Startup India: Indian desi Social App Chingari Records 500000 Downloads In Just 72 Hours

#startups #vocalforlocal #vocalforlocalindia #chatmessenger #desi

Indian social app chingari, the desi alternative to TikTok, has witnessed a massive surge in its subscribers and has garnered nearly 500,000 users in just 72 hours and this number is steadily increasing.

It has been trending at the number one spot on the Google Play Apps & Games Store. chingari’s popularity has already surpassed that of the MitronTV app, a TikTok clone platform.

Biswatma Nayak, Co-founder of the chingari App said, “The response of our customers has been overwhelming. Since the word spread that Indians now have a homegrown and more entertaining alternative to TikTok, they have been recording traffic beyond expectations on our app. ...”

The custom-designed audio and video-based free social platform was developed in 2019 by two Bengaluru-based programmers Biswatma Nayak and Siddharth Gautam in their part-time.

chingari allows a user to download and upload videos, chat with friends, interact with new people, share content, and browse through the feed and the app is available in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Punjabi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

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Social App Chingari Records 500 000 Downloads In Just 72 Hours

The demand of the app has been such that it has been trending at the number one spot on the Google Play Store. In what ought to be a record in the tech world, Indian social app Chingari, the desi alternative to TikTok, has witnessed a massive surge in its subscribers within a very limited time period.

Startup Ideas: The biggest problem of late payments faced by Indian MSMEs can be turned into an opportunity

#starupideas #startupindia #msmesector #fintech #MSME #hugeopportunity #covid19

Payment delays have for long been a huge problem for India Inc. An EY report in 2018 estimated that Rs 1.8 lakh crore was trapped as receivables. But it is the medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) who feel the pinch the most. Media reports estimate that large corporations owe Rs 40,000 crore and PSUs Rs 48, 000 crore to MSMEs.

According to a recent report by Zinnov, India has over 75 million small and medium businesses that contribute 40% to the gross domestic product, employ 180 million people and contribute 52% of India’s $535 billion exports. Yet, with limited financial means, MSMEs often swing between life and death. Due to corona virus effect, many MSMEs may shut down shops and others either may become bankrupt or continue to work at a lower capacity than that in pre-covid times.

“The whole concept of slow payments is a huge global issue,” Previse co-founder and CEO Paul Christensen tells Forbes in an interview. “It is a huge global opportunity that no-one has cracked yet. Given the problem is so big, why has no-one cracked it yet? Everyone has tried to solve the problem using process, and changing process at large organisations is really hard.”

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Choked by dues: What efforts are being taken to ease the biggest problem faced by Indian MSMEs?

Haggling is an art. Bengaluru-based Amarpreet Kalkat, 41, cofounder of Frrole - a social intelligence startup - is trying to master it these days. The six-year-old startup has 40-plus customers, mostly mid-to-large firms in media and consumer businesses. Recently, one of them refused to pay his subscription dues of six months.

Turning Point: Two founders turned bankruptcy into growth with their startup venture Likvido

#liquidity #SME #smallbusiness #latepayments #fintech #fintechstartups #covid19 #startupfunding #SaaS

Nearly one in five (18%) of Europe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) say that late payments threaten the survival of their business, according to Intrum’s 2019 European Payment Report.

Likvido.com, co-founded in March 2018 by Maximilian Frimmer and Lars Holdgaard, offers #SMEs an inverse management system which “connects the dots” between their accounting systems, Frimmer tells FinTech Futures. The start-up recently secured a €2.5 million seed investment from Paris-based investor, BlackFin.

The fintech automates actions for chasing late payments, like a SalesLoft campaign, but for late payments rather than new client engagement. It runs a proactive credit check on new clients to inform them of the number of days required for a campaign and the credit amount. This happens before building a workflow with emails, calls and texts which can also include ‘to do’ lists for account managers to charge late payment fees. If all this does not work, then Likvido.com will loop in a debt collection agency with just “one click”.

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Two founders turned bankruptcy into growth - FinTech Futures

In 2017, two Danish founders were facing bankruptcy. Instead of giving up, they turned exactly what had crippled them into a growing business - late payments.

Help a Startup: New Microsoft programme Azure Farmbeats to empower agritech startups in India

#startups #agritech #startupindia #startupbharat #ai #artificialintelligence #ml #machinelearning

Microsoft launched a new programme to help agritech startups in India build industry-specific solutions, scale and grow with access to deep technology, business and marketing resources.

The programme offers support to Series C startups that can boost their businesses with Azure benefits (including free credits), unlimited technical support and help with Azure Marketplace onboarding.

