Gurugram-based Samast Technologies which runs hyperlocal discovery platform Magicpin has reportedly raised $20 Mn (INR 141 Cr) in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners US. Following this deal, the platform is now valued at $100 Mn.

The round was closed last month, with participation from existing backer Lightspeed India Partners, the domestic franchise of the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm, and WaterBridge Ventures. Till date, Magicpin has raised around $30 Mn in three rounds of funding.

Lightspeed partners Jeremy Liew and Ravi Mhatre led the round.

Magicpin, founded in 2015 by Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan, provides a platform where merchants and consumers can discover and interact and also transact. It helps drive the businesses of the local retailers across various categories such as restaurant, fashion, beauty, grocery among many others.

According to the official website, at present, Magicpin has over 5 Mn users and is operational in 12 cities including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Goa, Chennai, and Ahmedabad. It is also looking to expand its reach in other cities.  It also claimed to have grown 5x in 2018.

The platform has over 800K merchants listed on its platform including the local kiranas to established retailers and brands such as McDonald’s, FabIndia, Hard Rock Cafe among others.

Other major investments of Lightspeed in India include OYO Hotels, edtech venture BYJU’S and B2B online marketplace Udaan among others.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Magicpin Parent Raises $20 Mn From Lightspeed Venture Partners US appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Three people, including two employees, of Noida headquartered Paytm were arrested on Monday on accusations of planning to extort INR 20 Crores ($2.71 Mn) from Paytm’s founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Sharma’s Secretary, Vice President Corporate Communications and Public Relations — Sonia Dhawan has been arrested on accusation of being the mastermind behind the same.

Her husband Rupak Jain and another Paytm employee Devendra Kumar have also been arrested in the matter.

#PAYTM कंपनी के मालिक से 20 करोड़ की रंगदारी मांगने के प्रकरण के संबंध में डॉ. अजय पाल वरिष्ठ पुलिस अधीक्षक #NoidaPolice द्वारा दी गई बाइट @Uppolice @dgpup pic.twitter.com/f7C5qBm6UF

— NOIDA POLICE (@noidapolice) October 22, 2018

The investigation is being led by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Gautam Buddh Nagar, Ajay Pal Sharma.

A complaint was filed by Paytm founder stating that the company’s employees, a woman and her aides, had stolen some data from the company and were threatening to leak it. They were demanding INR 20 Crore in ransom. The FIR was filed and three people were arrested.

“They are being probed about the data and their modus operandi. Police will share the facts as they are unearthed,” Sharma added.

He further added that Kolkata resident Rohit Chomal, who is the fourth accused, had made the extortion call to Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s brother Ajay Shekhar Sharma. The police is currently trying to track Chomal down.

Paytm confirmed the development and, in a statement to Inc42, said, “Noida Police has arrested three people including one female employee of Paytm in case of extortion. The employee along with two other accomplices attempted to extort money from Vijay Shekhar Sharma on the pretext of leaking his personal data. We are standing by our colleagues till the police enquiry reaches its meaningful conclusion.”

The FIR has been filed at Noida sector 20 police station and the accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 381, 384, 386, 420, 408, 120 B and 66A of IT Act.

• Section 381: Theft by clerk or servant of property in possession of master,
• Section 384: Punishment for extortion
• Section 386: Extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt,
• Section 420: Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property
• Section 120 B: Punishment of criminal conspiracy
• Section 66A of IT Act: Punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service

The police, who are currently unclear about the nature of the data that has been stolen, will seek their custody to interrogate them further.

This is not the first time that a matter related to Paytm’s employees being accused of data theft from the company has come to light. Earlier this year, a former Paytm employee and five others were arrested on the charges under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and IT Act violation. According to the filed charge sheet, they were accused of cheating the company by using Paytm’s employee id and default password generation system.

The post Paytm Boss Vijay Shekhar Sharma Blackmailed By Employees For INR 20 Crore appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Leaving no stone unturned in their bid for supremacy in India, ecommerce companies are offering sales on Black Friday — an American shopping festival held on the Friday following Thanksgiving Day.

The day which is regarded as the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US, is similar to China’s Singles Day shopping festival in November, and India’s Big Billion Sale by Flipkart and Great Indian Sale by Amazon held in May.

This black Friday (November 23) many popular Indian ecommerce companies such as Flipkart, Paytm Mall, Nykaa, Tata CLiQ, Koovs, Isharya, GrabOn, Aza Fashions, and others are trying to create a buzz with ‘Black Friday Sales’ and discounts on their websites.

A Mumbai-based ecommerce platform for jewellery, Isharya, launched the 4-day event on Thursday night in India. The company is offering discounts of up to 70% on its jewellery, especially targeting US clients.

“We have already seen a 68% rise in the number of online users, and we expect additional 50% spike in sales over the weekend,” Isharya marketing head Nisha Khiani told Inc42.

While Black Friday events in India are at a very early stage compared to US and European countries, Flipkart and Paytm have reportedly seen a spike in buying around the time due to rising awareness.

Coupons and deal marketplace, GrabOn estimated that the popular homegrown ecommerce players will witness close to 20% rise in sales volume during Black Friday.

“Homegrown ecommerce players are very well on the front foot when it comes to Black Friday sales, leveraging the growing traction by launching new products — electronics and fashion accessories — during the sale period. Cosmetics & beauty, auto accessories, travel, domain hosting are also expected to be among hottest categories,” GrabOn founder Ashok Kumar Reddy said.

Since 2005, Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the US. Due to the large number of Indian and Indian-origin people residing in the country, exporters from India also benefit from the event.

In fact during last year’s 4-day Black Friday sale, which commenced on November 24, Indian ecommerce sellers reportedly shipped over 1.5 Mn products to Amazon’s warehouses in the US, according to a report by Adobe Analytics, with a revenue of $5 Bn collected from the global audience.

The post India’s Etailers Create Black Friday Buzz To Keep The Discounts Going appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Thirty speakers, 250 delegates, an incisive agenda that aims to draw valuable insights into the state of the Indian startup ecosystem — all in one action-packed day.

Inc42 is proud to bring to you our flagship event — The Ecosystem Summit (TES). The first such summit of its scale in the Indian startup ecosystem, TES brings together some of the most influential CEOs, founders, investors, government representatives, and visionaries who will engage in daylong, curated panel discussions, deep-dive talks, and fireside chats to help decode India’s complex and rapidly growing startup landscape.

TES is Inc42‘s effort to spark off conversations on the ins and outs of funding, the rise of unicorns in India, policy framework for innovation, the corporate-startup connect, and more, with a view to examine the current state of the ecosystem and read the signals of the future. And this is just the beginning of an engagement among ecosystem stakeholders that we intend to facilitate further in days to come.

Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu will grace the event, along with Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, and Secretary of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ramesh Abhishek. Prabhu will launch Inc42‘s flagship report — The State Of The Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018. Inc42 will also unveil the 42Next – a list of 42 the most promising startups in India.

The Ecosystem Summit will provide an environment of inspiration and insights like no other. So, watch this space for live updates from the event, being hosted at Hyatt, Delhi.

7:40 PM

Some startups are path-breaking not for the amount of funding they have raised or their market share. Inc42 has made a list of five startups which have made an impression on us for the creativity they have showed and the impact they can have on the society.

Tesseract
In July, Tesseract introduced what is being touted as the first made-in-India Artificial Reality (AR) headset — Holoboard, and works with smartphones. Users of AR headsets can see digital and virtual images in the real world around them.
Since its inception in 2015, Tesseract has launched three hardware and two software products in the MR, AR, and VR sectors — Methane, Holoboard, and Quark. The founder claims to have seven patents: one US, three international (130 countries), and three India patents.

Nirmai Solutions
facts, 95% of breast cancers are curable if detected early. Yet 76,000 women die in India alone and more than 700,000 globally, every year. This did not sit right with Dr. Geetha Manjunath and Nidhi Mathur, who setup Niramai in 2016. NIRAMAI stands for Non Invasive Risk Assessment with Machine Learning. It is working on a non-invasive, radiation-free, painless and low-cost, breast cancer-screening solution.

Yulu
Shared bicycles appear to be just the thing required to ease the congestion of polluting vehicles, especially in metropolitan cities. To solve this problem, InMobi’s co-founder Amit Gupta has launched Yulu – an IoT-enabled bike rental platform.

ION Energy

Based in Mumbai, ION Energy is an energy storage startup that is working to build a layer of infrastructure to enable faster adoption of high power electric vehicles in India. The company is in the business of high-performing batteries and electric vehicles.

ION Energy currently leverages deep proprietary technology that combines it strengthens in design, electromechanics and battery management systems and software.

Drivezy

Mumbai-headquartered P2P bike and car rental startup Drivezy was founded in April 2015 by Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah,Vasant Verma, Abhishek Mahajan, and Amit Sahu. Drivezy was selected for Google’sLaunchpad Accelerator program in November 2015 as well as for Y combinator’s summer batch of 2016.

7:30 PM

While we at Inc42 work to build a more connected ecosystem at the community level, there are some startups which have shown extraordinary resourcefulness and overcome challenges on their way to success. As part of the event we are releasing a list called of these pioneers called The 42Next, to not only honour these pioneers but also learn from their example.

7:20 PM

Inc42 presents a one-on-one chat between Vaibhav Vardhan and Divyank Turakhia, Founder, Media.net and Directi Group.

6:51 PM

Amit Sharma announced that RDGlocal is all set to heat up the Indian social media and content landscape, committing $100 Mn to the content business.

With a strategy to build a content eco-system with different assets which can cross-leverage each other. The fund aims to make these content-specific investments over the next two years.

RDGlocal has already invested in ‘WeLike’ — a social media platform in India, which has content available in seven languages already.

6:10 PM

India’s growth story is not just a country’s growth story but a global one. India’s startup ecosystem has been interacting and collaborating actively with the ecosystems of these countries and these synergies have contributed significantly to India’s economy. This discussion on the ‘India-Japan Connect’ is moderated by Rajesh Sawhney, Founder, GSF and Innerchef, will look at cross-border partnerships.

On the panel are Hiro Mashita, Director M&S Partners, Mayank Shiromani, VP, Recruit Holdings Hirokazu Nagano, President, KLab, Milojko Spajic, Founding Partner, Das Capital Takeshi Ebihara, Founding General Partner, Rebright Partners.

Milojko Spajic said that the collaborative atmosphere in India is unprecedented. This atmosphere creates a high barrier for businesses where only the best survive, he said.

Our focus in India will not be sector-wise, but in the type of stage of the startups, Spajic said.

The Ecosystem Summit Trivia: In terms of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Japan comes second to only the US as an investor in India.

5:50 PM

A valuable alternative to equity for startups, venture debt is increasingly gaining popularity with new companies which need to raise funds for growth.The concept of venture debt is evolving in the past three years, partly due to growing demands of startups which are looking beyond venture capital to finance their needs.

In a talk titled ‘Venture Debt For Emerging India’, Rahul Khanna of Trifecta Capital Advisors, one of the top venture debt funds in India, explores the nuances of venture debt and what kind of startups and investors should consider this form of financing.

Explaining the need for venture debt, Khanna said that raising equity is not a perfect science. “You may have raised $10 Mn but find a little later that you are $2 Mn short. Venture debt can help you fill the gap”

If Sachin and Binny had taken some venture debt early in their career, they would be atleast $100 Mn richer each, Khanna said referring to the Flipkart founders.

5:30 PM

What are the investment trends that are really driving the startup ecosystem? Avendus investment firm co-head Karan Sharma is giving us a presentation comparing India’s investment scenario with other markets like China and SEA in an expert talk titled ‘The Trillion Dollar Indian Digital Opportunity’

One of the most prominent trend is that at a per-capita GDP of $2400, India is at an inflection point of its digital transformation, Sharma said .

The intricacies of India offer unique opportunities, Sharma concluded.

4:40 PM

India’s Policy Architecture for Innovation

An entrepreneur, advisor, columnist, and a software developer — Sharad Sharma — is delivering a deep-dive presentation on startup policy architecture, its impact in society and economy, and plans for the next decade.

4:20 PM

Indian startups have just started building connections with corporates. The topic of our current session is ‘The Corporate-Startup Connect’, and the aim is to get the views of corporates on the rise of startups.

This panel has Amit Shah, group president and head (marketing and corporate comm), Yes Bank; Digbijoy Shukla, head of startup ecosystem at AWS; and Gaurav Kanwal, South Asia head (SMB and channel sales), Adobe, and is being moderated by Murali Talasila, partner and innovation leader at PWC.

3:40 PM

The Rise Of The Soonicorns

Founders of three startups — Ather Energy, UrbanClap, Cleartax — will decode the DNA of Indian soonicorns, the impact they have created, and what lies ahead. Pallav Kaushish, VP, Marketing, at Inc42, is moderating the panel.

Talking about venturing into uncharted territory, UrbanClap’s Abhiraj Bahl, said that one can’t shy away from “heavy lifting” required in a startup. Whether it is fintech or logistics, founders have to focus on building a “full-stack experience”.

Ather Energy’s CEO Tarun Mehta weighed in with the example of his company, which had to change people’s perception about the benefits of using an electric scooter instead of an Activa, which is far more popular in India. “People are ready to pay 30%, 40% or even 50% more if you have value,” he said. “At Ather, we focused on the dash(board), touchscreen, and the experience of using the scooter and that has helped us a lot.”

3:20 PM

This next session is called ‘The Community Builders’ and is about shedding light on the role of startup community builders, their participation, and also aimed at identifying gaps that need to be bridged. The session is being moderated by IVCA president Rajat Tandon, with panelists Abhishek Gupta from TLabs,  IAN co-founder Padmaja Ruparel, and T-Hub CEO Srinivas Kollipara.

“A lot of startups are being able to raise the first half-a-million or so but have trouble raising the next round of funding and that is the challenge for many startups,” Ruparel said.

Talking about picking the right investors, Abhishek Gupta joked: “Good humans attract angels!”

3:00 PM

Startup India — The Road So Far

One of the keynote speakers for The Ecosystem Summit, DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek, is now giving a presentation on how the Startup India plan has helped in the growth of the Indian startup ecosystem in the last three years, the next steps, and beyond.

One of DIPP’s most important policy initiatives has been to fast-track patent applications, Abhishek said. This includes giving rebates in patent filing costs. Startups can now also self-certify themselves against laws, easing the compliance burden on them, he added.

Touching on the topic of easing regulations, Abhishek said the government has recognised that the investment landscape of the startup ecosystem is very different from traditional channels of funding. To address this new sector, the government has made 22 regulatory changes, including reducing the lock-in period for angel investors and increasing the limit for the maximum number of angel investors allowed in an angel fund, Abhishek said.

The DIPP secretary ended his presentation by encouraging all the founders and delegates present at TES to reconsider their preconceived notions about the government’s work, check government websites, and take advantage of the initiatives that are being rolled out for them.

2:00 PM

We are almost halfway through TES. After six sessions covering diverse topics such as VC funding, unicorns, and the shift towards Tier II and Tier III cities, the speakers and delegates have taken a break for lunch. But stay tuned because we will be back in no time with more live updates from The Ecosystem Summit.

1:25 PM

After a fireside chat about the ecosystem between Inc42 CEO Vaibhav Vardhan and MakeMyTrip CEO Deep Kalra, which turned into a candid conversation on what it means to be an entrepreneur before and after the origin of the word “startup” and Kalra’s current take-home salary, we now have a panel called ‘The State & The Startups’.

For this session. we have Kerala electronics and IT secretary M Sivasankar talking to moderator Nakul Saxena, public policy director at the iSPIRT Foundation, on how the state government is engaging with startups.

“We have witnessed an unforeseen calamity recently, but that was the time we also came to know about many Kerala startups and their innovative services that are helping in rebuilding the state,” Sivasankar said.

Sivasankar also invited all the entrepreneurs, founders, and investors at the ecosystem conference to come join the party. “If you are not looking to Kerala, the loss is entirely yours,” he added.

12:50 PM

Inc42 CEO Vaibhav Vardhan is now having a one-on-one chat with Deep Kalra, CEO of online travel aggregator MakeMyTrip.

Reflecting on MakeMyTrip’s journey in the last 18 years, Kalra said that one important thing that entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs need to keep in mind is not to rely on just a verbal agreement with investors.

“Two decades ago, the only quality that startup founders needed was stubbornness, even if people tell you that this is craziness,” Kalra said.

However, in the present time, as the customer becomes more confident about digital financial transactions, entrepreneurs face a completely different dilemma.

Elaborating on the topic, Kalra said that now there are so many companies chasing the same model. Then, why does one company stride ahead while others fall back or shut down? The difference comes down to execution, Kalra emphasised.

Execution eats strategy for breakfast

Drawing on the differences between the growth story of the Chinese and Indian startup ecosystems, Kalra said that the way the Chinese ecosystem is structured, big companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi have spawned a slew of smaller startups. Also in China, the traditional economy invested heavily in these startups at an early stage, which is rarely the case in the Indian startup ecosystem.

“Will we have Indian companies in India owned by Indians, or will it be all international companies? Flipkart is the latest example. We need to think about it, seriously,” said Kalra.

12:00 PM

The Ecosystem Summit is now in full swing with its second panel, ‘Bull & Bear Of India’s VC Investing’. The session is being moderated by 91Springboard co-founder Pranay Gupta, and has LightSpeed Venture partners Bejul Somaia and Sid Talwar, Avaana Capital founder Anjali Bansal, Ideaspring Capital managing director Arihant Patni, and Nexus Venture Partners co-founder Sandeep Singhal on the panel.

