Noida-based integrated grain commerce platform arya.ag on Thursday said it acquired Prakshep, Bengaluru-based agriculture data science startup, for an undisclosed sum. As part of the deal, Prakshep's entire team would join Arya.ag.
With this acquisition, Arya.ag will bring cutting-edge AI/ML capabilities to farm digitisation, crop monitoring, quality assaying, and surveillance. It will also help Arya.ag to further deepen its relationship with other agri-chain stakeholders like FPOs, processors and corporates, banks, and insurance companies.
Leveraging its technology stack, Arya.ag has created a digital identity for over 10,000 warehouses across India on its platform and has built transparency at all levels—from aggregation to storage, finance, and commerce.
"Through this acquisition, Arya.ag will also increase the traceability and visibility of the produce—right from the farm’s place," Prasanna Rao, MD and Co-founder, Arya.ag, told YourStory.
“Prakshep’s tech-led proposition finds a natural fit as it enables a digital identity for every grain that traverses the value chain and builds in transparency in terms of where it was grown and the journey it has made. The aligned values of sustainability, climate smart agriculture, and inclusive economic growth have brought us together,” Prasanna said in the release.
Arya.ag connects sellers and buyers of agri products, providing complete assurance on quantity, quality, and payments. Founded in 2016, Prakshep's distinct digital offerings will add to Arya.ag’s deep-tech capability to provide traceability, transparency, and quality assurance for seamless commodity commerce.
The Noida startup will now hold the database in agriculture, including boundaries, crop activities, health, and yield valuation, to its existing repository of storage and grain value chain database.
At present, Arya.ag is developing a public agri blockchain ledger, where Prakshep’s deep-tech experience and expertise will add further farm-level integration and pre-load extensive historical farm activity data to Arya.ag’s blockchain ledger, the company said in a statement.
The startup aims to strengthen its relationship with its existing base of almost a million farmers and 500 FPOs by providing farm assessment and crop health monitoring via AI integration, remote sensing, and satellite imaging.
Prakshep’s acquisition also aligns with Arya’s focus on climate-smart agricultural models with a reduced carbon footprint. Prakshep’s models claim to have facilitated a 45 percent reduction in crop damage, use of chemicals (40 percent), water usage (35 percent), and GHG emissions (30 percent).
“Arya, as a market leader, provides us with an opportunity to create an impact in the lives of our smallholder farmers on a much larger scale and value. Through this partnership, we will be able to provide our users many more new offerings based on data, scientific research, and analytics, creating trust and transparency in all our transactions,” said Avijeet Singh, CEO, Prakshep.
Elon Musk has sent out an email to Tesla staffers demanding their return to office for a minimum of 40 hours a week. According to Musk, if employees did not accept this condition, they should "depart Tesla."
In an email entitled "Remote work is no longer acceptable," Musk said, "anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla. This is less than we ask of factory workers."
In a communication seen by Reuters, Musk likened the requirement to dedication he had shown earlier in the company's lifecycle. He said, "The more senior you are, the more visible must be your presence. That is why I lived in the factory so much — so that those on the line could see me working alongside them. If I had not done that, Tesla would long ago have gone bankrupt.”
Stephen Knight, executive director at California-based workers advocacy group Worksafe, told Reuters, "Employers, including the state government are finding that mandating a return of all employees is a recipe for outbreaks. Unfortunately Tesla's disregard for worker safety is well documented, including their flouting of the county public health department at the start of the pandemic."
In May 2020, Musk had opened Tesla's Fremont, California factory despite Covid restrictions saying that disease's risks were overblown. In the next seven months, 440 cases were linked directly to the factory's employees.
Twitter, whom Musk is attempting to purchase for $44 billion, still has a remote work policy in place. CEO Parag Agrawal tweeted in March that offices would be reopening but employees who wished to work from home could continue to do so.
Conversational messaging startup Gupshup acquired Sequoia-funded OneDirect—an omnichannel customer-service platform—for an undisclosed amount. This is San Fransisco-based unicorn’s fifth investment since September.
For Gupshup, OneDirect’s acquisition will enable better conversational engagement, with a flexible live Agent Assist solution, which can be scaled to thousands of agents with configurable workflows, integrations with existing customer relationship management, and helpdesk systems.
OneDirect offers artificial intelligence (AI)-based solution that allows businesses to manage all customer conversations across multiple channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram, and email, using a simple and unified Agent Dashboard interface.
“OneDirect, with its proven leadership in helping leading brands transform omnichannel customer service, is a valuable addition to our conversational engagement platform,” said Beerud Sheth, Co-founder and CEO, Gupshup.
Founded in 2013 by Avinash Vankadaru and Vishrut Chalsani, Bengaluru-headquartered OneDirect has over 100 customers in banking, finance, retail, travel, and ecommerce, in more than five countries.
“We are excited to join the Gupshup family and look forward to building more efficient and personalised conversational experiences. Gupshup’s advanced AI capabilities, combined with OneDirect's robust customer service and engagement platform, will provide businesses with the ability to reinvent the customer experience,” said Vishrut Chalsani, Co-founder and CEO, OneDirect.
OneDirect's clients, many of whom overlap with those of Gupshup, include brands like Canara Bank, Tata Capital, SBI Card, PayTM, Whirlpool, Vistara, Indigo, and OYO, among others. It has processed over one billion customer interactions across 10 different languages.
“Gupshup’s proven expertise and market leadership in the CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) space, and OneDirect’s truly omnichannel customer service platform is a winning combo for businesses looking to redefine digital customer experience (CX). This will help both companies unlock new growth opportunities and further scale their enterprise CX offerings,” said Bharat Singh, Operating Partner, Sequoia Capital.
Earlier, Gupshup had acquired conversational tech companies AskSid and Active.Ai (April 2022), cloud communications startup Knowlarity (February 2022), and business messaging platform Dotgo (September 2021).
The unicorn had last raised $240 million last July in addition to the $100 million it had raised in April 2021.
Neha Juneja, a 37-year-old serial entrepreneur and engineer, started her entrepreneurial journey in 2008 with a consumer-facing venture in the capital markets - AisaPaisa. Embarking on this business venture, Neha realised there was a major gap in the market for innovative investment products.
“Most retail investors and savers who are yet to invest are looking for predictable, stable returns which are also high - everybody loves high returns,” says Neha in an interaction with YourStory.
Later, in 2010, she co-founded Greenway Appliances and Green Ecodevelopment Pvt Ltd, a clean cookstoves enterprise with operations across rural India and sub-Saharan Africa, where she developed multiple credit partnerships focused on women as borrowers.
For a decade, Neha worked on the ground with microfinance operators and rural self-help groups who were distribution channels for Greenway, as well as international asset managers who offset carbon emissions through Greenway stoves projects.
“While on the field, I had a surprising discovery. Loans extended to semi-urban and rural women borrowers or debt seekers in the country were strong and growing with high yields and lowest NPAs (risk). And yet, it was cumbersome for them to seek loans from traditional institutions who were nevertheless lending to them,” adds Neha.
