rival Flipkart may also enter this domain soon.

According to an Economic Times report citing sources, Flipkart may partner with PharmEasy to smoothen its entry into this segment. The report further noted that the two companies have held multiple rounds of discussions, and the potential for investment is open too. Nothing has been finalised yet.

PharmEasy, MedLife Joint Venture Looks To Take On The Market

PharmEasy caters to the chronic care segment and offers a range of services such as teleconsultation, medicine deliveries and sample collections for diagnostic tests. The company also has a subscription-based service and operates on a full-stack model where it claims to procure medicines directly from manufacturers and deliver it to customers. The company was founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah.

Medlife started its journey as an inventory-led epharmacy company which helps doctors digitally manage and store patients’ records. The company was founded in 2016 by Tushar Kumar and Prashant Singh. In August 2019, ex-Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan joined Medlife as the cofounder and CEO.

In the financial year 2019, Medlife’s revenue grew by 1.65X reaching INR 364.67 Cr, while its losses grew 1.45X reaching INR 403.6 Cr. It is to be noted here that revenues for FY19 make 90% of the company’s losses for the year while expenses are, nearly double of its losses, at INR 768.36 Cr.

Meanwhile, PharmEasy’s revenue more than tripled in FY18 to INR 116 Cr from about INR 33 Cr in FY17. It’s losses also widened to INR 97 Cr from INR 48 Cr, according to the company’s latest corporate filings accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC). The financial performance of the duo in FY20 has not yet been revealed.

Between 2014 to 2019, out of the total $2 Bn invested in Indian healthtech startups, 22.4% (462 Mn out of $2 Bn) was poured into online pharmacy startups such as Medlife, 1Mg, Pharmeasy and Netmeds, who are also the top players in the sector, according to ‘India’s Healthtech Landscape In A Post-Covid-19 World’ report by DataLabs by Inc42+.

The data reveals that online pharmacies have received the most amount of investments among all the healthtech offerings, ranging from teleconsultations to health and fitness apps. This has made them the safest bet for healthtech investors in India, despite a confusing regulatory scenario and lobby groups of traditional offline chemists protesting against the heavy discounts on medicines being given on epharmacies.

The post As Reliance Acquires Netmeds, PharmEasy & Medlife Seal Merger At $1 Bn Valuation appeared first on Inc42 Media.