Indian startups are fast in adopting emerging technologies, which is not only solving unique problems but are also attracting both foreign and local venture capitalists to the Indian startup ecosystem.

Talking about scaling up and the relationship between startups and VCs, Bansal said that VC scalability depends on setting up formal systems and processes in place, along with developing the leadership qualities of the entrepreneur.

Somaia said that one of the biggest qualities of successful entrepreneurs is the ability to constantly make tradeoffs. For example, deciding between unit cost and scalability or speed and control.

Startups are never balanced, at least not the good ones, Somaia quipped.

Singhal said, “Today, you have role models for entrepreneurs to follow. So, now we see entrepreneurs who are more circumspect and knowledgeable.”

When the moderator asked the panelists which sector do they think the next Indian unicorn is going to come from, all the panelists said that they are bullish on the entire Indian ecosystem and the next big thing could be from any sector — be it logistics, education, or ecommerce.

Noting an interesting shift in the startup funding landscape, Talwar said that traditional companies and family offices are now investing in the ecosystem. Bansal jumped in to add that today there’s a new hybrid model where family offices are working along with VC funds to finance startups.

11:47 AM

The Ecosystem Summit Trivia: Currently, there are 26 unicorns in India. The country has more than 39,000 operational startups — risen from 7,000 in 2008 to 38,000 in 2015 — of which 31 soonicorns have the potential to join the billion-dollar list.

10:45 AM

The event has now moved on to its first panel for the day titled ‘How To Ride A Unicorn’.

Moderated by iSPIRT Foundation co-founder Sharad Sharma, the panel includes EKA Software CEO and founder Manav Garg, Info Edge founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Blackbuck founder Rajesh Yabaji, and Matrimony.com CEO Murugavel Janakiraman. The panel will focus on the factors responsible for the rise of India’s unicorns, and what more can be done to boost and foster this growth.

Murugavel Janakiraman said that one of the biggest challenges for upcoming startups is how to deal with disruptors. Giving the example of Matrimony.com, he said one way around this problem is to connect your business with the culture of the market you are targeting.

Talking about bringing fintech to the trucking business, Yabaji said that fundamental innovation in building a digital platform around the core business very important.

Summarising the essence of the startup mindset, Sharma said:

“Entrepreneurship is about addressing a messy problem in a new way.”

Garg said that platform thinking has to start at an early stage of forming the business. This will change the way you build the company and survive shifts in the market.

Bikhchandani emphasised that going forward, Indian startups will face international “goliaths” like Amazon and Google earlier on in their growth cycle. He added that one doesn’t need a lot of funding to be successful — what one needs is innovation.

“Successful businesses are built on deep customer insights,” said Sanjeev Bikhchandani

Taking a question from the audience about one of the delegates about scaling a small business, the panelists said that its okay to run a small business as long as you ask yourself two important questions: One, is your business sustainable, and, two,  is it adding value to your customer?

10:20 AM

From being the CFO of Infosys to working with the government to improve the business ecosystem in India, TV Mohandas Pai has worn many hats in the private and public sphere. Today, he is addressing the audience at the ecosystem summit on the topic, ‘India 2025: The Indian startup ecosystem in 2025’. Pai, who is currently the chairman of private equity fund Aarin Capital, will look into the investment opportunities and startup challenges which will unfold as we grow as an ecosystem and country.

Talking about India’s growth story, Pai said that the only country that has outpaced India in terms of growth in the last 25 years is China and that is because when Mao Zedong came to power in China, he said, “Women hold up half of the heaven.” The disparity in education rates of women in India and China is one of the reasons that India’s growth has lagged, Pai said.

“We believe that by 2025 India will have 100,000 startups in the country,” TV Mohandas Pai said.

Pai also forecast that by 2025 India will have 100 unicorns.

Talking about India’s digital transformation, Pai said that in his opinion, India Stack is the greatest piece of software after Linux. In seven short years, it has gained 1.1 Bn registered users.

“We will go from a data poor to data rich nation in five years,” Pai added.

10:15 AM

Pallav Kaushish, VP, Marketing, Inc42, is giving a talk on what went into making the 400-page flagship report — The State Of The Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018. The report takes a data-driven and comprehensive approach to analysing the startup ecosystem. While the report aims to drive strategic decision-making in governance, investments, growth, and other core pillars, it is also an indicator of things to come.

10:10 AM

Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu is giving a keynote address on the need for ecosystems and startups to develop together. Underlining the importance of timing in the success of startups, Prabhu said that while ecosystems are important, startups will still have some challenges which they must face themselves.

“We will provide all types of support to startups, which they need, at the right time,” said Suresh Prabhu.

Prabhu also emphasised that startups can’t grow in isolation, they need links to corporates and economic growth in the society to flourish. He also said that one big initiative in this area is to promote ease of doing business policies not just at the national level but in every district. He ended his talk with wishing all entrepreneurs and startup players the best in their endeavours.

9:50 AM

Suresh Prabhu, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation; Hiro Mashito, Director, M&S Partners; TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of PE fund Aarin Capital; and Inc42 founders Vaibhav Vardhan and Pooja Sareen kickstarted The Ecosystem Summit with the launch of Inc42‘s flagship report — The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018.

The post Live Blog: The Influencers & The Disruptors Converge At The Ecosystem Summit 2018 appeared first on Inc42 Media.

On November 16, Inc42 organised The Ecosystem Summit (TES), where we unveiled our flagship report — The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018. Through TES, Inc42 put into motion its vision to create a platform that is the ultimate destination for all categories of stakeholders of the Indian startup ecosystem and where they would get answers to all their questions on entrepreneurship, investing, policy, networking, and more. We dreamt, and, finally, we saw it all turn into a reality.

The first-of-its-kind summit in the Indian startup ecosystem, TES received overwhelming support and was graced by 250 eminent delegates and 40 key speakers — all well-known names across domains. And all of this would not have been possible without your support, dear partners.

So, here’s raising a toast to our partners who made The Ecosystem Summit a reality, and a resounding success:

Sponsors

Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS is a cloud services platform, offering computing power, storage, content delivery, and other functionalities that enable businesses to deploy applications and services in a cost-effective manner along with greater flexibility, scalability, and reliability.

Times Internet: Times Internet is the largest digital products company and the digital venture of The Times of India. Times Internet helps global organisations expand their reach in India using its online media platforms.

Kerala Start-up Mission: Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM): KSUM plays a pivotal role in the development of the startup ecosystem in Kerala. KSUM addresses challenges including enterprise, market, product, knowledge, idea, and culture. It aims to create the infrastructure and environment required for promoting entrepreneurial activities.

Drivezy: Drivezy is India’s first aggregator service in the business of car rentals. It aims to be a one-stop destination offering services such as renting cars and bikes. Drivezy offers self-drive cars and bikes for hire by the hour, day, or week and delivers the vehicle at consumers’ doorsteps.

Adobe: Adobe provides all the tools that anyone — from emerging artists to global brands — needs to design and deliver digital experiences. In recent years, it has also attempted to diversify into other verticals like digital advertising and cloud-based commerce.

Gifting Partners

boAt: Launched in 2016, boAt is a lifestyle brand that offers consumer electronics products. boAt lists its products on ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, etc, and also retails offline through Croma stores.

Sleepy Owl: Sleepy Owl Coffee aims to redefine the in-home coffee experience. The coffee is freshly made on a daily basis and shipped across India or stocked at retail stores across Delhi NCR.

BrewHouse: Brewhouse is India’s first real-brewed bottled ice tea brand. Currently, the products are available at over 2,000 offline locations. Their products are also available on Amazon and BigBasket.

The Black Box Co: The Black Box Co is becoming the go-to place for personalised gifting. It also curates theme-based boxes for different categories such as travel, office, etc.

Imithila: Imithila is one of India’s leading brand for Madhubani Painting. The company is continuously working towards creating handloom and handicraft masterpieces and expanding its reach by introducing the world’s oldest art form based designs in contemporary everyday usage products.

LetsShave: This is an Indian e-commerce startup that delivers innovative shaving and grooming products for men and women. It has more than 450,000 customers and is growing about 45% year-on-year.

Brandless: Brandless aims at making a statement with accessories for both men and women. Aanchal Mittal, the founder and creative director of the brand, chose to create products that reflected minimalistic design and quality of product while seamlessly blending in aesthetics.

Inc42 thanks each one of you, once again, for being a part of The Ecosystem Summit. To many more such successes to come!

The post Thank You, Partners, For Making The Ecosystem Summit A Success appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Exactly one year back, angel investor Sanjay Mehta, who actively invests in blockchain and crypto startups said: “I believe, Bitcoin price is highly inflated. The ideal price of Bitcoin should be around $1K. Slowly and eventually, Bitcoin price will come down to the same.”

Back then Bitcoin was riding on a high, valued at $15K . These were the heydays of cryptocurrencies. Global investors and crypto enthusiasts like John McAfee were going gaga, estimating Bitcoin to hit $50K in the next six months. Even Wallstreet was taking notice. The way Bitcoin mania was spreading, Mehta’s statement would seem uninformed.

Coming back to November 2018, Bitcoin is struggling to maintain its price at $4K and reports suggest that mining for more will cost more than its worth at its current price.

However, understanding Bitcoin’s valuation is not an easy job. Former CIA employee, Edward Snowden, during an interaction with Ben Wizner, director, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project explained, “Let’s step outside of paper currencies, which have no fundamental value, to a more difficult case: why is gold worth so much more than its limited but real practical uses in industry? Because people generally agree it’s worth more than its practical value. That’s really it.”

The social belief that it’s expensive to dig out of the ground and put on a shelf, along with the expectation that others are also likely to value it, transforms a boring metal into the world’s oldest store of value. – Edward Snowden

Snowden said that blockchain-based cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have very limited fundamental value: at most, it’s a token that lets you save data into the blocks of their respective blockchains, forcing everybody participating in that blockchain to keep a copy of it for you.

Despite its falling value, Bitcoin remains in one the top searches on Google.

Let’s take a look at this week’s block in cryptocurrencies and ICOs!

Declining Mining Infection: Kaspersky Report

The year saw a rise in the number of miner-related attacks. However as cryptocurrency valuations started dropping, infection activity noticeably declined, according to antivirus maker Kaspersky. However, the report showed that while the number of cryptominer attacks decreased, the threat is still current.

US State To Start Accepting Bitcoin For Tax payments

US state Ohio has announced plans to accept Bitcoin for tax payments. The state has joined hands with an Atlanta-based payments wallet company Bitpay which will help convert taxpayers’ Bitcoins into dollars for tax payments.

Ohio’s state treasurer Josh Mandel told CNBC that the decision was twofold: It increases “options and ease” for taxpayers, and it opens the door to software engineers and tech startups.

Pro Boxer Floyd Mayweather And Musician DJ Khaled In Trouble For Promoting ICOs

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has now issued professional boxer Floyd Mayweather and music composer DJ Khaled for promoting ICOs on social media. SEC announced settled charges against boxer Mayweather Jr. and Khaled Mohamed Khaled, known as DJ Khaled, for failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

These are the SEC’s first cases to charge touting violations involving ICOs.

The SEC’s orders found that Mayweather failed to disclose promotional payments from three ICO issuers, including $100K from Centra Tech Inc., and that Khaled failed to disclose a $50K payment from Centra Tech, which he touted on his social media accounts as a “Game changer.” Mayweather’s promotions included a message to his Twitter followers that Centra’s ICO “starts in a few hours. Get yours before they sell out, I got mine…”

Cryptocurrency: German PE Fund Bets Big On Mining

Amid sinking Bitcoin values, a Munich-based PE firm Xolaris is preparing to launch a $50 Mn Bitcoin mining fund targeting asian investors, reported South China Morning Post.

Subscription for the Asian fund would start in December after the launch of its European fund this week.

In other news, four Iranians were found to be involved in Ransomware attacks and SamSam scheme which caused $30 Mn in financial damage, affecting more than 200 victims, including city governments, universities and hospitals across North America and the UK.

The post Cryptocurrency This Week: How Much Is Bitcoin Really Worth, Cryptominer Attacks Fall And More appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In 1975, India won the Men’s Hockey World Cup. It should have been an indication of more successes to follow, but things didn’t turn out that way. The reason for this was 1975 also marked the year when astroturf replaced grass on the hockey pitch. The result: For the next 20 years, Team India struggled to adapt to this change and lost its top position in the game.

This is a prime example of how your ability to handle change can sway your fortunes. This is one of the most important criteria for an entrepreneur looking to create a unicorn. At least that’s what Sharad Sharma, founder of iSpirt, a think tank dedicated to the software industry, believes.

Sharma used the astroturf example to set the ground for a panel discussion on ‘How To Ride A Unicorn’ at Inc42’s The Ecosystem Summit held on November 16 in New Delhi. The panel comprised Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder of Info Edge, online classifieds company ; Rajesh Yabaji, founder of Blackbuck, a online logistics marketplace startup; Manav Garg, CEO of Eka Software, a commodity trading software company; and Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO of Matrimony.com, a online matchmaking and marriage services company. Sharma, who was moderating the panel, participated actively in the discussion and made many valid points.

The core agenda of the panel was to discuss the characteristics entrepreneurs need to possess to be able to build the next unicorns in India. The panel discussed the topic at some length and in depth, elucidating the points they were making through their own examples and those of other companies, to agree on three such must-have criteria

• Anticipating change rather than reacting to it
• Understanding in-depth customer needs
• Thinking big by trying to build platforms rather than creating just products

Staying Ahead of Change

The thread of sports ran through the discussion. Just as a sportsperson may have to adapt their style of play to the natural wear and tear of the physical form, an entrepreneur, too, needs to adapt to changing technology — in fact, stay one step ahead of the tech curve to build a successful company.

“An entrepreneur must remember that what worked for him yesterday, will not work for him tomorrow. If you will not appreciate the changing mindset of consumer and scale accordingly, someone else will do,” said Janakiraman.

A modern-day example of this can be seen in the case of Flipkart, which went strong on its mobile strategy in 2015, placing a big bet on its app. The strategy, however, fell through because at that time phones were not so smart, and the mobile-first approach was ahead of its time. After this, Flipkart’s Sameer Nigam (former senior vice president, engineering) and Rahul Chari (former vice president, engineering) left the company to setup PhonePe. Initially a platform to build progressive apps that didn’t rely too much on phone memory — PhonePe soon pivoted to payments, successfully. In 2016, it was bought by Flipkart for between $10 Mn (INR 70.4 Cr)-$20 Mn (INR 140.7 Cr) ).

Knowing Your Customers Inside Out

Sometimes, when entrepreneurs create a product, they are so engrossed with the nuances and the technology that they lose sight of the end customer. “One of the first things we talk about to entrepreneurs is to ask where they got the idea from,” said Bikhchandani.

He gave the example of food delivery unicorn Zomato, in which his firm, Info Edge, owns a 46% stake. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal was working with Bain Consulting in Gurugram where he met many young, single people who would not get lunch from home. There was a cafeteria that did not serve food but displayed the menu cards of about 70-80 restaurants that delivered to the office. Lunchtime would see a long queue every day. One day, Goyal went to the cafe on a Saturday, scanned the menu cards, and put them up on his page on the office intranet.

Two days later, the IT infra guys came to him and asked him what was happening, as all the internal traffic going was going to his page. That’s when the penny dropped for him and he realised aggregation of menu cards could hold great value.

The moral of the story: It’s easy to build a product and deploy sophisticated technology but if the end user is not able to use the product or doesn’t find value in using it, then there is no point. Hence, insights on what works for the consumer are critical.

Platform Over Products

Janakiraman picked Netflix as an example of how entrepreneurs need to think outside the box and adapt. Netflix, he believes was a destructive idea (in a good way) as it evolved from a distributor of content to a creator of content. From a service that delivered DVDs via mail to producing multi-million dollar shows, Netflix is also an example of how a service/product become a platform.

“They (Netflix) saw the tech shift happening with faster data speed and internet penetration and, after acing their tech play, they adapted to the content play,” said Janakiraman.

Garg reiterated Janakiraman’s thoughts by saying “a relentless focus on the consumer is paramount” and that as early as the conception stage, one must think about creating a platform rather than just a product. When one creates a platform, one also ends up creating an ecosystem along with it, which goes a long way in determining the success of one’s company.

Early on in the journey of Blackbuck, a online logistics marketplace startup, Yabaji found that 90% of the payments to truckers happens in cash. At that time, internet penetration was very low and smartphones were not easily accessible. From then on, Yabaji built the business in such a way that it became payments company in part and a financial services company in part.

Blackbuck has taken on functions relating to the entire trucking infrastructure in India — from toll payments to insurance framework and financial inclusion, building an ecosystem around its core business of trucking.

Unicorn Cheat Sheet

The panel discussed some key learnings and questions that entrepreneurs must take into account if they’re dreaming of building a unicorn. Here’s a cheat sheet:

What will happen to me if funding dries up?

We live in a day and age where the US is hiking up interest rates, there is a trade war between China and the US. One must prepare for the risks associated with shifting political-economic scenarios one should always asses one’s ability to handle such adversities.

Build your IP, because you will have to compete with global goliaths early on in your journey

For foreign companies, India has transformed from a backend operations destination to a market for products and services. Indian players will need to contend with the fact the competition will be global as more international players invest in the India growth story.

Unlearning is one of the biggest challenges for an entrepreneur

When technology is changing around you, one must make the difficult choice of letting go or putting on hold what has worked for you in the past and delving into the relatively unknown. Unlearning is as important as anticipating change.

