News Roundup: 9 Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [22 February – 27 February]

Just few months after making a foray into grocery delivery, Flipkart, this week, shuts down its grocery delivery division ‘Nearby’.

Important Developments Of The Week

Revised Patenting Guidelines For Startups

The Indian Patent Office has rolled back its guidelines on patenting software which caught eyeballs, last year, when the Patent Office interpreted the law stating that – if a software had industrial applications, it could be granted a patent. With the new decision, now startups will also be allowed to apply for software patenting for computer-related inventions (CRI).

SBI Launches SBI E-Smart

SBI launched SBI e-Smart SME, a working capital loan offering for sellers on ecommerce platforms. With this development, sellers can apply for loan online, on the ecommerce platform, and get instant sanctioning of the loan.

Now No Service Charge On Digital Payments

In a bid to motivate people to switch to electronic payments and avoid cash transactions, the Union Cabinet announced the withdrawal of surcharge, service charge, and convenience fee on digital payments done through cards or ewallets.

Freshdesk Launches Hotline.Io

Freshdesk launched an in-app, real-time messaging service called Hotline.io. The service addresses unique challenges of mobile-first businesses to provide real time support to their customers by offering features like High Speed UI, In-App Chat, Targeted Campaigns, and Mobile FAQs.

Snapdeal Alleged To Fire 200 Employees

Snapdeal asked 200 of its employees in its consumer service department to improve their performance or to head out. The employees have been asked to choose between resigning or going on the performance plan, giving the person a month’s time to meet targets. And if failed, it will only result in termination.

Times Internet Partners with Investopedia

To deliver trusted financial content to Indian readers, Times Internet has entered into a strategic partnership with Investopedia. Through this partnership, Investopedia and Times Internet will collaborate to create and curate a blend of local and international content, knowledge events and seminars to grow the brand amongst the audience in India.

Paytm To Offer Luxury Products

Paytm is in plans to launch an online and mobile ecommerce platform, Anasa, for luxury products. The company has roped in luxury brands like Gucci, Fendi, Furla and Burberry for its luxury platform.

IRCTC Partners With OYO Rooms

IRCTC has tied up with OYO Rooms to launch an IRCTC hotel-booking page on OYO Rooms. With this partnership, Oyo will be able to offer its inventory to Indian Railways’ travellers.

Other Developments Of The Week

Stockroom Introduces Stockroom Prime

Stockroom Prime is a premium jobs marketplace powered by coding challenges. The platform will introduce a coding challenge which the candidate should complete successfully before they are able to apply for the position. If they complete it successfully the application sends a notification to the employer of the qualified applicant.

Cricbuzz Bags Digital Video Clip Rights

Cricbuzz became the exclusive licensee for digital video clip rights, for US and Canada, for all ICC events between 2016 and 2019. As per the deal terms, Times Internet will have exclusive rights to deliver a comprehensive video package that includes video clips of pre-match, in-match and post-match coverage.

Just Dial Launches App For Sellers

Just Dial launched JD Omni, its app for sellers. The app will allow merchants and sellers to manage their businesses on a single platform by providing them with full ecommerce capabilities, including payment integration.

Lookup Launches ‘Lookup Biz’

Lookup Biz, a merchant app by Lookup, will provide a free suite of tools to merchants to showcase their business and connect to the Lookup’s shoppers community. It will enable merchants to track customers, respond to queries, and perform product searches.

FreeCharge Partners With Ezetap

To drive wallet penetration FreeCharge has partnered with Ezetap. This will allow FreeCharge users to make payments at various Ezetap service points.

Ola Signs MoU With Uttar Pradesh Govt

Ola signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to provide entrepreneurship opportunities to 50,000 men and women over the next 5 years in the state. The company will also work with the government to launch Ola Auto, Ola Share, and Ola Shuttle in the state.

Naaptol Marks A Milestone

Naaptol notched a record of a whopping 1.24 lakh orders in one day, making it the biggest benchmark created by any home shopping company in India. With this it achieved highest Gross Sales Value (GSV) in a day.

Medikoe Ties Up With Jiyo Natural

Medikoe has tied up with Jiyo Natural  to promote healthy eating among the working professionals in Bangalore. Besides, it also tends to provide value-added offers on healthcare and wellness products and services with a record of delivering more than 300 meals a day.

Eko Partners With Pine Labs

Eko has partnered with Pine Labs to launch world’s first domestic money transfer service through POS/card swipe devices. The partnership will help citizens to transfer money instantly, with over 1 lakh Pine Labs merchants network across India.

MakersBox Plans To Set Up Innovation Maker Lab

MakersBox & District Administration jointly plans to set up an Innovation MakerLab in Karnal. The lab will be a unique platform for children, innovators, educators and entrepreneurs to accelerate product innovation to enable the government’s `Make in India’ and `Skill India’ vision. The lab will provide the infrastructure, development kits, access to courseware, hardware, 3D Printers, mechanical tools and software tools, in addition to mentoring and business connections for local Indian entrepreneurs and innovators to develop and test products and solutions.

Mirraw.com Targets INR 500 Cr Revenue Growth

From being a bootstrapped venture with INR 1 lakh, Mirraw.com achieved INR 100 Cr mark  in 2015. Now it plans to clock revenue growth of INR 500 Cr by the end of 2016.

Pay With Paytm At CCD & More

Users can now use Paytm wallet to pay at 1,600 Café Coffee Day (CCD) outlets and Aditya Birla Group’s food and grocery retail arm, More.

Baxi Completes 50,000 rides

In a short span of two and a half months, Baxi scaled its fleet to over 200 bikes and completed a total of 50,000 rides. This recorded 200% increase in number of daily rides as compared to last year.

TripHobo Joins Amadeus Next

TripHobo has partnered with Asia Pacific startup community Amadeus Next to develop and pilot an end-to-end travel planner. The partnership will allow TripHobo to integrate advanced flight search solutions for its users, while Amadeus will additionally help TripHobo build new features to offer travellers innovative tools to plan a complete trip end-to-end, and mentor it for a go-to-market strategy.

Komli Media Expands In International Market

Komli Media is expanding operations in South-East Asia by opening an office in Jakarta, Indonesia. It has partnered with real-time data broker for network operators, Smartpipe, to deliver greater audience accuracy for its Indonesian operations.

Jugnoo Slashes Fares

Jugnoo announced reduction in its base fare across metros and towns. The startup aims to increase the demand and keep up with the goal of being the fastest and most affordable mean of public transport in the country.

BankBazaar Expands To International Market

BankBazaar has initiated its international business expansion within Asia with a special focus on Singapore. With an aim to strengthen international presence, the company will subsequently focus on other growth markets including Malaysia, Philippines and UAE.