Delhi-based online legal services platform, Legistify, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Ranjit Singh, and few other angel investors, says founder Akshat Singhal.

The raised funds would be used in product development, strengthening the team, marketing and collaborations.

Legistify was founded by Akshat Singhal (BITS Pilani Pilani campus, 2011 batch) in December 2014. Initially launched as a QnA platform and after having a positive response with mass acceptance of the platform, the team started developing technology backed services which could help users to solve their legal problems sorted. Thus, Legistify pivoted in mid 2015 and was launched as an online document making platform.

The platform lets users create their legal documents in one go. Users just need to choose a particular agreement that they need and fill up the questionnaire. The platform gives 15 days warranty to the user where he/she can recreate an ordered agreement if they had earlier entered any wrong information for free within this period.

Since its official launch in January 2016, the platform has created some 500+ paid and free legal agreements. Each time a new user logs in he/she gets his first set of document free and then subsequent drafting involves them to pay.

By the year end, the startup is targeting to create over 2000+ documents per month, do product improvisations, launch new services and help at least 500+ startups, entrepreneurs and individuals get their legal outsourcing needs met.

The company is targeting 50k+ startups, 0.6 Mn lawyers, 0.5 Mn individuals and 15 Mn SMEs.

Speaking about competition, Akshat says, “Being a handful of legal startups there is as such no direct competition to what we are doing. There are a few other players like VakilSearch, Lawrato, NotaryMama, etc. but all of them are working on different aspects of the industry. No such direct competition faced in terms of online legal agreement making in India at the moment.”

“We are trying to break the shackles of conventionalism in user lawyer interaction space as well as legal outsourcing work. Needs some level of user behaviour modification which shall come in some time only. Apart from this, the legal community not being very tech savy brings a few added challenges in expansion,” he adds.

The startup would soon be launching a legal research section which would be a knowledge aggregator on legal topics containing Q&A, blogs, articles and other things. This would help educate users especially young startups and entrepreneurs to understand legal domains affecting them or their business growth. The company is also working on getting a user-lawyer mobile application out in the market soon.

The startup is working with a 10 people team including the founding team of three (Akshat, Ritesh and Abhinav). At present, it generate revenues from agreement making platform.

The post Exclusive: Online Legal Services Platform Legistify Raises Funding appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Facebook India’s head Kirthiga Reddy has stepped down from her post and will be moving back to the US. Kirthiga had joined Facebook six years ago and was its first employee in India. The company is now in search for her successor in India.

Krithiga announced about her move in a Facebook post. She wrote, “It will be business as-usual over the next 6-12 months. I am working closely with William Easton and Dan Neary as we search for my successor in India. I have also begun to explore new opportunities at Facebook back at Menlo Park.”

Her resignation comes just a day after TRAI ruled against differential pricing leading to shutdown on Facebook’s Free Basics in India.

Commenting on her move, a Facebook spokesperson stated, “As she had planned for some time, Kirthiga Reddy is moving back to the US to work with the teams in Headquarters. We are extremely proud of the work she has done to grow our global sales business in India. During her time in India, Kirthiga was not involved in our Free Basic Services efforts.”

The post Facebook India Head Kirthiga Reddy Steps Down appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

OYO’s lead investor SoftBank confirmed that OYO-Zo merger. The deal, however, will be announced in the coming weeks. With this, it is speculated that both the brands working under Zo, Zostel and Zo Rooms,  will be acquired in an all-stock deal by Oyo.

This week 19 startups raised $16 Mn in funding altogether. (The funding amount is based on the startups that disclosed their funding amounts).

Startup Fundings Of The  Week:

JoulestoWatts: Staffing solutions startup, JoulestoWatts, raised an undisclosed amount of funding in its pre-series A round from Saha Fund and Manipal Global Education Services Ltd. It will use the raised capital for team expansion, ramp up its technology and scale up to a global platform.

GlamStudios: an Online aggregator of budget salons, GlamStudios, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from former Rategain COO Aqeel Ahmed. It will use the raised capital in reaching out to around 5,000 customers, and create a network of 30 salons within the next three months.

Avanti Learning: Test prep startup Avanti Learning Centres secured $4.8 Mn (INR 33.1 Cr) in the third round of funding led by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation along with Asha Impact and existing co-investors Ted Dintersmith and Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF). It plans to use the funds to expand to 400 centres with a capacity to serve 50,000 students across India and continue their curriculum and technology development.

ShopKirana: ShopKirana raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Samsung’s Atul Jain and Anil Gelra (Hold-chef founder), Jaikumar Nair (Senior VP of Mondelez) and few other FMCG veterans also participated in this round. It will invest the funds for technology upgradation.

Affimity: Social networking startup, Affimity, raised $1.2 Mn in angel funding from Silicon Valley-based angel investors and founders. The raised funds will be utilised to further expand its services in India and abroad, and also to strengthen its team.

Capzest: Peer-to-peer lending fintech startup, Capzest, raised $200K in its seed round of funding from Lion Ventures and other HNI’s. It has partnered with banks and NBFCs to provide personal loans and business loans to SMEs.

Gray Routes: Last mile logistics technology solution provider startup, Gray Routes Technology Pvt. Ltd raised an undisclosed amount in the second round of angel funding from Mahesh Parasuraman, Rahul Gautam, and a group of other angels from The Carlyle Group. The startup will use the fund for international patent protection, developing world-class data analytics capabilities as well as domestic expansion.

Inc42: A definitive digital media guide for new age entrepreneurs, Inc42, raised an undisclosed amount in Pre-Series A round of funding from 42 well known investors which include institutional funds like Unicorn India Fund and Aarin Capital along with angel groups/funds such as Singapore Angel Network, M&S Partners, Pranav Pai, Arihant Patni, Anirudh Damani, Anand Ladsariya and entrepreneurs like Chandu Sohoni, Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, Mohit Saxena & Amit Gupta, Deepak Ravindran, Salil Chaturvedi and Dewang Neralla. The startup plans to expand its reach to wider audience.

Hansel.io: Hansel.io raised an undisclosed amount of funding through TracxnSynidcate, led by Endiya Partners. The round also saw participation from Tracxn Labs and angel investors Mekin Maheshwari and Rajesh Sawhney among others.

Stylofie: Beauty and wellness services marketplace startup, Stylofie, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Jaideep Mehta. With this, Mehta will join Stylofie’s board of directors.

Weddingz.in: An online marketplace for wedding venues and vendors, Weddingz, raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A round of funding from consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures. It will use the raised capital for development towards its technology & automation and team expansion.

Invictus Oncology: Cancer therapeutic startup, Invictus Oncology, received an undisclosed amount of funding from Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata in Series A round of funding. With this, Tata will join the existing investors Navam Capital and TV Mohandas Pai’s Aarin Capital.

Xpressbees: Ecommerce logistics firm, Xpressbees, raised around $8 Mn (about INR 54 Cr) from SAIF Partners and Vertex Ventures, the venture arm of Singapore government’s investment fund Temasek. The startup is also the logistics support provider for online babycare retailer FirstCry.

Moglix: A global marketplace for business and industrial supplies, Moglix, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata. This is Tata’s sixth investment this year.

igrenEnergi: A technology innovator focused on improving the economics of solar and electric vehicles, igrenEnergi, received additional funding from Sunil Mehta, an active New York area angel. Their first product, 8-panel solar optimizer is scheduled for commercial launch sometime in early 2016. The raised capital will be used to support progress towards the launch.