Creating value in terms of service and cost for the customer  

Are you able to address the need of the consumer that the incumbents have not been able to service? Can you do it at a price point that makes it accessible for your target audience? Answering both these questions is crucial to scaling your platform/product.

Learn to delegate and learn from others

Running a startup can be a lonely journey and success depends upon the team you have built. Many investors list the founding team and partners as a crucial deciding factor while making investment decisions. Surround yourself with people you can learn from and listen to their advice or else you risk losing valuable talent.

Building The Next Unicorn

The internet is a great enabler and a great disrupter. This is the opportunity and the challenge that young Indian entrepreneurs will have to increasingly deal with.

More than half of Indian internet users are currently logging in from rural areas, data costs are the lowest ever. They are streaming music on Youtube and demanding more vernacular content, ordering from Flipkart, and availing of traditional services like electricians and plumber through apps.

As more and more Indians go online, expendable incomes increase, and the middle class matures, new types of products and services will be created and new use cases will have to be explored to milk this unique opportunity that is just beginning to be realised.

Entrepreneurs also have to be nimble enough to adapt to changing technology and ambitious enough to see the larger picture and potential customers.

And it is on this backdrop that entrepreneurs and investors alike will hope to build and ride a unicorn.

The post What Goes Into The Making Of A Unicorn? Hear It From The Experts appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In July 2016, India got its first e-court, which was opened at the Hyderabad high court. Also in July 2016, brothers Gaurav Kumar and Makarant Kumar, along with their friend Shrishail Phope, embarked on an entrepreneurial journey in the legal tech domain. Their startup — LegalDocs — is an AI-powered online service that enables its customers to create, validate, and receive legal documents such as rental agreements, affidavits, wills, property registrations, etc, without stepping out of their homes.

It was a personal experience that made Gaurav come up with the idea of a legal tech startup. “I was the first of the three founders to get married. As a newly married couple, we faced a lot of trouble in getting our marriage certificate and filing affidavits to change our names/marital status on our passports and other documents,” says Gaurav.

The founder believes that the main problem was lack of knowhow about legal processes and documentation — something a majority of Indians have to contend with. Also, there is no legitimate process, with reliable professionals and standard pricing, for people to obtain legal documents.

Thus, the trio launched LegalDocs, with an aim to make it a one-stop shop for the documentation needs of enterprises/businesses as well as individuals. It provides services such as company incorporation, ROC filing, GST registration and filing, MSME consultation, notarised and registered rental agreements, apart from consultations with industry experts.

“For a long time, fragmented agents with small kiosks were the only means for people to obtain legal documents. With LegalDocs, we aim to standardise the legal documentation process and make it extremely accessible to the masses,” explains Gaurav.

Mentored by startup accelerator and seed fund Axilor Ventures, LegalDocs claims to deliver 3,000 documents and reach about 10,000 users per month. It also claims to be the biggest collector of stamp duty in Maharashtra.

The startup has tieups with well-known real estate platforms, a strong B2B network of 500 real estate brokers, and around 100 chartered accountants on board, who refer their clients to LegalDocs for their documentation needs. It is also collaborating with food delivery services to help them meet their compliance requirements, says Gaurav.

LegalDocs: Creating An Edge With AI And Automation

Like all other domains, the legal sector has been disrupted in recent years by tech-enabled solutions. There are quite a few startups in this space — including Legaldesk.com and Legalraasta among others — trying to change the status quo and take on a brigade of traditional small agents.

“These agents conduct all their operations manually. They charge $78 – $85 (INR 5,000-INR 6,000) for a food license which we provide for $7 (INR 500) only. Our USP is automation and we will leverage it fully as volumes increase in the future,” says Gaurav.

He explains that the three steps in the legal documentation process are drafting, paying stamp duty, and getting documents validated. All the three steps are taken care of by LegalDocs. Customers can go online and can create documents such as rental agreements, affidavits, wills, property registrations, etc, and receive the documents at their doorsteps.

Here, the backend heavy lifting is done by automated machines and the drafting of documents is done using AI.

Based on a customer’s geographical location and the data provided, the AI categorises all the relevant data. It then identifies the customers’ requirements and prepares the relevant documents in a manner that they’re in the customer’s favour.

For example, if a tenant and a landlord have an agreement, and the tenant employs LegalDocs to prepare the documents, its AI system will identify any clauses in the agreement made by the landlord to exploit the tenant. The AI also notifies the customer when he/she has any payments due.

The second vital service provided by the startup is accounting services, which it is building an AI for.

“Our main goal is customer satisfaction since our customers are our primary marketers. We aim to fulfil customer needs efficiently so that they’re happy and keep coming back to us,” says Gaurav, adding that 30%-40% of LegalDocs customers learnt about the company through word of mouth.

Just A Laptop And A Lot Of Hard Work

The total initial capital required for the startup was minimal — just the cost of a laptop. “Our only investment was a lot of hard work,” says Gaurav.

The founders did invest about $7,085 (INR 5 Lakh) towards marketing, which came from their personal savings. They also marketed their brand through Facebook, Quora, real estate platforms, and digital media. The result: Within the first few months, LegalDocs saw a growth of 30%-40% in the number of orders received on the platform.

Although initially, the startup didn’t make any profits, in a year’s time, it was receiving over 500 orders a month and generating a monthly revenue of $21,256 (INR 15 Lakh).

At the time, LegalDocs had 500 users, delivered 500 documents every month, and was operational only in Mumbai and Pune.

Mentored and guided by Axilor Ventures, Legal Docs slowly built its way up. In the first year, it only generated and delivered rental agreements. Later, it moved into other segments and spread its services to Delhi and Bengaluru as well.

An AI-Powered Legal Tech Solution For All

Even though the founders did not have to worry about funding, they faced other teething troubles, akin to any other startup. Having no educational or work-related background in business management, they found it difficult to manage certain areas of the business, like the cash flow for instance. Setting up a team and developing the skills required to run a business were some other initial obstacles.

However, the biggest challenge LegalDocs faced was educating people about online documentation and convincing them to move away from the manual setup. Since most people in India are used to the conventional way of obtaining legal documents — through agents — they were initially mistrusting of an online legal documentation system.

Many doubted the legitimacy of the documents delivered by LegalDocs. “People thought that documents coming from an online service could be fake,” says Gaurav.

The founders say it was an immense struggle to convince customers that the documents were legitimate and that this was a much more convenient and economical way of doing things.

But the startup seems to be going places now — its projected revenue for the month of July 2019 is $2.1 Mn (INR 15 Cr) and it is targeting 1 Mn customers by then.

The market potential can be gauged by the fact that this number comprises less than 0.1% of the total market. The potential demand for documentation in India is roughly 70 Mn documents annually. And the CA services potential market is valued at approximately $2.8 Mn (INR 20 Cr) annually.

And the legal documentation industry could definitely do with some technological intervention. A very small percentage of Indians has insurance and basic documentation like wills, property registrations, etc. With awareness increasing and laws becoming tougher, the market for documentation and financial accounting will only grow.

Ask Gaurav where he sees LegalDocs in five years and he replies: “We see ourselves as the one-stop shop for all documentation or CA requirements. Since we’re driven completely by AI, our prices will be affordable for all segments of society. The masses will have access to services which they could not afford till now.”

With AI on his side, Gaurav’s claim seems completely legit!

The post LegalDocs’ AI-Powered Solution For Legal Documentation Is Totally Legit appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India and the UK have been working hard to breathe new life into an old friendship and trade relationship with an eye on the future. In April, the duo signed the UK-India Tech Partnership to invoke synergies in the technology space with the aim of improving the lives of their citizens and boosting their economies.

Now, they’re set to crystallise this partnership further with the UK-India FutureTech Festival, set to take place on December 11-12 in New Delhi. The UK-India Fast Track Startup Fund is set to be announced during the fest. The key areas of investment for the fund will be technology-led startups in areas such as fintech, edtech, agritech, healthtech, technology-driven manufacturing, etc.

“This new tech partnership is ground-breaking, ambitious work — we don’t think such a large, broad, coordinated tech partnership exists between nations anywhere else in the world — and will pave the way for a raft of new deals, bringing jobs and investment to both our countries,” the former UK Secretary of State for digital, culture, media, and sport, Matthew Hancock had said while visiting in India in May this year to launch alliances under the partnership.

New deals, job creation, and boosting of investments are the macro goals of the UK-India Tech Partnership. At a micro level, the two countries have been aligning under several bilateral agreements to bring together the best minds in technology with a view to deliver better governance, improved healthcare and cybersecurity, among others, to their citizens.

And progress is plain for all to see.

In order to understand more about the ongoing cooperation between the two countries, the solutions being worked on to raise the standard of technologies on the global scale, and the upcoming UK-India FutureTech Festival, Inc42 connected with Rhiannon Harries, Director, Trade and Innovation – South Asia, UK.

Here are some of the insights we gained from the email-based interview:

Six Months Of The UK-India Tech Partnership: Where Do We Stand?

“In the words of PM Modi, the India-UK partnership is an unbeatable combination,” said Harries.

According to her, technology is at the forefront of the modern, forward-looking, and dynamic relationship between both the countries. A number of efforts have been taken so far to continue making efforts towards the same.

Key Strands: The UK-India Tech Partnership

• Tech Hub: To create more skilled tech jobs, increase tech R&D and investment
• Tech Cluster Partnerships: To enable shared innovation and technology exchange. For instance, the Midlands Engine-Maharashtra Cluster & Northern Power House-Karnataka (AI and Data)
• Joint Healthcare AI pilot: To align UK AI healthcare solutions with Ayushman Bharat health reforms. Also, UK Department of International Trade and NITI Aayog came together to launch a £1 Mn programme
• Fintech Rocketship Awards: A chance to collaborate and raise funding for 40 fintech entrepreneurs from the UK and India annually

Further, the continuous visits of UK and India leaders to each other have further enhanced this bond. Here is a brief timeline on the visits organised between the period May-December 2018:

India-UK Engagements In The Last Six Months

• April 2018: Former UK secretary of state for digital and culture Matt Hancock visits India to announce first two tech clusters — Northern Power House & Karnataka (AI and Data) and Midlands Engine and Maharastra (automotive)
• September 2018: UK minister for investment Graham Stuart attends Global Mobility Summit in India
• September 2018: Indian minister of state (independent charge) for power RK Singh visits Birmingham to attend the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Summit
• October 2018: UK secretary of state for housing, communities and local government James Brokenshire visits India to take forward ‘Future Mobility’ cluster between Maharashtra and the Midlands Engine and to bring a delegation of low-carbon automotive tech companies to Pune in January 2019 (for the Symposium on International Automotive Technology)
• October 2018: Lord Mayor of the city of London visits India on a fintech mission along with 11 UK fintech firms
• November 2018: An AI Roundtable works through areas of joint policy and research. Participants include representatives from the departments of science and technology, academics, industry, and sectoral experts from both India and UK.

The two countries are now drawing together the conclusions arising from these initiatives and these will inform their growing partnership in AI technologies — including in the cluster partnership between Karnataka and the UK’s Northern Powerhouse, a strand of the India UK Tech Partnership.

Sectors Where The UK Is Converging Technologies With India

The first and foremost area of collaboration between the two countries so far has been healthcare. Harries believes that a major challenge for all countries trying to provide universal health coverage is the acute shortage of doctors, nurses and other health professional globally, which is why AI is going to be ever so important over the next decade.

The UK Department of international trade and the Indian government think tank NITI Aayog have come together to launch a $1.27 Mn (£1 Mn) programme, bringing AI healthcare technologies from the UK to India.

“Our new partnership with the Indian government in this area is called the Healthcare AI Catalyst. Our first companies will be starting work in early 2019, but we hope this is a bigger partnership that will bring a continual flow of UK companies to India over the next few years to support the Indian government’s healthcare reforms,” said Harries.

She further believes that the Tech Partnership has been designed to focus on shared challenges and to enable the UK and India to act as a joint “force for good” in the world. “From a UK perspective, these are also informed by the Grand Challenges set out in our Industrial Strategy. These map across well to the challenges that face India and there’s great opportunity to collaborate on shared solutions,” she added.

Indian FDI in London And Brexit: Chances Of Impact On India-UK Partnership

According to a London and Partners report, Indian FDI in London grew 23% between 2006 and 2016 and created 4,598 jobs, among which 10% of all jobs created were in London. The UK government’s nodal agency in Manchester — MIDAS — claims similar developments in the Manchester cluster. However, there has been a relatively lesser focus on the UK’s Access India programmes to launch British startups/companies in India.

Harries, while declining to comment on the programme, said things are moving in the right direction. While pointing out that British exports to India have grown by 32% over the past year, she said: “I cannot comment on the Access India programmes’ (AIP) acceleration, but I know AIP has recently launched in automotive and advanced engineering sectors. On FDI, yes, this is really good news; 33K out of the 110K Indian-parent company jobs in the UK are in tech and telecoms. We are keen that grows through the Tech Partnership.”

So, will UK-based Indian companies catering to the EU market have to face double taxation in view of Brexit? Harries clarifies, “The Withdrawal Agreement (Brexit) includes a time-limited implementation period that gives business time to prepare for the new arrangements (including our future economic and political relationship with the EU). During this period trade will continue on current terms.”

UK-India FutureTech Festival And TECH Rocketship Awards

The UK-India FutureTech Festival (FTF) is being organised by the UK High Commission in collaboration with tech innovators, companies, and other organisations from both India and the UK. At the event, can expect thought leadership discussions and innovative examples of collaboration at the national and regional level in AI/ data, an India-UK tech hub, and more, said Harries.

Through the fund, the UK government, through the Department for International Development (DFID) India, will commit up to $48.4 Mn (£38 Mn) (first phase of $35.65 Mn-$25.5 Mn in capital investment and $10 Mn in technical assistance) to the Indian startup ecosystem. The Indian government, through the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), will make a matching commitment of $25.5 Mn (£20 Mn) from the Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) managed by the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

“We follow an open and transparent process of selecting our investment partners and more details on the process will be shared by the team through an early market engagement exercise,” said Harries.

Further, the TECH Rocketship Awards is now entering its fifth edition. The global winners of Fintech Rocketship Awards will also be at FTF. Ten UK-based fintech startups will be here in India to discuss how they can contribute to growing the ecosystem here.

UK-India Tech Partnership: The Road Ahead

The success of the Tech Partnership so far has been built on strong existing cooperation. While 31% of Indian investments in the UK have been in technology, creating 33K out of 110K jobs, the UK exported $438 Mn (£344 Mn) worth digital services to India in 2016. “But there is still immense space to grow,” added Harries.

Data localisation is another important issue to focus on. For Harries, the question of how you balance access to data and privacy is a great example of exactly the kind of joint challenge that the FTF is designed to address. “The free flow of data across borders is certainly integral to economic activity and international trade across all sectors of the economy,” said Harries.

It is worth noting that the Srikrishna Committee-submitted draft Personal Data Protection Bill has mentioned data localisation as an essential measure for data processing/collecting in India. The Indian monetary authority Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has already made data localisation essential for its regulated entities.

Further, the UK information commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, will be in New Delhi soon to discuss issues around data localisation and data privacy.

Coming back to UK-India synergies, Harries believes that the real opportunities to work lies in even closer partnerships and stimulating economic growth through the convergence of technologies. “For me, that means focusing on where our respective needs and expertise match,” she added.

It seems like this is exactly the direction in which the UK-India Tech Partnership is heading. On one hand, the UK has made an offer for VR/AR solutions to meet India’s fast-growing domestic demand, spurred by the cheap availability of mobile data in the country. On the other, in the all-important electric vehicles segment, India is also looking to the Midlands Engine for its expertise in order to meet its target for 30% electric vehicles by 2030.

Among India’s collaborations with many other countries to fuel its startup ecosystem, the India-UK partnership stands out. Although historical and conventional in nature, it is fast modernising to adapt to the needs of the times and has the potential of bringing long-term benefits to both the countries. As for Indian entrepreneurs, London dreams remain a priority — Brexit or no Brexit.

The post UK-India FutureTech Festival To Fastrack Funds For Indian Startups, Says UK Trade Director, South Asia, Rhiannon Harries appeared first on Inc42 Media.

This article is part of Inc42’s special year-end series — 2018 In Review — in which we will refresh your memory on the major developments in the Indian startup ecosystem and their impact on various stakeholders — from entrepreneurs to investors. Find more stories from this series here.

This year, the Indian startup ecosystem took it upon itself to make and break its own records — from big acquisitions and even bigger exits to billion-dollar fundings and high-profile controversies. While almost every deal and startup move worth its salt makes it to the headlines, what we often forget that behind every successful (or failed) deal or startup, there is a human, more likely, a bunch of humans.

We’re talking about entrepreneurs, investors, employees, and others who pour their hearts, minds, and souls into nurturing an innovative idea through tough times and good to build a solution that adds value to the world, a startup that matters.

The year gone by was about many adieus and new beginnings — a number of well-known entrepreneurs said goodbye to their creations, closing the doors on years of hard work and starting afresh. While some left of their own accord, others had no choice but to leave.

On the other hand, we saw many new senior-level appointments in the Indian units of international companies such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and SoftBank. While some appointed their Indian representatives to have their presence felt deeper in the country, others were given an ultimatum to do so by the Centre, with India taking a tough stand on issues such as data localisation, data privacy, and fake news.

As the year come close to a close, we take a look back at the entries and exits that mattered in the Indian startup ecosystem — the biggest movers and shakers of 2018!