India P2P Co-founders -(L-R) Mohit Gupta( Product Head ), Neha Juneja( CEO ), Ravinder Voomidisingh, (COO)
In July 2021, Neha, along with Ravinder Voomidisingh and Mohit Gupta launched IndiaP2P - a peer-to-peer lending platform for high-yield, fixed-income investment products, which also aims to be India’s vanguard for debt. Simultaneously, the company also wants to ensure borrowers get loans faster and in an easier manner.
How does it work?
Mumbai-based IndiaP2P leverages new-age technology and machine learning to create financial products that mitigate risk without compromising on returns.
The company has launched two products - the IndiaP2P Growth Plan and the IndiaP2P Income Plan.
The founders claim IndiaP2P investment products are the first of its kind in India.
“Retail investors desire investments that deliver high, regular, stable returns and IndiaP2P does exactly that - delivering up to 18 percent per annum in predictable month-on-month earnings,” says Neha.
She adds, “There is no other competing product that matches the reward-risk profile of IndiaP2P. We are able to deliver this reward-risk profile by making fractionalised, high-yield debt assets available to retail investors in a portfolio form wherein our algorithm estimates the correction between each fraction, and creates the most risk-reduce i.e., diverse portfolio even for very small investment ticket sizes of Rs 5000/-.”
IndiaP2P also wants to change the way credit is being channelled to women borrowers. It is also the only platform where over 95 percent of the borrowers are women (or women-led SMEs), according to Neha.
“IndiaP2P borrowers are predominantly (> 95percent) women business owners who have prior credit histories. They have taken at least one loan before and repaid it successfully. Indian women have better CIBIL/credit scores than men making them safer borrowers and yet women are underserved by many traditional financial institutions. With a focus on women borrowers, not only does IndiaP2P aggregate safer, better borrowers but also corrects a critical gender credit gap.”
Team IndiaP2P
She adds that despite being better borrowers, women face 2.5 times the rejection rate compared to men when taking a loan, and this is attributed to biases. “Women are made to seek NOCs/written permission from family members even while being fully financially independent themselves, “exclaims Neha.
“We have examples of borrowers who run restaurants and have taken loans from us to expand seating capacity etc. to cater to post Covid demand surge, some who are increasing production capacity at their units and more,” she adds.
Certified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as an NBFC-P2P, the startup does stringent KYC, physical verification, and credit check for each loan/borrower. Investors can invest as low as Rs 5,000 and see the highest-grade diversification of their investment with monthly returns.
The tech stack
The startup has developed its own technology stack and product modules within it, ranging from a borrower app, a cloud suite for agents, an underwriting module, and most importantly, its proprietary portfolio engine which uses advanced machine learning and real-world inputs to create the lowest risk products.
“Using the same tech stack, we will be manufacturing and launching other products as well, catering to different investment tenures and more,” claim the co-founders.
The founding team
Neha and Mohit Gupta went to the same engineering school and worked on systemising the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) programmes at Neha's previous startup Greenway. Mohit is now Product Head at IndiaP2P.
The duo met Ravinder Voomidisingh when he invested in Neha’s previous startup.
Ravinder, who is the COO at IndiaP2P, is an experienced investment professional with over 14 years of experience in financial inclusion, impact investing, ops/credit risk management, and managing high-value relationships.
The startup has a team of 16 members today, with a field agent network across India for borrower diligence and sourcing.
“The idea and opportunity of creating an investment product with a never before value proposition for retail investors are what brought us together,” says Neha.
Industry veterans Roopank Chaudhary, Ankit Mathur, Nagarajan Muthukrishnan, Shiji Pavithran and Rachit Mathur play advisory roles. Roopank Chaudhury, Nagarajan Muthukrishnan and Rachit Mathur are financial services industry veterans having worked across organisation building, lending to high-yield borrowers, and technology. Shiji Pavithran and Ankit Mathur come with deep experience in building BNPL programmes and user communities.
“As a platform we are seeking the highest quality expertise to safeguard the interests of retail investors and make a product that is the best in every sense,”says Neha.
Market opportunity and business model
According to a CRISIL report, the market for high yield debt in India is approximately $140 billion with the largest chunk being microfinance women borrowers.
“IndiaP2P is creating investment products for this segment. Our current segment is approx $50 billion in size,” claims Neha.
The firm’s business model is manufacturing investment products and then selling them to retail investors. The manufacturing bit entails sourcing high quality, high yield debt, underwriting, processing approved debt assets through our portfolio engine and creating the final investment product.
YS Design team
“IndiaP2P is already the fastest growing manufacturer of investment products with over 25 percent of the AUM coming via existing investor top-ups in a very short period. Through our field agent network, we currently reach out to 120,000 women borrowers across multiple states in the country. We are actively expanding this base to reach 1 million borrowers over the next six months,” she adds.
The startup charges Rs 300 on average as a processing fee from the borrower.
Funding and way ahead
In February this year, the startup raised an undisclosed pre-seed round from Antler India.
Speaking about its future, Neha says, “We aim to expand India’s investor base while also fulfilling the country’s credit demand. We are reimagining India’s financial future and want to soon become the de-facto investment product for all Indians. Our most immediate milestone is to get to Rs 2000 crore AUM.”
Others in the same sector include Faircent, finzy, and Lendbox.
Bucking the trend of lay-offs in the edtech sector amid funding crunch, upGrad on Wednesday said it is looking to add nearly 3,000 people in the next three months and is close to securing a fresh funding.
The five-year old company, which employs 4,000 people at present, will also increase its workforce to around 6,500-7,000 by August this year, its chairperson and co-founder Ronnie Screwvala told PTI.
The company, in which the co-founders own 60 percent stake at present, is also looking at another round of fundraise, he said, adding that it is a "work in progress" and will be done "very soon".
As per reports, the startup crossed the $ 1-billion valuation mark last year itself in a funding round.
The latest move comes at a time when a number of edtech startups like Unacademy, Frontrow, and Vedantu have resorted to lay-offs in the wake of problems on the business front and drying up of funding in what is being termed as "funding winter".
Screwvala said there are a lot of opportunities still being offered by the education sector in a country like India, where re-skilling is very important. He, however, blamed the present set of problems on "halos" created by select private equity funds who backed young entrepreneurs, who went on to become poster boys.
He said a slew of decisions may have gone wrong, including the pressure to keep increasing enterprise valuations after every round of funding without concentrating on the core business, venturing into verticals on pressure from financial backers, etc., which has led to a select few companies meeting the current fate.
Screwvala, who has been associated with ventures across sectors, said he is saddened that the "hubris and noise" of select few entrepreneurs is "spooking" the normal entrepreneur on the verge of starting up and chances are that some may not take the plunge because of the current set of happenings.
The entrepreneur said he has always focused on return on capital deployed without being too conservative on the business expansion front.
upGrad is targeting to clock a turnover of $500 million in FY23 as against $250-280 million in FY22, he said, adding that it has grown at 100 percent in the last five years.
