In a world where ‘Netflix n chill’ is the new normal, no surprises that people want more from their favourite OTT platforms. Reason enough for 48-year-old Nitin Narkhede and his wife to look for ‘First Day, First Show’ movies on these platforms.

This was also a time when Nitin, Vice President of Blockchain CoE, was exploring different areas where blockchain could make an impact. And that led to the birth of myNK - a blockchain-powered, global entertainment video-on-demand (VOD) platform. 

The idea came to Nitin when he realised that the bottleneck was one: the movie right-holders’ constraints to deliver such options to the consumers at home in a safe, transparent, and justified way. 

“The only option that exists today for them is a theatrical release to make their film a box-office success. I thought blockchain could solve this problem from the technology perspective, but it would still require a business sponsor to bring this to reality,” Nitin says. 

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Roping in Anurag Kashyap 

He then discussed the idea with Indian film director Anurag Kashyap, who also turned mentor and investor. 

“We designed myNK, a blockchain-powered VoD (BVOD) platform that delivers directly to consumers in the most secure and transparent form on a pay-per-view basis at a cost,” Nitin says.

The first version of myNK enables global right-holders to experiment with such possibilities in India for the first time. The idea may have been generated based on Indian content, but it found its initial applicability by bringing global content to India. 

The team found a way to bring globally appreciated, noteworthy films with gripping storylines to India in the most cost-effective manner for both, consumers and right-holders.  

“Our colleague, Ranjan Singh, who worked with Anurag and is an executive producer for many films, coined the new name for the offering – myNK (my network), because it enables consumers to not only watch these films but also helps them promote on their network. myNK is a network of similar-minded people who discuss their passion for global cinema,” Nitin says.

He roped in a friend, Deepak Jayaram, who spent 14 years at Dialect Group, Groupm as Managing Partner, as Co-founder. 

Anurag Kashyap, speaking of his association with myNK, says, “As a cinephile, there was always so much cinema when I was travelling across the world. I would watch the films and not find them back home. India has a huge audience for art house cinema, foreign language cinema. That’s why myNK. Through this unique platform, we are trying to bring to India a whole lot of world entertainment content, both cinema and series.”

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How does the platform work?

The platform comprises a curated library, which currently has over 200 films and growing - most of these have never been released in India. The content includes critically acclaimed and award-winning films and series from across prestigious festivals, including Cannes, Tribeca, Sundance, and Berlinale. 

However, the problem lies in disrupting the age-old processes of film distribution. 

Nitin explains there has to be a significant shift and huge benefits associated with this transition. Adoption of blockchain as a technology enables new services, eliminates capital inefficiencies, and provides a scalable model in a very secure and transparent way.   

The other challenge was to find adoption and buy-in of this new approach and the concept by the film industry. Currently, the process is tightly controlled by a few stakeholders with limited acceptance of innovation. 

“What worked in our favour was to have a film director like Anurag Kashyap on board. In his role, Anurag helps us with design and strategies to approach this systematically,” Nitin says. 

Using blockchain 

Most OTT/entertainment platforms today offer a one-way entertainment delivery algorithm. This, Nitin explains, gives limited scope to creators and consumers to choose. MyNK’s focus is to monetise the digital wave by bringing more consumers on the platform. 

The model is built on trust and transparency, which is enforced by blockchain, mentoring and content curation by industry experts, and the pay-per-view option. 

Nitin adds that the focus on community empowerment and involvement enables members and fans to contribute and expand the economy. 

The platform also provides in-built spot incentives and rewards mechanism for any contribution to the ecosystem to enable micro-distribution. 

“The service within the myNK ecosystem forays across the entire entertainment ecosystem right from securing investments, production, distribution, marketing, consumption, and managing operational aspects like legalities, copyright protection, automated payments and automated execution of contracts,” Nitin says. 

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Why blockchain?

The platform uses blockchain to develop new features, service lines, avenues of earnings and revenue streams, and also a safer way of interfacing with unknown participants in the ecosystem.  

Nitin explains blockchain has two important functions: hashing and time stamp. Hashing, a mathematical formula, assigns a unique ID to content; the right-holder can preserve this for his copyrighted content. Timestamping, on the other hand, assigns a unique timestamp to every transaction executed on the network, whether it is content viewing, buy/sell, and rate/review. 

This ensures security, transaction level transparency, enablement of new services within the network, micropayments, and even micro distribution. 

“A new business model emerges because the tech used is blockchain. For the first time, the blockchain technology will enable a creator to control his work entirely (rights management), and give him/her the autonomy to tokenise his/her creations and see through every transaction that is being done in the ecosystem and related analytics in real time (arrest revenue leakages). The tech also ensures the underlying security of the film,” Nitin explains. 

Similarly, consumers also have a bigger role to play rather than just consume content in isolation. 

Nitin says the consumers act as a community who will be collectively responsible for unbiased reviewing, rating, distributing, recommending and curating content, making the marketplace more connected, holistic, and intelligent.

Revenues and the market 

MyNK charges $1 for every movie or episode that a person views on the platform. The platform works on the pay-per-view model and makes money on the margins on every transaction. The team, which refused to share the margins, is also looking to charge for other services, the team currently is working on.

Currently seed funded, the team is in discussions for pre-Series A funding with a few potential investors, mainly to focus on marketing initiatives and drive growth. 

Today, almost every production house has an OTT platform, including Eros, Shemaroo, and Zee. These don’t include standalone platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar. 

According to App Annie, Indians love video streaming. In 2018, Indians spent a whopping 47 billion hours on the top five streaming apps last year.

But do we need more? Nitin explains myNK is more than an OTT platform since it works as a gateway for global film distributors and filmmakers to get discovered in unexplored regions like India.

The basic idea behind this is to set up a supply chain involving distributors or filmmakers, and all other stakeholders in the film distribution value chain. This solves the capital inefficiency problem that exists and enables zero-cost distribution for right-holders in a transparent pay-per-view model. 

Speaking of their future plans, Nitin says, “The market will grow 10x by 2023 and I believe that there’s a lot of room for innovation and niche players to build services. myNK is trying to break into this space by offering niche content, a new business model, and new services built on top of a pioneering model.”

He says their defining model on B2B should enable multiple new services for the stakeholders in the near future. 

“We wish to be recognised as the creators of the backbone of the entertainment industry by offering blockchain-based infrastructure to support transactions in the entertainment space,” Nitin says. 

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

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Until not too long ago, HAGO (acronym for ‘Have A Good One’) was an under-discovered Chinese social gaming app. Released last November, it lets users discover friends, play games, host ‘voice parties’, and earn real rewards (mobile recharges, shopping vouchers, and even smartphones and bikes). 

Just the kind of stuff millennials tend to obsess over. 

HAGO’s popularity hit the roof in 2019. In July, it became the world’s sixth most downloaded app, according to Sensor Tower data, trailing only TikTok and the Facebook-owned apps. 

In India, HAGO witnessed dramatic growth. SimilarWeb estimates the app recorded over 12 million downloads in three months, with average user sessions lasting an unprecedented 57 minutes.

India is already HAGO’s second largest market (next to Indonesia), accounting for 14 percent of its total users. The app is available in English and Hindi currently. Globally, HAGO has crossed 100 million downloads on Google Play Store, and is rated 4.4 out of 5. 

Lately, the app has generated a lot of chatter on the Indian internet, with users sharing HAGO referral codes, jokes, memes, and videos. Along with TikTok, it is the most curiosity-inducing app right now, especially among millennials.

There are 80+ games that you can play on HAGO in a single or multi-player format. Popular games include Knife Hit, Brain Quiz, Juice Slash, Ludo, Snakes & Ladders, Crazy Taxi, Sheep Fight, Rummy, and others.

In what has emerged as HAGO’s most attractive feature, users can communicate through voice or text with fellow players at an in-game chatroom. This is reminiscent of the Yahoo chat rooms of yore, only a little more colourful and interactive.

Whenever you play a game, HAGO matches you with a stranger, with whom you can continue playing the game. If you enjoyed playing with someone, you can even send them a friend request.