Flipkart-Walmart: You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

“Sometimes life is about risking everything for a dream no one can see but you.” — Anonymous

The Flipkart founders — Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal — probably took inspiration from the above quote in all those years of trials and tribulations that their dream — Flipkart — went through.

All’s well that ends well, they say. And it seemed like a fairytale ending to the Flipkart tale when it was acquired for $16 Bn by US retail giant Walmart in May this year.

Except that it was not. There was one last twist in the tale. In one of the most controversial and emotional developments of the year, the ecommerce startup was left founder-less in the aftermath of its much-hyped acquisition. The company also saw several other layoffs and exits.

One of the Bansals knew his fate even as the founders were signing off their brainchild to Walmart. Sachin Bansal’s exit was a written in the fine print — Walmart had said it wanted only one founder on board.

But it was Binny Bansal’s ouster (in the garb of a resignation) that shocked the ecosystem. Binny got runout even after reaching the crease, although the personal misconduct allegations on which he resigned were never proven.

With the cofounders out, Flipkart, along with its new parent Walmart, is busy reshuffling its senior leadership team. Its fashion subsidiaries, Myntra and Jabong, have already been merged, thereby signalling massive layoffs. Speculation is rife around the exit of Myntra chief Ananth Narayanan as well. Just recently, a big shuffle was carried out in the top management, including the COO and the heads of different departments at Flipkart and Myntra.

Looks like Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who’s now handling things at the group level after Binny’s exit, is the only old sailor left sailing on the Flipkart boat since Walmart became captain. Tiger Global’s Lee Fixel’s love keeping him afloat?

Zomato Bids Adieu To Cofounder Pankaj Chaddah

While the exit of Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal sent shockwaves in the ecosystem and sparked off several conspiracy theories, homegrown foodtech unicorn Zomato bid a thankful and heartfelt adieu to its cofounder Pankaj Chaddah.

However, Zomato employees were surprised by his sudden and surprising exit. In a blog post, the company said that Chaddah would be stepping down from his role from March 31 to focus on a new chapter in his personal life. His Linkedin profile says he’s “on a break right now”.

Pankaj, who started his Zomato journey along with Deepinder Goyal in 2008, sent a farewell letter to the employees in which he said that he had been considering the move for a long time but didn’t want to leave the company when it was facing troubles — referring to the 2015-16 period when Zomato suffered huge losses.

The decade old company’s annual GMV crossed $1 Bn this year and offers its services to over 100 cities. Zomato also added two more acquisitions to its kitty —  Bengaluru-based TongueStun Food and Lucknow-based drone startup TechEagle Innovation and will explore drone-based food delivery. The company also recorded 40% growth in its revenues for FY18 and continues to multiply its daily orders drastically.

Is Ajit Mohan The Friend Facebook Needed In India?

Facebook has never needed to invest in PR exercises to stay in the news, ever. However, in 2018, the company had to do quite a bit of firefighting and damage control (read PR activities) to protect itself from the fire which threatened to burn to ashes its years-old goody-two-shoes image.

It all started with the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, arguably the biggest data leak in the world. Facebook exposed data on up to 87 Mn Facebook users to research firm Cambridge Analytica, which was working on US President Donald Trump’s campaign. The issue flared up in India when it was revealed that of the 87 Mn Facebook users whose data was compromised, 562K Indians were “potentially affected”.

From then on, it was only downhill in India. Since March 2018, Facebook has been fielding one crisis after another and faced severe criticism for its data security lapses. It has received multiple notices from the Indian government, seeking the details of the data compromised of 5.62 Lakh Indians.

Ajit Mohan Signs On Risky Business With Facebook India

One of the steps Facebook took to sweeten its relationship with the Indian government was appointing Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan as its managing director and vice-president in India. Mohan filled the empty chair of Umang Bedi, who left Facebook India in October 2017.

The appointment is also notable because it comes with a high amount of threat of personal liability in case of untoward incidents. An inter-ministerial committee has made a recommendation that the India heads of the global internet and social media giants be made to face criminal proceedings in case their platforms are used for unethical campaigns or to spread fake news that leads to lynching and riots.

However, Mohan, who is set to join the company in early 2019, seems to be ready to brave the storm Facebook is caught in. At Facebook India, he will be aligning teams and driving Facebook’s overall strategy in India. Prior to Hotstar, Mohan worked as a management consultant in New York for the US-based management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Anand Chandrasekaran Calls It Quits

Even as Facebook was dealing with data privacy concerns, it bade adieu to Anand Chandrasekaran, who was responsible for leading the company’s India strategy for products, technologies, and functions in November. He spent two years at the company.

Chandrasekaran, who joined in 2016 as Facebook India Director for Platform/Product Partnerships, was initially responsible for working with Messenger. However, at the time of stepping down from his position, he was responsible for WhatsApp operations, especially in India.

He has earlier served as the chief product officer of ecommerce platform Snapdeal and is now planning to look at some opportunities in the San Francisco’s Bay Area. Chandrasekaran has also made a name for himself as an angel investor where he is focused on supporting early-stage startups across sectors, including consumer internet, P2P and B2C marketplaces, fintech, SaaS, and hardware.

WhatsApp Gets Centre’s Message, Appoints India Head

That was not the end of Facebook’s troubles in India. This past year, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform, was also in the eye of the storm.

With great power comes great responsibility. And with a user base as large as 200 Mn, WhatsApp is certainly powerful in India. But has it been responsible? Well, the Indian government has had to lick it into shape.

To start with, WhatsApp increasingly emerged as a platform on which fake news proliferated, leading in rioting and even loss of lives in India. According to reports, nearly 31 people were killed across Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura, and West Bengal.

On July 4, the Indian government asked WhatsApp to immediately stop the spread of irresponsible and explosive messages on its platform. However, WhatsApp’s response seemed a bit casual to the government — limiting the number of forwarded messages per user per day to five and radio campaigns on fake news.

After dragging its feet on complying with the Indian government’s demands, WhatsApp finally met four of the major ones — it set up an office in India, appointed a grievance officer and an India team (including an India head), and tried to address fake news concerns by launching the ‘Forwards’ label to help users identify forwarded messages.

Among other measures, the company has also rolled out a radio campaign to raise awareness about spread of fake news and committed $1 Mn for research on misuse of WhatsApp for spread of misinformation.

All with a view to get on the right side of the Indian government and pave the way for the launch of its payments services — WhatsApp Pay — which is stuck in a logjam and is awaiting the approval of the RBI. But it is unlikely to get it until it complies with the government’s data localisation directive.

The company started setting up its India team with the appointment of Komal Lahiri as the grievance officer for WhatsApp in India. It followed it up with the recent appointment of Ezetap’s former CEO Abhijit Bose as WhatsApp India head. Bose, who had founded B2B payments platform Ezetap in 2011, is expected to take up his new role from early next year.

Even as it sorted out its plans for India, the company bade adieu to its chief business officer Neeraj Arora who quit from his position after a seven-year stint at the company. The announcement came as a shock as Arora was one of the leading contenders for the position of WhatsApp CEO after the exit of Jan Koum.

Sights Set On India, SoftBank Appoints Sumer Juneja As Country Head

After investing billions of dollars in Indian startups and catapulting five startups to the unicorn club in 2018, Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has been exploring more avenues for investments in ecommerce, logistics, and food technology as it plans to make several new bets in the country.

Considering its deep interest in strengthening its position in India, it only made sense for SoftBank to appoint an India representative, which it did in late November. SoftBank has appointed Sumer Juneja as its country head for India. The appointment has also prompted the plans to open an office in Mumbai where Juneja will lead the operations.

Juneja was previously working as a partner with Norwest Venture Partners in Mumbai, where he was actively involved in the company’s investment in Swiggy, Quikr and the National Stock Exchange.

Prior to Norwest, Juneja worked with Goldman Sachs in London and Hong Kong as an investment banking analyst, driving several M&A processes such as financial analysis, due diligence, and public and private buy-side and sell-side transactions.

Another interesting addition to SoftBank group came from India itself, as ex-Facebook India MD Kirthiga Reddy joined SoftBank Investment Advisers with an aim to enable the next stage of the information revolution. She will be based out of the SoftBank’s San Carlos, Silicon Valley office.

Capital G India Head Kaushik Anand Joins A91 Partners

With the venture capital action really heating up this year, there have been a few significant senior executive moves in the space. US-based venture capital company Capital G lost it’s India head, Kaushik Anand, to Bengaluru-based A91 Partners. Anand stepped down from his position at the Alphabet Inc-owned venture fund in November.

A91 Partners is a yet-to-be-launched startup fund, floated by two former senior executives from Sequoia Capital — VT Bharadwaj and Gautam Mago.

Anand had joined CapitalG, formerly known as Google Capital, in 2015 where he was responsible for leading investments in auto classified portal CarDekho, edtech startup Cuemath, and fintech startup Aye Finance.

Anand, who is expected to join his new position from early 2019, will mainly focus on technology, healthcare, and the financial services sectors at A91.

It’s not just the Indian startup ecosystem that saw the exit of founders of successful startups that have been acquired by bigger companies. The trend was visible globally as well.

In April, WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum left the Facebook-owned company, joining his partner Brian Acton, who left in September 2017. Both the founders had concerns about Facebook’s lax approach to data privacy, and with good reason, given the mess, Facebook has landed itself in.

Also, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their plans to exit from the photo-sharing platform in September without giving any specific reasons. Mark Zuckerberg, maybe? According to reports, there were differences between Instagram and Facebook’s leadership regarding the platform’s autonomy.

All in all, it was a year as any other — exits mired in controversies and new appointments weighed down with expectations, peppered with bittersweet departures of entrepreneurs from their companies. And most of them left behind a part of themselves — in the sense of the skills, knowledge, or spirit they infused into their teams — to act as a force in times to come.

But endings are also about new beginnings. And what better time than the new year?

To new beginnings, then!

This article was written by Shreya Ganguly and Bhumika Khatri and edited by Prakriti Singhania.

The post 2018 In Review: Movers & Shakers Who Came, Left, And Conquered appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Gurugram-based Samast Technologies which runs hyperlocal discovery platform Magicpin has reportedly raised $20 Mn (INR 141 Cr) in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners US. Following this deal, the platform is now valued at $100 Mn.

The round was closed last month, with participation from existing backer Lightspeed India Partners, the domestic franchise of the Menlo Park-based venture capital firm, and WaterBridge Ventures. Till date, Magicpin has raised around $30 Mn in three rounds of funding.

Lightspeed partners Jeremy Liew and Ravi Mhatre led the round.

Magicpin, founded in 2015 by Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan, provides a platform where merchants and consumers can discover and interact and also transact. It helps drive the businesses of the local retailers across various categories such as restaurant, fashion, beauty, grocery among many others.

According to the official website, at present, Magicpin has over 5 Mn users and is operational in 12 cities including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Goa, Chennai, and Ahmedabad. It is also looking to expand its reach in other cities.  It also claimed to have grown 5x in 2018.

The platform has over 800K merchants listed on its platform including the local kiranas to established retailers and brands such as McDonald’s, FabIndia, Hard Rock Cafe among others.

Other major investments of Lightspeed in India include OYO Hotels, edtech venture BYJU’S and B2B online marketplace Udaan among others.

[The development was reported by ET.]

The post Magicpin Parent Raises $20 Mn From Lightspeed Venture Partners US appeared first on Inc42 Media.

In July 2016, India got its first e-court, which was opened at the Hyderabad high court. Also in July 2016, brothers Gaurav Kumar and Makarant Kumar, along with their friend Shrishail Phope, embarked on an entrepreneurial journey in the legal tech domain. Their startup — LegalDocs — is an AI-powered online service that enables its customers to create, validate, and receive legal documents such as rental agreements, affidavits, wills, property registrations, etc, without stepping out of their homes.

It was a personal experience that made Gaurav come up with the idea of a legal tech startup. “I was the first of the three founders to get married. As a newly married couple, we faced a lot of trouble in getting our marriage certificate and filing affidavits to change our names/marital status on our passports and other documents,” says Gaurav.

The founder believes that the main problem was lack of knowhow about legal processes and documentation — something a majority of Indians have to contend with. Also, there is no legitimate process, with reliable professionals and standard pricing, for people to obtain legal documents.

Thus, the trio launched LegalDocs, with an aim to make it a one-stop shop for the documentation needs of enterprises/businesses as well as individuals. It provides services such as company incorporation, ROC filing, GST registration and filing, MSME consultation, notarised and registered rental agreements, apart from consultations with industry experts.

“For a long time, fragmented agents with small kiosks were the only means for people to obtain legal documents. With LegalDocs, we aim to standardise the legal documentation process and make it extremely accessible to the masses,” explains Gaurav.

Mentored by startup accelerator and seed fund Axilor Ventures, LegalDocs claims to deliver 3,000 documents and reach about 10,000 users per month. It also claims to be the biggest collector of stamp duty in Maharashtra.

The startup has tieups with well-known real estate platforms, a strong B2B network of 500 real estate brokers, and around 100 chartered accountants on board, who refer their clients to LegalDocs for their documentation needs. It is also collaborating with food delivery services to help them meet their compliance requirements, says Gaurav.

LegalDocs: Creating An Edge With AI And Automation

Like all other domains, the legal sector has been disrupted in recent years by tech-enabled solutions. There are quite a few startups in this space — including Legaldesk.com and Legalraasta among others — trying to change the status quo and take on a brigade of traditional small agents.

“These agents conduct all their operations manually. They charge $78 – $85 (INR 5,000-INR 6,000) for a food license which we provide for $7 (INR 500) only. Our USP is automation and we will leverage it fully as volumes increase in the future,” says Gaurav.

He explains that the three steps in the legal documentation process are drafting, paying stamp duty, and getting documents validated. All the three steps are taken care of by LegalDocs. Customers can go online and can create documents such as rental agreements, affidavits, wills, property registrations, etc, and receive the documents at their doorsteps.

Here, the backend heavy lifting is done by automated machines and the drafting of documents is done using AI.

Based on a customer’s geographical location and the data provided, the AI categorises all the relevant data. It then identifies the customers’ requirements and prepares the relevant documents in a manner that they’re in the customer’s favour.

For example, if a tenant and a landlord have an agreement, and the tenant employs LegalDocs to prepare the documents, its AI system will identify any clauses in the agreement made by the landlord to exploit the tenant. The AI also notifies the customer when he/she has any payments due.

The second vital service provided by the startup is accounting services, which it is building an AI for.

“Our main goal is customer satisfaction since our customers are our primary marketers. We aim to fulfil customer needs efficiently so that they’re happy and keep coming back to us,” says Gaurav, adding that 30%-40% of LegalDocs customers learnt about the company through word of mouth.

Just A Laptop And A Lot Of Hard Work

The total initial capital required for the startup was minimal — just the cost of a laptop. “Our only investment was a lot of hard work,” says Gaurav.

The founders did invest about $7,085 (INR 5 Lakh) towards marketing, which came from their personal savings. They also marketed their brand through Facebook, Quora, real estate platforms, and digital media. The result: Within the first few months, LegalDocs saw a growth of 30%-40% in the number of orders received on the platform.

Although initially, the startup didn’t make any profits, in a year’s time, it was receiving over 500 orders a month and generating a monthly revenue of $21,256 (INR 15 Lakh).

At the time, LegalDocs had 500 users, delivered 500 documents every month, and was operational only in Mumbai and Pune.

Mentored and guided by Axilor Ventures, Legal Docs slowly built its way up. In the first year, it only generated and delivered rental agreements. Later, it moved into other segments and spread its services to Delhi and Bengaluru as well.

An AI-Powered Legal Tech Solution For All

Even though the founders did not have to worry about funding, they faced other teething troubles, akin to any other startup. Having no educational or work-related background in business management, they found it difficult to manage certain areas of the business, like the cash flow for instance. Setting up a team and developing the skills required to run a business were some other initial obstacles.

However, the biggest challenge LegalDocs faced was educating people about online documentation and convincing them to move away from the manual setup. Since most people in India are used to the conventional way of obtaining legal documents — through agents — they were initially mistrusting of an online legal documentation system.

Many doubted the legitimacy of the documents delivered by LegalDocs. “People thought that documents coming from an online service could be fake,” says Gaurav.

The founders say it was an immense struggle to convince customers that the documents were legitimate and that this was a much more convenient and economical way of doing things.

But the startup seems to be going places now — its projected revenue for the month of July 2019 is $2.1 Mn (INR 15 Cr) and it is targeting 1 Mn customers by then.

The market potential can be gauged by the fact that this number comprises less than 0.1% of the total market. The potential demand for documentation in India is roughly 70 Mn documents annually. And the CA services potential market is valued at approximately $2.8 Mn (INR 20 Cr) annually.

And the legal documentation industry could definitely do with some technological intervention. A very small percentage of Indians has insurance and basic documentation like wills, property registrations, etc. With awareness increasing and laws becoming tougher, the market for documentation and financial accounting will only grow.

Ask Gaurav where he sees LegalDocs in five years and he replies: “We see ourselves as the one-stop shop for all documentation or CA requirements. Since we’re driven completely by AI, our prices will be affordable for all segments of society. The masses will have access to services which they could not afford till now.”

With AI on his side, Gaurav’s claim seems completely legit!

The post LegalDocs’ AI-Powered Solution For Legal Documentation Is Totally Legit appeared first on Inc42 Media.