It derives a little less than a fourth of its revenue from outside the country, and concentrates on the domestic opportunity more, he added.
When asked about people not being able to afford the education amid the macro difficulties like inflation, declining savings rate etc, Screwvala said, upGrad is not finding any difficulties because it targets its offerings at working professionals and helps them to earn extra through the skilling upgrades.
He added that the company is into the business to consumer (B2C) segment and as re-skilling is a necessity in the current times, demand for its offerings will sustain despite setbacks like global inflation and geopolitical tensions.
Launched in 2014, StoryBites is a weekly feature from YourStory, featuring notable quotable quotes in our articles of this past week (see the previous edition here). This special series of quotes focuses on the increasing impact of digital media around the world. Share these 20 gems and insights with your colleagues and networks, and check back to the original articles for more insights.
For hospitals without a proper infrastructure and with data mining at a rapid pace, cloud solutions work best. - Girish Koppar, Wockhardt Hospital
A technology-driven tracking mechanism is the key to truly deliver and measure the outcomes of enhanced livelihood for every household under the National Rural Livelihood Mission fold. - Vaishali Samanta, Veddis Foundation
Technology is one of the biggest enablers of social innovation for addressing these disparate challenges from the grassroot level upward. - Amit Kalra, Swiss Re
Ecomm players must disclose as to how they choose the “most relevant reviews” for display in a fair and transparent manner. - Rohit Kumar Singh, DoCA
By taking the transactions and payments online, businesses increase their financial transparency and provide comprehensive cash flow insights to potential investors or creditors. - Meghna Suryakumar, Crediwatch
Be ready to play a long game. Selling to financial institutions takes much longer than in other industries. - Igor Zacharjasz, Visa CEE
Maps are critical for any location-centric enterprise, but existing solutions today are built for a singular use case, resulting in enterprises having to use a single map for their mission-critical business functions. - Ashish Dave, Mirae Asset Venture Investments
The US is undoubtedly the largest market for solutions with Earth Observation (EO) data at its core. - Prateep Basu, SatSure
Greater use of technology accentuates the concerns related to cyber security. - Reserve Bank of India
The pace of software development demands a robust and scalable testing infrastructure for organisations. - Maneesh Sharma, LambdaTest
We haven't heard much about SaaS performance marketing agencies that are exquisitely trained to deal with this fast-paced growth of SaaS startups. - Shiyam Sunder, TripleDart digital
Today, everything happens very quickly compared to before, so if you want to grab a chance, you have to act super quickly. - Marcin Beme, Audioteka
You need to make a product that can solve a problem, be adopted easily and have a wider impact, and technology is an aide to that. - Asha Poulose, GE Healthcare
The capability to build products is not enough, its adoption is equally important. - Issac Mathew, Lowe’s India
Gravity is how well you attract your consumers and producers of the platform. Flow is about how well the platform creates value. - Bansilal Haudakari, PayPal
Every company today is a content company. Every business is heavily investing in content marketing. - Anirudh Singla, Pepper
YourStory has also published the pocketbook ‘Proverbs and Quotes for Entrepreneurs: A World of Inspiration for Startups’ as a creative and motivational guide for innovators (downloadable as apps here: Apple,Android).
When former Barclays executive Rishabh Gupta discovered he was lactose intolerant, he decided to switch to plant-based milk products.
For over seven years, while he was pursuing his education and later working in London, he did not find it difficult to source alternative dairy products. But when he visited India, he realised these were not easily available locally.
This is when Rishabh got an idea to start a non-dairy milk firm. He got in touch with his childhood friend Akash Wadhwani, who also happened to be lactose intolerant. Akash was studying data visualisation in London between 2018 and 2019, and was keen on starting a business in the space. The two decided to return to India and set up their business in 2020.
Rishabh Gupta (right) and Akash Wadhwani (left) got an idea to start a non-dairy milk firm as both co-founders have been lactose intolerant.
The duo incorporated their firm as WG Corp in November 2020. Instead of having a brand name, the duo titled their product OatMlk later as they felt it would be easy to explain.
“People still don’t know what oat milk is. Many people were asking us about how it is made and so on. So, if we put a brand name on top, it would be too much to explain. We thought it would be best to name our product Oat Mlk. We also plan on staying as a milk company for a long time,” says Akash.
The early days
The co-founders met with many challenges before any milk bottles could be rolled out for distribution. The initial process was to decide on the raw material and develop a prototype.
“We returned to India and began sampling the world of soy, almond, and coconut milk. No matter what, nothing could be compared with the creamy texture of oat milk, making almost everything super delicious,” Rishabh tells YourStory.
The duo initially began sampling oat milk at home, and after about 162 variations, they agreed on a sample. WG Corp started producing about 100 bottles every month through a third-party manufacturer in Punjab in November 2021.
The business
After figuring out their manufacturer, the founders were now looking to enter the business side first, catering to hotels, restaurants, and cafes, among other businesses. They were also looking to enter modern trade stores by trying to gain shelf spaces.
“In today’s world, getting sales through digital channels means a huge investment towards performance marketing. We wanted to have less expenses in the initial phase of our business. Hence, it seemed better to target the B2B side and simultaneously set up the backend for direct-to-consumer channels,” says Akash.
The co-founders, who bootstrapped the firm with Rs 15 lakh from their own funds, claim their milk gets delivered anywhere within 24 hours. The company also raised about Rs 1 crore in seed round from angel investors in April 2022.
The startup has tied up with select distributors in every city, who can deliver their products within a timeframe. Companies usually use such tactics to get better services and give distributors a little extra margin.
As of now, OatMlk is present across 25 cities, including Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi, and is also available in around 300 retail stores since November last year. The startup has also tied up with 25 hotels, including Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Taj, and 120 cafes.
As of now, about 80 percent of the sales come from B2B channels, but going forward the company is building its direct to consumer (D2C) channels. OatMlk is present across marketplaces, including Vvegano and its own website.
“We want to be able to send our milk to consumers within 2-3 hours, if not less, and now I think we would be able to do that,” says Akash.
The startup charges Rs 149 per 500 ml bottle of oat milk. It is also developing small size products, including 100 ml and 250 ml bottles, to help people test the product.
The Kanpur-based startup, with a ten-member team, claims to have grown about 10 times in the last six months in terms of products sold.
The market and plans ahead
Milk is a staple in most houses across India. According to Statista, the dairy industry in India produces 198 million metric tons of milk, with Uttar Pradesh being the highest producer, as of April 2022.
However, there are many small firms operating in the dairy-free milk space, including Bengaluru-based GoodMylk, Slicc, and Urban Platter, an online marketplace with its own private label, which also produces oat milk.
The startup is looking to bring in more product sizes in future. As of now, it offers 500 ml bottles, and wants to expand it to 250 ml, 1 litre, and even 2 litre milk bottles in the coming months. However, its main focus is to expand to the direct to consumer (D2C) channel.
An idea sparked by the thought of a joyride has turned into an epic ride. Here is a story that drove a team to join forces on an unexplored journey. Connecting the dots along the way and inspiring young minds toward being job creators instead of job seekers.
