Page 22 - Startups

Skilling start-up Disprz gets $30 mn in Series-C funding from Lumos, others

Established in 2015, Disprz's client base includes firms like ICICI Bank, Amazon, Indian Oil, Bajaj Allianz, Ather Energy, HDFC Life, and Starbucks, among others

As startups lay off staff to cut costs, employees head out for job hunt

Employees not just from edtech but also from commerce and digital media startups are looking out for new jobs amidst massive layoffs

Blackstone alum doubles down on Drone startups after 600% IdeaForge return

BotLab was established in 2016 at the technology business incubator unit at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Roastea eyes Rs 100 cr in topline, to install 5,000 vending machines

Beverage startup, Roastea is eying Rs 100 crore turnover and 5,000 vending machines network by 2024-25. "The company's tea and coffee vending machine business will be one of the key drivers of growth, and it aims to roll out over 1,500 such machines this year, aggregating to 2,500 machines," a company statement said Roastea aims to have around 5,000 vending machines installed across corporates and open 40 cafes over the next two years (by 2024-25), it added. Profitable since inception, Roastea aims to reach Rs 100 crore turnover by FY25, it stated. Focused on corporates, IoT (Internet of Things) enabled modern vending machines are manufactured at Roastea's own contracted factory. They offer fresh milk-based beverages with a unique selection of filter coffee and Indian masala chai and can serve over 20 beverages simultaneously. Roastea's co-founder Anurag Bhamidipaty said, "Vending machine business of Roastea is performing exceptionally well and serves as the primary growth driver

AWS, Accel announce ML Elevate 2023 to support generative AI startups

Cloud service provider Amazon Web Services (AWS) and venture capital firm Accel have announced ML Elevate 2023, a six-week accelerator programme aimed to empower startups building generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Generative AI applications have captivated developers and enthusiasts alike with their ability to comprehend and generate realistic conversations, stories, images, videos, and music across diverse domains, according to a statement. ML Elevate aims to support generative AI startups by providing them access to AI models and tools, business and technical mentorship, curated resources, the AWS Activate programme, and up to USD 200,000 in AWS Credits. Other benefits include peer support from a community of leading AI and ML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) startup founders and the opportunity to scale production-ready generative AI applications on Amazon SageMaker JumpStart. Generative AI startups that have already developed a Minimum Viable .

Zypp Electric allocates Rs 1.5 crore for buyback, first in EV industry

Zypp Electric said the allocation has been made to 15 employees who have been in the company for over a year

Together Fund announces new fund worth $150 mn; to focus on AI startups

Together Fund was founded by Girish Mathrubootham, (co-founder, Freshworks), Manav Garg, (founder, Eka Software) and Shubham Gupta, who used to lead SaaS deals at Matrix Partners India

Governance should be front & centre for startups: Tata 1mg co-founder

Startups need to live up to higher standards of corporate governance, and failure of a business is not as big an issue as ethics and morality-related concerns, Tata 1mg co-founder Prashant Tandon said on Wednesday. He advised startups not to get swayed by short-term temptations, saying long-term enterprises cannot be built through shortcuts. "Businesses not working is not a problem, governance-related and ethics morality-related issues are not acceptable," he told PTI on the sidelines of the IAMAI Digital Health Summit. Tandon said that governance needs to be "front and center" for startups and that when governance is strong, capital flows better. He hoped that the startup ecosystem lives up to higher standards. Addressing the recent governance and financial lapses faced by startups such as Byju's, he said, "As an ecosystem we are waking up to a lot of issues around governance controls". He acknowledged that the late-stage startup ecosystem has become more challenging. "With th

How Ankit Agrawal is building InsuranceDekho as fastest growing insurtech

InsuranceDekho was started in 2017 with a vision of democratising the Indian insurance sector by simplifying the insurance buying, selling, and claim process