India today is home to more than 39K startups. The Indian startup ecosystem is producing unicorns at double the speed than before, with multi-billion dollar fundings from global investors, and celebrating high-profile exits such as the $16 Bn Walmart-Flipkart acquisition last year. At the same time, the country’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) sector comprising 577 Cr companies is beating challenges of setting up and building the consumer base, among others.

But an idea remains an idea if it does not get the requisite working capital on time. According to reports, less than 5% of MSMEs have access to formal credit, while others rely on informal sources to fund their businesses. For Indian startups, while there are a number of private equity and debt funding options available, to get funding at the idea or early stage is a challenge.

In a much-needed move to address this gap, the Indian government has rolled out initiatives to offer business loans for startups and MSMEs through authorised channels. Among the several MSME schemes for entrepreneurs, one of the most important ones was the recently-launched 59-minute loan platform that enables easy access to credit for MSMEs.

Also, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has started lending to companies directly instead of through banks. These business loans for startups are at least 300 basis points lower than the ones that are offered by banks. SIDBI offers long-term loans of up to five years online.

A number of other loan schemes for entrepreneurs in India have been introduced in the past few years. Here is a list of some of the most popular and notable government schemes that offer business loans for startups And MSMEs in India.

1. 42 (End to End Energy Efficiency) – Click to read more ➤
2. Bank Credit Facilitation Scheme – Click to read more ➤
3. Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS) – Click to read more ➤
4. Credit Linked Capital Subsidy for Technology Upgrades – Click to read more ➤
5. Coir Udyami Yojana – Click to read more ➤
6. MSME Business Loans For Startups In 59 Minutes – Click to read more ➤
7. Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) – Click to read more ➤
8. SIDBI Make in India Soft Loan Fund for MSMEs (SMILE) – Click to read more ➤
9. Standup India – Click to read more ➤
10. Sustainable Finance Scheme – Click to read more ➤

4E (End to End Energy Efficiency)

Launched in: September 2016

Headed by: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: MSME startups in the manufacturing or services sector that have been operating for at least three years and have earned cash profits in the last two years are eligible for the loan. Here are the specific eligibility criteria.

• The startup should not be in default with any bank/financial institutions
• It should have undergone a process of detailed energy audit (DEA) through a technical agency/consultant that is a Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)-certified energy auditor
• The detailed project report (DPR) prepared by the technical agency/consultant should have been vetted by the Energy Efficiency Cell (EEC), SIDBI
• The unit should not have availed a performance linked grant under the World Bank-Global Environment Facility (WB-GEF) Project for the proposed energy efficiency (EE) Project and should be in compliance with the Environment and Social Management Framework

Overview: This MSME scheme for entrepreneurs has been launched jointly by India SME Technology Services Ltd (ISTSL) in association with World Bank. The main objective is to implement energy efficiency measures across Indian industries on an end-to-end basis. Also, it aims to help startups finance purchases of second-hand machinery/equipment.

The business loans for startups under this scheme meet part costs of:

• capital expenditure, including for the purchase of equipment/machinery, installation, civil works, commissioning, etc.
• any other related expenditure required by the unit provided it is not more than 50% of capital expenditure.

Fiscal incentives under the 4E scheme:

• The MSME startup has to pay only INR 30,000 and applicable taxes and the balance fee will be paid by SIDBI to auditors
• Up to 90% of the project cost with a minimum loan amount of INR 10 Lakh and a maximum loan amount not exceeding INR 150 Lakh per eligible borrower can be granted under this scheme.
• Eligible loan amount should not exceed one-fifth of the total turnover of the applicant unit.

Time period: The repayment period, including the initial moratorium period of up to six months, shall not be more than 36 months for loans up to INR 100 Lakh and 60 months for loans beyond INR 100 Lakh.

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Bank Credit Facilitation Scheme

Launched in: NA

Headed by: National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC)

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: MSMEs registered in India

Overview: The scheme aims to meet the credit requirements of MSME units. The NSIC has entered into a MoU with various nationalised and private sector banks for the purpose. Through syndication with these banks, the NSIC arranges for credit support (fund- or non-fund-based limits) from banks without any cost to MSMEs.

Fiscal incentives: NA

Time period: The repayment period varies depending on the income generated from the startup and generally extends from five to seven years. However, in exceptional cases, it can go up to to 11 years.

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Credit Guarantee Scheme (CGS)

Headed by: Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE)

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: The scheme is applicable to new and existing MSMEs engaged in manufacturing or service activities, excluding retail trade, educational institutions, agriculture, self-help groups (SHGs), training institutions, etc.

Overview: The Credit Guarantee Scheme was launched by the government to strengthen the credit delivery system and to facilitate the flow of credit to the MSME sector. The lending institutions under this scheme mainly include public, private, and foreign banks, along with regional rural banks and the SBI and its associate banks.

Fiscal incentives: This MSME scheme for entrepreneurs comes with a number of benefits, including term loans and/or working capital loan facility up to INR 200 Lakh per borrowing unit. Here are some more details of the scheme:

• The guarantee cover provided is up to 75% of the credit facility up to INR 150 Lakh
• 85% of credit facility for loans up to INR 5 Lakh is provided to micro-enterprises
• 80% of credit facility for MSMEs owned/operated by women and all loans to NER including Sikkim
• For MSME Retail trade, the guarantee cover is 50% of the amount in default subject to a maximum of INR 50 Lakh.

Time period: The credit guarantee will commence from the date of payment of guarantee fee and will run through the agreed tenure of the term credit in case of term loans/composite loans and for a period of five years where working capital facilities alone are extended to borrowers, or for such period as may be specified by the guarantee trust.

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Credit Linked Capital Subsidy for Technology Upgrades

Headed by: Office of the Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSMEs

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: Existing small-scale industry (SSI) startups registered with the State Directorate of Industries that have upgraded their existing plant and machinery with state-of-the-art technology, with or without expansion, are eligible for this scheme. Also, new SSI units registered with the State Directorate of Industries that use the appropriate, eligible, and proven technology, duly approved by the Governing and Technology Approval Board (GTAB)/Technical Sub­Committee (TSC), will be eligible.

Overview: This business loan for startups aims to facilitate technology upgrades by providing upfront capital subsidies to SSI units, including khadi, village, and coir industrial units, on institutional finance (credit) availed by them for modernisation of their production equipment (plant and machinery) and techniques.

Fiscal incentives: The ceiling on business loans for startups under the scheme has been raised from INR 40 Lakh to INR 1 Cr while the rate of subsidy has been enhanced from 12% to 15%. Here, the admissible capital subsidy is calculated with reference to the purchase price of plant and machinery, instead of the term loan disbursed to the beneficiary unit.

Time period: NA

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Coir Udyami Yojana

Headed by: Coir Board

Industry: Agriculture

Eligibility: All coir processing MSME startups registered with the Coir Board under the Coir Industry (Registration) Rules, 2008, are eligible for this scheme. Here is the criteria:

• Assistance under the scheme will be made available to individuals, companies, self-help groups, NGOs, institutions registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860, production co-operative societies, joint liability groups, and charitable trusts
• Startups that have already availed of a government subsidy under any other scheme of the Indian government or any state government for the same purpose are not eligible to claim a subsidy.

Overview: The scheme is aimed at supporting the establishment of coir units. Banks will finance capital expenditure in the form of a term loan to meet the working capital requirements in the form of cash credit. Projects can also be financed by the bank in the form of composite loans consisting of capex and working capital.

Fiscal incentives: Banks will support project cost of up to INR 10 Lakh plus one cycle of working capital, which shall not exceed 25% of the project cost. In addition:

• This should be exclusive of the INR 10 Lakh limit proposed.

• The amount of credit will be 55% of the total project cost after deducting 40% margin money (subsidy) and the owner’s contribution of 5% from beneficiaries.
• The subsidy will be computed excluding working capital component.

Time period: Rate of interest chargeable for the business loans for startups shall be at par with the base rate. Repayment schedule may not exceed seven years after an initial moratorium, as may be prescribed by the concerned bank/financial institution.

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian Government, click here.

MSME Business Loans For Startups In 59 Minutes

Launched in: September 2018

Headed by: Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE)

Industry: Sector Agnostic

Eligibility: For existing businesses: Borrower should be GST, IT compliant and must have six months bank statement facility. The business loan eligibility is determined by a company’s:

a. Income/ Revenue
b. Repayment capacity
c. Existing credit facilities
d. Any other factors as set by lenders (banks)

Overview: Prime Minister Narendra Modi described this initiative last year while unveiling the 12-point action plan for the MSME sector. The initiative aims at automation of various processes to loan appraisal in such a way that one gets an eligibility letter, in-principle approval in less than 60 minutes and chooses the bank that one may prefer to ease access to credit to smaller and micro enterprises.

Post the in-principle approval, the time taken for business loan disbursement depends on the information and documentation provided on the platform and to the banks. Generally, post the in-principle approval, the loan is expected to be sanction/disbursed in 7-8 working days.

Fiscal Incentives: The contactless business loans for startups are currently provided for value from INR 1 Lakhs Upto INR 1 Cr. The rate of interest starts from 8% onwards.

Time Period: NA

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY)

Launched in: 2015

Headed by: Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd (MUDRA)

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: Non–corporate small business segment (NCSB) comprising proprietorship/partnership firms in rural and urban areas can apply for the loan. Here are some examples of NCSBs:

• small manufacturing units
• service sector units
• shopkeepers
• fruits / vegetable vendors
• truck operators
• food-service units
• repair shops
• machine operators
• small industries
• artisans
• food processors and others

All kinds of manufacturing, trading and service sector activities can get a MUDRA loan.

Overview: MUDRA provides refinance support to banks/Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) for lending to micro units that have loan requirements of up to INR 10 Lakh. According to recent media reports, in the financial year 2017-18, overall business loans worth INR 2.54 Lakh Cr were classified as Mudra loans, an increase of 41% from INR 1.80 Lakh Cr loans sanctioned in this category in the last financial year.

For 2018-19, a target of INR 3 Lakh Cr has been set. Interestingly, the non-performing assets (NPA) level under the PMMY was only 5.38% as on March 31, 2018 — almost half of the gross NPAs across all sectors in the country, which crossed 10% in fiscal 2017-18.

Fiscal incentives: MUDRA offers incentives through these interventions:

> Shishu: Loans upto INR 50,000

> Kishor: Loans above INR 50,000 and up to INR 5 Lakh

> Tarun: Loans above INR 5 Lakh and upto INR 10 Lakh

Generally, loans upto INR 10 Lakh issued by banks to MSMEs are given without collateral. Also, within these interventions, MUDRA ensures to meet the requirements of different sectors/business activities as well as business/entrepreneur segments.

Time period: NA

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

SIDBI Make in India Soft Loan Fund for MSMEs (SMILE)

Launched in: August 2015

Headed by: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: New enterprises in manufacturing as well as the services sector can apply for this scheme. Existing enterprises undertaking expansion, modernisation, technology upgrades, or other projects for growing their business will also be covered.

Overview: The aim of this scheme is to provide soft loans, in the nature of quasi-equity, and term loans on relatively soft terms to MSMEs to meet the required debt-equity ratio for the establishment of new MSMEs and also to enable the growth for existing ones.

Fiscal incentives:

• For the general category, 10% of the project cost, subject to a maximum of INR 20 Lakh is provided as the loan amount
• 15% for the enterprises promoted by Scheduled Caste (SC) /Scheduled Tribe (ST) / Persons with Disabilities (PwD), and women, subject to a maximum of INR 30 Lakh
• Persons belonging to these categories must own a controlling stake (ie 51% or higher)

Time period: On expiry of three years from the date of the first disbursement, the outstanding soft loan, together with any dues thereon, shall be converted into a secured term loan and the entire loan shall carry an applicable rate of interest as per internal rating of the borrower. The repayment period is generally upto seven years, inclusive of the moratorium up to one-and-a-half years for the term loan and up to two years for a soft loan.

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Standup India

Launched in: April 2016

Headed by: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Industry: Sector-agnostic

Eligibility: Enterprises in trading, manufacturing, or services. In the case of non-individual enterprises, at least 51% of the shareholding and controlling stake should be held by an SC/ST or woman entrepreneur. The borrower should not be in default with any bank or financial institution.

Overview: This scheme by the Indian government facilitates bank loans between INR 10 Lakh and INR 1 Cr to at least one SC or ST borrower and at least one woman borrower per bank branch, for setting up of a greenfield enterprise. So far, 3457 online business loans for startups have been sanctioned through the Standup India platform.

Fiscal incentives:

• It offers composite loans between INR 10 Lakh and INR 1 Cr to cover 75% of the project, inclusive of the term loan and working capital
• The stipulation of the loan being expected to cover 75% of the project cost would not apply if the borrower’s contribution along with convergence support from any other schemes exceeds 25% of the project cost
• The rate of interest would be the lowest applicable rate of the bank for that category (rating category) not to exceed [base rate (MCLR) + 3%+ tenor premium]

Time period: This business loan for startups is repayable in seven years with a maximum moratorium period of 18 months.

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Sustainable Finance Scheme

Headed by: Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

Industry: Green energy, non-renewable energy, technology hardware, renewable energy

Eligibility: Renewable energy projects such as solar power plants, wind energy generators, mini hydel power projects, biomass gasifier power plants, etc, for captive/non-captive use (ie, power generated is sold/supplied to the grid/off-grid).

• Any kind of potential cleaner production (CP) investments including waste management
• Suitable assistance to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) which manufacture energy efficient/cleaner production/green machinery/equipment
• Either the OEM should be an MSME or it should be supplying its products to a substantial number of MSMEs

Overview: The objective of this startup scheme by the government is to assist the entire value chain of energy efficiency (EE)/cleaner production (CP) and sustainable development projects which lead to significant improvements in EE/CP/sustainable development in the MSMEs and which are presently not covered under the existing sustainable financing lines of credits.

Fiscal Incentives: Suitable assistance by way of term loan/working capital to ESCOs implementing EE/CP/Renewable Energy project provided either the ESCO should be an MSME or the unit to which it is offering its services is an MSME. The rate of interest will be applicable on basis of credit rating of MSMEs.

Time period: NA

To know more about this startup scheme by the Indian government, click here.

Since the launch of the Startup India Action Plan and Standup India scheme in January 2016, and the setting up of the Funds of Funds worth INR 10K Cr, more than 50 government schemes for small businesses have been put in place to support early-stage startups in taking off.

These government loans for small-scale industries are a handful of the many initiatives taken by the Indian government to boost the ease of doing business in the country. India ranked 77th in 2018 on the World Bank matrix in ease of doing business.

The government has been working at a macro level to promote entrepreneurship and opening up international startup corridors between India and the world. To this end, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) also launched the State Startup Ranking framework, on the basis of which it ranked states on the startup ecosystems, with Gujarat emerging on top of the chart.

At the micro level, the government’s efforts to offer business loans to startups and MSMEs will certainly supplement its larger gameplan and enable more entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into businesses.

The post 10 Business Loans For Startups And MSMEs By The Indian Government appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” — Steve Jobs.

This is true of all things — individuals, companies, countries. Innovation leads, the world follows. With the rise and rise of the Indian startup ecosystem, innovation in India is at its peak —45,444 patent applications were filed in 2016-17 alone.

But not all innovation is impactful, or relevant, or even useful. In an attempt to filter the wheat from the chaff, Inc42 has put together the 42Next — a list of the 42 most innovative startups causing an impact in the Indian startup ecosystem. The 42Next is a part of Inc42’s flagship annual report, ‘The State Of Indian Startup Ecosystem 2018’, unveiled during The Ecosystem Summit held on November 16 in Delhi amid the who’s who of the startup community.

The 42Next list was prepared after evaluating thousands of startups on criteria such as competition, innovation, revenues, traction, leadership, team, build up, and growth rate, among others. To arrive at the list, Inc42 filtered the essence of its years of understanding on the Indian startup ecosystem and supplemented it with inputs from both the Inc42 Editorial and Inc42 DataLabs teams, conducting an in-depth review to recognise the 42 most innovative startups in India.

These 42 startups have developed their own patented technologies and are solving pressing problems in areas such as healthtech, fintech, deeptech, enterprisetech, consumer services, edtech, media & entertainment, agritech, logistics, transport tech, and entertainment tech.

Unveiling of the ’42Next’ during Inc42’s The Ecosystem Summit

42Next is part of Inc42’s effort to recognise startups that are creating ripples in their respective fields of work and contributing to India’s trillion-dollar digital technology. These startups have shown extraordinary resourcefulness to overcome challenges on their way to success.

42Next by Inc42 — India’s Most Innovative Startups

Active.ai

Launched in: 2016
Founders: Ravi Shankar, Parikshit Paspulati, Shankar Narayanan
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $11.7 Mn
Key investors: Vertex Ventures, Dream Incubator, Kalaari Capital, CreditEase, IDG Ventures India and more

Active.ai provides a tech platform for banks, wealth managers, and financial services companies to help them engage with customers. It provides an AI-powered virtual assistant to its users to cater to their emergent banking needs.

Altizon

Launched in: 2013
Founders: Vinay Nathan, Yogesh Kulkarni, Ranjit Nair
Location: Pune
Sector: Hardware & IoT
Total funding: $5.75 Mn
Key investors: Lumis Partners, The Hive, Persistent Systems, Wipro Ventures, Infuse Ventures

Altizon is an industrial internet-focussed startup. It helps enterprises use machine data to drive business decisions with a view to enable digital transformation by accelerating smart manufacturing initiatives, modernising asset performance management, and adopting new business models for service delivery.