The app’s tour de force is seamless game discovery and persistent nudging that makes its users engage with it longer. These nudges can be in the form of game invites, suggestions, screen notifications, private messages, and chat invitations.

Let’s look at HAGO more closely.

The app asks for device storage permissions to begin with. Enable location access if you want to discover local players.

You can log in with your email, mobile number, or Facebook id. You claim 500 coins with every log in. These coins can be converted into cash and/or real gifts. 

In a new update, HAGO allows users to win 100 coins per day. This increases their chances at lucky draws too. Refer to the 'Shop & Coins' section for more.

You can check the ‘My Wallet’ section on the sidebar to know the value of coins, and even purchase them.

The home page displays all games in an endless scroll. They are grouped in categories: Must-Play, Games With Coins, Hot Games, World-Record Games.

Click on a game to start playing. The screen displays your game score, daily rank, number of players you beat, number of players online, daily goals, rewards, and more. 

The settings icon on the top right of every game screen gives you a snapshot of the game score and also allows you to quit or restart a game. You can track your daily leaderboard and even show off your 'winning streak' to friends.

You can also auto-import contacts from Facebook or your phone list.

The ‘WeMeet’ feature on the homepage leads you to a Tinder-like assortment of potential playmates. Hit the ‘heart’ icon to like a player. Hit the ‘cross’ icon to swipe left and move on.

The ‘Play With Friends’ feature lets you discover local multiplayers and your own social media contacts too. 

Hit the messages icon on the top right to start a chat with friends or strangers, and invite them to multiplayer games. 

You can even choose from multiple chat rooms listed under the ‘Channel’ section on the homepage. In a channel, you can hear music, voice chat with others, share emojis, jokes, or even text messages too. This serves a real-time online community. 

Finally, in Settings, you can change the language, manage notifications, and enable game downloads for offline access. 

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Mostly engaging, sometimes overwhelming

HAGO is unlike any app we’ve seen. It is a casual gaming, messaging, social discovery and community platform - all blended into one. That perhaps explains its staggering engagement rates. There is just a lot to do on HAGO.

The app is a delight for mobile gamers, who are treated to a wide array of simple and complex titles for free. In the process, they also get to make new friends, engage in colloquial banter, and earn real cash benefits.  

If you’re a sociable person, who seeks constant company, HAGO is your new Facebook-cum-Tinder-cum-WhatsApp-Group. Sensor Tower puts it aptly as “a super hot app that can be your getaway for all social and casual needs”. 

HAGO’s voice chat feature goes a long way in improving access and pulling users from India’s Tier II and III towns.  

But, while there is a lot on offer, the app can sometimes overwhelm you with its colours, sounds, notifications, goals, rewards, and the constant nudges. 

If you lose track of a game, it is difficult to get your way back. You have to either quit or restart. A Netflix-like ‘resume’ feature could be a great addition here. The app could also do with a few more language options that would increase local consumption. 

Nonetheless, HAGO is a beautifully and intelligently designed product. And, its compelling incentive structure will keep drawing millennials to the app. 

It’s not even been a year, but HAGO is already ‘having a good one’!

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

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When Sanjeev Sharma’s wife had to move to Stockholm for work (her employer telecom giant Ericsson is headquartered there), he decided to move base from Bengaluru and join her in the Swedish capital. 

It was not an easy decision for Sanjeev, who was a director and a founding member of Bengaluru-based semiconductor IP startup Terminus Circuits, to uproot himself. But he moved anyway, in the summer of 2016, and continued to be a part of the startup remotely. However, a year and a half later, he decided to quit. This was after spending a total of five years with the company he had helped set up. 

“The semiconductor business market in the Nordic region is rather limited. So, I thought, why not start something with which I can leverage the strength of the local ecosystem,” says Sanjeev, who had spent 10 years at Wipro as an analogue design engineer and project manager before Terminus Circuits.

He wanted to focus on innovation and sustainability, which Sweden is known for, and decided to base his new startup on that. In fact, Sweden is credited with being one of the most innovative countries in the world. It is home to the third-highest unicorns per capita, and often referred to as the ‘Unicorn Factory’. 

According to  Sweden-India Business Council’s (SIBC) Secretary General and President Robin Sukhia, “This is not surprising since Sweden spends over three percent of its GDP on supporting research and development. It also has a robust system of integrated innovation ecosystem by bringing research closer to business in its triple helix model of innovation.” 

The triple helix model of innovation looks to foster economic and social development through interactions between academia, industry, and governments.

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Starting up in Stockholm

Sanjeev set up ExcelDots in 2018, with Co-founders Debraj Kumar and Pankaj Gupta, to bring “interdisciplinary competence to develop and advance solutions that address pressing sustainability challenges”. At present, the startup is working on safe groundwater solutions using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). 

While the company is based in Stockholm, its solutions serve countries such as India, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Argentina, Peru, and Colombia, where underground water contamination with hazardous elements such as arsenic, manganese, and fluoride is a big problem. 

ExcelDots’ digital water platform (ASMITAS) provides a range of solutions to enable safe and affordable access to groundwater. It uses hyperspectral imaging, AI-powered vision tools, and interactive Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to characterise and manage aquifer-based groundwater. 

“Our solution for automated lithological profiling of sediments helps arsenic mitigation at source, and enables researchers, policymakers, and consumers to use and share relevant data in a secure and scalable framework,” Sanjeev says.

The company is, in fact, working on a project in Bangladesh with UNICEF for “safe groundwater intervention, system strengthening and private sector capacity building”. 

It is a Sweden International Development Agency (SIDA) funded project with KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm being the primary implementation partner. Along with KTH, Ramboll Sweden and ExcelDots are Swedish consortium partners executing the work. A team of 50 from various organisations from Sweden and Bangladesh are working on the project, with digital solutions being ExcelDots’ core focus area.

It is not uncommon for Swedish startups to have their primary markets beyond their borders. Stockholm-headquartered mobile app Truecaller, for instance, counts India as its largest market. 

“While most India startups tend to look at the domestic market, Swedish startups have a culture of looking for global markets,” says Sanjeev. Robin Sukhia adds that the Stockholm startup ecosystem is well aware of the fact that India and China have bigger markets and they need to reach out to those geographies.

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Revenue, funding, and the team

In its first year of operations, ExcelDots managed to clock a revenue of Rs 35 lakh. Now, the team is planning to grow the topline up to 10 times. 

At present, the startup is bootstrapped with the co-founders’ personal savings. Sanjeev tells us that they have started talking to investors and hope to raise $2-2.5 million, primarily to focus on building its team. ExcelDots’ operations are managed by the three founders who met in Stockholm through Sanjeev’s wife Ruchi Verma’s IIM alumni network that doubles up as an Indian diaspora networking platform in the Swedish capital. 

Pankaj, a Swedish citizen of Indian origin, still continues to hold on to a day job at Ericsson and has recently moved to Texas, US. Debraj is an IIM-Ahmedabad alumnus based in Stockholm. 

Sanjeev is the CEO, Debraj the CMO, while Pankaj is responsible for strategy development but holds no other title owing to his day job.

The Stockholm startup ecosystem

Having been a part of both the Bengaluru and the Stockholm startup ecosystem, Sanjeev believes that the latter has an advantage when it comes to engaging with big corporates and in procuring bank finance. 

“Out here, there is more openness among big corporates to engage and collaborate with startups. And, access to capital from banks is easier here, which is a big pain point in India,” he explains. 

Tyler Crowley, an American consultant who has been instrumental in developing the Stockholm startup ecosystem for the city government, concurs. “It is a fantastic place to start up, especially if you are in the fintech space. Here, banks are friendly with startups, unlike in the US, where they are aggressive and adversarial,” says the man behind STHLM TECH MEETUP, Europe's largest monthly startup event, and STHLM TECH FEST, Scandinavia's largest annual startup event. 

However, in terms of setting up and running a startup, there isn’t much to choose from between Bengaluru and Stockholm. According to Sanjeev, India has improved considerably on that front.

The next step

Sustainability startups are booming in Europe, especially Stockholm. There are more than 100 accelerators in Swedish capital such as Norrsken, that are focused on promoting sustainable startups. 