Bonhomia: Indulge Beverages, maker of premium tea and coffee capsules under brand Bonhomia, raised $1 Mn in angel funding from HNI’s lead by Alok Rawat. Besides, Neeta Mirchandani from Kae Capital and Kanwaljit Singh, the founder of Fireside Ventures also participated in this round among others. It will use the raised capital to expand its retail presence in the country.

ActonMagic: Cloud management startup, ActOnMagic, raised $124K (INR 85 Lac) in a seed round funding led by NetMagic’s co-founder Jayabalan Subramanian. It will use the raised capital to scale its product engineering team and sales efforts in India.

RKSV: Kalaari Capital led the $4 Mn round of funding in online brokerage and trading company RKSV Securities. The round also participation from GVK Davix Technologies and other investors.

Legistify: Delhi-based online legal services platform, Legistify, raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Ranjit Singh, and few other angel investors. The raised funds would be used in product development, strengthening the team, marketing and collaborations.

With this, Green House Ventures (GHV) Accelerator has backed two startups, IStyleYou, in fashion discovery and AdUrCup, in an ad-tech domain. The two startups are selected for GHV’s 12-month acceleration program.

GOQii will raise an undisclosed amount of funding from the venture capital arm of Edelweiss. The investment will come at a valuation of INR 300-400 Cr.

Hyperlocal services startup, Zimmber, is speculated to raise funding from Snapdeal. The deal which is estimated to be valued at about $7 Mn will see Snapdeal acquiring 10% stake in Zimmber.

Motorcycle touring startup, Motoziel, is looking to raise about $3 Mn in the next fiscal to expand its vehicle fleet.

Acquisitions That Took Place This Week:

• Digital education provider, Next Education, acquired InOpen Technologies for its K-12 computer science product – Computer Masti, in an all-cash deal. Computer Masti was created jointly by IIT-B and InOpen.
• Online test preparation platform Toppr acquired Manch, a knowledge delivery platform which enables an individual to obtain competence using the platforms’ in-built analytics and recommendations.

Other Developments Of The Week:

• HCL Technologies partnered with Microsoft to launch an Internet of Things (IoT) Incubation Center in Redmond, Washington, USA. The incubator will be designed to leverage Microsoft Azure IoT Suite to accelerate enterprise IoT adoption. It will help building solutions in two areas, Industrial & Manufacturing and Life Sciences & Healthcare through industrial automation, remote patient monitoring and fleet management, among others.
• Jaarvis Accelerator organised its first Demo Day of 2016 on February 5. The event saw a turnover of over 40 investors who witnessed the 10 startups, 2015 incubatees of Jaarvis, pitch in their disruptive ideas to the who’s who of the ecosystem.
• T-Hub will launch its first health-tech accelerator program. T-Hub Health Tech Innovation Accelerator will be set up in partnership with pharmaceutical company Merck and Microsoft Ventures in May. The incubator also plans to launch other accelerators focused on IoT, Agritech and B2B startups in the next one year.

The post Funding Galore: Startup Fundings Of The Week [8 February – 13 February] appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) gave its final verdict on Facebook’s Free Basics platform. It issued the ‘Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016’  which said that no company can charge subscribers with discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content.

Snapdeal Sellers Protest

Snapdeal sellers have accused the company for withholding their payments, as prior recoveries, and charging them huge and irrational amounts as penalties for minor infractions.

Jabong’s Largest Warehouse In Gurgaon Gutted In Fire

A fire broke out at one of the Jabong’s warehouses in Pataudi in Haryana. No employees were injured but it caused severe damage to goods.

Amazon India Gets $300 Mn Boost

According to filings with the Registrar of Companies, Amazon invested about $300 Mn (INR 1,980 Cr.) in Amazon Seller Services. The funds are being used to extensively improve warehousing, logistics and marketing services.

PepperTap Shuts Operations In 6 Cities

PepperTap has shut operations in six larger cities such as Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur. The company will focus on building a stellar customer experience by providing additional categories and services. This will help them conserve capital it raised and will give a runway of about two more years.

FranklyMe Shuts Down

Video micro-blogging platform, FranklyMe, has shut down operations. It states that it was not due to lack of funds but due to non acceptance of the concept as the company expected.

Karnataka Might Ban Surge Pricing Of Ola & Uber

To level the competition between all cab operators in the state, Karnataka has sought to put an end to the collection of surge-price from customers, a practice by cab hailing apps such as Uber and Ola.

Paytm Makes Campuses & Indian Oil fuel stations Go Cashless!

Paytm has tied up with over 100 schools and colleges, allowing users to pay school fees and dues, cafeteria bills as well as buy uniforms, books and merchandise through the Paytm Wallet. It has also partnered with Indian Oil fuel stations to allow payments through the Paytm wallet at petrol pumps. All pumps in Delhi along with selected pumps in other metros are expected to go live by end of February, post which the team expects to scale up the offering to rest of the country as well.

Tech Titans Buy Paytm ESOPs

About eight senior executives of Paytm sold part of the shares they received under the employee stock option plan (ESOP), at a premium. The buyers were Amit Singhal, who retires from Google later this month, Neeraj Arora of WhatsApp, and Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook’s first woman engineer — all of whom are on the board of Paytm. The executives sold about 80,000 shares altogether.

Other Developments Of The Week

Cleartrip’s Rakesh Rana Launches Comfy Stays

Rakesh Rana, former head of hotel stays at Cleartrip, launched budget accommodation company called Comfy Stays which will also offer guest houses and aggregate service apartments. It also plans to offer professional standardised services in the entry level hotel segment.

Flipkart Ties Up With Hero Cycles

To attract young working professionals and fitness enthusiasts, Flipkart partnered with Hero Cycles to introduce three new exclusive models under its sports segment.

YES BANK Partners Smartbox

To efficiently solve the last mile delivery challenges of ecommerce companies, YES BANK partnered with Smartbox Ecommerce Solutions Pvt. Ltd to offer solutions through its network of automated parcel delivery terminals.

Shopclues Ties Up With Central Cottage Industries

ShopClues customers will now be able to buy handicrafts, artefacts and other productions of Indian artists from its platform. The company tied up with Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India to augment the sales of items produced by cottage industries across the country.

360Ride Launches Ride-Sharing In Delhi NCR

After receiving tremendous response in Bangalore, 360Ride launched its P2P free ride-sharing platform for commuters in the Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida region. This will help commuters share ride with people travelling on the same route.

Zenify.in Ties Up With Uber

In order to  expand and enhance its customer base, Zenify partnered with Uber to provide rides to its customers during their property visits. The offer is exclusive for the new users, who would like to visit the property can do so through an Uber ride.

CareOnGo Unveils Mobilechain Of Branded Pharmacy Stores

Empowering users to buy medicines online, find substitutes, order generics, keep digital health records CareOnGo unveiled its first mobile chain of branded pharmacy stores. It has a network of 700 + pharmacies through which users can buy prescribed and OTC medicines.

Foodpanda India Partners With McDonald’s

Foodpanda onboarded McDonald’s on board to enable food lovers in west and south India to order online with an express delivery option. In addition to the McDelivery Service, this association will enable McDonald’s to broaden their accessibility across multiple platforms.

