News Roundup: 11 Indian Startup News That You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [25 – 30 September]

We bring you the weekly dose of important Indian startup news of the week.

One of the major news which surfaced in the Indian startup and tech ecosystem was Industry body CAIT alleging Flipkart, Amazon of violating FDI rules. As per CAIT, by providing heavy discounts and indulging into retail trade activities, Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal have blatantly violated guidelines issued by the DIPP in the FDI Policy. CAIT, has, thus urged the government to take immediate action against these ecommerce firms for the violation of FDI policy and has written to Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu in this regard.

Another major, Indian tech and startup news was Flipkart, Ola, and others joining hands to set up lobby group Indiatech. Flipkart and Ola are trying to include players like MakeMyTrip to launch an industry body to represent the interests of local ventures. The lobby group will be called Indiatech.org and it will be led by Sachin Bansal – as founding president and Chairman.

Important Indian Startup News Of The Week

MobiKwik Losses Over $3 Mn From His Bank Account

This was one of the shocking news for the Indian startup and tech ecosystem. It is said to be happening due to a technical glitch. A company official said the money was deducted from MobiKwik’s corporate account during online transactions made by individual customers. These wallet transactions were pertaining to recharge, bill payment, shopping etc.

Amazon Form JV With Ashok Patni Group

Amazon has formed a JV (joint venture) with Ashok Patni Group to strengthen its customer service unit or call centre. The step aims at elevating its brand presence amidst Indian customers by supporting the growing number of local-language customers.

Flipkart To Leverage AI For Future Online Sales

Flipkart, after grossing in over 30 times of the usual traffic during Big Billion Day, is now gearing to further enhance the buying experience for the users. The investor on board and tech partner Microsoft will now deploy AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning)-based solutions to run future sales for the ecommerce unicorn.

Indian Opposition Party May Seek Help From Cambridge Analytica For 2019 Polls

A major Indian opposition party is looking to join hands with global big data analytics startup, Cambridge Analytica (CA), for reaching a larger section of the country’s voting population in the upcoming 2019 general elections. The company came into the limelight last year for assisting Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

ZOHO Launches Cliq

This was another important Indian startup news of the week. Cliq is an instant messenger with video, audio and group conferencing features. The new application is designed to serve as a unified communication system for enterprises. Available in native, web and mobile versions, Cliq is programmed to seamlessly integrate data from the Zoho platform as well as third-party applications.

Amazon Launches B2B Marketplace Amazon Business

It will focus on the procurement needs of Small and Medium Businesses (SMB) such as technology and service companies, manufacturers, universities, schools and offices. Also, through Amazon Business sellers registered with the ecommerce portal will provide SMBs with an access to over 100 Mn products along with GST compliant invoices.

Flipkart Claims Lead Position In Festive Sale Battle

Overall, for these festive season sale days, the RedSeer analysis shows that the etailing industry managed to generate $1.5 Bn sales ( INR 9,000 Cr). As compared to $1.05 Bn generated in 2016 edition, this is a YoY growth of ~40%. Flipkart nailed the top spot, grabbing 58% of the GMV, while Amazon followed with 26% GMV.

Govt. To Support Agritech Startups For Agricultural Development

Another reason for the agritech startups to rejoice. Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Radha Mohan Singh revealed that the objective of the agriculture development is to double the farmers’ income by 2022. The minister also emphasised on the support of technology, which should be low cost, farmer-friendly and scalable.

Elon Musk Keen On India Entry

Tesla the automaker company of Elon Musk is planning to enter the Indian electric car market through the single-brand retail route. Tesla has reached out to the government for the same. Also, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, stated that driverless cars are currently not a necessity in India. The need of the hour, according to him, are electric vehicles that are less polluting and more energy-efficient than cars running on conventional fossil fuels.

Other Indian Startup News Of The Week

Delhi HC Cancels AskMe MD Warrant

The Delhi High Court has cancelled the bailable warrant against Sanjiv Gupta, former Managing Director of defunct online retailer AskMe.com. The warrant was issued earlier this month.

pCloudy Establish Its Data Centre In Australia

The launch of the data centre is aimed at tapping the Australian App market helping its customers increase their App coverage to ANZ region. The new data centre will help in testing the apps on all Australia specific mobile devices with local Telco networks such as Vodafone, Telstra and Optus. The opening is in sync with pCloudy’s global expansion plans and further in line with building world’s largest cloud platform for mobile and IoT Testing by as early as 2019.

UberEATS Introduces Cash Payments In Mumbai

The feature has been introduced first in India. UberEATS will eventually expand the option to some of the other 29 countries where UberEATS is available today. For restaurants and delivery partners, cash expands access to UberEATS, allowing Mumbai’s food-makers to grow their businesses and reach more of their customers.

Zenatix Launches WattMan Lite

WattMan Lite is an IoT product tailor-made for controlling stand-alone ACs over the internet. WattMan Lite does more than automated control, it monitors temperature and humidity in real time and uses machine learning algorithms to raise alerts in advance if an AC needs servicing. The product is targeted at SMEs, schools, colleges, retail outlets, offices, pharmacy chains, etc, that need to manage large number of ACs and save electricity.

Atom Launches mGalla

mGalla is claimed to be India’s first multi acquiring Digital POS Payments App. By integrating different modes of payment such as Bharat QR, mPOS, UPI, Link Based payments and cash, the new app will be beneficial for India’s informal or unorganised sector which accounts for nearly 50% of the country’s GDP. By offering seamless payment services, mGalla will also help merchants to align themselves with GST.

EarlySalary Extends Its Footprint In South India

The operations are launched in Visakhapatnam, Mysore and Vijaywada after a successful series of launches in Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Jaipur & Ahmedabad. EarlySalary aims to support young professionals overcome their month-end financial needs. The company provides instant loans from as low as Rs. 8,000 up to Rs.1,00,000/- for up to 30 days.

Karnataka Gets Its Centre Of Excellence For Data science And AI

NASSCOM is the program and implementation partner. Being set-up with an estimated investment of INR 40 Cr, the CoE will the first-of-its-kind port based on Public-Private Partnership model and will accelerate the ecosystem in Karnataka and provide the impetus for the development of data science and artificial intelligence across the country. The State Government will further support the initiative with a significant share of investment required for initial five years and non-sensitive data which can augment innovation and research in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence.

Ola Initiated Responsible Tourism Campaign

The states which are part of this Responsible Tourism campaign are Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. The aim is to rediscover 21 lesser-known locations with Ola Outstation in 14 days, at the same time encouraging people to travel, avoiding littering, and help state governments in boosting the local economy adding more fund to their tourism revenue chest. Pranay Jivrajka, Founding Partner, Ola stated, “Right from drivers’ document verification, the fitness of cars to SOS buttons and 24-hour support to both drivers and riders, we have a completely separate account of checks and balances for Ola Outstation. We also make sure that driver is familiar with the routes.”

Stay tuned for the next edition of the News Roundup: Indian Startup News Of The Week!

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