Ather Energy

Launched in: 2013
Founders: Tarun Mehta, Swapnil Jain
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Deeptech
Total funding: $65.3 Mn
Key investors: Hero MotoCorp, Tiger Global Management and more

Ather Energy is a maker of two-wheeler electric vehicles. In 2018, the startup launched its flagship electric scooter, Ather 450; and another ebike, Ather 340, which is set to hit Indian roads. It also launched Ather Grid, a public and private EV charging solution.

Belong

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Vijay Sharma, Sudheendra Chilappagari, Saiteja Veera, Rishabh Kaul
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Enterprise services
Total funding: $15 Mn
Key investors: Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners India, Blume Ventures, InnoVen Capital and more

The startup relies on big data to aggregate the right candidates for companies from hundreds of public and social sources. It is a platform-based solution that connects employers to a verified network of independent talent experts for start-to-finish hiring support.

CASHe

Launched in: 2016
Founders: V Raman Kumar
Location: Mumbai
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $3.8 Mn
Key investors: Aeries Group, TSLC Pte, Florentree represented by Mathew Cyriac and others

CASHe has developed a patented credit scoring system, called social loan quotient (SLQ), to provide short-term, unsecured loans to salaried individuals. The SLQ calculates the customer’s credit score from a number of data points obtained from his/her smartphone that gives insights into his/her willingness and ability to repay the loan.

ClearTax

Launched in: 2011
Founders: Archit Gupta, Raja Ram Gupta, Srivatsan Chari, Ankit Solanki
Location: Delhi
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $65.4 Mn
Key investors: SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, PayPal, Paytm, Y Combinator, Maiden Lane, FundersClub, Peter Thiel, Naval Ravikant, Max Levchin

ClearTax helps individuals and businesses with tax compliance and mutual fund investments along with tax preparation, e-filing, accounting, and investment planning solutions. The platform has helped customers file more than 20 Lakh tax returns.

Cube

Launched in: 2018
Founders: Satyen Kothari
Location: Mumbai
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: Undisclosed
Key investors: Beenext, 500 Startups, and more

The startup has built an automated wealthtech app to help customers plan their finances. It works on a subscription-based model, connecting users with an investment adviser to help them do their financial planning.

Cure.fit

Launched in: 2016
Founders: Ankit Nagori, Mukesh Bansal
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Healthtech
Total funding: $170 Mn
Key investors: IDG Ventures India, Kalaari Capital, Accel Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Trifecta Capital and more

Cure.Fit is a health and fitness startup that integrates an online-to-offline (O2O) model to offer physical fitness, mental well-being, healthy food, and preventive diagnostics on a single app-based platform.

Dream11

Launched in: 2012
Founders: Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth
Location: Mumbai
Sector: Gaming
Total funding: $100 Mn
Key investors: Tencent, Kalaari Capital, Multiples Equity

Dream11 offers users app-based gaming experiences in sports such as cricket, football, kabaddi, etc. The fantasy sports platform enables users to create virtual teams comprising real-life players and lets them organise matches based on the players’ actual statistical performances.

Drivezy

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Ashwarya Pratap Singh, Hemant Kumar Sah, Vasant Verma, Abhishek Mahajan, Amit Sahu
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Transport
Total funding: $28 Mn
Key investors: Mahindra Finance, ICICI Bank, Y Combinator, White Unicorn Ventures, Kima Ventures and others

Drivezy offers peer-to-peer bike and car sharing service in India. Drivezy’s vehicle sharing marketplace is a strategic and efficient alternative to outright vehicle purchase for consumers. Drivezy’s marketplace allows individual vehicle owners to list their idle cars, motorcycles and scooters and turn them into profit-generating assets by renting the vehicles to customers at a fraction of the cost required to purchase a vehicle. Customers can also rent a car or a two-wheeler from Drivezy for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Dunzo

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Ankur Aggarwal, Dalvir Suri, Mukund Jha, Kabeer Biswas
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Logistics
Total funding: $14.8 Mn
Key investors: Aspada Investments, Blume Ventures, Google, Rajan Anandan and more

Chat-based hyperlocal services app Dunzo enables users to create to-do lists and collaborate with partners (vendors) to get them done. It leverages AI to provide vendors for shipping of packages, buying products, repairing stuff, and home services.

Flutura

Launched in: 2012
Founders: Krishnan Raman, Derick Jose, Srikanth Muralidhara
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Hardware & IoT
Total funding: $10 Mn
Key investors: Hitachi, Vertex Ventures, Lumis Partners, The Hive, Pi Ventures and more

Flutura is a big data analytics solutions provider with a vision to transform operational outcomes by monetising machine data. Flutura’s flagship software platform, Cerebra, provides diagnostics and prognostics through AI and ML, to unlock new business value for engineering and energy customers across the globe.

Furlenco

Launched in: 2011
Founders: Ajith Mohan Karimpana
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Consumer services
Total funding: $27.3 Mn
Investors: Signet Chemical Corporation, Trifecta Capital, Hetero Group, Lightbox Ventures, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, IntelleGrow and more

Apart from furniture rentals, Furlenco provides a host of benefits such as swapping of furniture, relocation across cities, pausing of subscriptions, and deep cleaning services as a part of its subscription. The startup designs and manufactures its own furniture with the help of in-house designers.

Graphic India

Launched in: 2012
Founders: Sharad Devarajan, Gotham Chopra, Suresh Seetharaman
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Entertainment tech
Total funding: $10.3 Mn
Key investors: Liquid Comics, Emerald Media, CA Media, Start Media, India Internet Fund, 3one4 Capital

Graphic India specialises in developing comic superheroes. The startup is producing 200 episodes of animation across TV and digital platforms, and has partnered with Disney, Amazon Prime Video, Cartoon Network, Rovio, Viacom18, etc. Its popular comics include Shadow Tiger, Devi, The Mighty Yeti, Chakra The Invincible, Astra Force, The Lost Legends, and Ramayan 3392 AD.

CarIQ

Launched in: 2012
Founders: Sagar Apte, R Rajendrakumar, Deepak Thomas, K. Vinu, Hrishikesh Nene
Location: Pune
Sector: Automobile maintenance
Total funding: $843K
Key investors: One97 Mobility Fund, Persistent Systems, Pose Ventures, Snow Leopard Ventures, Venture Factory, JioGenNext and more

CarIQ connects car owners with the service providers. It is helpful in accessing the car status and detecting any care required in real time. It is helpful in locating nearby workshops and mechanics. It also provides information on insurance renewals, workshop tie-ups, service integrations, and roadside assistance, etc.

IndiaLends

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Gaurav Chopra, Mayank Kachhwaha
Location: Delhi
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $16 Mn
Key investors: ACPI, DSG Consumer Partners, American Express Ventures and more

Consumer lending startup IndiaLends has built a credit scoring and analytics platform that connects borrowers with financial institutions that match their credit profiles. It also provides data analytics and risk scoring services to financial institutions as well as access financial education to consumers.

ION Energy

Launched in: 2017
Founders: Akhil Aryan, Alexandre Collet
Location: Mumbai
Sector: Deeptech
Total funding: Undisclosed
Key investors: Astarc Ventures, Aakrit Vaish

ION Energy manufactures high-performing batteries for electric vehicles. It designs and engineers lithium-ion battery technologies bundled with proprietary software and a cloud analytics platform to improve battery performance.

Instamojo

Launched in: 2012
Founders: Sampad Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: FinTech
Total funding: $3.1 Mn
Key investors: Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures, 500Startups and more

Instamojo enables MSMEs to build, manage and grow their business online. Used by over 500K MSMEs in India, in the last six years, Instamojo has acquired nearly 10% of the digitally active MSME’s. The startup turned EBITDA positive in July 2017 and has witnessed a 10-15% MoM Growth.

Licious

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Abhay Hanjura, Vivek Gupta
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Consumers services
Total funding: $39 Mn
Key investors: Bertelsmann India Investments, Vertex Ventures, Mayfield, 3one4 Capital, Sistema, InnoVen Capital and more

Technology-powered meat, fish, and seafood products delivery startup Licious is built on the farm-to-fork business model. It owns the entire backend cold chain, which enables it to control and maintain the quality and freshness of the products from the time of procurement, through processing and storage, till it reaches the customer.

Locus

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Nishith Rastogi, Geet Garg
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Logistics
Total funding: $6.75 Mn
Key investors: Blume Ventures, Exfinity Venture Partners, BeeNext and growX ventures , Rocketship.vc, Recruit Strategic Partners, pi Ventures and more.

Locus is a decision-making engine in supply chain that uses deep learning and proprietary algorithms to provide route optimisation, real-time tracking, insights, and analytics, beat optimisation, and more of packages. Locus aims to automate all kinds of human decisions required to transport a package or a person, between any two points on earth, delivering gains along efficiency, consistency, and transparency in operations.

Meesho

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Vidit Aatrey, Sanjeev Barnwal
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Enterprise application
Total funding: $15.4 Mn
Key investors: Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Y Combinator, Venture Highway, Investopad and others.

Meesho is an online social platform for sellers to sell products across fashion, lifestyle, and other categories. It also provides logistics and payments tools to sellers along with helping them launch, build, and promote online businesses using social media channels.

MoneyTap

Launched in: 2016
Founders: Bala Parthasarathy, Anuj Kacker, Kunal Varma
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $12.3 Mn
Key investors: Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Prime Venture Partners, Eight Innovate

Consumer lending startup MoneyTap provides flexible loans to salaried individuals and self-employed professionals earning more than $270 (INR 20,000) per month. MoneyTap claims to evaluate the user’s eligibility in less than four minutes and provides a real-time decision on the application along with the amount the borrower is eligible for.

myGate

Launched in: 2016
Founders: Vijay Arisetty, Abhishek Kumar, Shreyans Daga, Vivaik Bhardwaj
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Enterprise application
Total funding: $11.18 Mn
Key investors: Prime Venture Partners

myGate offers a comprehensive solution for gated communities to manage operations at entry and exit gates; and enables them to optimise security guards, making them more effective. The startup takes the responsibility of training the guards — any time and any number of times as needed — through the life of the contract.

Ninjacart

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Vasudevan Chinnathambi, Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan.
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Agritech
Total funding: $14.3 Mn
Key investors: Accel Partners, Mistletoe, Qualcomm Ventures, Trifecta Capital, Nandan Nilekani and more

B2B agri-marketing platform Ninjacart connects farmers with businesses, picks up produce from farmers’ fields and delivers it to the doorsteps of 3000+ businesses in 12 hours. The startup claims to process more than 200 tonnes of fruits and vegetables daily and has operations in Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Niramai

Launched in: 2016
Founders: Geetha Manjunath, Nidhi Mathur
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Healthtech
Total funding: $983K
Investors: Pi Ventures, Ankur Capital, Axilor Ventures, 500 Startups, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Binny Bansal, Srinath Batni

Niramai uses big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to detect breast cancer at an early stage, which is useful for preventive health checkups.

Clip

Launched in: 2017
Founder: Ashish Gupta, Nav Agrawal, Swapnil Upadhyay
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Digital media video startup
Total funding: $7.3 Mn
Key investors: Matrix Partners India, Shunwei Capital, India Quotient

Mobile-based Clip allows users to browse India-based video contents of bollywood, cricket, music, dance, devotional etc. The users can also follow each other, create their own video, find content and share them across other social media.

Playment

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Siddharth Mall, Akshay Lal, Ajinkya Malasane
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $2.42 Mn
Key investors: Y Combinator, Sparkland Capital, Google, SAIF Partners and more

An AI-driven mobile platform, Playment helps organisations divide big work projects into micro tasks. Users need to share data with the startup’s human intelligence (HI) team, which then provides a dedicated project manager that prepares task instructions, workforce training modules, and sets up workflows to ensure that contract level SLAs are delivered consistently.

Playsimple

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Siddharth Jain, Suraj Nalin, Preeti Reddy, Siddhanth Jain
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Gaming
Total funding: $4.5 Mn
Key investors: SAIF Partners, IDG Ventures India, Google, Yezdi Lashkari

PlaySimple provides simple, fun and social mobile-based games across categories such as trivia, puzzles, and word games. Each game has an average session time of 15 minutes.

Quizizz

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Ankit Gupta, Deepak Joy Cheenath
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Edtech
Total funding: $3 Mn
Key investors: Nexus Venture Partners, Prime Venture Partners, Powerhouse Ventures

Quizizz  is an e-learning platform for teachers, students and parents to connect and engage with each other to conduct quick assessment across STEM subjects using gamification technique, having features such as points, customisable memes, leaderboard etc.

Razorpay

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Shashank Kumar, Harshil Mathur
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $31.5 Mn
Key investors: Tiger Global Management, Y Combinator, Matrix Partners India, Mastercard, GMO Venture Partners, Soma Capital, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Punit Soni, Abhay Singhal, Naveen Tewari, Kunal Shah, Sandeep Tandon, Justin Kan, Jeff Huber, Bill Gajda

Digital payments startup Razorpay offers payment gateway solutions along with a product suite to help merchants manage the entire payments cycle. It plans to enter the enterprise online lending space with by expanding its existing B2B services to provide an end-to-end financial management solution.

Rubique

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Manav Jeet
Location: Mumbai
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $6.55 Mn
Key investors: Emery Capital, Kalaari Capital, BlackSoil, Recruit Group, Trifecta Capital, YourNest, Globevestor

AI- and ML-focussed online lending startup Rubique has developed a proprietary algorithm for banks and other financial institutions to process loan and credit card products.

ShareChat

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Farid Ahsan, Bhanu Singh, Ankush Sachdeva
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Social
Total funding: $124 Mn
Key investors: Morningside Ventures, Shunwei Capital, Xiaomi, Lightspeed Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and more

Much like other social networking platforms, ShareChat enables users to create, discover, and share content with each other in 10 Indian languages. The app allows users to share videos, jokes, GIFs, audio songs and funny images. The users can also follow each other, create and find content in their language of preference and share them across other social media.

ShopX

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Amit Sharma, Apoorva Jois
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Enterprise application
Total funding: $53.6 Mn
Key investors: Fung Group, Nandan Nilekani

ShopX is a technology-led startup that enables retailers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to offer their products and services to customers by listing them on its platform along with daily deals.

SigTuple

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Tathagato Rai Dastidar, Rohit Kumar Pandey, Apurv Anand
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Healthtech
Total funding: $25.5 Mn
Key investors: Accel Partners, IDG Ventures India, Endiya Partners, Pi Ventures, Axilor Ventures and more.

SigTuple aims to create a data-driven, ML, and cloud-based solution for detection of abnormalities and trends in medical data for the purpose of disease diagnosis. Its continuous learning AI-powered platform, Manthana, enables SigTuple to ingest visual medical data from various devices to detect diseases.

Smartivity Labs

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Apoorv Gupta, Ashwini Kumar, Rajat Jain, Tushar Amin
Location: Delhi
Sector: Edutech
Total funding: $3.13 Mn
Key investors: S Chand and Company, AdvantEdge, Tandem Capital, CFG Offshore Holdings, Ashish Kacholia, Namita Bhandare, Samridh Poddar, Nilkanth Kulkarni, Saurabh Mittal, Kunal Khattar

Smartivity Labs provides activity-based, engagement-driven smart learning experiences and toys for children. It has built a patented AR-focussed tinkering kit along with robotics-based learning systems for children from 3-14 years of age. Besides India, the startup has distributors in Singapore, Australia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Pakistan.

Squad

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Apurv Agrawal along with Kanika Jain, Vikas Gulati
Location: Delhi
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $2.1 Mn
Key investors: Blume Ventures, 91springboard, Emergent Ventures, Abstract Ventures and more

Squad has an app that helps Internet companies execute small tasks via crowdsourced game players. Squad assigns these tasks as games to freelancers who play them in exchange for currency on mobile wallets. SquadVoice is seeing strong growth and its product has evolved in the right direction towards automating lead qualification for sales teams.

Tesseract

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Kshitij Marwah
Location: Delhi
Sector: Hardware & IoT
Total funding: NA
Key investors: NA

Tesseract has launched three hardware products — Methane, Holoboard, and Quark — in the augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) sectors. On the AR side, the company is focussed more on content consumption, while in VR, it concentrates on content capture.

ToneTag

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Kumar Abhishek, Vivek Singh
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Fintech
Total funding: $9.97 Mn
Key investors: Amazon, Mastercard, 3one4 Capital, Elevate Innovation Partners, Reliance Venture Asset Management, Mastercard & more

ToneTag uses sound waves to transmit data to enable payments when two devices — a mobile phone or a PoS device — are brought in close proximity of each other.

Unacademy

Launched in: 2015
Founders: Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh, Sachin Gupta
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Edtech
Total funding: $39.4 Mn
Investors: Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, WaterBridge Ventures, and more

Unacademy is an online learning platform that empowers educators to create courses on various subjects. It currently has more than 50,000 lessons online, 1.3 Mn registered users, and 4,000 educators. It also provides an online knowledge repository for multilingual education.

UrbanClap

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Abhiraj Bhal, Raghav Chandra, Varun Khaitan
Location: Delhi
Sector: Hyperlocal
Total funding: $59 Mn
Investors: Vy Capital, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Trifecta Capital, Ratan Tata and more

On-demand hyperlocal home services marketplace UrbanClap helps consumers find local home services in categories such as health and wellness to weddings, events, home and design, repair and maintenance, etc. UrbanClap recently launched its services in Dubai.