According to the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) and Accenture Strategy, digital solutions that help achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) can provide a total of $11.1 trillion economic benefits in 2030 for a broad set of industries. The Information Communication and Technology (ICT) industry, for instance, could profit from $2.1 trillion additional revenues in 2030 only from these digital solutions. 

To tap into this opportunity, ExcelDots' immediate plan is to expand its product ASMITAS globally. Speaking on the startup’s roadmap, Sanjeev says, “We are discussing new projects in Tanzania, Peru for ASMITAS pilots. We are also looking for extending our solutions to other industry verticals. Sustainable mining is another business area where ExcelDots will be playing a key role in handling toxic materials identification and mitigation in mining waste. We are also planning to offer ICT services in CSR (corporate social responsibility). In this segment, we will help companies in their sustainability initiatives and provide solution/data for integrated reporting (non financial reporting).”

In terms of setting up a branch in India, Sanjeev says, it is high on the priority list since the country is of great strategic importance. “The Indian government has a strong commitment towards safe water access for all. We are planning to open an Indian branch next year to cover the South Asian market,” he says.

India, with its strong knowledge pool in software skills, is at a great advantage to tap into the $2.1 trillion opportunity. The country also offers a testbed for SDGs and thus, the future digital solution market potential here is “very high”, according to Sanjeev.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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Many in the creative field aver that they get more done on the days they work from home. The reasons – less travel time and a comfortable environment. 

Being your own boss has its pluses. Freelancing in today’s digital ecosystem has come of age - Flexible working hours, working on projects that help you grow and choosing what work works for you. It’s no surprise then that India is one of the major hubs of the new-age gig economy.

A 2017 EY study found that 24 percent of the world’s gig workers come from India. Then, a 2018-PayPal report reiterated this by stating that one in every four freelancers is from India.

Dominating the software ecosystem, India accounts for 50 percent of global freelancers, a majority under the age of 40.

Besides the popular ones – Zirtual, AskSunday, Freelancer.com and VirtualEmployee.co.in, many other startups are boosting India’s burgeoning gig economy.

From sourcing freelancers to enabling payments, YourStory lists startups that are facilitating the gig economy. 

Flexiple 

Founded in 2016 by three IIM-Ahmedabad graduates - Karthik Sridharan, Hrishikesh Pradeshi and Suvansh Bansal, Flexiple helps startups and entrepreneurs’ source and work with freelance developers and designers with diverse backgrounds and skillsets.

These freelancers are usually backend developers, UX-experts and illustrators. The startup claims that some of their freelancers have worked with the likes of Amazon, Adobe, Microsoft, Ola and Goldman Sachs. 

The Bengaluru-based bootstrapped startup has on-boarded more than 200 freelancers from seven countries who have served more than 75 clients so far. Flexiple’s client list includes Bain and Company, IFMR, Urban Ladder, Instamojo, AirPR, Haptik and Simpl. 

Flexiple’s freelancers undergo stringent screening processes. Their general aptitude and soft skills are tested along with proven skillsets.

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Wishup 

Delhi-based Wishup is a virtual employee provider, bridging the gap between entrepreneurs and people looking to work from home. Through its various selection processes and interviews, Wishup aggregates talent, and matches skillsets of its virtual employees with the clients’ needs and demands. 

Founded in July 2015, by IIT Madras batchmates – Neelesh Rangwani and Vivek Gupta, Wishup claims to have more than 500 business clients including 91Springboard. 

These virtual employees can manage social media activities, client management, sales excellence, provide recruitment support, email marketing, create databases and manage CRM tools. 

The startup is funded by Inflection Point Ventures, Vinay Bansal, and a few of his colleagues. It has also been funded by Tracxn, 500 Startups and other angels in the past. 

Refrens

One of the most common problems for any service provider or freelancer is payments. Most independent employees complain about delayed payments. Bengaluru-based Refrens solves this problem.

Founded in July 2019, Refrens offers free invoicing software for business service providers, and helps them collect payments faster from clients. 

The startup was founded by former Freecharge and ZipDial product manager Naman Sarawagi and Mohit Jain, tech consultant to multiple startups. 

Mostly focusing on B2B service providers, Refrens claims to have 400 businesses using their platform. The bootstrapped startup is currently growing at 20 percent week-on-week. 

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MyChores 

Domestic help, caretakers, cooks, drivers or pet custodians – they are all a part of the gig economy, and, Mumbai-based startup MyChores is working with them.

Founded in 2015 by Andrew V, the platform provides an online assisted search service to help search, screen and shortlist the best candidates in any category of house help, quickly. All the service providers have to do is register with MyChores, instead of checking vacancies door-to-door. 

MyChores also provides specific service providers for baby care, elderly care and deep cleaning of homes. Currently bootstrapped, the startup targets double-income nuclear households. Domestic help registered with MyChores are paid between Rs 6,000 and Rs 15,000.

Crescent Inc

Crescent Inc is a platform for knowledge workers of the gig economy. Founded by Hatim Lokhandwala and Pritish Roy, in December 2015, Crescent Inc started its journey by signing on professionals around the Pune region in 2016.

The professionals were mostly photographers and designers. In the past three years, the bootstrapped startup has scaled over 10,000 projects for more than 100 companies. 

Crescent Inc assigns work based on the availability of, and quality of work performed by the freelancer or gig worker.

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WinnerBrands 

Bengaluru-based WinnerBrands is a one-stop branding solution for SMBs. It provides affordable packages and dedicated brand managers, all of this – online.

Founded by Preetham Parvatham and Asher Ali, WinnerBrands provides end-to-end branding solutions – from landing a unique name to finalising the packaging, and finally taking the product to the customer.

Founded in August 2017, WinnerBrands works alongside a pool of curated freelancers and agency partners. 

The team consists of more than 50 freelance partners that provide legal, packaging, procurement, printing and photography services. About 90 percent of its freelancers are former design heads or art directors from leading agencies.

A bootstrapped business so far, WinnerBrands has delivered more than 300 projects a year for 180 clients and claims to have almost 55 percent repeat customers.

(Edited by Suruchi Kapur Gomes)

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The 10th edition of YourStory TechSparks, to be held on October 11 and 12 in Bengaluru, promises to be an unforgettable experience.

At India’s largest startup conference, we bring to you some of the best minds, top VCs from India and abroad, the poster children of the ecosystem, stalwarts from the industry, and top government officials. The conversations at TechSparks 2019 will focus on the next step - an Inclusive, Future-ready, and Intelligence-led India.

Like every year, this year’s TechSparks will bring to you creme de la crème of the Indian startup ecosystem. These are individuals with very distinct identities and whose achievements are something to be admired, learnt from, and to an extent, follow.

Take a look at some of this year’s speakers!

Bhavish Aggarwal – Co-founder and CEO, Ola

At only 35, this IIT graduate, from a small town in Punjab, has inspired millions. His venture, Ola, the ride-hailing app platform, is the first brand recall for any commuter across the country. In the last nine years, it has solved a major problem for Indian cities – mobility. 

As the founder, Bhavish boldly stepped into an unorganised territory of taxis and upped its ante by employing cutting-edge technology. Though ride-hailing was prevalent across major markets in the world, Bhavish attuned Ola to Indian requirements.

Today, the ride-hailing unicorn has expanded into markets like Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Now, the dream is even bigger as Bhavish wants to bring a similar revolution in the two-wheeler and electric vehicles markets. 

Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Founder and CEO, Paytm

Easily the rockstar of the Indian startup ecosystem, Vijay Shekhar Sharma has seen it all. His 18-year journey starting is marked with sheer grit and determination with engineering smarts.

Founded in 2010, Paytm continues to hold a strong pole position in the market despite fierce competition. Vijay has an innate ability to connect with the audience and give folksy wisdom, always putting the audience in splits.

The passion, exuberance and energy are all visible when Vijay takes the stage and the geeks, techies, budding entrepreneur are in rapt attention. 

Byju Raveendran – Founder and CEO, BYJU’S

Maths wizard and soccer fanatic Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU’S, India’s largest edtech startup. Always a teacher at heart, the teacher-turned-entrepreneur's classes were so popular that they were held at large arenas or amphitheatre-like surroundings. 