The StartupNRev ‘BharatMala’, a joint initiative of seven collaborators—Orxa Energies, SpareIT, Pothole Raja, Charzer, BrigadeREAP, SpiceRoute Legal, and YourStory—decided to burn the rubber on two electric motorcycles, with a dedicated support team travelling over 13,500+ kilometres across India.
The map garlanding India. To break the World record on the Longest ride on an Electric Motorcycle!
The team of enthusiasts, John Kuruvilla and Gautam Khot, charted a rigorous plan for this epic ride. With every detail in place—be it mapping of the route, accommodation along the journey, charging of the motorcycles— the journey was planned meticulously.
However, BharatMala was not just an initiative to showcase the prowess of electric vehicles, this ride had a purpose. The aim was to encourage students of various educational institutions along the way to follow the path of entrepreneurship.
"What amazed us is the energy in smaller towns. We engaged with over 6,000 students, who were delighted to meet us and the mentors from the EV ecosystem. Genuine ideas, genuine product stories, and genuine challenges is what we saw,” John said.
“From a cultural perspective, I think I found some common strands in the large diverse population that basically constitutes this beautiful country. And that was, hospitality and largeness of heart,” added Gautam.
The journey made memories, inspired a great deal of learning, and the will to power through. While enduring this cross-country ride, testing the performance of the EV motorcycles through various geographical conditions, and beating the world record. The true rewards were the stories of engagement, knowledge, and passion with the bright minds they interacted with along the way.
“I sincerely believe that India is today what I call a biker’s paradise. Great hospitality, very good roads, and on the highways, people are friendly, stalls are friendly and cops are friendly. Especially, if you’re on a purpose, the world will come to support you,” said John.
“I’m a committed motorcyclist and I also want to make sure that one defining message to share with everyone who is listening in. When you’re out on the road, please be nice to other people. Follow all road safety regulations that exists in the area and country that you are riding in. Because that’s the only way you can return back home safely in one piece,” Gautam signed off.
The endurance test of this epic ride across our country, bore witness to a welcoming revelation of true performance. Minds and machines.
Mobile messaging platform WhatsApphas banned over 16 lakh accounts of Indian users in April to prevent harmful activity on the app, according to the company's monthly disclosure report published on Wednesday.
Of the total, 122 accounts were banned based on user complaints, while barred 16.66 lakh accounts were barred to prevent harmful activity on the app, according to the disclosure made by the Facebook-owned messaging app.
"We are particularly focused on prevention because we believe it is much better to stop harmful activity from happening in the first place than to detect it after harm has occurred," the WhatsApp report stated.
According to the WhatsApp framework, the app bans an account when it is confident that the user is abusive.
"Our goal is to identify and stop abusive accounts as quickly as possible, which is why identifying these accounts manually is not realistic. Instead, we have advanced machine learning systems that take action to ban accounts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week," the report said.
The company said it bans the account in several cases, including when an account accumulates negative feedback, such as when other users submit reports or block the account.
The report also said that the app's systems evaluate the account and take appropriate action after negative feedback is reported.
The instant mobile messaging firm also uses machine learning and other analytical tools to detect "highly-motivated abusers" and ban them from the platform.
Sheryl Sandberg, CEO of Facebook parent company Meta, has announced on social media that she plans to step down from the role after 14 years. She will continue to serve on the Board of Directors for Meta, and plans to step away from the role full-time later this year when her duties will be successfully handed over.
Speaking at length about her experience at Meta, Sandberg repeatedly made the point that she was extremely proud of the work she had made to not only be "both a leader and a good mother" to the world, but also the work they had done to empower women and other marginalised communities within the company.
"I'm so immensely proud of everything this team has built," she said in her post.
"I'm especially proud that this is a company where many, many exceptional women and people from diverse backgrounds have risen through our ranks and become leaders--both in our company and in leadership roles elsewhere," she said.
According to Reuters, Javier Olivan will succeed Sandberg as COO of Meta. Olivan, who has most recently held the role of Chief Growth Officer, joined the company in 2007 as Head of International Growth and was responsible for the expansion into global territories such as India and Brazil.
Udayy, a K-12 edtech startup focussed on students from kindergarten to eighth grade, has announced that it will be shutting down operations and laying off its entire workforce of 100-120 employees.
Launched in 2019, the startup had raised $10 million from US-based Norwest Partners in February, as well as $2.5 million last year in a seed round. Talking to Economic Times, Co-Founder Saumya Yadav confirmed that the startup has returned "$8-$8.5 million to the investors".
Saumya said that she and her co-founders decided to shut down operations since they did not see a viable path towards business profitability with the lifting of COVID-19 norms. The increased number of children returning to school led to requests for refunds and difficulty in acquiring new customers online. Yadav said she didn't believe the startup would be able to compete in the offline space.
“We had enough capital in our books, but the business no longer made sense in the offline world, customer acquisition cost became very expensive,” she told ET. “We had enough capital, but a post-pandemic lot of parents started asking for refunds, and kids did not have time as schools opened up.”
Udayy's shutdown comes on the heels of a difficult year for edtech companies in India. Another startup in the space, Lido Learning, which had raised $10 million last September but had to fire 1,200 people in January, also closed its business last month. However, new reports state that Reliance may be looking to acquire the startup.
Udayy was launched by cofounders Saumya Yadav, Karan Varshney, and Mahak Garg pre-pandemic, but only started its operations after the COVID-19 norms disrupted offline schools.
“We had never existed before the pandemic, so the transition was very difficult. The market we had taken a bet on was not really existing and customer acquisition cost was going up heavily,” said Yadav.
At its height, Udayy was catering to 5,000 students a month. Yadav confirmed that employee salaries and severance packages had been paid and that most employees had found new jobs.
Bellatrix Aerospace on Wednesday said it is raising $8 million in a Series A round led by BASF Venture Capital GmbH, the corporate venture company of BASF SE and Inflexor Ventures LLP, an early stage deeptech/IP focused VC Fund.
The round also includes participation from StartupXseed, Pavestone Capital, Mankind Pharma Family Office,Survam Partners,Karsemven Fund, and other prominent family offices and angel investors.
The company aims to utilise the funds for the development and testing of its four thruster modules and go to market by the end of the year with its technology. The funds will also be used towards the company’s evolution into a full-fledged space transportation technology company with its unique Orbital Transfer Vehicle with capabilities to deploy customer satellites to their orbits quickly as well as perform missions to the geostationary orbit (GEO) and beyond.
Bellatrix has bagged contracts from the Indian Space Research Organisation and other undisclosed customers. The space qualification testing is expected to be completed in the coming months.
Founded in 2015 by Rohan M Ganapathy and Yashas Karanam, Bellatrix Aerospace is a Bengaluru-based private Indian aerospace manufacturer and smallsat launcher.
The startup had developed the world’s first commercial Microwave Plasma Thruster, which used water as fuel and received an order from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It also has India’s first High-Performance Green Propulsion system, which uses a proprietary high-performance fuel and catalyst that the company claims to be eco-friendly and easier to handle than conventionally used fuels for satellite propulsion systems.