Ola Launches Ola Micro

To strengthen its position over Uber, Ola rolled out Ola Micro, a low-cost riding service. The service will be initially available only to select customers in Mumbai.

Karnataka Might Ban Surge Pricing Of Ola & Uber

To level the competition between all cab operators in the state, Karnataka has sought to put an end to the collection of surge-price from customers, a practice by cab hailing apps such as Uber and Ola.

Uber Updates It’s App For Differently Abled Drivers

Uber’s app, which was launched in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., now has gone live in India, has updated the app to make it easier for their deaf drivers. It is also planning to get professional aid for training these drivers.

U2opia Mobile Launches Foneverify

With an aim to boost the growing startup community across the globe, U2opia Mobile launched Foneverify, a mobile authentication solution that verifies users in real time. Foneverify decreases the potential of security issues to arm startups with an effective and accurate verification process to fight fraud.

Housing Introduces Routing

Housing introduced a new feature to its Product called Routing. It helps users search for a house based on commute time or distance from a specific establishment (workplace, school, train station, etc.).

FreeCharge Partners With ePaisa

To enable customers with easy payment options through the FreeCharge wallet giving them the access to a varied set of offline merchants across retail, FreeCharge announced its partnership with ePaisa.

PayUMoney Upgrades Seller App

PayUMoney upgraded its seller app which now allows merchants to sign up from the app directly, unlikely in the past where it would have to been done through the website. Since then, the company has seen a significant increase in the number of merchant registrations.

Ola Shuttle Launches Enterprise Solutions

Ola’s bus service, Ola Shuttle, will be available for its enterprise customers, on the routes crowd-sourced from users and their employers. The customers can sign up from their corporate accounts for the service.

IRCTC To Provide Customizable “Chai” On Trains

IRCTC is partnering with Chaayos to offer 25 varieties of special flavoured tea. The customers will also be able to get 10% cashback on e-catering order over INR 300.

Housejoy Rolls iOS App

Housejoy launched its iOS version of the app. The startup now aims to build a stronger presence on mobile by including IOS users to its consumer base.

Jugnoo Expands Its Reach

In a bid to empower villages and small towns, Jugnoo announced its plans to reach out to about 1000 villages in India over the next six months. It will look beyond tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

LibeRent Goes Live In Bangalore

LibeRent, the destination for renting women apparel, has forayed the Bangalore market after establishing itself in Hyderabad. It makes coveted fashion accessible at rates that are slashed 10-15% of the retail price.

Mphasis Next Labs Launches InfraGraf

Mphasis announced the launch of ‘InfraGraf’, an automation platform, based on powerful machine-learning, pattern recognition and graph-theory-based algorithms. It is a first of its kind to be launched in the industry which optimises enterprise technology infrastructure investments and aids in strategic decisions-making.

Testbook Releases New App

Testbook launched its Current Affairs app to the general public. So far, the app has garnered around 5000 downloads, but is trending at #6 among Top New Free apps in the education category. It provides instant details about the current affairs along with the facility to test general knowledge about the current affairs.

GoGo Launches Hindi Content

GoGo, a smartphone app that delivers personalised content on Android users’ lock screens, announced the launch of Hindi content on its platform. Users will now have the option of reading news and articles in the language. It will also reward its users for reading content by giving them free talktime recharge.

Yellowfashion.in Forays Into Srilanka

A curated online women ethnic wear startup, Yellowfashion.in, announced its foray into Srilankan market. The venture estimates 15% of its revenues in 2016-17 to come from this market and cumulatively over the next 3 years, it will contribute INR 15 Cr.

The post News Roundup: 9 Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [8 February – 13 February] appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, who was recently appointed as Head of Commerce Platform for Flipkart’s core business, has resigned. He will continue with the ecommerce giant until the end of March. Mukesh will continue to be an adviser to Flipkart and Myntra. Also, chief business officer Ankit Nagori has resigned, and will be serving Flipkart for another three months.

Facebook India Head Kirthiga Reddy Steps Down

Facebook India’s head Kirthiga Reddy has stepped down from her post and will be moving back to the US. Kirthiga had joined Facebook six years ago and was its first employee in India. The company is now in search for her successor in India.

Upgrad Appoints Anshul Khandelwal As Marketing Head

UpGrad announced the appointment of Anshul Khandelwal as its marketing head effective March. Khandelwal is an IIM Kozhikode alumnus and was working with BlueStone as vice president of marketing where he led brand strategy and positioning, creative development, brand activation, customer acquisition and marketing-led innovations. He also led new product development initiatives and launches during his stint at 3M’s healthcare division and has worked with industry leaders such as Mahindra & Mahindra and GlobalLogic.

Kraftly Appoints Ankit Sood As Its Finance Head

KartRocket has named Ankit Sood as the chief financial advisor for its consumer-to-consumer marketplace for home entrepreneurs Kraftly. At Kraftly, he would be instrumental in exploring profitable synergies with other players in the market. Prior to joining Kraftly, Sood was with investment bank Avendus Capital. He has also had stints with Anand Rathi Advisors and Citi.

Sandeep Amar Elevated to India.com’s CEO

Sandeep Amar has been elevated to India.com’s CEO. Before that, he worked as the head of marketing at Times Internet*, where he joined as the marketing head of Times Business Solutions and led marketing for Simplymarry.com and Ads2book.com for over 5 years. Amar also functions as the event chairman at India.com events and previously founded Pikboo.com where he was the CEO for about a year before which he headed Internet marketing at Citigroup for a year. He has also worked with Zee Telefilms as AVP of marketing for north India, brand and business manager at Indiatimes for about 2, assistant manager of direct marketing at Hindustan Times for about 4 years and at the Times Group as a senior officer of sales for 2 years.

RentoMojo Appoints Munjal Dhamecha As CTO

RentoMojo announced the appointment of Munjal Dhamecha as Chief Technology Officer. Munjal brings with him 11+ years of experience working with successful startups and industry giants like Grab House, Reliance, JustDial and Inknowledge.  He will be closely working to build an even stronger tech force focusing on automating processes to improve efficiency, innovative use of new technologies and building long term technical strategies to help the business operations scale. He will be working on optimising data heavy processes to reduce risks for the company.

Zomato’s Tanmay Saksena Quits The Company

Tanmay Saksena, chief product officer of Zomato has quit the company. He headed the online ordering business at the company. He has been replaced by Pankaj Chaddah. Prior to this, Tanmay worked at Disney as the VP of studio operations for 2 years and executive producer for about a year. He was also the director of operations at Playdom for about 2 years and a product manager at Trippert for a short time.

The post Movers And Shakers Of The Week [8 February – 13 February] appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Delhi-based ecommerce marketplace, Snapdeal, has raised about $200 Mn in a funding round led by Canada-based pension fund – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Venture capital fund – Iron Pillar and Singapore-based investment entity – Brother Fortune Apparel. The deal is a mix of primary and secondary components.

The round also saw participation from Bennett Coleman & Co.

Ontario Teachers’ is Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan with $154.5 Bn in net assets. Iron Pillar is a venture capital fund focused on filling the gap for mid stage technology investments in India.

The new round values the company somewhere between $6.5-$7 Bn. Snapdeal was valued at $5 Bn during its last round in August 2015, in which it had raised $500 Mn from Alibaba Group, Foxconn Technology Group and Softbank.

Its closest competitor Flipkart is currently valued at about $15 Bn.