Today, BYJU’S is the undisputed leader in India’s edtech segment, having attracted the interest of marquee names like the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, founded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Dr Priscilla Chan, Sequoia Capital, Naspers, Lightspeed Ventures, and Tencent. 

More recently, it also received investment from Qatar Sovereign Fund. There is a certain electrifying presence when this man comes on stage. So, never miss this opportunity.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy – CEO, Flipkart Group

As the head of India’s largest ecommerce platform Flipkart, it is very important to keep a calm mind while navigating through any crisis while spotting new market opportunities. Kalyan Krishnamurthy has steered Flipkart through various challenging times and is now the Chief Executive Officer of Flipkart Group. 

With a finance background, Kalyan entered Flipkart as a representative of Tiger Global. Since then, he has been credited with turning around things for the Walmart-owned company, solving external and internal challenges alike. 

Kalyan’s biggest achievement has been keeping the organisation together even after the founders’ exit, steadying the ship and also chartering a strong growth path. This media-shy individual prefers to remain out of the spotlight and hearing from him is one opportunity you wouldn’t want to miss.

Manu Jain – Vice President and CEO, Xiaomi India

Manu Jain has donned many hats but it is his unconventional approach, which makes him stand out in a crowd. This classic IIT-IIM graduate always did things differently.

After a four year stint at the prestigious consultancy firm Mckinsey, Manu started his entrepreneurial journey into the world of ecommerce and co-founded Jabong, an online platform for apparel. 

It was a success but he is not somebody to rest on those laurels. Striving for bigger challenges, Manu went onto to work for a Chinese mobile handset company when it was not a known brand in India at all. 

Call it marketing ingenuity or the ability to walk on the uncharted path, Manu turned Xiaomi into the undisputed market leader for mobile handsets in India. This is just the first step as he has embarked on creating the lifestyle brand of Xiaomi as well. 

Naveen Tewari – Founder and CEO, InMobi

Much before ‘unicorn’ became the buzzword for the startup community, InMobi achieved this status - in 2011 - when others in the ecosystem were still taking baby steps. 

As the founder, Naveen Tewari could be regarded as the original poster boy of the Indian startup ecosystem. He is one of those select few who understands the whole setup. 

Naveen also made his mark in the adtech space, even outthinking a global giant like Google. After the highs, when they hit air pockets, InMobi had to take certain course correction. Naveen did not hesitate to take tough decisions and successfully restored the vibrancy and the spirit of the startup. Today, he has turned InMobi into a global company with more than 20 offices. 

Munish Varma – Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers

As the Managing Partner, EMEA and Asia, SoftBank Vision Fund, Munish Varma is always on the search for founders with the big vision. Munish is also bringing other connects in the ecosystem much needed for a startup founder who is looking for growth capital. 

This Manipal Institute of Technology graduate has an MBA from Cornell, and has worked with global banks like Nomura and Deutsche Bank. Now with SoftBank, Munish is always looking for what’s next in a startup.

As a father of two boys, he wants to inspire people to lead a life with optimism and integrity.

Thirukumaran Nagarajan – Co-founder and CEO, Ninjacart

Trading or selling of fruits and vegetables seems like a very mundane business. However, when somebody leverages technology for this business, it takes the game to a completely different level. Thirukumaran Nagarajan, or Thiru as he is more popularly known, is the co-founder of Ninjacart. 

This startup procures directly from farmers and supplies to various kinds of retail outlets. Thiru and his team bring the domain expertise and technology chops to create a seamless experience, handling lakh of kgs every single day. 

Thiru brings in the intensity for the operations and the ability to solve business problems with the aid of technology. At present, the startup is aiming for the national map.

Nithin Kamath – Founder and CEO, Zerodha

The dream of every entrepreneur is to build a business without a lot of outside interference. Here is an entrepreneur who turned every conventional wisdom on its head and made his startup the largest brokerage firm in India in just nine years. 

Nithin Kamath, Founder of Zerodha, was always interested in stock trading since his college days. And he turned this passion into a thriving business. The key point - he never had to seek outside money and the startup’s growth has been organic, a point of both envy and admiration. 

He is fond of saying that in today’s world, it is not the question of big beating small but fast overtaking the slow. This is amply demonstrated in his love for basketball and strumming his guitar.

Sameer Nigam – Founder and CEO, Phonepe

How does one make a mark for yourself when there is this looming presence of an established player with high visibility? It requires a calm overview of the entire environment and the business smarts to become that very credible player. 

Sameer Nigam, Founder of PhonePe, has delivered this to the T. As a part of the Flipkart Group, PhonePe did not ride on its big brother’s success but carved a niche for itself.

Today, it commands a valuation of nearly $8 billion and some estimate that it can go up to $14 billion in the medium term. Sameer has charted an ambitious road ahead for PhonePe where it will morph into a financial super app.

Sumer Juneja – Partner Asia, SoftBank Vision Fund

There is a rare breed of investors who believe in getting their hands dirty. In Sumer Juneja’s case, it was an individual who risked his stomach by checking the quality of food preparation at various outlets. The rest is history and Sumer hit the jackpot with his investment in Swiggy. 

This London School of Economics graduate has stayed in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Mumbai and is now the Partner and Head of India at SoftBank Investment Advisers. 

A prize catch for SoftBank, Sumer moved here from Norwest Venture Partners. With his global experience and understanding of different cultures, he is looking to hit another pot of gold within the entrepreneurial fervour in India.

Yashish Dahiya – Co-founder and CEO, PolicyBazaar

Yashish Dahiya did not go for any placements after completing his MBA degree from IIM and instead, started teaching. With spontaneity and the courage to walk on an uncharted path, Yashish is known to be direct, honest, and one who does not mince any words on any subject.

With these defining traits, the entrepreneur built PolicyBazaar as a premier insurance startup in India. Always an empathetic leader, Yashish believes in leading from the front though he is also embarrassed with the unicorn status of his startup. 

Apart from work, this entrepreneur also finds time to swim, cycle, and run, even competing in the Ironman competition. 

Umang Bedi – President, Dailyhunt

Smooth and sophisticated with a penchant for designer goods, Umang Bedi is also a techie at heart who understands the business very well. In his very eventful career till now, he has headed the India operations of companies like Intuit, Adobe, and Facebook. 

In fact, he was all of 27 when was the head of Intuit India. Today, he is the President of Dailyhunt, a role steeped into the digital world. 

Sujeet Kumar – Co-founder, Udaan

In a company with outstanding achievements, there is always a group of individuals who go unnoticed or prefer to remain behind the scenes. Sujeeth exemplifies these traits as he was one of the few critical individuals who made Flipkart what it is today. 

Today though, one can rightfully say that he has got his place in the sun with Udaan. This startup made many sit up and wonder when it achieved the coveted unicorn status in a very short period.

It has been a long journey from a nondescript place in Bihar to reach IIT Delhi and become one of those stars for the startup ecosystem. 

Dale Vaz – Head of Engineering and Data Science, Swiggy 

His boyish looks and charm will certainly disarm many but beyond that lies a very mature individual with a massive responsibility.

As the Head of Engineering at Swiggy, Dale has to ensure that he manages millions of deliveries with pinpoint accuracy on an everyday basis. At the same time, he has to also look ahead to see what future technology to leverage to take the food delivery giant to the next step.

This needs a grip on technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data science.  For Dale, everything comes at scale from platform and innovation to technology.

William Bissell – Chairman, Fabindia

William Bissell took over Fabindia 20 years ago, and placed the khadi and ethnic product company on the retail footprint. 

Today, Fabindia is a fashion company to reckon with. William made the judicious inward vision for Fabindia by concentrating on the domestic market rather than lucrative exports. The gamble has certainly paid off as the company now has more than 100 stores across the country.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, who has announced a new AI startup with a $50 million fund, believes India has the potential to become a world leader in artificial intelligence, but the key to this is integrating AI into the country's education system in a massive way.

India is at "an inflection point" when it comes to AI, Vishal Sikka said.

Over the next 20-25 years, AI is going to be "a very, very big disruptor" for Indian society because what one is seeing now in terms of automation and job losses due to automation is just the beginning, said Vishal, who announced his startup Vianai Systems last week.