Agritech startups that are looking to create digital agriculture solutions have the opportunity to co-build customized solutions with Azure FarmBeats without investing in deep data engineering resources.

Available on the Azure Marketplace, Azure FarmBeats enables aggregation of agricultural datasets across providers and generation of actionable insights by building artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models based on fused datasets.

Growing at the rate of 25 per cent year-on-year, the country currently hosts more than 450 startups in the agritech sector, according to a recent Nasscom report.

Agritech startups in the country received more than $248 million funding in the first half of 2019, a growth of 300 per cent as compared to the same period in the previous year.

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New Microsoft programme to empower agritech startups in India | The Rahnuma Daily

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) Microsoft on Wednesday launched a new programme to help agritech startups in India build industry-specific solutions, scale and grow with access to deep technology, business and marketing resources. The three-tier programme offers tech and business enablement resources to Series C startups that can boost their businesses with Azure benefits (including free ...

Funding Alert - Vizag startup gets funding from Singaporean firm for developing CONNETIN BOT

#startups #startupindia #startupfunding #fundingalert #bots

Vishakapatnam (Vizag) -based startup Verbindung Geschaft India Pvt. Ltd has secured funding from a Singaporean firm, Govin Capital Pte Ltd, bucking a trend of economic decline precipitated by the #COVID19 pandemic, to accelerate the development and commercialisation of a software product called CONNETIN across India, Singapore and the United States.

The new investment would enable CONNETIN to further capitalise on its position as a pioneer in servicing the #SME sector in India and globally, where there was an unmet need for affordable business operational tools (CONNETIN BOT) and enhance their business opportunities.

CONNETIN works to provide right-time finance to the SME units as a credit line system. The product helps a business digitise its operations, which further leads to transparency. The platform enhances the firm’s business profile, does networking among other businesses, and leverages on new business opportunities, thus building credibility. Transparency and credibility are the key sources for any financial institution to provide finance.

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Vizag startup gets funding from Singaporean firm

A city-based startup has secured funding from a Singaporean firm, bucking a trend of economic decline precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Verbindung Geschaft India Pvt. Ltd, a startup developing innovative products for the SME sector, has received funding from Govin Capital Pte Ltd to accelerate the development and commercialisation of a software product called Connetin across India, Singapore and the United States.

Funding Alert: DroneBase raises $7.5 million as demand for commercial drones surges

#startups #drones #dronetechnology #startupfunding #fundingalert

DroneBase, a Los Angeles-based drone services provider, has raised $7.5 million in a series C round of funding from a host of big-name investors, including Chinese drone giant DJI, Valor Equity Partners, and Union Square Ventures. The company is also launching a new European business unit and expanding to target the renewable energy industry as it seeks to capitalize on “months of record-setting revenue” during the #COVID-19 crisis.

The commercial drone market was already accelerating, with reports the industry would grow more than five-fold by 2026 from the $1.2 billion it was reportedly worth in 2018. But the pandemic has increased demand for drone services in areas such as medical supply deliveries and site inspections. Earlier this week, Honeywell, a major supplier of aerospace systems, launched a new business unit covering drones, air taxis, and unmanned cargo delivery vehicles.

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DroneBase raises $7.5 million as demand for commercial drones surges

DroneBase, a Los Angeles-based drone services provider, has raised $7.5 million in a series C round of funding from a host of big-name investors, including Chinese drone giant DJI, Valor Equity Partners, and Union Square Ventures.

Funding Alert - Grocery delivery startup Milkbasket raises $5.5 mn led by Inflection Point Ventures

#startupfunding #fundingalert #foodtech #startups #startupindia #ecommerce

Source: YourStory Media

Author: Sujata R Sangwan

Bengaluru-based grocery delivery startup Milkbasket has raised a fresh funding of $5.5 million led by Inflection Point Ventures with participation from existing investors.

With advanced and deep technology across the full-stack supply chain from sourcing to last-mile delivery, Milkbasket claims that it today serves over 130,000 households and fulfills an entire household needs with 9,000+ products across fruits and vegetables, dairy, bakery, and all other FMCG categories. Founded in 2015 by Anant Goel, Ashish Goel, Anurag Jain and Yatish Talvadia, it is currently operating in Gurgaon, Noida, Dwarka, Ghaziabad, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru.

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[Funding alert] Grocery delivery startup Milkbasket raises $5.5M led by Inflection Point Ventures

Bengaluru-based grocery delivery startup Milkbasket has raised a fresh funding of $5.5 million led by Inflection Point Ventures with participation from existing investors. Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) claims to have emerged as the only angel platform in India to lead a Series B round in a startup.