Last year, it tested the country's first privately built Hall Thruster, a highly efficient electric propulsion system that's ideal for micro-satellites weighing 50-500 kg, and can be scaled up for heavier satellites.
Rohan M Ganapathy, CEO & CTO, Bellatrix Aerospace, said,
“We are elated to onboard new investors on our journey to become a key player in the global space-technology industry. pre-Series-A funding helped us successfully complete the development of numerous critical technologies in-house. With this investment, we will be expanding our product portfolio, adding to our existing talent pool to broaden our expertise, augment our state-of-the-art infrastructure and focus on validation of our products in space.”
“Inflexor has always taken a keen interest in technological advancements affecting the space sector, and this is evident from our investment in Bellatrix from our first fund, right from their seed round. We see the space industry is growing exponentially, and Bellatrix’s products will play a major part in democratising access to the space industry with their cost-effective and power-efficient thruster systems, ideal for small satellite manufacturers,” said Venkat Vallabhaneni, Managing Partner, Inflexor Ventures.
“The technologies being developed for use in space have the potential to offer many opportunities for the chemical industry, for example in new materials and for innovative application cases of chemistry on earth and in orbit. In India in particular, this industry is currently experiencing an unprecedented upturn," explains Markus Solibieda, Managing Director of BASF Venture Capital GmbH. "It is BVC's task to invest in young companies with disruptive technologies. We are pleased to be able to support Bellatrix, an up-and-coming company with promising technologies for the space industry, and look forward to exploring opportunities for collaboration", adds Markus.
Cashfree Payments partners with NPCI for tokenisation of RuPay cards
Cashfree Payments, a payment and API (application programming interface) banking solutions company, today announced that it has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to provide tokenisation solutions on RuPay cards for its merchants.
Cashfree Payments’ tokenisation solution ‘Token Vault’ helps merchants provide their customers the option to save cards on the merchant website or app and process card payments securely while being RBI (Reserve Bank of India) compliant. With this partnership, Cashfree Payments becomes a certified and compliant payment tokenisation service provider across key card networks like RuPay, Mastercard, and Visa.
Token Vault, according to a statement, supports all major card types: credit, debit, prepaid, and corporate cards. Businesses can integrate Token Vault API with their platform with a single integration. Once integrated, Cashfree Payments takes care of both saved card function & processing payments.
Datair Technology Pvt Ltd (Ambee), a global platform for hyperlocal and geospatial datasets on air quality, weather, pollen, soil, water vapor, fire, and more, announced that it has joined NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) Mission as an early adopter.
The PACE mission, scheduled to launch in 2024, will add to NASA’s existing satellite observations of global ocean biology and aerosols, continuing the analysis of global ocean health and atmospheric quality.
The data collected will be used by the scientific community, including universities and government agencies, to forecast weather and develop research that can aid in mitigating climate change. As part of the PACE Early Adopter programme, sustainably driven companies like Ambee can integrate valuable PACE data into their offering.
Snapdeal sees 40pc jump in kids category in 2022
Ecommerce platform Snapdeal says the volume in the kids' category is 40 percent higher this year (January- May 22) as compared to the equivalent period last year (January- May 21). The results are based on analysis of data from the last five months, according to a statement.
The upbeat mood in online shopping is reflected in a 130 percent growth in occasion wear for children, which caters to special occasions including festivals, birthdays and other social celebrations with friends and family.
Similarly, the sale of ethnic wear for children is up 263 percent this year due to families getting the opportunity to meet and jointly celebrate weddings and festivals like Eid, Baisakhi, Pongal, and Guddi Padwa. A large part of the demand for kids' ethnic wear was centered in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra, the statement said.
The rapid growth in some categories is distinct from the trends in the previous two years, where there was a greater emphasis on utilitarian wear like tracks and t-shirts and top-bottom sets, largely for home use. With more kids’ fashion being bought online, shopping trends on Snapdeal indicated consumer preferences for items that offered “more value.” Complete outfits in the Rs 499-699 range were popular with users.
CloudSEK announces the appointment of Samir Sunil Karnik as the RVP for India & SAARC
CloudSEK announces the appointment of Samir Sunil Karnik as the RVP for India & SAARC. With over 25 years in the IT Industry, Samir has held multiple leadership & senior positions at organisations like McAfee, Cisco, Symantec, and Wipro. A specialist in the BFSI vertical, he has been instrumental in strategic projects of national importance in the BFSI / Payments industry.
Commenting on Samir’s appointment, Vimal Ignatius, Global Head – Revenue and Strategy of CloudSEK said, “India and SAARC is a strong and strategic region for CloudSEK. Samir’s extensive industry experience, combined with his domain expertise and leadership acumen, will strengthen customers' trust with us. We are confident that Samir’s successful track record and skills will play a significant role in expanding our presence in the region.”
Startup launches 10-min liquor delivery service in Kolkata, reports PTI
A Hyderabad-based startup has launched a 10-minute liquor delivery service in Kolkata.
Booozie, the flagship brand of Innovent Technologies Private Limited, claimed it is India's first 10-minute liquor delivery platform.
The service was launched in the eastern metropolis after approval from the West Bengal State Excise Department, a PTI report said.
"Booozie is a delivery aggregator that picks up liquor from the nearest shop, with 10-minute delivery by using innovative AI which predicts consumer behaviour and order patterns," it said.
Innovent Technologies said it has created a B2B (business-to-business) logistics management platform, which will optimise the delivery costs thereby making Booozie an affordable platform.
"With the advent of cutting edge technologies and Booozie's commitment to responsible drinking, most of the apprehensions associated with liquor delivery such as delivery to under-age persons, adulteration, excessive consumption etc. have been addressed," said Booozie Co-founder and CEO Vivekanand Balijepalli.
SuperCoins witnesses a new phase of growth across Flipkart, PhonePe, Myntra and Cleartrip
Flipkart, India’s homegrown ecommerce marketplace, says it has seen tremendous growth for its SuperCoin reward programme across categories in the past year. The multi-brand reward ecosystem that rewards consumers and enables them to redeem coins on every single purchase across Flipkart, Myntra, Cleartrip and PhonePe, today sees close to 1.5 billion SuperCoins issued every month.
SuperCoins can be redeemed while buying any product from the participating sellers on Flipkart and also while accessing the rewards store among other options, purchasing the latest fashion styles on Myntra, making travel bookings on Cleartrip or to pay over thousands of select merchants through PhonePe.
About 58 percent of SuperCoin customers hail from Tier 2 and 3 regions in India, a statement said. And, about half of these rewards are claimed across categories such as household items, grooming accessories, men’s clothing, food and nutrition, makeup and fragrances, healthcare, baby care, fashion wearables and women’s westernwear.
MakeMyTrip joins hands with Climes
MakeMyTrip, online travel company, has partnered with Climes, an Indian climate-tech startup, to introduce carbon neutralisation options when booking a flight through its platform. Through this collaboration, flyers of MakeMyTrip will be able to neutralise the carbon footprint of their air travel, entirely or partially.