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"But on the other hand, if we are able to bring AI education, the ability to build AI systems to India at a very large scale, and I'm talking about like billion-plus people, then India can really leap frog and become the world's leader in artificial intelligence, in AI skill and AI talent," he said.

Doing that requires working on multiple dimensions in parallel, Vishal said.

Last month, at the request of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sikka gave a presentation to the NITI Aayog on how to expand the reach of AI to Indian society in a very big way.

Representatives of some 20 union ministries were present during his presentation on AI and India. This, he said, required creating necessary infrastructure to bring the talent through institutions, schools and educational institutions, the ability to do AI education at a large scale.

A lot needs to be done

According to Sikka, the prime minister said he personally saw whenever classes worked in digital classrooms, he was joking that children would sometimes even forget to eat their lunch because they were so engrossed in learning. "It was very encouraging. But I think a lot of that has to be done," he said and suggested multi-faceted countrywide programmes like digital classrooms.

If India does nothing then this great wave of AI is going to have massive disruption over the next 20 years. But on the other hand, if it puts together programmes then this can be a huge advantage for it and "we can be a leader in the world", he said.

Referring to his interactions with the Indian government officials and the steps being taken by the prime minister, Sikka said he was very encouraged by the commitment.

His Vianai Systems is an AI enterprise startup with a mission to help businesses around the world successfully leverage AI to drive fundamental digital transformations.

He said there had been remarkable achievements in the field of AI, but conceded that significant issues had also emerged. "The technique themselves are quite opaque, not transparent. The lack of ability to explain is one of the major weaknesses of these techniques," Sikka said.

He said that there was an incredible shortage of talent in the field of AI.

With this in mind, Vishal said he started his venture to build a platform that can dramatically improve the accessibility of AI, that is educational, that explains to people how this works, that they can experiment with it, they can play with it, they can explore, and understand what is happening.

"That is what my prototype was about," he said, going back to his PhD thesis on AI in 90s.

For its mass application in a transparent manner, he said there was a need to build a platform that was a dramatic improvement on what was available today.

Sikka has raised $50 million as the startup seed money.

"Hopefully, we wouldn't have to raise any money again," he said, adding that the objective is to bring AI to businesses on massive scale. Last week, he demonstrated the first glimpse of the platform at the Oracle OpenWorld event in Silicon Valley.

Simplifying AI systems

One of the reasons that there are so few applications of engineer machine learning is because the techniques and the tools are extremely dense, they are complicated, and the experience of developer is broken profound.

"So we wanted to make it dramatically simpler to access an AI system and to execute on AI. This platform dramatically simplifies the system from thousands of lines of codes to a few dozens lines," Vishal said.

"We have been thinking very carefully, and very diligently about how we can come up with a platform that is completely agnostic, completely open, and yet makes it dramatically simpler, and more efficient and exploratory to build an AI system. And with that when you think about a future where enterprises will deploy dozens, if not hundreds of AI applications, you need something like this to make that happen. And that's what we are working on," he said.

Last week, he announced a panel of advisors from industry and academia for Vianai.

They include Henning Kagermann, former chairman and CEO of SAP and Chairman of Acatech; Alan Kay, Turing Award winner and computer science pioneer; Divesh Makan, Founder of ICONIQ Capital; Indra Nooyi, member of the board at Amazon and Schlumberger and former CEO of PepsiCo; and Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Kitty Hawk Corporation and Co-founder and Chairman of Udacity.

"Every company that hopes to be a leader in their industry needs to understand the transformative potential of AI, and to successfully activate it within their organisations," said Nooyi in a statement.

"The market need is immense, and Vianai, with its capable leadership and differentiated platform, is in a unique position to address it. I look forward to being an advisor to the company in the exciting times ahead," Indra Nooyi said.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

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Electronics major Samsung on Thursday launched 'Samsung Finance+', a digital lending platform that will offer consumers finance options to buy its Galaxy smartphones.

The move assumes significance ahead of the festive season, where handset makers are lining up a slew of devices to woo customers.

Samsung Finance+, which will connect financial institutions and dealers, will be available at over 5,000 stores in 30 cities across the country. This will be extended to 10,000 outlets in 100 cities by the end of 2019.

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"In the western world, 80 per cent of phones are financed, including cases where data, calling and phone are bundled and offered for a monthly payment. In India, about 15-18 per cent phones have any kind of financing," Samsung India Senior Vice President (Mobile Business) Mohandeep Singh told PTI.

Around 450 million adults in India don't have a credit history and so finance options for them are minimal, he added.

"The intention is to make it easier for customers to get finance for a device that they want to buy," he noted.

To begin with, Samsung has partnered DMI Finance and is in discussions to bring more financial institutions on board.

Singh said various offers will be available for users, including zero per cent EMI, as being offered at various offline and online channels.

He explained that consumers buying a Galaxy smartphone at any one of the 5,000 stores equipped with Samsung Finance+ platform can opt for easy finance on their smartphones.

They log into the in-store Samsung Finance+ application - which has been designed and developed by the company's R&D unit in Bengaluru - and fill in their details for KYC verification and credit scoring. Following this, they will get an offer screen on various Galaxy smartphones.

"We are starting with 5,000 stores in 30 cities, and will be extended to 10,000 outlets in 100 cities by the end of 2019," he added.

Singh said this will also help offline retailers reach out to more customers as many prospective buyers shop online to use the financing options available.

Talking about the festive season, Singh said the period usually sees 20-25 per cent higher sale than usual business days.

"Festive season is always strong and we feel it will be good this year too. We are geared up for it. Our growth will be ahead of the market," he said.

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Open source computing has witnessed increasing adoption in recent times. One of the primary reasons is that, irrespective of the size of the organisation, it ticks off the right boxes in terms of affordability, flexibility, speed and innovation. Not only is it less expensive than proprietary closed-box solutions, open source software enables developers to focus their energies on innovating and tackling newer challenges, since solutions common challenges are already available to them within the bustling open source community.

The Microsoft Azure cloud platform has been built to enable businesses to fulfil a range of services, including analytics, virtual computing, storage, networking, and much more, in a convenient manner. It can be used to supplement the on-premise solutions being currently used by a business, giving them the option to build their desired suite of open source services on top of these, without having to completely overhaul them. Here are some of the main benefits offered by the Azure platform:

More options with open source on Azure: Some of Microsoft’s most vibrant developer tools and frameworks are open source. Azure is a first-class platform for Linux and open source technology, with a growing list of OSS solutions in the marketplace, Linux extensions, and Azure services like HDInsight running on Linux; PostGreS and MySQL on Azure. Azure supports the open source technologies that millions rely on and trust.

Offers more choices in the cloud: Azure offers you choices to help you maximise your existing investments. So you can get support for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) on Linux, Java and PHP Web application platforms, develop and test your Linux and open source components in Azure. You get to bring the tools you love and skills you already have and run virtually any application, using your data source, with your operating system on your device.

Adds value with technologies that work well with each other: Another advantage is that Azure allows you to complement what you have already built. You can augment your open source application with identity and access management through Azure Active Directory, or cloud-powered insights through Azure Data Lake Analytics. You can connect your SharePoint sites with PHP portals, run Linux batch processes to support your .NET applications, and tap a growing ecosystem of open source solutions available from Azure Marketplace which enable rapid deployment in the cloud.

Future-proofs what you build: Microsoft looks at open source as an intrinsic part of cloud innovation – be it delivering a simplified end-to-end experience for Kubernetes and adding new container capabilities with Docker and serverless Kubernetes integration. They are also constantly looking for ways to improve developer and user experiences with SDKs for open source languages and an open API. In addition to all this, they also share cloud learnings with the open source community, thanks to Linux and open source support in Azure Resource Manager and Azure Stack.

Offers flexible pricing options: Flexible pricing options make it easier for you to move to the cloud at your pace and choose a pricing model that works for you. For development and testing, you can provision and discard ephemeral Linux virtual machines and pay by the minute—only for what you use. With the Azure Compute pre-purchase plan, if you have steady-state workloads with known compute needs, you can also pre-purchase Azure compute capacity.

To know more about Azure contact the Microsoft team.