Customer Success Story - How Geetha Thiagarajan, Head HR, Reinvented Employee Engagement with inFeedo's HR Chatbot Amber

#startupindia #humanresources #hr #employeeengagement #health #attrition #chatbots #ai #artificialintelligence

From SocGen to Altimetrik, Geetha Thiagarajan SHRM-SCP, India Head of HR at Finastra, wanted to streamline the HR function and its processes to effectively measure engagement and employee sentiment and become a strategic force in the organization. And for this, she used an employee engagement HR chatbot, Amber inFeedo.

“In the atmosphere of today's world with the diverse workforce that we have, a #chatbot is the best thing that you can pick up," concludes Geetha Thiagarajan SHRM-SCP.

Let’s see how she used Amber inFeedo to tackle these familiar problem statements.

[Success Story] How Geetha Thiagarajan, Head HR, Reinvented Employee Engagement with inFeedo's HR Chatbot Amber

"40% of an HRBPs time is spent collecting and analysing feedback, while only 15% of that is spent on engagement. It should be vice versa, right?" asks Geetha Thiagarajan, Head of HR at Finastra. Geetha Thiagarajan, prominent Head of HR, shares about the all-too familiar obstacles HRBPs face when it comes to balancing employee engagement with tracking, collecting, and anlayzing the data related to it.

Startup Stories - These women entrepreneurs aim to transform the fresh food supply chain in India and tap into a market worth $2 Bn

An evolving technology, by QZense founders Rubal Chib and Dr Shristi Batra, aims to minimise and hopefully, eliminate this loss with its IoT solution that quickly and accurately grades fresh food. The technology employs a unique combination of near-infrared spectral sensors and olfactory sensors for analysis of internal spoilage, ripeness, sweetness, and shelf life. 

“The plan is to deploy the technology to the entire supply. However, currently, our immediate target is Indian fresh retailers. This includes the retail chains, e-retailers, and e-tailers since it is convenient and very optimal for them to deploy this technology. We are deploying our technology to the retailer’s warehouses, collection houses, and stores. Our solution will help the retailers and aggregators minimise inventory losses, and capture optimal margins by delivering the finest quality produce to the consumers,” Rubal tells HerStory.

QZense has filed its first patent and is beginning a pilot with Waycool for apples. Having shown the features of spoilage and Brix (sweetness), it also wants to deploy the device at the vendor end. Additionally, it is in conversation with Zomato Hyperpure and Mahindra Agri. It has received an investment from HAX, in addition to Entrepreneur First.

India is the second-largest producer of fruits (81.285 million tonnes) and vegetables (162.19 million tonnes) in the world, and the third-largest fresh retail market with over $500 billion in sales. On the other hand, 40 percent of the food produced in India is either lost or wasted. In 2019, India lost $14 billion in post-harvest food loss.

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These women entrepreneurs aim to transform the fresh food supply chain in India and tap into a market worth $2B

India is the second-largest producer of fruits (81.285 million tonnes) and vegetables (162.19 million tonnes) in the world, and the third-largest fresh retail market with over $500 billion in sales. On the other hand, 40 percent of the food produced in India is either lost or wasted.

The Science Of Startup Investments: How Family Offices Can Tap Into The Startup Opportunity In India

Recently, Infosys cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan urged India’s wealthy to look at startups as a serious investment opportunity and not just a trend. “We need to flow the money of high net worth individuals (HNIs) into startups,” he had said..

In India, there is still a need for larger involvement of family offices as there only a few players like Hero MotoCorp’s Pavan Munjal, Sharrp Ventures, Transworld Group of Companies, SAR Group Family Office, Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer, Dabur Group’s Burman Family Holdings, among others.

The opportunity is huge. As per DataLabs by Inc42, between 2014-2019, Indian startups have raised $58 Bn across 5,011 deals. The startup ecosystem has grown leaps and bounds with over 50k startups in the country. Hence, there is no dearth of finding the right fit.

Talking about returns expected from VCs, Transworld’s Mehta said that he would expect 16% to 18% of internal rate of return (IRR) in dollar terms, net fees and other charges. But for the VCs doing Series A or above, the return rate should be 15%; while for early-stage VCs, return should be 20%-25%. In the case of direct deals, it should be 25% return, according to Mehta.

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The Science Of VC Investments: How Family Offices Can Tap Into The Startup Opportunity In India

Recently, Infosys cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan urged India's wealthy to look at startups as a serious investment opportunity and not just a trend. "We need to flow the money of high net worth individuals (HNIs) into startups," he had said. Notably, the new generation of wealthy and high net-worth individuals (HNIs) have been focussing on wealth management and investments through family offices.