Brother Fortune Apparel Pte Ld has invested about $50 Mn (INR 335 Cr.), against which, Jasper Infotech (Parent company of Snapdeal) has issued 20,205 Series J compulsorily convertible cumulative participating preference shares. Bennett has been issued 15,638 warrants estimated at $3.6 Mn (INR 25.49 Cr.).

Before this round, the company had also raised a round led by Alibaba in November. According to the documents filed with the Registrar of Companies, Alibaba had invested $146 Mn (INR 995 Cr.) against which Snapdeal had issued 79,113 Series I compulsorily convertible cumulative participating preference shares to Alibaba.

The reports of Canada-based Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan looking to invest in Snapdeal had sufficed in media in September last year.

“We see these investments as a continuing endorsement of Snapdeal’s strategy to build India’s most reliable and frictionless commerce ecosystem. We continue to make targeted investments in building internal and external capabilities that will enable us to consistently deliver optimal experience for the millions of buyers and sellers who transact daily on Snapdeal” said Anup Vikal, chief financial officer, Snapdeal.

Snapdeal has more than 275,000 sellers, 30 Mn products on its platform and a reach covering 6000+ towns and cities across India. The funds raised in this round will be used to build its technology platform, logistics, payments and back-end infrastructure, according to a company spokesperson.

The Ecommerce War Zone

Recently, ecommerce giant Amazon has infused over $300 Mn (INR 1,980 Cr.) in Amazon Seller Services to boost its operations in India. The latest infusion comes right after Amazon infused $250 Mn (INR 1,696 Cr) through a rights issue into the Indian unit in late December last year. The funds are being used to extensively improve warehousing, logistics and marketing services.

Adding on, there were reports that Flipkart is currently in talks with Snapdeal’s investor Alibaba for a potential investment. Although the talks are at a nascent stage, but will completely change the current competitive scenario of the ecommerce in India. Alibaba is also an investor in Paytm.

Flipkart and Snapdeal reported loss of about INR 2,000 Cr and INR 1328 Cr, respectively, in the fiscal year ending March 2015.

Hyperlocal Push

The ecommerce biggies have increased their focus in the hyperlocal services and delivery segment in the recent times.

Amazon started offering hyperlocal grocery delivery service called Amazon Now in 74 pin codes in Bangalore in February, 2015. Prior to this, it had launched Kirana Now which leverages neighbourhood or kirana stores with the aim of quickly delivering everyday-need consumer products.

Flipkart had launched its grocery delivery app Flipkart Nearby in October last year, and also f Qck to enable delivery of orders within hours. Whereas Snapdeal invested in online grocer ‘PepperTap’ to explore the space further.

As far as hyperlocal services are concerned, Snapdeal has recently started pilot of its hyperlocal services category in four cities – Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Pune. The company is also in talks of acquiring 10% stake in Hyperlocal services startup Zimmber. On the other side, Amazon invested about $22.5 Mn in Bangalore-based Housejoy and Paytm acquired hyperlocal services marketplace Near.in.

Fulfilment Centres & Logistics

Flipkart is currently equipped with 17 fulfilment centres (FC) and has a total warehouse space of up to 1.6 Mn sq ft. Last year, Flipkart had set up its largest fulfilment centre at Gundla Pochampally, on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The company further plans to add 50-100 warehouses over the next four to five years. On the other side, Amazon currently has over 21 FCs across 10 states with a total of over 2 Mn-sq-ft of space. It added 13 new FCs in 2015 alone.

Whereas Snapdeal had over 50 fulfilment centres across 20 cities as of March 2015. The company was targeting 75 such centres across 30 cities to launch its FCs.

Snapdeal had also invested $20 Mn (INR 131 crore) in logistics and delivery services venture GoJavas last year in October. GoJavas has more than 100,000 square feet warehouses under its management.

Just recently, Flipkart too infused about $98.4 Mn (INR 666 Cr) in its logistics arm – eKart,

Acquisitions

In 2015 alone, Snapdeal has acquired 7 startups including Smartprix, Exclusively.in, Unicommerce.com, RupeePower, MartMobi, FreeCharge.com and Reduce Data. Flipkart acquired Appiterate, FX Mart. 

Between 2009 and 2013, the Indian ecommerce industry grew at a CAGR of 37.2% and reached $14.9 Bn from $4.2 Bn. By 2020, India’s Internet market is expected to grow to $137 Bn from $11 Bn in 2013, according to Morgan Stanley.

India’s booming ecommerce segments has attracted interest if both local and international investors in past two years. In 2015 alone, more than $3.6 Bn was invested in the Indian ecommerce companies that are fighting to add more and more funds into their kitty to grab the larger pie of the Indian online consumers. Apart from online marketplaces, players in the niche segments, such as UrbanLadder in furnishing space, Bluestone in Jewellery etc. have also attracted funding.

Snapdeal’s other investors include BlackRock, Foxconn, eBay, Temasek, Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Ratan Tata, among others.

The post Snapdeal Raises $200 Mn From Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Iron Pillar & Others appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

A seed program initiative, Kstart, started by venture capital firm Kalaari Capital, has roped in Google as its technology partner.

The association will help seed-stage Kstart portfolio companies to have access to Google’s mentors, investors, a network of partners and products. Google will provide its extensive global network and experts in Silicon Valley and other global locations. Besides local connections with business partners, PR support and regional venture capital fund connections are also a core component of this partnership. Google has also decided to select a few Kstart portfolio companies for grants of up to $ 50K.

Sunil Rao, Country Head: Strategic Partner Development, VCs and Startups, Google India, said that Google’s global expertise of working with startups will help mentor the Kstart portfolio companies across areas such as product management, UI & UX, growth hacking and bringing the startups up to speed in terms of latest in technology. On the other side, Kstart team will play a role in hosting the incubatee companies by providing world class infrastructure, access to funds, legal and marketing help which the early stage startups can benefit immensely.

Earlier in February, Kalaari Capital had set up Kstart program, with an aim to transform young companies into successful, scalable and sustainable businesses. It aims at providing the requisites like community, capital, partnership, continuous learning and access to resources.

Vani Kola, MD of Kalaari Capital said, “Google is one of the most admired technology companies by entrepreneurs. Its various programs to invest into the startup ecosystem is noteworthy. We applaud Google’s efforts to make it easy for Kstart companies to benefit through continuous learning, scaling and accessing their key technologies and mentors.”

The initiative has also partnered with distinguished leaders, called Kstart catalysts, like Rajan Anandan – VP & MD SE Asia & India Google, Varsha Rao – Head of Global Operations Airbnb, Ratan Tata – Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons; Zia Mody– Managing Partner, AZB & Partners; Padmasree Warrior-CEO, NextEV Inc, USA; Muthiah V-Consultant, Spencer Stuart; Anil K. Gupta-Professor, University of Maryland and Meeta Malhotra, Former Partner, Ray + Keshavan. Kstart Catalysts will also be co-investors in the companies. The catalysts will advise and guide the startups in their entrepreneurial journey.

Welcome to Flash Feed, your essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web – bite-sized and updated all day.

The post Kalaari Capital’s Kstart Ropes In Google As Technology Partner appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Online rental marketplace RentSher has raised more than $300K in seed funding. The round was led by Dubai-based ex-McKinsey investor Vaibhav Doshi, along with a clutch of other well-known entrepreneurs turned investors including Abhay Singhal, co-founder of In Mobi; Vibhu Garg, co-founder and COO of Unnicommerce; Joby Babu, COO at Nimbuzz; Abhishek Acharya, GM Philips India and Manish Shah of Wipro, UK.