Singapore-based global image processing startup Terraview on Friday said it had raised $815,000 as a part of their Series A round, led by Binny Bansal, Co-founder Flipkart; Sujeet Kumar, Co-founder Udaan; Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Group CEO Flipkart; and Tanglin Venture Partners.

Along with the above-mentioned investors, Ankit Nagori, Co-founder, Curefit.com, and Abhishek Sharma, COO, Dineout, also participated in this round.

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The company plans to use the funds to invest in going deep in solving complex problems of fungal disease, bacterial infection, soil hydration, canopy cover, and weather assessment using proprietary technology.

Founded in 2019 by high school friends Prateek Srivastava and Piyush Harsh, Terraview uses advanced image processing, machine learning, AI, and augmented reality to enable vineyards across the world become future ready.

The company does this by deploying drones to collect high quality images and processes it using their proprietary algorithm to give vineyards a real-time pulse of their land and produce.

In a statement, Terraview said its platform has been built for vineyards who lose significant produce because of low tech viticulture. It is a SaaS platform, currently live in Spain, and will soon be in Italy and France.

Explaining further, Prateek Srivastava, Co-founder and CEO of Terraview, said,

"Viticulture globally is at an inflection point. The demand for wine is at a high and it will continue to grow over the next decade. The current global wine market is a little over $300 billion and is expected to cross $400 billion by 2020. With changing weather pattern and this unprecedented global demand, optimising for quality to produce better and driving efficiency to produce higher volumes are going to be significantly important for the future and Terraview is solving for this global need.”

Prateek, has been a serial entrepreneur and in his previous avatar built the executive search firm, Basil Advisors. Piyush, Co-founder and CTO of Terraview, is an alumnus of IIT-Roorkee and University of Florida and has worked with some of the most reputed research labs in Paris and Zurich.

Terraview has a global team of experts on board and currently has teams working across Zurich, Madrid, Moscow, Toronto, and Florida.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

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Social media major Facebook is planning to invest in the technology startups in the country, a top official from the company revealed at the second edition of ‘Huddle Kerala 2019,’ one of Asia’s largest congregations on startup ecosystem, on Friday.

While addressing the opening session, Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, India Facebook said “We now have shown willingness to make direct investments in technology startups in India. We are willing to spend our time, and energy to tap the massive depth of engineering talent in the country.”

At the two-day event, organised by the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), Mohan also added that the first minority investment that Facebook made, was in Meesho, which was able to bring around two lakh, first-time female entrepreneurs, online.

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Citing the government data, the Facebook official said women’s representation in the technology sector stands between 30 and 35 percent.

“A lot of our energy must go to break gender imbalance. We have to think about what are the barriers that limit women from coming online,” Mohan said, adding that the company’s focus is on skill building, and introduction of platforms to startups.  

Anil Agrawal, Joint Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), said, other states should replicate the Kerala model in building the startup ecosystem. 

“Around 1.95 startups are getting registered every hour in the country. In the next month, it may be two startups per hour. We have 22,895 registered startups in the country as per the records till September. Around 45 percent of startups come from Tier II and Tier III cities. About 9 to 10 percent startups have women as founders, and we have to promote women entrepreneurs,” Agrawal added.

The two-day event also saw the presence of M Sivasankar IAS, Secretary, Electronics and IT, Government of Kerala; Jitender S. Minhas, CEO, IAMAI Startup Foundation; and Dr. SajiGopinath, CEO, KSUM.

The event, which hosts an array of technology experts and marketing leaders, will offer a unique platform for startups to showcase their products before technology and industry leaders from around the world. More than 30 speakers, investors and industry challengers are part of ‘Huddle Kerala’.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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Indian digital payments major, Paytm on Friday said, it has appointed Abhinav Kumar as the Vice President – Product Marketing.

Kumar will be replacing Senior Vice President, Deepak Abbot, who has spent more than four years with the One97 Communications-owned Paytm, across various functions.

Also known as the ‘Trivago Guy’ on social media, Kumar is a digital marketing strategist and expert. 

Speaking on Kumar’s appointment, Harinder Takhar, CEO - Paytm Labs said,

"Abhinav's skill-set is what we look for when we want to hire external talent. His agility will assist us further in continuing to be dominant in payments as an industry leader."

Kumar, who is currently based in Germany, completed his Master's in international management from the University of Trento, Italy and has an extensive experience in digital marketing. Under his leadership, Trivago became a major brand in India for hotel search.

"Paytm is an innovative company and the impact that Paytm has done in the lives of masses by re-imagining payments has always fascinated me. This drove me to contribute more to this story in its next stage of growth. My mandate is to continue the great growth story in India with a data-driven approach and extend it to other parts of the globe as well. I am excited to do so with the amazing team here at Paytm and under the leadership of Vijay and Harinder," Kumar added.

Earlier this week, Paytm promoted promoted its Senior Vice President - Finance, Vikas Garg to Deputy CFO.

The One97 Communications owned company, in a statement said, Garg has been associated with Paytm for over a decade, and has led the financial operations efficiently.

Earlier this month, Paytm Money, the wholly-owned subsidiary of One97 Communications also promoted Pravin Jadhav as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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DIPL, a Mumbai-based transaction service provider, has raised Rs 5.75 crore from US-based investment group IC1101. The investment group was among the top eight investors who participated in India's funding platform, Horses Stable. 

Prashant Aggarwal, Founder, Horses Stable said, this season has broken all records of previous seasons with a conversion of 50 percent turn around, where about 18 companies successfully got funded from 39 selected participants, with the whooping biggest deal bagged by DIPL. 

Among the top funded companies, a robotics startup Mitra Robot got backing from ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, IC1101, Windrose Capital and angel investor Kevin Saboo. Previously, the startup had borrowed Rs 1 crore in the form of a bank loan, and had raised about Rs 1.35 crore from undisclosed angel investors.

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The other startups who secured the funding are Ringtel Marketing, PawsIndia, ANP Atelier and Associates etc. 

The Season 2 of Horses Stable included investor Rohit Goyal, a graduate of CASS Business School, City University London, who has made numerous investments in India and abroad. The platform also included Mohit Gulati, CIO and Managing Partner of the $20 million venture fund, ITI Growth Opportunities Fund; Vikash Sharma, Founder of IC1101 Inc; Nilesh Trivedi, a venture capital professional; and Chiranjiv Gill, a Chandigarh-based businessman. 

Participating startups work in industries, as diverse as pharmaceuticals, agriculture, fintech, technology, consumer products, B2B, and B2C. 

Horses Stable is the Indian equivalent of the popular American TV show Shark Tank and is a first-of-its-kind venture that provides a platform for startups and investors. Startups can pitch their business ideas and investors that find the business worth investing in, can invest money in the startup. It also grooms startups on how to pitch their ideas and helps them in their presentation. 

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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In 2015, Professor Michael Kimmel, who created the first-ever university course on Masculinities Studies, stood in front of his class and asked them what they thought defined a good man. The adjectives the class came up with, “Caring,” “Putting other’s needs before yours,” and “Honest.” He then asked them what they thought what it meant to be a real man. The class responded almost instantly, “Authoritative,” “Suppresses weakness,” “Never cry.” Pointing at the disparity between the two lists, he noted that most men today had no real idea of what it was to be a man.

With the archaic codes of masculinity being questioned, there is a need now more than ever for a new definition of what it means to be a man. With access to opportunity, financial independence, status and authority between the genders increasingly being levelled, the codes that used to establish a man’s power and rank is also diminishing.

Today there is a tribe of men who are looking at different markers of success and individuality. They believe that a true leader is someone with rare values that leave lasting legacies. These men don’t expect things to be handed to them purely by virtue of their gender, rather they build their own path with their values intact. They seek a greater purpose, they look for stature & not just status, meaning & not just material wealth. They are men who are defined by their character. . Character that is defined by values that are hard to find and abide by and their milestones are not typical of the rat race driven climb. They persevere even when defeated, have the courage to take risks and stand their ground when hit by difficulties, have a curiosity to learn and the humility to learn from anyone and carry people along his journey to success.