Commitments made by MakeMyTrip users will be distributed by Climes to carbon removal projects that focus on increasing biodiversity through agroforestry, and restoring degraded agricultural lands, across the country. Flyers will additionally have the option of choosing the project they wish to support.
Debt-resolution fintech startup Credgenics expands leadership team
Credgenics, a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) based collections and debt-recovery technology platform, today announced the expansion of its core leadership team as part of its next phase growth plan for existing markets and entry into global markets. New additions to the Credgenics leadership team include Vibhor Singhal as Head of Engineering, Nitin Garg as Head of Marketing, Asvini Krishnan as Head of Finance, Manjari Lakshmanan as Head of Product, Aakash Agarwal as Head of Data Science, Sukhpreet Singh as Head of HR, and Abhishek Sharma as Director of Sales.
Leadership Team Additions
Vibhor Singhal, who comes with over a decade of extensive experience in building core technology platforms, leading engineering teams, and establishing an agile work culture, has joined as Head of Engineering
Nitin Garg, with more than a decade of proven expertise in strategically marketing complex enterprise technology solutions for BFSI across diverse markets worldwide, is on-board as Head of Marketing
Asvini Krishnan, an expert in financial planning and management with experience of more than 15 years has joined as Head of Finance
Manjari Lakshmanan, with a track record of building technology platforms from scratch, championing product visions, and devising roadmaps over more than 11 years of expertise, is aboard as Head of Product
Aakash Agarwal has joined as Head of Data Science to drive the enrichment of ML capabilities and the broader data science vision at Credgenics by leveraging his more than 11 years of expertise
Sukhpreet Singh has joined as Head of HR with a focus on driving a people-centric culture and establishing a strong values driven framework building on his more than 11 years of experience
Abhishek Sharma, with more than 13 years of diverse experience in Solution Sales, Technology Consulting, and Business Advisory is onboard as Director of Sales, to drive Credgenics’ rapid business expansion
Micron Ventures Fund II Commits $200M for Deep Tech Startups
Micron Technology announced that its venture capital team, Micron Ventures, will be investing $200 million in deep tech startups with its Fund II. Micron’s Fund II builds on the success of the initial AI-focused Fund I by targeting broader deep tech innovations. Additionally, to reflect Micron’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, 20 percent of invested capital in the new Fund II will be aimed at startups led by women and other underrepresented groups.
Since its inception, Micron Ventures has made investments in 25 startups, yielding strong financial returns and multiple unicorn companies within the portfolio. Micron Ventures has accelerated broad technology innovation including in AI-assisted manufacturing, edge security, and autonomous vehicle development.
Zigii integrates with Decentro to launch co-branded prepaid cards for Gen Z
Decentro, one of India’s leading API infrastructure platforms for banking integration, announced its collaboration with NeoBank Zigii to launch co-branded prepaid cards for Gen Z, teenagers, and young adults. The Zigii card is specifically designed to cater to the lifestyle and aspirations of more than 400 million+ Gen Z and young adults in India.
This underserved segment provides neo banks with an untapped opportunity as teenagers grow up in an on-demand world with preferences for digital transactions and ecommerce. According to a PWC survey on the evolution of Neo Banks in India, 84 percent of them shop online for big-ticket (gadgets) and small-ticket items (food, clothes, and digital subscriptions).
Demand for ESG jobs more than double in India
Research released by Indeed shows that jobs in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sector have grown over 468 percent in India in the past three years, between April 2019 and April 2022.
The most significant increase in demand happened in the past year, between April 2021 and April 2022. The number of job posts grew 154 percent compared to the previous year when the expansion of these roles was 97 percent.
The positions advertised varied from engineers, and research analysts to consultants. Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, BFSI and Consulting sectors indicate hiring the most when it comes to ESG roles. Mining, FMCG and manufacturing sectors are yet to catch up. Companies have now also started looking at specific qualifications in jobseekers for such roles. This includes degrees in fields like energy, environmental science, sustainable business management, environmental studies etc.
The increase in job postings for ESG indicates that the idea of letting values guide a company has been growing over the last decade, and has really taken off during the pandemic. Demand for ESG roles grew over sevenfold in 2020-2021 as compared to 2019 - 2020, the year COVID-19 started spreading across the globe. Demand for ESG roles might continue to rise as more sectors incorporate the functions into their organisations and make sustainability and community relations a key part of their actions.
Kiya.ai, a digital solutions provider serving financial institutions and governments globally, today announced the launch of India’s first-ever Banking Metaverse–Kiyaverse.
Kiyaverse pioneers use cases of merging real-world banking with Metaverse banking through an avatar (virtual humanoid) based interactions. In the first phase, Kiyaverse will allow banks to extend their own Metaverse for clients, partners, and employees, through services that will include Relationship Manager & Peer Avatars and Robo-advisors.
Kiyaverse plans to have tokens as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) and support CBDC (central bank digital currency) to enable open finance in a Web3.0 environment. Kiyaverse will interface its Open API connectors with Aggregators, and Gateways to enable a Super-App and Marketplace on the metaverse. With the introduction of Haptics enabled Headsets, Kiyaverse will provide a near real-world interaction using the internet of senses.
Union Bank of India signs MOU with SIDBI for Co-financing arrangement of MSMEs
Union Bank of India today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) for a Co-financing arrangement for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises). The MoU was signed by Shri Lal Singh, Chief General Manager, Union Bank of India and Shri Vivek Kumar Malhotra, Chief General Manager, SIDBI. SIDBI is country’s principal financial institution engaged in the Promotion, Financing and Development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
Under the MoU, Union Bank of India would consider Joint financing/ Co-Financing with SIDBI to Projects/Units in the MSME. This MoU would help the Banks to increase their customer base, while helping the MSMEs to meet their funding requirements. The key highlights of the arrangement include joint identification of viable projects and term loan and working capital financing to MSMEs. Initially the arrangement would be at specific centers and once the arrangement stabilizes at these centers, more locations would be covered.
CENTA Partners With The CCS Dharampal Fellowship Program To Upskill Educators In India
CENTA (Centre for Teacher Accreditation) is announced as the training partner for the CCS Dharampal Fellowship Programme to train teachers in advanced skill-sets and tools to provide quality education for children across India. The prestigious programme is the brainchild of the Centre for Civil Society and is sponsored by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom South Asia.
As part of the selection process for the Fellowship, 100 candidates (shortlisted from all applicants) will appear for the CENTA Teaching Quotient (TQ) test on June 11, and the results will be declared on July 4. Based on their performance, 40 candidates will be selected for the Fellowship Programme. The training sessions will commence in July and end in August, culminating in assessments towards their certification. The final results will be declared on September 5.
(This story will be updated with more news blurbs throughout the day)
In the latest episode of 100X podcast, the interviewers turn into interviewees. Siddhartha Ahluwalia and Nansi Mishra speak about their journey as podcasters, entrepreneurs, ecosystem enablers and more.