The yet to be launched startup, RentSher, is a horizontal marketplace for rental products that provides end-to-end services from choosing and booking the product online to delivering and picking up.

It was started by Abhijit Shaha, Harsh Dhand and Karandeep S Vohra, alumni of IIT Delhi and Oxford University. Karandeep is presently leading the operations in Delhi.

Harsh Dhand, co-founder and CEO of RentSher, said, “Our vision is to make RentSher a platform that is at the intersection of sharing economy and on-demand economy with products delivered as and when our customers need them. We are building a strong team focused on sustaining 30-40% month-on-month growth that will enable us to reach 1000 orders/month this quarter itself and double it by next quarter.”

The startup has already fulfilled orders for Windmill Asia event, which saw 10000+ visitors, LIFE conference in 4 cities and Podar Jumbo Kids Annual Days for its 54 centres.

Abhijit Shaha, president of Product and Strategy said that the company has a strong supply side and operations capability. It aims to strengthen the platform and build some of the industry-defining features such as geo-tagging and supply chain automation. The capital raised will be used in equal parts for product development, fulfilment and growth. The startup also plans to expand its reach to new cities and strengthen its operations in existing cities.

RentSher is currently operational in Bangalore and Delhi, and identifies that its customers range from parents, students and corporates. It provides services like costumes for school function to cultural events, office equipment like projectors, furniture, party props, men & women apparels, jewellery, camera, medical supplies and other utility stuff. Currently, the startup fulfills 18-20 orders in a day and has over 500 paying customers. Home appliances, furniture and laptops are its leading categories, with a recurring monthly revenue model.

The startup competes with other online marketplaces for renting products like What’sOnRent and Rentomo that raised funding in January this year. Besides, the other startups are FlatFurnish and CityFurnish.

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The post Rental Marketplace RentSher Gets $300K In Seed Funding appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

2015 has been a year of big deals for Groupon India. From getting a new brand identity and rebranding as Nearbuy to landing around $16 Mn from Sequoia Capital. But the biggest deal they landed was moving  into a new office in Gurgaon, albeit 50 times bigger than their humble abode in Saket! Located on the Golf Course Road near Sun City, and somewhat distanced from the office traffic rush zooming into Gurgaon every second, Nearbuy’s new office is just the place where work meets fun everyday.

The new office can accomodate 600 people, has 32 meeting/conference rooms, with every person basking in the luxury of about 84 sq/ft of personal space. That however, does not stop the founders from sitting with their employees, eating with them, or trying a hand at table tennis!

Adding fun to these space is the dash of colours- from the brick red walls, to colored glass panels, to the green coloured carpets, to pink cushions, to sofas and loungers in all different hues and designs.

We would agree work is more fun with cheery pink cushions and red glass walls!

And how can fun be complete without food? Ola, behold the cafeteria where the entire office staff gorges on the daily five-spread lunch buffet/evening snacks to replenish their hungry souls.

One look at this American diner style cafe and we wouldn’t mind a bite too! Not to mention the bountiful supply of seasonal fruits,caffeine, tea, chocolate milk, badam milk and soup packets also on the menu!

And in case you have had a bit too much, there’s always table tennis, Playstation, or dear old board games to lull you out of your food induced slumber!

But if you would rather watch TV or read a book to keep awake, you can head off to the TV lounge or maybe just be content with the Apple TV, which happens to be  on all screens!

Still not relaxed? Maybe the numerous beanbags, lazyboys and couches through the entire office are just what you need to get that brain firing again!

All in all, the new Nearbuy office is just the right mix of fun and energy for an awesome work at day. Wouldn’t be wrong to say that working here would be one unbeatable deal!

The post Why Nearbuy’s New Office Is One Unbeatable Deal appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Bangalore-based Notary Mama, the on-demand documentation and registration service provider, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding, and has evolved into a new company called Docket Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd, tells founder, Gireesh Challa.

Launched in September 15, 2013, Notary Mama, has served over 5000+ users and had touched INR 1 Cr. in revenues last year. With the launch as Docket, the company is now automating 5+ Cr documents and is launching many more services.

Unlike Notary Mama, which used to operate in the B2C space, Docket Tech will operate its business in the fields of of B2B, person-to-person (p2p) and B2B2C space.

Dr Nandish Domlur (founder and CEO of Protein Entertainment) and Amit Sandill led this round of funding. Amit is the founding partner of Universal Developers and TopSource, an US-based software and consulting company. Amit was also a team principal of Mahi Kawasaki Racing Team India, a superbike world championship team backed by Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Talking about the services offered by Docket Tech, Gireesh Challa said, “Our services are designed to integrate, facilitate and deliver documents like Agreements, Affidavits, Bonds and Deeds. The core business model revolves around Notary, E-Stamp, Franking and Attestations. We are also expanding into verticals of Business Registrations, Licenses, Property Registration,”

The company has recently launched its Android mobile app “Docket”. With the raised funds, it plans to expand its services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

The entire 20 members team of Notary Mama will remain intact. Gireesh Challa, Aditya Pratap and Prashanth Narayan remains as co-founders.

“We are launching our IOS app as a part of our business expansion, and currently adding up additional headcount for our product and business development teams,” said Aditya Pratap.

The company is planning to integrate its services overseas. Apart from India, the company’s major traffic comes from the US and UK, and it aims to expand to these countries to tap its key target audience NRIs. “Over a period of time we will also expand into Data Mining, Cloud Storage, Data Analytics and Reporting,” stated Amit Sandill.

Last week, Delhi-based online legal services platform, Legistify, also raised its seed funding. Other players in this space include VakilSearch, Lawrato among others.

Welcome to Flash Feed, your essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web – bite-sized and updated all day.

The post Exclusive: Notary Mama Raises Funding & Evolves Into Docket Tech appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Mountain View, CA and Bangalore-based TableHero, an intelligent operating system for small local businesses, has raised about $1 Mn in seed funding, led by growX ventures.

The round also saw participation from FreeCharge founders Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon; IVFA partner and ex-CEO of Network18 Haresh Chawla; Powai Lake Ventures and GlobeVestor.

TableHero is reimagining the technology stack for local businesses by building an intelligent small business OS (Operating Systems). The OS will include a suite of products that will vastly simplify website and digital presence management; reservations, bookings and appointments; and payments, loyalty and customer management.

Reimagining The Technology Stack For Local Businesses

TableHero’s first product will be an intelligent, one-click website builder for small businesses. It will allow business owners to simply claim their business on the platform and the website is auto-generated without any input from them. It also stays automatically updated by continually combing the universe for fresh content.

Outside of its intelligent one-click website builder, the startup is also launching an end-to-end online bookings and reservations platform next month, which is built on the iOS platform, and being launched as an iPad app. Restaurants can use this to enable their websites with reservations capabilities, and use the iPad app to accept reservations, manage walk-ins and seat their customers.

Deap Ubhi, Co-founder & CEO, TableHero, says, “Our goal is to reimagine the small local business technology stack in a way that makes technology invisible for small local business owners. The first product in this stack will be an intelligence-driven, one-click website maker for restaurants. It completely takes all the effort out of building and managing a digital presence for a small local business.”