Vatsana Technologies

Launched in: 2014
Founders: Parveen Singhal, Vinay Singhal, Shashank Vaishnav
Location: Indore
Sector: Entertainment tech
Total funding: $342K
Investors: Inventus Law, Singapore Angel Network, and more

Vatsana Technologies-owned content marketing company Wittyfeed is a content marketing platform that provides latest news, photos, viral stories, and trending videos on entertainment, fashion, sports, politics and lifestyle. The content is available in Spain, the US, the UK, and India.

Yulu

Launched in: 2017
Founders: Amit Gupta, RK Misra, Naveen Dachuri, Hemant Gupta
Location: Bengaluru
Sector: Transport
Total funding: Undisclosed
Key investors: 3one4 Capital, Blume Ventures, Wavemaker Partners, Incubate Fund, Incubate Fund India, OperatorVC and more

IoT-focussed startup Yulu provides dockless bicycles sharing for the first mile, last mile, and short distance commute. Its bikes can be unlocked by scanning the QR code that is obtained after the user books the ride via the Yulu app.

The post 42Next By Inc42 — Meet India’s 42 Most Innovative Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“We are a technology fund but we don’t invest in technology. We invest in those cases where a problem is solved by technology,” says Manish Singhal, the founder of pi Ventures.

Singhal, who’s made a reputation for himself as an important technology and deeptech investor in India, started his investment journey about four years ago when terms such as deeptech, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) were lesser known in the country.

Having studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, and worked in organisations such as Tata Elxsi and Motorola, Singhal realised quite early that AI/ML had the potential to become a horizontal technology — which means almost every product would have to adapt them at some point in time. This made him invest in a startup called Locus in his personal capacity.

“What interested me about this startup is the way it combined AI and ML to smoothen the process of logistics,” Singhal said while speaking to Inc42. Singhal was speaking to us as part of ‘Over the Horizon’ — a new series launched by Inc42 and Amazon Web Services (AWS) which aims to put a spotlight on investors impacting the Indian startup ecosystem.

It was while investing in Locus that Singhal realised the need for a fund entirely dedicated to the sector. Thus began Singhal’s journey with pi Ventures.

The technology investor Singhal has led pi Ventures, a $33 Mn fund, to make seven investments — Niramai, ten3T, and Zenatix in a span of less than three years.

Although pi Ventures invests mostly in technology-based startups it is planning to expand its scope under Singhal’s leadership. Singhal says he guides his team to evaluate startups on the basis of their “cause” rather than on their technology.

“We haven’t invested in a blockchain company but we have invested in a company that uses blockchain to solve major day-to-day problems, such as OweMe. We have invested in a medical diagnosis and analysis company called SigTuple,” he explains.

Manish Singhal: Helping Solve Big Problems In A Differentiated Way

Venture capitalists are often faced with a tricky question — what is it that interests them about a startup. While many struggle to pinpoint on the answer, Singhal’s thought process on the issue is crystal clear. It’s not just market potential or social impact that motivates him to invest in a startup. He’s looking for a lot more than that.

“We look at it differently. Firstly, we see if the problem is big enough. Secondly, we see that if the startup has a 10X better way of solving it than what is already there, instead of an incremental improvement. Moreover, if it can give an orbit jump or a differentiating factor, then that excites us more,” says Singhal.

pi Ventures, which makes investments exclusively in early-stage startups, boasts an interesting mix in its portfolio. One such investment is one of India’s 42 most innovative startups – Niramai, a Bengaluru-based startup that has a non-invasive, non-touch, non-radiation approach to detection of breast cancer.

When asked what piqued his interest in Niramai, Singhal explains that breast cancer is a global problem but the ways to detect it are limited to mammography and other techniques that can be painful or invasive. Niramai has developed a new way of breast cancer detection and is filling the gap. pi Ventures saw that as a strong proposition and invested in it because it felt that the startup is helping solve a big problem in a disruptive way.

Pi Ventures: Nurturing Early-Stage Startups

Talking about the inception of pi Ventures, Singhal says that if a startup can show its customers the amount of money it has raised, it is much easier to get traction. But that’s difficult for a startup that is in its early stage, especially in case of tech-based startups. Singhal, who has a background in technology and operations, felt that pi Ventures can help early-stage startups come into the limelight and grow with proper mentorship. “So, we felt that we should create a supporting infrastructure, a supporting fund which can support the ecosystem,” said Singhal.

Like most other venture capital firms, while considering investing in a startup, pi Ventures looks for a strong founding team, a large market size, potential technology and an innovative product. Besides, it looks at the startup’s AI capabilities, AI-based products, and the potential of AI application in its business.

“We first talk to entrepreneurs. We then do a deep dive — which takes five to six hours — that covers all the aspects, including the people, technology, product roadmap, etc. With that deep dive, we are mostly able to make a decision,” explains Singhal.

Pi Ventures Startup Portfolio

Why Does pi Ventures Exclusively Invest In Early-Stage Startups?

pi Ventures is a relatively small fund worth $33 Mn. If it starts investing too much in late-stage startups, the money will not be enough. “To make this commercially viable we take small steps to create a bigger impact,” explains Singhal.

“Secondly and most importantly, what I have learnt during my years as an entrepreneur and as an angel investor is that product-based companies that need early support struggle very hard to find it,” says Singhal.

So, instead of focusing on fully-grown startups that are capable of self-nurturing, pi Ventures concentrates its efforts on early-stage startups that need to be handheld and nurtured to a point of sustainability and scaling.

Once a startup develops its product or service, scaled or raised money, it becomes much easier to attract investors, customers, and users. But the difficult part is to get to that point. With its focus on early-stage startups and its ideology of investing in technology not for the sake of the technology but for the problem it is solving, the contribution of pi Ventures in this space is undeniable.

While observing the trend and potential of B2B startups to scale up in the FY19, pi Ventures shares its plan to invest and mentor them to further fuel the startup ecosystem in India.

Given its laser-sharp focus and desire to create an impact, we expect to see a lot of exciting investments from the pi Ventures fund.

The post How Manish Singhal’s pi Ventures Is Helping Solve Big Problems In A Differentiated Way appeared first on Inc42 Media.

This article is an extract from Inc42’s upcoming ‘Annual Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2018’ which provides a detailed analysis of the funding trends and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&As) in the Indian startup ecosystem for the period 2014-2018. To read other articles of this report, click here.

We’ve just stepped into a new year and are all excited about what it will bring for the Indian startup ecosystem. But let’s admit it, 2018 was a truly remarkable year in more ways than one for the ecosystem — from meteoric startup growth, high-profile exits, foreign investments to international forays by Indian tech startups.

According to Inc42’s upcoming ‘Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2018’, Indian tech startups raised $11 Bn in funding across 743 deals with more than 637 Indian startups raising funding in 2018. This was slightly lower than the previous year (2017) when $13 Bn funding was raised across 885 deals.

Startups raked in about 42% of the total funding between 2014-2017 in 2017. In comparison, 25% of the total funding in startups between 2014 and 2018 was made in 2018, the report added.

Despite the fall in funding amount, 2018 was a year of transformation, excitement, and revolution for the Indian startup ecosystem. In just this one year, India produced 11 unicorns and also saw its fastest unicorn — Udaan — which crossed the $1 Bn mark in just 26 months with a whopping $275 Mn funding.

Tagged as ‘fallen sectors’, both grocery and foodtech were on fire in 2018. While Zomato and Swiggy gaining the unicorn status was a highlight for the foodtech industry, the grocery sector had its moment of glory in the growth achieved by Grofers and BigBasket.

The country even saw the biggest exit in the history of Indian ecommerce — the $16 Bn acquisition of Indian ecommerce unicorn Flipkart by Walmart. Overall, 125 merger and acquisitions (M&A) deals were reported in the Indian tech startup ecosystem, as per the report.

Before we delve further, let’s take a quick look at the key highlights from the Tech Startup Funding Report 2018:

• • Total funding amount in India’s Silicon Valley, Bengaluru, fell by 31% from $6.86 Bn in 2017 to $4.75 Bn in 2018
  • Late-stage funding increased by 18% in comparison to 2017
  • There was a 40% drop in seed stage funding in comparison to 2017
  • Enterprisetech and fintech witnessed the maximum number of M&As with 30 and 18 deals respectively

• Ecommerce investments fell by 41.37% in 2018
• Investments in healthtech and in deeptech surged by 45.06% and 20.68% respectively

Indian Tech Startups Funding 2018: Stagewise Breakdown

In 2018 as well, gaps in seed funding continued to persist like the previous year, but there was an encouraging growth in late-stage funding. While the number of late-stage deals rose by 18%, there was a drop of 21% in the total funding amount. The top funding grossers of the Indian startup ecosystem were OYO, BYJU’S, Paytm Mall, and PineLabs, among others.

Indian Tech Startups Funding 2018: Sector-wise Breakdown

Fintech was the top sector in terms of the number of deals, raking in $1.41 Bn across 121 deals. But, a slight decline was observed in funding amount in comparison with 2017. At the same time, continuing with the previous year’s trend, ecommerce witnessed the highest funding — $2.1 Bn — in 2018. However, the amount was approximately 50% lower than in 2017.

Indian Tech Startups Funding 2018: Demographic Breakdown

Bengaluru scored 247 deals in 2018. It was followed by Delhi-NCR, which notched a total of 224 deals. Other major cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune also showed signs of growth.

According to Inc42 DataLabs, since 2014, Indian tech startups have raised over $44 Bn across 3,968 deals. While 2015 was the year of blind fundings and ‘me too’ startups, 2016 saw the funding winter of the Indian startup ecosystem, making entrepreneurs walk on thin ice. The next year, 2017, came as a ray of hope and as the market moved through a phase of correction; the year bid adieu with the maximum funding hitherto in the ecosystem.

‘The Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2018’ showcases a downward trend in 2018 in terms of funding and M&As. However, in terms of overall sentiment, Indian startups fared well.

In 2019, a plethora of opportunities are awaiting Indian startups in international markets as well, considering the strengthened relations between the Indian government and the other countries such as Israel, Portugal, Japan, and the UK, among others.

Recently, reports also surfaced that in the last year, around 200 Indian startups have set up their base in Estonia. Well, that’s a good start.

Inc42 DataLabs further predicted that in 2019, funding is expected to again soar to 2017 levels, hovering at about $13.5 Bn but through a comparatively lesser number of deals. DataLabs further suggests that the funding gap observed in 2017 and 2018 will continue in 2019, where a handful of startups will attract a major part of the funding.

Liked what you read so far? We have a lot more insights and data in our full upcoming report, which covers funding trends across Tier I, Tier II, Tier III cities, 14 industries and sectors, segregated by the funding stage, investor type, and a lot more, for the period between 2014 and 2018.

The post 2018 A Landmark Year For Tech Startups With $11 Bn In Funding, 743 Deals And 11 Indian Unicorns appeared first on Inc42 Media.

“The spirit of coworking allows you to find coworkers who are worth working with.” — Cynthia Chiam, a renowned Malaysian entrepreneur, trainer, and author

The Indian coworking space is on the verge of an interesting inflection point. On one hand, it is offering the booming startup ecosystem a viable option for a hassle-free take-off sans major investments in an office space. On the other, India’s growing startup ecosystem and the increasing acceptance of coworking spaces by Indian entrepreneurs is attracting foreign coworking players to grab a share of the market.

According to The State of the Startup Ecosystem Report by Inc42, India currently hosts 300 coworking spaces with a total of 720 centres and a total area of 15 Mn sq ft. Some of these are run by major players such as WeWork, 91springboard, Innov8, Cowrks, and Awfis. After being adopted in Tier 1 cities, the trend is now spreading its wings to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as well.

As Yogesh Arora, director and cofounder of AltF CoWorking, shared, foreign competitors such as WeWork have made an impressive impact, but in the premium segment only. Local players dominate the mid-range segment, which holds the major share of the market.

As a part of the Inc42 and Amazon Web Services (AWS) series — Hidden Ecosystem Champions — we connected with a few such coworking players including SproutBox, myHQ, AltF CoWorking, GoHive, GoWork, Yessworks, and Ideashacks, to understand how they are creating a difference in the lives of budding entrepreneurs and startups.

Small Coworking Firms Making It Big

Even as international coworking companies that offers huge, plush spaces and world-class facilities cater to well-funded startups or those with some money to spare, smaller coworking players have quietly been carving out a niche market for themselves. They offer comparatively smaller spaces with not as many frills and fancies, but their lower pricing is attracting startup founders whose early-stage startups require much less workspace and facilities than corporates — sometimes just a desk or two or three.

And they are proving to be a viable option for entrepreneurs who would otherwise have to set up their initial workplace at their homes or garages, thereby helping them set the right workspace culture from the first day itself. At the same time, these small coworking spaces are offering their services across much larger geography, reaching places that are closer in proximity to entrepreneurs.

For instance, myHQ, launched in 2016 in Delhi, offers facilities such as a cafe, lounge, and office space, and provides seats as low as $71.92 (INR 5K) per month, making it one of the most economical options in the industry.

Similarly, AltF CoWorking, which started off with two seats in a basement of OYO in Delhi in 2016, plans to a run rate of $3.44 Mn annually by March 2019. GoHive, on the other hand, started two years ago in Delhi, houses some notable startups of India such as Peesafe and Magicpin.

Ideashacks Coworking, which started operations in 2016, now hosts 200 startups, freelancers, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Similarly, SproutBox, which was established in 2015, is home to 34 companies of different sizes.

Some of them are even going beyond basic offerings to provide startups value-added services that help them improve their productivity or help their employees let their hair down. GoWork recently launched GoSocial, a premium bar on its campus in Delhi and is planning to introduce a frustration zone and GoLiving — a sleeping pod concept — to help cope with workforce distress.

The FunTonic seed fund established YesssWorks in Mumbai, which implements technologies to help its community identify ways to increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve employee productivity.

A Community Initiative At Heart

Founders of coworking spaces say that coworking was never meant to be just a shared workplace — it is a catalyst in enhancing the growth of startups. But the concept was widely misunderstood and misinterpreted in the initial years. However, over time as the startup industry matured, the definition of coworking too gained maturity and people understood its real significance as a community-driven initiative. It is this factor that became a turning point for the coworking sector.

CEO and chief evangelist of GoWork Sudeep Singh comments, “This transition was bound to happen.” He believes that globally, coworking spaces quickly evolved from just focusing on the real estate aspect to offering a range of premium services to attract more members. The Indian coworking industry is now resonating this trend.

According to coworking entrepreneurs, coworking spaces enable and facilitate frequent interactions among members of organisations across industries, thereby helping ignite ideas and productive discussions. This is the real value-add of coworking spaces in the professional lives of its members.

SproutBox cofounder Gagandeep Sapra says, “We believe the community is the heart of a coworking space.” On a similar note, the founder at Gohive, Mishu Ahluwalia, adds that creating a community is the key make or break factor while setting up a coworking centre. It is important to engage in active community-building exercises aside from designing one’s space smartly.

Apart from the community aspect, coworking spaces focus on enhancing the well-being of their members and helping them cope with stress. To this end, they organise in-hub events such as movie screenings, food-a-thons, etc, which work like wonders to get the community chatting and coming out of their shells.

myHQ, for instance, along with organising regular community events and meetups, organises beer mixers, football matches, one-on-one pitching sessions with leading VCs in the country, and AMA sessions with industry experts. “At some of our spaces, we often offer beer for INR 99 on Fridays post working hours to encourage members to network and collaborate,” says Vinayak Agrawal, cofounder of myHQ.

Moving forward, Indian coworking companies will grow on the hospitality-driven model as they continue to innovate and provide an increasing array of services. This will be a prime factor in determining which players achieve a greater market share, adds Singh.

Coworking Still A New Concept In India

One of the major challenges coworking spaces face is setting up their branches at the right location where there is the right demand and offering the right price. Once that is sorted out, the crucial aspects they need to look into are the physical design of the hub and meeting client expectations, especially for corporates.

Ideashacks founder Arjun Veer Chadha believes that it is essential to gauge the demand correctly and understand it before the potential audience starts becoming members. Moreover, one should have a clear concept of the design of the hub, and the value it will add to the potential community. The last and most important step is planning ahead to ensure that the right community is created at the hub.

In a country like India where coworking is still a relatively new concept in many areas, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, entrepreneurs also find it difficult to explain the idea to property owners and stakeholders.

“Minimising the time of execution of every single property from finalisation to due diligence to furnishing is another challenge,” explains Arora.

Is The Playing Field Levelled?

While some may consider the entry of deep-pocketed foreign counterparts like WeWork a threat, many others see it as a big advantage. As Singh says, “It only helps the overall industry offer more enriched services. With more competition, homegrown players will be encouraged to provide more services of global standards and get to know the demands of international clients as well.”

Most local players are playing their game on the price front, putting out the most economical options in the market, thereby reaching for the right product-market fit for the Indian audience.

“Increasing competition has not majorly impacted the industry as yet because of the increase in demand with an equal force in the past few years. And to maintain a stable balance in the demand-supply chain, homegrown players have emerged,” says Arora.

The Next Big Thing In India’s Evolving Workspace

Agrawal believes that in today’s hyperconnected world, working from a centralised office space has more to do with habit than a necessity. With the advance of technology, the world has come to one’s smartphones and other devices. Physical presence is getting overruled by video calls, emails, messages, and social media communication processes.

Industry experts believe that a distributed workspace setting also makes it possible for people to meet more people, collaborate, and share new ideas. It leaves people with more time work to do things that are important to them instead of spending it commuting to work.