Siddhartha and Nansi met each other during Siddhartha's first entrepreneurial venture, Babygogo, and got married in 2017. Once the company was acquired by Sheroes, the duo spent a year with the group before moving on to explore other entrepreneurial opportunities.
In 2018, Siddhartha started shooting videos on LinkedIn to share his experience of starting up from a Tier II city, as the prevailing notion was that starting up was easier for those from metro cities or prestigious colleges.
“The idea was to become better through conversations with people who are much higher in their growth trajectory and have accomplished more in life,” says Siddhartha.
After publishing five episodes on LinkedIn, a listener suggested they convert the LinkedIn videos into formal podcast episodes. And this kickstarted the 100X podcast journey. Within a year, the duo completed 40 episodes. For one of the episodes, Siddhartha flew into Bangalore to speak with Amit Somani, Managing Partner at Prime Venture, who eventually offered him the position of Head of Community at the VC firm.
The 100X journey
The couple moved to Bangalore, and Nansi shares an interesting anecdote from the time Siddhartha interviewed Unacademy founder Gaurav Munjal for a podcast episode. We were sitting with Gaurav Munjhal, and that is my favourite podcast of 100x Entrepreneur for many reasons. Gaurav was asking Siddhartha what he does, because they were friends, and he just randomly asked me, what do you do?"
“I was not at all confident at that point in time. So, I couldn’t even tell him that I am the co-founder of 100X Entrepreneur. I was so underconfident at that time, and I always had doubts,” recalls Nansi.
Meeting Gaurav and shooting the episode became a helpful experience, she adds.
"From that day, I started taking more responsibility. I requested my mom-in-law to help me more with Kabir because I wanted to give more time to 100X. It was such a raw episode where he shared about how he organises, and plans his coming week every Saturday. It made me more mindful about my career,” she shares.
Throughout the years, the couple stuck to a simple and frugal lifestyle, using their personal savings and money made from their exit to Sheroes to invest back in startups. The duo has since invested in more than 30 startups including Plum, Airmeet, and eBikeGo which gave 7X exit.
Behind the weekly podcast is also a lean team working on a part-time basis.
And, Nansi's winning pitch to her team is always how they will get to hear from founders, the most passionate and inspiring set of people.
In a series of tweets, former cricketer Sourav Ganguly announced that he teamed up with edtech startup Classplus and launched a new initiative to promote educators, teachers, and educational content creators.
Called '#dadasupports', the initiative allows educators and content creators to create a video ad and submit it on the Classplus platform. On submission, the ad would then feature Ganguly, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), as their brand ambassador.
“It is time to glorify the true heroes,” he tweeted. “I want to do something for all the coaches, educators, and teachers across the world. Starting today, I will actively work to support all of them by being their ambassador,” he added.
In January 2021, Sourav Ganguly starred in a campaign for Classplus as ‘Mentor Dada’. The campaign encompassed the challenges faced by teachers who struggle to keep up with the digital age.
Started in 2018 by Mukul Rustagi and Bhaswat Agarwal, Noida-based Classplus is a mobile-first SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform that enables private coaching institutes and their tutors to streamline their content distribution, payments, communication, and online assessments through the app.
In March 2022, the edtech startup had raised $70 million in a Series D round co-led by Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global Management, which put Classplus at a valuation of $570 million.
“We’ve come a long way to become the category leaders since we started back in 2018. But one thing that hasn’t changed in the last four years is our commitment towards changing the lives of millions of educators and their student base through technology. We’re fortunate and humbled to have the trust and blessings of thousands of educators, our teammates and our investors along the way. We invite everyone who feels the same to come and be a part of this amazing clan," Mukul Rustagi, CEO and Co-founder, Classplus said at the time of the funding.
The startup had raised $65 million in a Series C round led by Tiger Global in June 2021.
It plans to use the fresh capital to expand into new geographies and fund new acquisitions, ET reported.
Founded in 2020 by former Flipkart executive and Cultfit founder Ankit Nagori, Curefoods, with a Thrasio-like model, acquires cloud kitchen brands across different cities and helps them scale their business.
The startup operates brands like Great Indian Khichdi, Canteen Central, CakeZone, MasalaBox, Paratha Box, and Home Plate.
Earlier this year, Curefoods merged with rival Maverix and now has 125 cloud kitchens across 12 cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.
In a previous interview with YourStory, Ankit said that the startup was on an ambitious path to build the strongest food brands in the market with a digital-first strategy.
MX Player, run by Times Internet, rolled out a 'watch now, pay later' option for its subscription offering MX Gold. The plan costs Rs 299 and users can opt to pay later after watching the content.
The service will be offered through Paytm Postpaid, while the over-the-top (OTT) entertainment platform is also in talks with other fintech players that can also offer the pay later service.
"Entertainment is a planned as well as an impulse purchase. So, we thought instead of making users pay upfront every time, we give them an option to pay later," says Abhishek Joshi, business head, SVOD, MX Player told YourStory in an interaction.
The development was first reported by The Economic Times, which also comes under the Times Internet umbrella.
MX Player is an OTT platform which offers shows and movies, while monetising through advertisements. Since the last four months, the platform has rolled out MX Gold, where users can pay an annual subscription fee and and watch the platform's content without ads. The offering is similar to YouTube Premium.
This development comes at a time when video streaming giants seem to be losing steam as people enter the post-COVID-19 world and content fatigue starts to set in. Entertainment giant Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years. In April, it reported losing 200,000 subscribers, globally, in January-March 2022 quarter. Its competitors including Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar do not reveal user numbers.
In India, content players have found it challenging to get people to pay subscription fees as the population is extremely price-conscious. In April 2022, only 10 percent of people were paying to watch content out of 503 million users, who have access to these platforms, according to a report by Ernst and Young (EY).
Hence, offering smaller subscription fees or the pay later alternative, instead of a full-year subscription money upfront, could help attract paid users.
Amazon Prime Video also rolled out a movie rental arm to enable people to pay per movie instead of paying lump-sum subscription fees. Currently, Google-owned YouTube and Google Play Movies and TV, among others, also offer movie rental services.
Paying later for shopping and other service has become quite popular in India's fintech space. This popularity gave birth to multiple credit card challengers, including Slice and Fi Money. Apart from that, every consumer-tech business is letting people take on credit for small purchases including clothes, food delivery, and cab rides.
But in case, users do not pay their dues, the consequences can range from disconnection of services to receiving a bad CIBIL score.
MX Player currently claims to have 300 million monthly active users and over one billion app downloads.
Global events have dramatically changed work styles, where work is done, and how workers connect with each other. With meetings over videoconference throughout the day, laptop performance that more than meets the challenges of using remote collaboration tools and productivity apps simultaneously has become paramount.
AMD RYZEN 6000 Pro Processors offer ultimate performance and professional experiences for business laptops – whether it’s studio-quality videoconferencing, power-efficient productivity, and creativity on the go with long battery life or blazing fast connectivity for data and devices.