The startup is currently in pre-launch phase, and has 25 alpha customers using website product. TableHero is initially targeting the nearly million table service restaurants in the United States. It will initially be launching its services in the US with a focus on West Coast cities such as Portland, Seattle, the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

The funding will be used to further product development of TableHero’s existing suite of tools, as well as to bolster its engineering and product design team.

The Founding Team

TableHero is founded by Deap Ubhi, founder of India’s first local listings and review platform, burrp.com, which was acquired by Network 18 in 2010 for INR 4.25 Cr. in March 2009. He then joined FreeCharge as COO and worked with founder Kunal Shah to guide it to the largest domestic technology acquisition in India’s history. He has also worked with Amazon US, where he was responsible for working with startups, accelerators and Incubators to evangelize the company’s cloud computing services Amazon web services (AWS). Deap also happens to come from a family that has owned and operated restaurants and small local businesses for over 30 years.

Explaining the reason behind the investment, Sheetal Bahl, CEO, growX ventures, said, “We’re investing in TableHero, above all, for the team. Deap is a star, he created Burrp, which we loved as consumers; ran Freecharge in a tough growth period, and is one of the best product guys ever to have worked in India. And he’s put together an amazing set of people to create a technology stack which has the potential to disrupt the long-standing hegemony of the incumbents in the F&B tech space across geographies.”

TableHero is currently a eight member team. Apart from Deap, the founding team has significant early-stage exposure through their past experiences in critical engineering and product design roles at Flipkart, Ola Cabs, Zomato, FreeCharge and Cleartrip. Some of his key team members include En Chiang Lee, who helped drive Zynga’s move into their own private cloud before taking on Senior Product stints at FreeCharge and Idea Devices; and Chetan Vaity and Aman Prakash Mohla, both of whom were part of the core engineering team at FreeCharge.

It sees players like SinglePlatform, Square, OpenTable, and Yelp’s business tools as its core competitors. “Although nobody is approaching the problem the way that we have (i.e. bringing complete automation to the small business technology stack),” company said.

growX is an early-stage investment firm which has invested in about 18 companies since its inception two-and-a-half years ago, including Claro Energy, Mad Street Den, Quandl, and Locus.sh among others.

The post Burrp Founder Deap Ubhi Raises Funding From growX To Build An Intelligent Operating System For Local Businesses appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

On-demand home services startup, Zimmber, has acquired Gurgaon-based FindYahan for an undisclosed amount, in a cash and stock deal, confirms founder Rachit Mathur.

“This is the right time to shift gears, and the strategy is to expand into other services. The blue-collar market that we cater to, is a tough one to crack, while white-collar service providers, such as FindYahan, know how to manage customers well, while at the same time, scale quickly,” said Amit Kumar, co-founder, Zimmber.

The deal comes in at a time when Zimmber is rumored to be raising funding from Snapdeal.

Post acquisition FindYahan’s core team of 5, and its two founders – Rachit Mathur and Snehil Khanor will join Zimmber. Rachit will join the growth and revenue initiatives team and Snehil will be part of product team.

“We are very excited to be a part of Zimmber and together take on the on-demand service market. We shared a common vision with the founders and see a lot of value being created in working together ” Rachit Mathur – founder at FindYahan. According to Kumar, the FindYahan brand will be kept operational at the moment.

Findyahan, founded in 2013, has about 700 service providers on its platform and counts people like Karan Bajwa, managing director of Microsoft India, Amanpreet Bajaj – India Head Airbnb.com, Sunjay Kapur, managing director of Sona Koyo Steering Systems among its backers. Brand Capital, an investment arm of Bennett Coleman & Co, the publisher of this newspaper and Phoenix Fund are also investor in the startup. Hitesh Dhingra of LetsBuy, Rajatish Mukherjee, SVP, Godaddy are in the advisory board of FindYahan.

This is Zimmber’s second acquisition. In 2015, it acquired Mumbai-based laundry service Dhulai. Founded in 2014 by Anubhab Goel, Gaurav Shrivastava and Amit Kumar,  Zimmber, had raised $2 Mn from IDG ventures, Omidyar Network, Sherpalo Ventures and TV Mohandas Pai in July last year. Prior to that, it had raised $400K from Naveen Tewari and others.

Unlike Zimmber, FindYahan, primarily serves consumers looking for white collar services, such as yoga teachers, tuition teachers, language tutors and kitchen services, among others. Zimmber currently operates in the Delhi-National Capital Region, Mumbai and Pune, has about 1,000 service providers.

The acquisition is yet another example of the ongoing consolidations in the Indian tech startup scene. Earlier this month, Bangalore-based Housejoy, an on-demand service provider, acquired online laundry services player MyWash, for an undisclosed amount. Urbanpro and Localoye are other startups in this space. Recently, Quikr also entered hyperlocal services space with launch of Quikrservices.

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The post Zimmber Acquires FindYahan To Strengthen Its White Collar Services appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Bangalore-based a digital background verification startup, BetterPlace, has raised about $1Mn (INR 6.6 Cr) from Unitus Seed Fund.

BetterPlace was started in 2015 by a former global head at SAP, Pravin Agarwala, and Group CEO of SIS, Uday Singh. The startup carries out background verifications for new hires, with a focus on the blue-collar workers in the logistics and hyperlocal services space.

From verifying the credentials of a potential tenant, hiring a maid, to fulfilling the workforce requirements of large organisations, BetterPlace aims to provide suitable safe living resolutions for all safety concerns through its web-based service and mobile applications.

The startup will utilise the amount for developing analytics as a layer on the data as well as the geographical expansion of the company to cities, to track antecedents.

Pravin Agarwala, co-founder of BetterPlace said, “Our major revenue stream is the on-demand sector which uses our solution for hiring blue-collar workers. Going ahead, there is a larger opportunity in orders for individual checks, finance institutions and others.”

How Does It Work?

The platform offers multi-point verification across digital and offline channels from a combination of sources including Aadhaar (digital ID) information, a relevant digital footprint of an individual, traditional background checks as well as crowdsourcing from social media. Continuous monitoring is enabled by a trust-based system which learns from feedback provided across touch points and location data analytics.

• When hiring somebody, a user needs to search by name, mobile number or a valid id and the hirer can view a profile that enables a decision to be made about the potential hire.
• The platform also allows for users to create base profiles which are then verified by BetterPlace
• BetterPlace has launched its product line through HireSafe, PartnerSafe and TrainSafe

Various startups like TimeSaverz, Roadrunnr, Housejoy, Commonfloor, Practo, Homigo, Zimmber, Portea, Grabhouse, G4S, CMS Info Systems have partnered with BetterPlace to provide services like stringent identification checks, antecedent/address verification and criminal/court record checks.

In an earlier statement, Pravin said that around 22%-25% people furnish fake credentials, which has led the companies to make informed decisions by checking the credentials before hiring. It is estimated that this industry is worth $1.5 Bn of which white collar verification services take the majority share. However, the increasing urbanization and digitization there is a massive influx of blue collared and semi-skilled professionals entering the market in an organized manner. As demand for verification of these new segment picks up, the market size will scale exponentially.”

Prior to this, BetterPlace has raised funding from Lalitesh Katragadda, an ex-Google India head, in November 2015.

As far as both India and the world are concerned, there has been a steady rise in the number of companies and apps offering safety-related services as a package. Some of the major players include KPMG, Securitas, Veri Facts, HireSafe, BeenVerified, People Spy, Janta Khoj, Onicra, Matrix India and IBC India among others.