Character of a man

Leading brands are also recognising the need to acknowledge this shift in gender definitions. Case in point is Gillette’s recent “#TheBestMenCanBe campaign which challenged gender stereotypes and the notion that “boys will be boys.” A recent research by Accenture shows that 63 percent of global consumers prefer to purchase products and services from companies that stand for a purpose that reflects their own values and beliefs.

Platinum Guild International – India is helping power this new narrative on masculinity with their platinum jewellery for men. Launched as ‘Men of Platinum’, the campaign brings to light the emergence of a new breed of men, men of character. These are men whose values define what it takes to be a man of character.

Conceptualised and developed by Famous Innovations, the campaign was launched on the September 18. Two social experiments marked the beginning of the campaign that aimed at testing a man’s character – his values which prove exactly how rare men with extraordinary values are – especially in adverse situations and more so when the stakes increase.

The campaign also consists of two brand TVCs that tell the stories of men who stand apart for standing by their values. Men like Karan a new father, who rightfully asks for three months paternity leave, challenging the patriarchy and the notion that men alone are breadwinners and women caregivers.

It also tells the story of ’Mr. Kumar’, who is selected ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ One sees his humility shine through when he invites a bunch of people who shouldered the startup risk with him to be part of this picture, fully acknowledging their role and the importance of carrying them along on this journey.

Through this campaign, PGI India brings to life examples of this new archetype – a man who holds these rare values dear and lives by them. The man today understands how inadequate his journey will be without values like perseverance, courage, humility, curiosity, authenticity or even the commitment to give back. He hence stands by them even though they are hard to abide by.

According to Sujala Martis, Director - Consumer Marketing, Platinum Guild International – India says – “Platinum is as rare as the values that define men of character, which is why we call them ‘Men of Platinum’. Today’s man aspires to lead a life of personal greatness, beyond the status defined by wealth alone. Look at the success narratives around us – they display an extraordinary set of values. The man today wants to be appreciated for these values and that’s the legacy he wants to leave. Platinum is the preferred metal of choice for this rare breed of men”.

It’s for men who have found platinum within.

On Friday, Google celebrates it’s 21st birthday. To celebrate the milestone, the tech company, like always, has come up with a quirky google doodle – only this time, the doodle is but a throwback to an old boxy computer with the iconic Google search screen marked with a timestamp dated to September 27, 1998.

It’s been 21-long-years of searching and crawling the web for the search engine portal. But long before Google became the internet giant that it is today and a whopping $800 billion worth business, it was just a research project started by Stanford graduates Larry Page and Sergey Brin, from their dorm room in 1995.

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As luck would have it, the web crawler was successful in exploring the internet and their idea took off, going through a series of developments, to be finally incorporated as a privately-held company in 1998.

Today, Google counts itself among the Big Four technology companies – Amazon, Apple, and Facebook – with a chain of products to its credit including Gmail, Google Drive, Maps, Earth, Street View, YouTube, Google Photos, Google Chrome browser, and the Android OS.

While there’s little that people don’t know about the company in the age of Google, here are a few lesser-known facts that might pique your curiosity.  

1.      The name “Google” is a play on the mathematical term “googol”, which is represented by the number 1 followed by a hundred zeroes.

2.      Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who met by chance, had initially christened the search engine BackRub. In case, you are wondering why, it is believed that “BackRub” was nothing but a nod to retrieving backlinks – Page and Brin’s original research project.

3.      In an archetypal Silicon Valley style, Google too was started out of a garage, that too Susan Wojcicki’s garage in Menlo Park, California. Wojcicki, for the uninitiated, was Google’s first marketing manager and she is also the CEO of YouTube.

4.      Google, which owns around 88.61 percent of search engines’ market share globally, is also among the many websites blocked in China.

5.      Googleplex is the name of Google’s headquarter in Silicon Valley. The tech company boasts a pet-friendly office since the very beginning.

6.      Google Doodles, which is popular among netizens today for marking every major occasion with a unique doodle, was incepted in August 1998. Interestingly, the first Google doodle was a nod to the stick figure, in honour of the Burning Man festival.

7.      It is nothing extraordinary to spot a goat mowing the lawns of Google’s mountain view headquarter. In fact, it is part of an eco-friendly initiative launched by the company.

8.      Google owns multiple domains for the commonly misspelled versions of its own name including gooogle.com, gogle.com and googlr.com.

9.      In August 2015, India-born Sundar Pichai took over from Larry page as the CEO of the internet company.

10.  Unlike most of us, Google has no specific birthday. From September 7 to September 8, September 26 and now September 27, the company has celebrated its birthday on varied dates so far.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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NASA on Friday said Vikram had a "hard landing", as it released high-resolution images captured by its reconnaissance orbiter of the Moon's unchartered south pole, where the Chandrayaan 2 lander attempted to soft-land three weeks ago.

The module had attempted a soft landing on a small patch of lunar highland smooth plains between two craters before losing communication with ISRO on September 7. The site was about 600 km from the south pole in a relatively ancient terrain, according to the US space agency.

"Vikram had a hard landing and the precise location of the spacecraft in the lunar highlands is yet to be determined," the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

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The scene was captured from a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Quickmap fly-around of the targeted landing site image width of about 150 kilometres across the centre."

Vikram was scheduled to touch down on September 7. This was India's first attempt to soft land on the Moon, and could have propelled it into a select club of countries to have landed on the lunar surface.

After Vikram lost contact with ground stations, just 2.1 km above the touchdown site, the possibility of establishing contact with the lander had a deadline of September 21, because after that the region entered into a lunar night. The lunar nights can be very cold, especially in the south polar region where Vikram is lying. Temperatures could drop to as low as minus 200 degrees Celsius during the lunar night

ISRO had said the mission life of the Vikram lander and the Pragyan rover it carried will be one lunar day, which is equal to 14 Earth days.

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The instruments aboard the lander are not designed to withstand that kind of temperature. The electronics will not work in absence of solar energy and would get permanently damaged.

The NASA orbiter passed over the Vikram landing site on September 17, and acquired a set of high-resolution images of the area. So far, the LROC team has not been able to locate or image the lander.

LRO will next fly over the landing site on October 14 when lighting conditions will be more favourable, John Keller, Deputy Project Scientist Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission, Goddard Space Flight Centre, said.

"It was dusk when the landing area was imaged and thus large shadows covered much of the terrain; it is possible that the Vikram lander is hiding in a shadow. The lighting will be favourable when LRO passes over the site in October and once again attempts to locate and image the lander," NASA said.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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Nearbuy CEO Ankur Warikoo announced in a LinkedIn post that, in November 2019, he will be stepping down from his role at the Gurugram-based deals marketplace, and will continue with the company as a shareholder and board member.

In the post, Warikoo said that Nearbuy Co-founders Ravi Shankar and Snehesh Mitra will take over the management of the company as the CEO and COO, respectively. 

“It's been such a pleasure and honour leading the company for all these years. I am so proud of the team we have built, the culture we have established, and the relationships we have formed in the ecosystem,” Warikoo wrote.

However, Ankur's future plan remains undisclosed, as Warikoo added, “I do not know what I will be doing next. And that's super exciting.” 

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Warikoo, who has been an active entrepreneur and angel investor, worked as a Venture Partner for Rocket Internet before joining Groupon India (now Nearbuy) as a CEO in 2015.

In August 2015, the hyperlocal online platform split from its US-based parent firm Groupon. With funding from Sequoia Capital, it rebranded itself as Nearbuy.

In December 2017, Paytm acquired Nearbuy and Little, and invested in the merged entity. Nearbuy, which enables customers and local merchants to discover and engage with each other, claims to be present in more than 35 cities across 18+ categories. It has over 50,000 merchants across more than 100,000 unique locations.

Speaking about the deal at the time, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO of Paytm, said,

“This combination of Nearbuy and Little marks a great opportunity for us to reinforce our commitment to support small and large retailers in the new-age of mobile commerce and payments.

In his statement, Warikoo also said that two months back, Nearbuy became cash-flow positive, making more money than spent on a monthly basis.

“Getting to this point after four years, demanded everything from us. Great highs, massive lows and a ride of constant learning,” Warikoo wrote.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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India has grim statistics to show when it comes to cancer care. According to the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), as of last year, there were over 22.5 lakh cancer patients in India.