Empower your workforce with fast, powerful, reliable AMD RYZEN 6000 Pro Processors – the fastest AMD processor yet – and give your business the competitive advantage it deserves.
1. Accelerate your workflows: Help your workforce stay productive with up to eight high-performance cores for power-user multitasking, from videoconferencing and office applications to web searches and streaming media.
2. Defend your data: Help shield your business from threats with multilayered security features at the hardware, OS, and system levels, including chip-to-cloud security protection with Microsoft Pluton security processor.
3. Control your resources: Simplify deployment, imaging, and management of an ever-growing and changing fleet with wireless support for open standards-based profiles and a dedicated AMD Manageability Processor.
4. Enhance your business: Give your business the benefit of enterprise-grade quality and long-term stability with continuous platform validation to ensure consistent user experiences across multiple generations.
1. Based on testing by AMD as of December 14, 2021. CPU performance evaluated with a geomean of 9 multi-threaded content creation and CPU tests. GPU performance evaluated with 3DMark Time Spy. System configuration for Ryzen 7 5800U CPU/GPU performance: HP ProBook 635 Aero G8 configured with 2x 8GB DDR4-3200 (22-22-22), Windows 11 22000.282, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD, 15W nominal processor TDP, GPU driver 27.20.21026, BIOS T83. System configuration for Ryzen 7 6800U CPU/GPU performance: AMD reference motherboard configured with 4x 4GB LPDDR5-6400 (40-39-45-90), Windows 11 22000.282, Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD, 28W nominal processor TDP, GPU driver 30.0, BIOS TRM0081D. RMB-13
2. As of January 2022, only AMD Ryzen 6000 Series Processors include the Microsoft Pluton security processor, while AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processors and Intel's latest 11th and 12th gen processors do not. RMB-24
3. AMD Manageability Processor requires OEM enablement. Check with the system manufacturer prior to purchase. GD-193
India is home to the third-largest base of technology startups in the world after the US and China. With a growing entrepreneurship culture, a supportive ecosystem, India’s startups and small businesses are not only expected to further drive economic and business transformation but also cement its position as a key growth driver to India’s dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy.
Microsoft is supporting the pace and depth of innovation in the current Indian startup ecosystem with its tech and business partnerships, and to help startups gain a better understanding of Azure, Microsoft and YourStory curated a webinar titled ‘Empowering Startups’.
The webinar kick-started with an overview of Microsoft’s ‘Code Titans National Level Startup Hackathon 2022’ which not only invites shortlisted startups to build their prototype on Azure, but also gives them a chance to make a pitch to the jury members. Apart from cash prizes and Azure credits for the winners, the top 25 shortlisted startups get a chance to access self-led learning at Microsoft for Startups, network with experienced mentors and access feedback and advice, and also access technical assistance to build a more scalable and robust product.
A panel discussion featuring Vinayak Hegde, CTO-in-Residence, Microsoft for Startups; Pranav Marwah, Co-founder, ThinQbate; and Shreeram Iyer, VP, Ecosystem Innovation, T-Hub, covered factors influencing startups to mature into enterprise-ready companies and solutions that can help them scale every aspect of their business.
Key changes in the innovation landscape
Pranav defined innovation as “a misnomer driven by people doing interesting things”. The major shift in the landscape of incubation and innovation, according to him, has been in the mindset of young innovators. “Young founders are a lot more confident that they could potentially convert a product into a business,” he said. Startups driven by quality founders who have the ability to innovate and execute simultaneously have resulted in a major capital flow towards early-stage incubation.
Adding to this, Shreeram pointed out the attention and interest of the local governments as another major change in the landscape of innovation and incubation. The recent undying support of the government has been a tremendous positive change for startups. “From a policy perspective, the biggest challenge for a country is to create jobs. And the best means to do that is startups,” he added.
Another trend that has changed in the favour of startups is with respect to funding and the phenomenal increase in investments. State and Central government schemes, especially for deep tech, have ensured in making the funding process much easier. IMF programmes like the one pioneered by T-Hub, wherein migration of startups across the globe is phenomenal, is another great example of these key changes in the startup scenario.
Community building for ensuring sustainable growth
An ecosystem cannot be created unless there is contribution from all stakeholders. From funding, to partner resellers, to accelerators, each stakeholder of the ecosystem has to contribute and complement the other in some way to ensure sustainable growth of startups. Vinayak pointed out how successful startups and MNCs have helped in creating a large pool of people with product experience and the right kind of training. “A lot of startups not only grew but also trained a whole bunch of people on technical skills as well as on product thinking. These people have gone ahead and built their own startup,” he added.
The increasing support from large corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon is also very apparent. These big players have been more open to buying from startups even in their nascent stages, changing the whole mindset about the high mortality rate of startups.
Navigating through challenges
From running out of funding to not finding the perfect market fit, the biggest challenge for most startups is ‘over engineering’. Startups end up building very large systems without having a good product market fit or the right customers. This often results in derailing them from what they initially set out to do. “It's not about building the perfect product, it's about building the most contextual, relevant product that the consumer will appreciate and pay for,” quips Pranav.
Coining the perfect term to match the need of the hour, Vinayak advises startups to aim for ‘just-in-time engineering’ wherein a product is built for a three to six month period keeping in mind the dynamic customer and the ever evolving market.
Key aspects for the next phase
For Shreeram, the key focus should be to become vertical specific going forward – with an emphasis on international exchanges, wider international presence, giving indigenous startups the opportunity to go overseas and vice versa, and going vertical specific and giving Indian startups what they want from the best possible source. In addition to this, constant and extensive upskilling and a broader mindset for a changing perspective are some of the key aspects for the next phase of building a sustainable startup ecosystem in India.
California-based IT company Pure Storage on Thursday inaugurated its new research and development (R&D) centre in Bengaluru. The hub will focus on innovations in storage and data management.
“We strongly believe that talent knows no boundaries and can be found across all regions. The India R&D centre will further foster data management capabilities in India while ensuring Pure’s global customers benefit from this abundance of talent,” Ajay Singh, Chief Product Officer, Pure Storage said in a statement.
A study by Pure Storage with market research by Zinnov, a management consulting firm, indicates that there are over 700,000 professionals in India with relevant data management skills. More than 10 percent of the worldwide talent pool of data management professionals and more than a quarter of Asia Pacific is in India.
“India has long been a source of technology talent and we have to stay ahead of the game. With data continuing to grow in volume and complexity, the skills to manage, protect and move it around in hybrid and multi-cloud environments, will become even more in demand and it's important for Karnataka to be involved in this movement,” Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Higher Education; IT & BT, Science & Technology; Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Government of Karnataka.
“We are excited to see another leading global technology company commit to investment in India and the Karnataka region. Pure Storage is providing an opportunity for Indian talent to contribute to technologies that are in demand around the world,” he added.
The Bengaluru-based R&D centre will help the company innovate its portfolio of data management solutions including FlashArray, FlashBlade, FlashStack, Pure as-a-Service. It adds to the company’s two other R&D centres in the US and Czech Republic.