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The post Background Verification Startup, BetterPlace, Raises $1 Mn From Unitus Seed Fund appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Just a few days back, since Karnataka had sought to put an end to the collection of surge-price from customers by cab hailing aggregators such as Uber and Ola, it has now issued new guidelines to level the playfield for regular taxi operators and cab aggregators.

According to a digital media, the guidelines enlisted ‘Karnataka On Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016’ lists rules that online cab aggregators will need to follow if the draft comes into effect 30 days from the date of issue (February 9, 2016).

HG Kumar, the Additional Commissioner for Transport and Secretary of the State Transport Authority (STA) of Karnataka, said, “These rules have been drafted on the basis of the guidelines released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in October 2015 which directed the state transport authorities to either follow the one it issued or draft their own. The government seeks suggestions and counter comments from the public 30 days from the publication of the rules, and will consider those before issuing the final guidelines.”

According To the Defined Guidelines:

• The applicant should have a minimum of either 100 taxis owned or in agreement with individual taxi permit holders
• The applicant has to have a control room facility (no further details)
• The vehicle should have a display board inside the taxi with the driver’s info
• The vehicle should also be fitted with a ‘tamper proof electronic digital fare meter’ which is capable of generating a printed receipt to be given to passengers if fare cannot be informed through SMS or email
• It should have a yellow coloured display board with the word “Taxi” visible from both the front and the rear and can be illuminated at night
• Driver should be a resident of Karnataka for a minimum of 5 years
• He should have a working knowledge of Kannada and any other language, preferably English
• The fare cannot be higher than the one fixed by Government from time to time
• A passenger can only be charged from their pick up point of destination
• Drivers have to be trained at least once in a year on safe driving skills, gender sensitisation and passenger etiquette, etc. They should be allowed to work a maximum number of hours under the Motor Transport Workers Act 1961
• The vehicle should have a small feedback register kept in the taxi, easily accessible to the passengers
• Drivers cannot take independent or direct bookings, unless done via the obtained license
• Permit holders have the liberty to operate with any other aggregator simultaneously as per their discretion
• Publish the policy on taxi fare beforehand
• The state transport authority, after giving the licensee an opportunity to be heard, can suspend the license for a minimum 30 days to a maximum of 6 months, if a passenger complaints of misbehaviour or misdemeanour

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The post Karnataka Unveils New Guidelines For Cab Aggregators appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Pune-based ecommerce portal that sells customised merchandise, icustommadeit.com, has raised $4 Mn in its Pre-Series A funding round from Times Group’s Brand Capital, Siddhivinayak Skyscrapers, an undisclosed corporate giant and Dinesh R. Challa, IIT Roorkee alumnus.

For this round, the startup was advised by Key Legal Investors, Pune.

The startup has plans to advertise its brand and offerings through various media publications of Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, which operates as Times Group. Also, it seeks to expand presence in 18 target cities and start its global operations.

Raj Iyer, Director and CMD of icustommadeit.com said, “We are very confident and looking forward to creating a high impact in the market by utilizing Times Group’s expansive outreach and matchless media mix. We are also in progressive talks with a few Venture Capitalists for initiating the next round of funding within the next few months.”

Started in May 2013, icustommadeit, is an online platform that personalises merchandise for the customers. It works as a twin marketplace that connects bespoke artists, creators and sellers with an avid customer base, looking for something that is a reflection of their unique individuality.

It claims to offer custom-made solutions for things ranging from jewellery, clothing and home decor to accessories, shoes and confectionary. Currently, the company offers an array of over 25000 products spread across 33 categories from 900 creators around the world.

Prior to this, the company had raised $250K each in its second and third round of angel funding in June and August 2015, respectively.  So far, the venture has raised $900K. The brand recently launched a bespoke tea collection ‘Garnet Glow’. Further, it plans to launch an exclusive brand of handcrafted watches under the name ‘Aion’. Icustommadeit also entered licensed agreements with top merchandise brands recently.

The startup competes with Rocket Internet-backed PrintVenue, an online portal for personalised printing that raised $4.5 Mn funding from Asia Pacific Internet Group, in January last year. According to recent reports, Rocket Internet is not able to lift its business in India and plans to sell its portfolio companies, which even include Printvenue.

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The post Icustommadeit Raises $4 Mn In Pre-Series A Funding Round appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

One of the most popular tech conference – “the Web Summit” is coming to India as SURGE this February. The conference is scheduled for 23rd and 24th February 2016.

Web Summit is one of the largest tech conference of Europe that witnessed more than 42,000 members of the global tech community, representing more than 134 countries.

SURGE would witness over 5000 attendees from the startup community across India, Asia, Europe and the US. A few eminent attendees include Dave Mcclure, Founding Partner 500 Startups; Bipin Singh, Founder MobiKwik; Richa Kar, CEO Zivame.com; Rohit Bansal, Co-Founder Snapdeal; Sachin Bansal, Co-Founder of Flipkart.com; Benjamin Bauer, Co-Founder & Global CMO foodpanda; Saul Klein, Founder Seedcamp; Lisa Maki, Co-founder & CEO PokitDok; Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder & CEO Graphic India; Amit Jain, CEO GirnarSoft; Bruno Gutierres, Head of Airbus BizLabs, among others.

Do you want to b being a part of this significant event? Inc42 is giving away 2 free passes.

Apply now! Applications closing at 7 PM (17th Feb), winners to be announced on 18th Feb.

PS: Please don’t forget to tweet out your answer “Why you want to attend SURGE Conf?” tagging @Inc42 with #SURGEConf.

The post Here Is Your Chance To Win Free Pass For #SURGEConf ! appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

To make cities in India smart, there is a need of an integrated approach to modernize infrastructure, and leverage technology to improve efficiency and capacity of city services.

PM Narendra Modi had announced his vision to set up 100 smart cities across the country in 2014. The mission intends to promote adoption of smart solutions for efficient use of available assets, resources and infrastructure. From providing a decent quality of life, a clean and sustainable environment, to robust IT connectivity, or e-governance, a smart city will be equipped with these amenities provided through smart solutions.

Taking a step ahead, Microsoft Ventures, DLabs at the Indian School of Business, and Ashoka University have joined hands to launch “AIM Smart City accelerator programme” to identify, invest in and support the best startups focused on making cities a better place.

“This is a unique initiative in the spirit of translating the Government’s focus on smart cities into action. Beyond funding and mentoring, we also going to liaise with the Government to consider the solutions proposed by our startups.” says Priyank Narayan, Director – Entrepreneurship Programmes, Ashoka University.

A smart city is the one which uses technology and intelligent urban systems to enhance quality of life and encourage sustainable utilisation of resources while actively engaging with it’s citizens and environment, is the need of future.

AIM Smart City Accelerator Programme has come up with a concept to identify startups or entrepreneurs who use connected solutions, technology and systems to productise ideas and bring these solutions to the market for rapid and mass adoption.

The accelerator is inviting applicants from the startups working on smart city solutions in the areas of Education, Healthcare, Transport & Logistics and Infrastructure. The startups will be judged on Financial Viability, Technology Feasibility, Desirability to its target audience, Sustainability of the solution and Track record of the team.

Startups who are between piloting or are in initial launch to pre-expansion phase can apply for the four month accelerator program that will commence from April 25, 2016. An investment support of up to INR 10 lakh will be provided to each team selected.