Every year, over 11.5 lakh people are diagnosed with cancer and close to 10 percent of Indians are at the risk of developing cancer before they reach 75. 

While top global research firms are working on the problem, several startups are also looking to bring in awareness, care, and ease to patients and caregivers.

Niramai, which offers a pain-free, AI-based screening solution to detect breast cancer in its early stage, may be one of the best known startups working in the field, but there are many others. 

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We list down nine startups working on ensuring that cancer diagnosis and care is easy, accessible, and convenient. 

OncoStem Diagnostics

Founded by Dr Manjiri Bakre in 2017, OncoStem Diagnostics focuses on the development of innovative “multimarker prognostic and predictive tests” that aid in personalised treatment of patients.

Funded by Artiman Ventures and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, this startup aims towards the identification of patterns of recurrence of various cancers. In addition to their flagship product, CanAssist-Breast, other lung, oral, and colorectal cancer tests are also being developed at this Bangalore startup.

Sascan 

Founded in 2015 by Dr Subhash Narayanan and Dr Ruhi Agarwala, Sascan’s multispectral camera is a non-invasive and real-time solution to screen and detect cancer cells in the mouth.

Its camera takes images of the inside of the mouth with illumination at different wavelengths of light. “The processed images are analysed in real time to decide whether the tissue is abnormal or not,” Dr Narayanan explains. 

AIndra Systems

Founded in 2012, AIndra Systems uses AI-based computer vision for screening cervical cancer. Its founders, Adarsh Natarajan (CEO) and Abhishek Mishra, established this startup to develop innovative devices that assist in the screening and detection of cervical cancer in women at an affordable cost.

They received funding from Villgro Innovations Foundation, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, and Millennium Alliance, which helped them develop the AIndra device. 

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Theranosis Life Sciences

Founded in 2016 by Dr Shibichakravarthy Kannan, Theranosis is working on a type of liquid biopsy that detects live cancer cells in blood circulation. Their innovative “microfluidics lab-on-a-chip” technology captures circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood.

“The CTCs are live cancer cells that metastasise to other organs via the bloodstream and grow into secondary cancers. So, CTCs are more important than DNA, which are derived from dead cancer cells,” Dr Kannan explains.

Onward Health 

A predictive healthcare analysis platform with a core focus on oncology, Onward Assist is building different automated diagnostic tools that serve as assistants to pathologists.

Founded in 2016 by Dinesh Koka, Onward Health's Onward Assist provides valuable health insights, which are passed on to oncologists. The team is also looking at risk scoring for patients. 

Navya Network

Founded in 2010 by Gitika Srivastava, Navya Network strives to provide an affordable consultation facility for cancer patients. This Bangalore startup has received funding from Paul Perry and Gautam Shewakramani, which has helped them develop a sound medical decision support system to make decisions for complex medical conditions.

This online platform works with renowned oncologists from the Tata Medical Centre to provide the best to their patients.

Invictus Oncology

Aarin Capital, Navam Capital, and Ratan Tata-backed Invictus Oncology has adopted a multidisciplinary approach to build innovative therapies.

Founded in 2012 by Shiladitya Sengupta and Raghunath Mashelkar, the relatively new startup has already been instrumental in the development of platinum II-based anti-cancer supra-molecular therapeutics now available to the global market.

Carer 

Founded by Samara Mahindra in 2018, Carer provides integrative therapy and treatment to help patients heal better, feel better, and live better during and after cancer treatment.

Carer’s programme is completely personalised and adaptable to the patient's diagnosis, prognosis, background, and lifestyle. It enables substantial healing and recovery while initiating permanent lifestyle changes. 

Onco 

Founded by Rashie Jain and Dr Amit Motwani, Onco is an aggregator for cancer care. The platform currently offers treatment advice and care management to cancer patients across 18 countries.

It has a network of over 1,500 oncologists, has over 500 hospitals and labs, and also allows patients to get personalised advice. The platform also manages the patient’s end-to-end care by connecting them with relevant treatment centres, doctors, and labs.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai) 

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Swiss-based EST Group on Friday said, it is planning to invest $250 million (about Rs 1,770 crore), in next 18 months into Indian startups that are focused on fintech applications and related business models.

In a statement, the group said, that it is very bullish about the Indian market and believes markets provide new opportunities when they are slow.

"India's largest asset is its intelligent and educated human capital and it is important to use these resources by allowing them to innovate in a problem area and then giving access to capital," Sindhu Bhaskar, CEO and Director, EST Group said.

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"EST Group is planning to invest $250 million in next 18 months into India-based startups focused on fintech applications and related business models, that will plug into larger EST's vision of building an aggregated platform for capital, that will allocate impactfully to help growth sectors in our economy," the statement further added.

Sajid Jamal, who is heading the venture fund of EST Group, said, capital is not scarce but scattered, and EST's vision is to aggregate unused capital by investing in technology and then use AI voice command technology to disburse capital to SMEs, startups and agriculture verticals.

"For this, we have decided not to start from scratch but to invest in existing platforms and then connect this platform to one larger ecosystem platform that will help in enhancing growth in the economy by solving grassroots problems of the economy," he added.

EST Group provides financial advisory, asset management, semi banking operations, custodial, clearing and settlement and security issuance services. It has operations in Latin America, Europe, London and south-east Asia.

The group's fintech arm, recently established in London, is looking at investing in existing disruptive platforms in financial markets, banking operations, and wealth management using AI, machine learning and blockchain technology.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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Geetansh Bamania, Founder and CEO of RentoMojo, despite being the category head of furniture and appliances at a leading ecommerce platform, chose to rent everything to furnish his own apartment.

“I headed the vertical, and knew the prices I could buy everything at, but I was looking for flexible options,” he says. The reason being the hassle involved in relocating every time he changed cities. 

“I could have decided to buy from the Urban Ladders and Amazons of the world, but I had no visibility of staying at one place for more than 17 to 18 months,” he says. 

While in Mumbai, he started rented furniture from the local players in Charni Road. He says: “The market was highly unorganised, I never got the product of my choice, and nobody ever paid any attention to the repair and maintenance.” 

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Starting up

From managing products at Flipkart and heading the furniture category at Pepperfry, Geetansh kept moving around Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Mumbai within a span of three years. 

Geetansh’s brother living in the UK used to rent or lease pretty much everything, and Geetansh started thinking on similar lines. However, renting furniture and appliances was not his first idea. Geetansh initially thought of renting out toys to children, as they are expensive, and children use them only for a couple of days before getting their hands on new ones. 

But with a background in furniture and appliance, Geetansh felt that would be a more known path to trade in. 

He quit Pepperfry, and launched RentoMojo in November 2014. The startup received its first order in the first week of December in the same year. 

Every challenge an opportunity

For most startups, initial days are always challenging. But for every smart entrepreneur, behind every problem, lies a business solution. 

Geetansh put all his savings – between Rs 7 and 10 lakh – to buy the initial set of assets. Later, he approached his friends and family for loan, since loans from banks were not working out. 

“I told them that instead of investing in stocks, which was anyway not working out in their favour, they should invest in a bunch of sofa sets and chairs. It worked out, and that’s how RentoMojo got its first funding,” he says. 

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One-man army 

For the first 80 subscribers, Geetansh delivered products by himself. Once, on his birthday, while his parents waited at home to celebrate, he couldn’t make it back home on time as he was busy delivering products to customers. 

Similarly, a corporate client returned 300 bean bags due to lack of space at the warehouse, and Geetansh and team had to sell them all in a single day. “We went around Powai, knocking doors and selling them to young people,” he recalls. 

Today, RentoMojo serves more than 100,000 live orders in a month, and Geetansh wishes to take that to a million subscribers in the next two-and-a-half years. The platform offers furniture, appliances and electronics on lease in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Noida, and Gurugram. 

Recently, it announced it was raising Rs 27.7 crore in Series C funding, led by Samsung’s venture capital arm Samsung Venture Investments Corporation (SVIC), with participation from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital (MSIVC), a private equity and VC ancillary of Mitsui Sumitomo. 

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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