Page 31 - Startups

After Ratan Tata, now Niranjan Hiranandani invests in Goodfellows

Founder and CEO of the Hiranandani Group Niranjan Hiranandani has made an investment in Goodfellows, a start-up offering senior citizens companionship

Google collaborates with K'taka govt to support emerging local start-ups

Tech giant and search engine Google on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government to support its vision to promote innovation and spur the growth of startups across the State. In collaboration with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), Google would work with women-led founders and startups across tier-2 and tier-3 cities to offer essential training, access to partners, expertise on Google's suite of tools and technologies, along with knowledge and mentorship sessions in areas such as Cloud, User Experience, Android, Web, Product Strategy, Leadership and Marketing, said a statement from Google. Google would extend also scholarships for Google career certificates to youth and job-seekers in digital skills such as IT support, project management, data analytics and support local schools, too, to promote the fundamentals of online safety and digital citizenship to children through the Be Internet Awesome' programme.

About 100 start-ups registered with Isro, says Chairman S Somanath

Chairperson of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) S Somanath on Thursday said about 100 start-ups were registered with the space agency. Addressing a plenary session here at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022 on R&D of India Innovation for Global Impact,' he said ISRO has signed memoranda of understanding with companies to work closely, which include hand-holding in space technology and building processes from start to finish. He said a number of companies have the potential to become big players in the space sector and ISRO was playing as a facilitator and helping in building technologies. He said out of the 100 start-ups at least 10 were working on developing satellites and rockets. Somanath announced that Chandrayaan-3 mission would be in orbit in a few months and that ISRO was working with NASA. India needs a thriving space sector, the ISRO chairman said adding the country was looking at how to expand the sector in the days to come. We have to work on cutting-edge ...

BharatX to invest Rs 122 cr in indigenous start-ups over next 18 months

Startup accelerator BharatX will invest USD 15 million (about Rs 122 crore) over the next 18 months in the Indian startup ecosystem, the firm said on Thursday. A joint venture between India Accelerator and think-tank Council for International Economic Understanding (CIEU), BharatX will invest Rs 1-5 crore in each startup during the first edition of the accelerator programme. "The number of startups in India rose from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 by June 2022, which is fuelling the Indian tech wave. To build a Swadeshi Startup Ecosystem in India, BharatX announces to inject USD 15 million over the period of 18 months to build and scale nationwide," BharatX said in a statement. The swadeshi startup ecosystem in India has been developing with the growth of emerging technologies, young talent and infrastructure to support them. And BharatX works as a growth enabler to support that ecosystem, the statement said. "With India becoming the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, ...

Maruti Suzuki joins hands with IIT Bombay to drive innovation programmes

Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday said it has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay to drive innovation programmes for startups. The auto major said it has inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay to expand the reach of its innovation programs for startups. As part of the three-year MoU, SINE will support in outreach and incubation of potential startups who can be part of Maruti Suzuki's innovation programs, it added. As part of the initiative, Maruti Suzuki and SINE will jointly shortlist startups for some of the complex business problems identified by the company. They will together screen applications, organise workshops with mentors, industry experts and investors. "Our efforts to engage startups aligns with Prime Minister's mantra of 'Sabka Prayas' to make India a global manufacturing hub. Our tie-up with IIT Bombay is an effort in this direction," Maruti Suzuki India Managing Director & CEO .

Indian startups need to deliver good profits in 3-5 yrs: Accel's Prakash

The top venture capitalist also predicted that at least 25 Indian unicorns will go for IPO in the next 3-5 years

Healthtech start-up BeatO raises $33 mn in Series B from Lightrock

Firm provides affordable diabetes care with a focus on people who don't have access to specialists

Simplilearn raises $45mn in new funding round led by GSV Ventures

Start-up added more than more than 120,000 paid learners in the past year

Balaji Srinivasan invests unknown sum in blockchain start-up Permissionless

Company to use the funds to scale the number of contributors on the platform, create more integrated productivity tools for borderless and asynchronous work

Unicorn startup Darwinbox may go for IPO in next 3 years: Co-founder

HR tech company Darwinbox, which is valued at over USD 1 billion, may go for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the next three years, its co-founder Rohit Chennamaneni said on Monday here. Speaking to media persons in a press conference, he said the city-based firm is expected to achieve profitability by 2025 with Indian operations becoming profitable by next fiscal. The promoters of Darwinbox currently hold more than 30 per cent stake in the company while the rest is held by investors, including TCV, Salesforce Ventures, Sequoia, Lightspeed and Endiya Partners. "At this point of time the plan is to get to an IPO in the next three years. That's how we are planning our expansion at this point of time. And when you look at the IPO as well, I think broadly as a business, we want to be a global business serving enterprise across the world and competing with the likes of SAP Oracle and Workday," he said. This is the positioning in which we want to get an IPO, Chennamaneni pointed ...

Venture Catalysts says it has funded 54 start-ups at over $50 mn valuation

Individual valuations of at least two dozen companies have crossed $100 million, says investment firm

Belt-tightening measures key to surviving pink slip, say experts

Cautious spending, reduced debt burden, and opting for gig work can help

Smart home appliances start-up Up raises $1.3 mn in pre-seed funding

Start-up's device assists people with no cooking experience by listing recipes, nutrition information

pi Ventures raises $8 mn for 2nd fund from British International Investment

The second fund was launched in March 2021 with a base target corpus of $75 million and including a green shoe target of $100 million

Nykaa shares slump as one-year lockup period of pre-IPO investors ends

Selling pressure from pre-IPO investors feared in four start-ups this month

HR tech start-up Keka raises $57 mn in series A funding by WestBridge

The company helps businesses by automating payroll, recruiting, performance management

Pocket FM announces US foray, crosses $25 mn in annualised revenue run rate

According to Statista, audio OTT market in India is expected to be worth $2.5 billion by 2030

Doola raises $8 million in funding from Nexus Venture Partners

The funding round was led by Nexus Venture Partners with participation from the Y Combinator Continuity Fund, among others

New start-up scheme to focus on biz ideas, unicorns in Uttar Pradesh

Under the new framework, the start-up seed capital/marketing support sum has been hiked by 50 per cent from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh

Hiring of top-level professionals slowing down in Indian startups: Report

In most startups, the CEOs are now participating in the hiring process for senior-level professionals