Microsoft will support this through its BizSpark program and a recently announced special initiative for Indian technology startups for smart cities. Qualifying startups can apply for individual access up to $120K (INR 80 lakh) worth of Azure cloud computing. The cloud computing capability may be used to create innovative solutions and pilot projects for smart cities.

B.K. Singh, Senior Executive Director, Dalmia Bharat Group, said; “We are delighted to launch the Dalmia Bharat AIM Smart City Accelerator Program with support from Ashoka University, ISB and Microsoft. As per NASSCOM, India ranks third in the global startup ecosystem and stands amongst the first five largest startup communities in the world.  Through this program we want to sensitize today’s young entrepreneurs how best to utilize the start-up boom for smart city development.”

After undergoing the training at the acceleration program, selected startups will showcase their products to the best VCs, angel investors and government stakeholders from India and abroad, at the Demo Day, which will be organised on August 26, 2016.

Startups can apply here. More details can be viewed on the website. Last date for application is March 15, 2016.

[This article is brought to you by Ashoka University]

The post AIM Smart City Accelerator Calling Out Startups Working On Smart City Solutions appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

US-based ecommerce major, Amazon.com Inc, is in the process to acquire Noida-based online payment solutions provider EMVANTAGE Payments Pvt Ltd, for an undisclosed amount.

As part of the deal, Emvantage’s employees will join Amazon’s payments team to develop solutions, tailored for the Indian market. According to the reports, the acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.

Emvantage was started in 2012 by Vivek Sagar. It provides ‘platform as a service’ for online merchants, banks and merchant aggregators offering a payment gateway for online transactions made using credit or debit cards and netbanking.

The company has developed a series of payment solutions including a payment gateway, mobile payment solutions and pre-paid card solutions that integrate into merchant apps, and a prepaid wallet.

Srinivas Rao, Director, Amazon Payments India, said, “Emvantage is a valuable addition to our team as we accelerate our payment offerings, ensuring the best in class online payment experience anywhere that customers shop with us.”

As India’s ecommerce market is expected to be worth $100 Mn by 2020, ecommerce companies are leaving no stone unturned. They have been making significant investments, acquisitions and partnerships with payment companies to grab a share of the digital payments vertical, which helps reduce the dependency on cash and make it convenient for online shopping. In the realm, Snapdeal and Flipkart are already ahead in time by making acquisitions of payment gateway companies in past. Snapdeal acquired Klickpay and Freecharge, while Flipkart acquired payment services startup FX Mart, last year. Prior to this, Flipkart announced that it will be shutting down its payment gateway Payzippy and might acquire ngpay.

Amazon has been bullish in the Indian market. From establishing warehouses to increasing its merchant base, the company has been steadily coming at par with the local rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal. Recently, It invested about $300 Mn (INR 1,980 Cr.) in Amazon Seller Services to boost its presence in India. This  acquisition would help Amazon accelerate the development of convenient and trustworthy payment solutions for customers and the ecommerce industry in India.

Welcome to Flash Feed, your essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web – bite-sized and updated all day.

The post Amazon Acquires Emvantage To Develop India-Specific Payment Solutions appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Mumbai-based The Viral Fever (TVF) has received commitment of $10 Mn (INR 65.6 Cr) from Tiger Global Management, according to a RoC filing. Temasek Boulevard is also participating in the round and Tiger has invested from its Internet Fund III Pte. Ltd. fund.

According to the filings made by the company with the registrar of companies (RoC) by Contagious Online Media Network Pvt. Ltd (parent company of TVF) in December, the company is valued somewhere around $45 Mn (INR 310 Cr) (Post Money).

The TVF team refused to comment on the development.

The Viral Fever, an online digital entertainment channel, was set up by IIT graduate Arunabh Kumar in 2010. It is an online youth entertainment network, focusing on the funny side of Indian politics, movies, lifestyle, social system and now startup life too. He was later joined by Amit Golani and Biswapati Sarkar and currently has a 100 member team.

In February 2015, TVF became the first YouTube online network to attract 1 Mn subscribers on the basis of original content within the shortest time. TVF generated revenue of about $628k (INR 4 Cr.) in 2014-15, starting from June 2014. For the period of 3 August to 21 October, Contagious Online Media reported a revenue of INR 64 lakh and a profit of INR 22 lakh.

TVF is the company behind popular web series like Permanent Roommates, TVF Pitchers, Chai Sutta Chronicles; comedy videos such as Qtiyapa; and a satirical video on Times Now’s Arnab Goswami – Barely Speaking with Arnub.

It’s recent show TVF Pitchers was a rhetoric of startups’ life, covering aspects like quitting a high profile MNC job and giving entrepreneurial bug a chance.

The development was first reported by Mint.

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The post From Qtiyapa To The Pitchers: This IITian Now Has 10 Mn To Spread The Viral Fever appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.

Unlaze, an upcoming personal networking app that seeks to help like-minded people, living nearby, connect over common interests and hobbies, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Dino Morea (Fitness Icon & Entrepreneur) and Sujal Shah (CXO of MissMalini Media).

Founded by Nihar Manwatkar, the app has been in development and prototyping stage since early December, 2015. As of now, the app is invite-only and it will use GPS to map users. As per the company, 1000+ users have already registered.

To use the app, users simply need to sign up using Facebook, choose their activities and search for people in their nearby area of up to a 15 km radius. Users can reach out to people they find interesting and once their request is accepted, they get connected and can start conversing on the app.

The app helps build one’s personal (social) network by introducing them to new people over something they have in common. To begin with, the app allows users to unlaze with others over 9 activities – Cycling, Yoga, Jogging, Gossip/Chatting, Shopping, Eating Out, Music, Dance, and Travel.

Nihar explains, “Existing social networks, truth be told, have gotten a bit boring. They allow me to stay in touch with my friends through their posts and tweets but am I really able to grow my social network through these channels and make new friends? Not really. This problem I soon realised was something many had in common and it’s what led me to start this.”

Sujal says, “UNLAZE is a game changer in the personal networking/utility space that connects people via passion points and interests. It builds a natural ecosystem at scale, where merchants can also engage in more targeted and contextually relevant conversations/recommendations to the end user.”

The traditional dating app space is a $3 Bn market globally with an estimated 100 Mn users across multiple platforms in India. This vertical is limited to a single outcome – dating or relationships. Unlaze is a platform that expands interactions among people on multiple fronts and can make unique connections with other like-minded individuals for each of the user’s passion points or interests. Its ecosystem and use by consumers does not end, but only amplifies over time and interests.”

Dino Morea said, “We all know how technology has possibly made us a little more lazy than we would like to admit. With every source of entertainment now just a click away, making new friends, pursuing our own interests in our free time, has started to become a bit obsolete. Unlaze works perfectly to give us a new reason to take up our interests and better yet, find someone nearby to do them with in a non-embarrassing way.”

The app is slated to launch its beta version on Android by mid-February, and on iOS in March. Initially, the service would be restricted to just Gurgaon. Once through, the app will expand its reach to Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and other key markets.

“While the immediate plan is to focus on enabling P2P connections, we have truck loads of really cool features, integrations and partnerships in pipeline all that are a part of our product roadmap,” added Nihar.

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The post Dino Morea And Sujal Shah Invest In Personal Networking App Unlaze appeared first on Inc42 Magazine.