Here are a few trends observed by the early-stage coworking founders Inc42 spoke to:

• The total consumption of coworking in India right now is 15 Mn sq ft and is expected to have additional 7-9 Mn sq ft across the country by 2020
• It is expected that coworking players will be the largest tenants, leasing more than 25% of the total office space in India within the next few years
• Coworking spaces are likely to experiment with more human-centred designs and innovative spaces to create a positive psychological impact on members
• Community builders will have to focus on tangible benefits and build a network which enables the exchange of ideas and thoughts
• Innovation based on deep consumer insights and human-centric approaches to executing on the knowledge gathered will define the trajectory of coworking players

Small, homegrown spaces are a boon for startups looking for cheaper coworking options. Slowly but surely, they are making a mark and doing their bit to enable the startup ecosystem in India. Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), one of the world’s largest real estate brokerage companies said that by 2020, 13.5 million Indians will operate out of coworking facilities. Asia’s coworking industry is growing nearly forty percent more quickly than in North America, and at nearly double the pace found in Europe, JLL added.

When asked to define the coworking space of the future, Ahluwalia cited Naomi Tosic, business director of Sydney’s award-winning coworking space — The Office Space:

“The workplace of the future will be an essential microcosm of society that is connected, convivial, commercially viable, culturally aware and collectively responsible.”

And these hidden ecosystem champions are leaving no stone unturned to create this workplace of the future.

The post How The Coworking Ecosystem Champions Are Creating Communities And Enabling Startups appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Some of the most celebrated entrepreneurs across the globe have been ousted from their own companies for a slew of reasons including not being able to efficiently execute their operational responsibilities. Last year, India witnessed the dramatic departure of first Sachin Bansal and then Binny Bansal from homegrown ecommerce company Flipkart in 2018 in the aftermath of the Walmart takeover.

Silicon Valley has also seen such dramatic exits (and returns) — point in case being Steve Jobs being fired from Apple (he later returned to it), and Elon Musk ouster from Zip2, PayPal and recently stepping down as Tesla Chairman (he remained CEO) to settle fraud charges.

The point we’re trying to make here is that it’s not all about the idea. One may be a fountainhead of ideas, but implementing them on a large scale is not everyone’s forte. There could be many reasons for failure — lack of a skilled team, financial support, product-market fit, and more.

To reduce the odds of failure, there has been an exponential rise in accelerators and incubator programmes across the world and in India. These programmes not offer not only mentorship to startups but also often throw in some funding. However usually, accelerators and incubators such as YC and 500 Startups shortlist startups for these programmes after the proof-of-concept (PoC) phase. The training period could be a few weeks or a few months, depending upon the horizontals and verticals, startups deal with.

Once Demo Day is over, most startups are left at their own to operate. For entrepreneurs who want to maintain their focus on product development and concentrate less on operations, running the entire show with a little fund in pockets becomes a tough task which often leads to startup failure as well.

However, unlike accelerators and incubators, venture studios and venture builders collaborate with entrepreneurs right from the beginning, at ideation phase and cocreate the product. They not only help provide/raise the funding but also expertise to run the business. In return, they take a significant stake in the company.

As part of Inc42 & AWS’s latest series — Hidden Ecosystem Champions, we caught up with Mohan Krishnan, chief product officer (CPO), at venture studio Prototyze to understand how the model works.

Krishnan clarifies that a venture studio is not for everyone, and that there’s not just one right model. “Each model suits different entrepreneurial needs and abilities. If an entrepreneur thinks she can (with a set of co-founders) build a successful company herself, by all means, she should do that. If some other entrepreneur feels that what she needs is specific and short-term guidance, then perhaps an accelerator is better for her.”

Prototyze was founded by entrepreneur Gaurav Jaswal in October 2014 in Goa. Jaswal started his first company when he was just 20. Later, he went on to build and lead a variety of profitable businesses, including partnerships with global companies. His debut digital venture was co-created during the first wave of the internet and was backed by online publisher Ziff Davis. Jaswal previously founded another cluster of knowledge-capital companies called Private Unlimited that boot-strapped into profitability. Thus, a venture like Prototyze was the next natural evolution for him.

So, how do venture builders work? What’s their revenue model? Here’s are some edited excerpts of our conversation with Krishnan.

Inc42: How are venture studios different from accelerators? How does Prototyze function?

Mohan Krishnan: Prototyze is different from an accelerator. An accelerator invests a small amount of money (usually between $25K to $125K), takes a little equity (usually between 6% and 12%), and mentors and guides the startup for about 8-24 weeks. And then it sends the startup off with its blessings. Basically, the model of an accelerator is to take a minor percentage of equity in dozens (or hundreds) of very early-stage startups. And then hope that a few of them survive and grow.

However, as a venture studio, we build our own ventures. Every Prototyze company is born here. As Blenheim Chalcot, a venture builder in the UK, explains:

The founding team of a startup, with the ambition to disrupt an industry, has three main things to worry about — raising money, looking after administration, and building the product. Working with a venture builder means the first two are largely taken care of, leaving the team to focus on rapidly building a valuable product and taking it to market.

“In exchange for all this support, entrepreneurs are expected to give up a higher share of their company earlier in the process… This model has allowed us to stay nimble and create more valuable businesses that solve real customer needs, offering a higher probability of success for all involved,” he adds

We follow a similar model, wherein we have a higher share of the company, which also becomes our source of long-term revenue.

Inc42: How much awareness do you think is there regarding venture studios?

Mohan Krishnan: The venture studio model is relatively new, even in western countries. In India, at best, companies like Growth Story, Ant Farm, and Smile Group follow somewhat similar models. So, awareness of such models is lower as compared to accelerators/incubators.

But, as we see the success stories emerging, there will be increasing knowledge about the model.

Inc42: Who should join venture studios?

Mohan Krishnan: A venture studio is for entrepreneurs who realise that they can’t start a venture themselves either because they’ve realised that they don’t have the spectrum of skills to make it possible alone, or because they can’t take the extreme risk of being at zero salaried and investing the kickstart capital themselves.

The only person who should join us is the one who fiercely wants to be an entrepreneur. And believes that Prototyze can enable entrepreneurial success that he/she may not have been able to achieve on his/her own.

Inc42: How many startups have joined Prototyze so far?

Mohan Krishnan: Till date, five startups are part of the venture studio model. We’re sector agnostic. We’re keen only on ventures in which we have a foreseeably competitive advantage and which serve a (probably) perennial need. Basically, we try to build sane, sustainable companies that we’d be proud of for years.

The five ventures we have started are:

1. Seynse is a lending-as-a-service (LaaS) company focussed on digital lending enabled through telco partnerships.
2. HandyTrain is a mobile-first SaaS platform targeting the corporate training market. HandyTrain enables organisations to train between 50-50,000 people (employees, partners, contractors) through multimedia content in multiple languages.
3. TempoGO is an IoT-SaaS transportation technology company focusing on the commercial vehicles segment with a proven distribution strategy through a network of finance companies, insurance majors, and telecom partners, and a strong order pipeline.
4. Decotarium is a cloud design studio focused on $5 Bn workspace décor market. It’s a zero-asset partner-powered design studio, since it outsources production to a distributed global network.
5. Mobiefit is a digital fitness company focusing on virtual training programmes and challenges through its two apps — Mobiefit Active and Mobiefit Body — and has over a million downloads.

Inc42: Your thoughts on the state of the Indian startup ecosystem and the journey of Prototyze along with it

Mohan Krishnan: We think there is a more nuanced view to this that requires more discussion and space than this article. While there a number of startups in the country and many that are doing well, we are yet to reach the stage where startups are creating a visible economic impact (whether revenue contribution or employment generation) that the likes of say an HDFC Bank or an Infosys or TCS have been able to do over the years.

What can you expect from Prototyze: More Ventures, hopefully. And hopefully, move from an article on hidden ecosystem champions to known ecosystem champions

We have been in Goa for nearly 20 years now and grown to over 200+ people in that period, many shifting outside Goa. We can humbly, and maybe proudly, say that our presence has catalysed many other ventures — whether it’s some of our alumni who have launched startups such as Vacation Labs and Brown Tape or companies such as 91SpringBoard that moved their headquarters to Goa after speaking to us. Others such as Delhivery have also moved their product and tech setup to Goa.

We are also actively engaged with the Goa government and registered under their Goa Startup Policy and also the Goa Technology Association.

Inc42: Policy issues that need to be fixed in India

Mohan Krishnan: While the broader motive behind the inclusion of Section 56 (2) (viib) in the Income Tax Act to curb black money transaction is understandable, it does lead to the angel tax question. There are other aspects such as taxation of ESOPs at a time of exercise (and not sale), double taxation issues that arise during any sale of equity share that also ends up creating challenges. Even the 2017 ruling on the transfer of shares below the book value creates challenges when we legitimately want to transfer shares to employees.

Our general philosophy — and it may sound naïve — is that the government comprises highly credentialed, reasonable individuals, and if we explain the challenges clearly to them, they will hear us out and work towards a solution. Incidentally, we also got a notice for one of our ventures on the angel tax, but we explained our business model, our valuation and the credentials of our investors, and the income tax officers heard us out and didn’t pursue the case.

The post Been Wondering What A Venture Studio Does? Mohan Krishnan Of Prototyze Explains appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Come February 1, 2018, India’s finance minister, Arun Jaitley, will present the Interim Budget 2019-2020 and pass a vote-on-account in the Parliament. This will enable the BJP government to meet the expenses until the next government is formed in the second quarter of this year and it passes the full-fledged Budget.

However, this won’t stop the current government from presenting its budgetary allocations and estimates for the entire year.

The finance minister and his five secretaries (finance, economic affairs, expenditure, public asset, and investment), along with the minister of state and the chief economic advisor — all of whom are involved in the making of the Budget — have been able to curb fiscal deficit and inflation rate for the last four years in a row. On one hand, this has brought stability to the economy and, on the other, the Centre’s net tax revenues and disinvestment revenues have grown manifold in the last few years.

That said, can Arun Jaitley further reduce the fiscal deficit target of 3.3% given the fact that in April-November 2018, the fiscal deficit had hit 115% of the target?

Looks like Jaitley has a tightrope to walk on.

Also, historically speaking, the government has always used interim budgets as a disguised election manifesto. With general election 2019 around the corner, the government is likely to allocate more money to appease the common man. Will this derail the Startup India programme?

Well, with the Modi government having recently reiterated its commitment to its grand initiatives including Bharatmala and Startup India, it’s unlikely that it will allow the derailment of its flagship programmes — Startup India, Digital India, Make In India — ahead of the general election.

Besides, healthtech, agritech, edtech, Skill India, and fintech are likely to be at the forefront of the budgetary allocation. This is likely to boost the market potential for tech startups and investors.

Being the mouthpiece of the Indian startup ecosystem, Inc42 will roll a series of articles based on expectations and major asks of the different ecosystem stakeholders from the budget this year. Please fill in the form below and let us know your opinion and expectations on the upcoming Budget.

The post Budget 2019: What Does The Indian Startup Ecosystem Want? Share Your Views appeared first on Inc42 Media.

Angel investors are the bedrock on which a startup ecosystem is built. They are the ones who make the first bet on emerging startups while others hesitate. While it is a risk for an angel investor, the investments come as much-needed third-party validation for startups. Angels thus play a crucial role in fuelling their journey and building successful startups of the future.

Despite being part of one of the largest ecosystems in the world, Indian startups have always struggled to attract angel investments as compared to other leading ecosystems. According to the TiECON report from 2016 — when angel investments in Indian startups were at an all-time high — the percentage of global startups that were able to successfully raise capital in grocery tech, healthcare, consumer healthcare, and smart home and home improvement were 41%, 52%, and 36%, respectively. However, for Indian startups, the corresponding percentages are 5%, 10%, and 11%.

Imagine, then, how crucial angel investments are, especially in the context of the Indian ecosystem. However, the insertion of Section 56(2)(viib) in the Income Tax (I-T) Act 1961, infamously called angel tax, has made angel investments few and far between.

The Section 56(2)(viib) levies a 30.9% tax on the capital gains made by unlisted or closely-held companies if the value of the shares issued to investors exceeds their fair market value (FMV).

The tax has sabotaged the entire startup ecosystem, creating a policy limbo and evoking protests from all associated stakeholders — from startups to investors.

To understand the aftereffects of angel tax clause on startups, let’s take a look at the early-stage deals yearwise.

According to Inc42 DataLabs, in 2016, the number of early-stage investment deals stood at 624 — the highest between 2014 and 2018. However, in 2017, this number decreased by 11.69% to 551, and in 2018, it fell by a whopping 46.95% to 331 as compared to the base year 2016. Last year, the fear of angel tax got real and haunted both startups and investors after a slew of tax notices were sent to startups by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

It was the year when the impact of this policy mismanagement was felt by the ecosystem as the rise of negative sentiment among angel investors led to a decline in early-stage funding, as evident from the table below:

We can see that there was a steep decline of 55.78% in early-stage funding from Q1 to Q2 and a 61.90% fall between Q3 and Q4. The decline in Q4 after an increase of 156.54% in Q3 can be related to the fact that notices on angel tax were sent to a number of startups by the CBDT during this transition period, creating a cloud of uncertainty and fear among early-stage investors.

A similar trend was observed in the number of deals carried out by major early-stage investment firms (angel investors and networks), which declined significantly in 2018 from 2017. The number of deals fell from 711 (2017) to 478 (2018) in the case of angel investors and from 75 (2017) to 62 (2018) in the case of angel networks.

It’s evident from the table above that there was a decline of 32.77% and 17.33 % in the participation of angel investors and networks in funding deals, respectively. In contrast to this, investments by accelerators and incubators — who’re other important early-stage investors — rose 38.46%. This can be related to the fact that most accelerators and incubators in India are primarily associated with academic institutions. As per NASSCOM estimates, about 51% of the accelerators and incubators are currently associated with academic institutions.

Another reason for the surge in funding deals by accelerators and incubators was the traction they are generating in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities due to lack of availability of investment opportunities in these cities as compared to the Indian metros.

The Declining Angel Investment Effect

The rise of negative investor sentiment in the early-stage investment market has triggered a unique phenomenon which can be termed as the “declining angel investment effect”. This can be easily observed by mapping the Y-o-Y trend of three key metrics related to angel investors (participation in deals, unique angel investor participation, and deals per investor) from the year 2014 to 2018.

As evident in this representation, we can see that participation in deals and unique angel investor participation declined by 32.77% from 711 (2017) to 478 (2018) and 30.08% from 595 (2017) to 416 (2018) respectively.

Comparative Analysis Of Early-Stage Investor Participation

In this section, we present a comparative analysis of various early-stage investor categories to determine participation from which of them has been declining the most year on year.

As apparent from the table, there is a declining trend in angel investors’ and networks’ participation in investment deals from 2015-2016 to 2017-2018. This indicates that the market for early-stage investments is on a consecutive decline as angel investors and networks are considered to be the driving force of such investments. Of all the mentioned investors, only the accelerators and incubators have shown a positive trend since 2015-2016.

Angel Tax Not The Only Reason For Declining Angel Investment Effect

As evident from the numbers and data presented in this article, the early-stage investment market has been on a downward streak for the past couple of years. While the angel tax dilemma is one of the most-talked-about problems in the industry at this moment, the reason behind the slowdown is not one dimensional and there are aspects to it as well.

Research published by Inc42 DataLabs in its Annual Funding Report 2018 concludes that there was a decline of 15% in the total funding amount from 2017 to 2018. In contrast, if we look at the percentage change during the previous interval — 2016 to 2017 — there was an increase of 138% in total funding. This indicates that the declining trend is not limited to angel investments and that the overall market is heading the same way.

The reason for this could be that since the startup ecosystem in India has matured over time, investors have become much more selective. Thereby, the pace of investment deals has declined. In 2015-2017, the average number of deals per year done was 959, which is 29.07% more than the total number of deals in 2018 at 743. Similarly, the average total funding amount in 2015-2017 was $9.2 Bn whereas the total funding amount in 2018 was $11 Bn.

The Angel Tax Dilemma: What’s The Current Scenario?

Section 56(2)(viib) of the I-T Act aka angel tax comes under the purview of the Department of Revenue (DoR) of the Indian government’s Ministry of Finance. It’s the CBDT under the DoR which implements and executes the policy relating to angel tax.

However, startup policies at large are planned and executed by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce. While the DIPP has been at the forefront of safeguarding the interests of Indian startups, the CBDT has been largely apathetic towards their problems.

This is because a majority of Indian startups opt for the Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) method of valuation instead of the Net Asset Value (NAV) method while raising capital. Section 68 of the Income Tax Act deems the valuation and credit amounts (claimed by startups) explained to the satisfaction of assessing officers, who mostly refuse to accept the DCF method of valuation.

After the DIPP took the matter to the Ministry of Finance, the CBDT in February 2018 issued a notice that no coercive action would be taken against startups that have adopted the DCF method.

However, startups keep getting I-T notices and demand orders despite all these notifications by the DIPP and the CBDT. Many startups have even had to shut shop due to the draconian law.

Padmaja Ruparel, cofounder, Indian Angel Networks, told Inc42, “The devil lies in the detailing of Section 56(2)(viib) of the I-T Act. Until we safeguard startups from the same, capital investments (share premiums) will continue to be viewed as ‘income from other sources’. This adversely affects startups. As a result, talent, money, and value creation are moving out of the country.”

Angel tax is clearly an inter-ministerial issue which needs to be resolved by a combined effort. Notifications apart, the first step in the direction is making a clear distinction between capital gains and profits of startups, as the world does.

[Co-written by Sandeep Singh & Suprita Anupam]

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