Bank of India launches three dedicated centres for startups under DPIIT

Bank of India on Monday launched three dedicated centres for startups and plans to have 12 such centres with a Rs 500 crore loan book by the first year of operations. The three centres are located in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi. They are intended to facilitate the government's goal of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, and comes under the initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Under DPIIT's initiative, more than 93,000 startups have been registered and are technically eligible for loans of Rs 1-10 crore. The bank has already sanctioned almost Rs 12 crore to seven startups which are in the tech, restaurant and manufacturing space, its Managing Director Rajneesh Karnatak told PTI. Further, Karnatak said the bank has already identified nine more cities with large pool of startup clusters and over the next 12 months, it will have 12 such dedicated centres. The bank hopes to fund at least 200 such companies and have around Rs 500 cror

'How bad is the job market?': Applicants spooked, experts optimistic

A start-up receiving 3,000 job applications in 48 hours reflects how substantial the churn is

Saarthi.ai fires employees in batches, withholds salaries; cites 'pressure'

Bengaluru-based AI tech support startup Saarthi.ai has fired some employees buckling under "investor pressure" to become profitable, and has allegedly withheld salaries of several employees since March 2023. While an employee took to a social media platform to claim that withholding of salaries has affected a substantial chunk of staff, the numbers could not be independently verified. Responding to queries, Founder and CEO Vishwa Nath Jha said the company has "let go" of employees in batches owing to "investor pressure" to become profitable, but declined to divulge the number of employees affected by the move. "Our team has been restructured in light of technological advancement and many team members were let go in batches as a result. We had to automate low level professional cognitive skills of our staff due to investor pressure to become profitable," he told PTI. Addressing concerns of withholding salaries, he said that the full and final settlement for early batches of the ...

Shark Tank Season 1: Which shark honoured most number of deals? Check here

In total, out of a total of 65 deal commitments, only 40% (28) deals were honoured by seven sharks

Startups have obligation to take India's flag to other countries: Paytm CEO

Startups have an obligation to take the Indian flag to other countries, founder and CEO of Paytm Vijay Shekhar Sharma said on Tuesday. "Right now we have reached the stage in the startup ecosystem where the mature companies should start to think that which countries we can export to, if we could export for our IT services," Sharma said at an event by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Sharing his optimism about the rising global presence of Indian startups, Sharma said that he aspires for an anti-trust regulation by America and other nations on an Indian company. "I really wish in my lifetime that America is thinking of sanctioning us...multiple countries, and then you go for negotiations - don't do it!," he said. He also spoke on value creation for startups, the divide between traditional industries and startups and the next phase of generative technology and AI. Announcing that AI-first offerings will be in the forefront of operations, Sharma termed AI as the "biggest ...

VC firm CoinFund raises $158 mn to back early-stage crypto startups

The New York-based firm had initially aimed for $125 million, but received more interest than expected, said Chief Executive Officer Jake Brukhman

Dukaan lays off 90% staff for AI bot: It's absolutely necessary, says CEO

E-commerce startup Dukaan has replaced 90 per cent of its customer support team with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, founder and CEO Suumit Shah informed on Tuesday. Attributing the decision to prioritising profitability, he said customer support costs reduced by 85 per cent while resolution time went down from over two hours to three minutes. "We had to lay off 90 per cent of our support team because of this AI chatbot. Tough? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely," Shah tweeted. Several Twitter users criticised the tweet, deeming it insensitive. "Given the state of economy, startups are prioritising "profitability" over striving to become "unicorns", and so are we," Shah added. He explained in detail about Lina, the AI assistant which he claimed, replaces generic and delayed responses, as well as limited availability of resources and poor communication. After 12 tweets, Shah said that the company is hiring for multiple roles. When asked by a Twitter user about the assistance prov

Indian start-ups money for little: Here's a look at ecosystem's finances

Funding raised by start-ups in H1 2023 was $5.4 billion, down 71.5 per cent compared to $19 billion raised in H1 2022

Byju's crisis prompts top India VC firm Blume Ventures to shift strategy

Perceived corporate governance lapses are sending shockwaves through the South Asian nation's fledgling startup economy

Tamil Nadu's Atsuya secures spot in Google's Startup Accelerator Program

Under the program, tech companies using artificial intelligence/ machine learning (AI/ML) get access to Google's resources, programs, people, products and technology

PharmEasy to raise Rs 2,400 cr, Manipal Group likely to invest Rs 1,000 cr

The fundraising will be done via a rights issue where the stock will be sold at a 90 per cent discount at Rs 5 per share