News Roundup: 8 Indian Startup Stories You Don’t Want To Miss This Week [8 May – 13 May]

After Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn has become the new battleground for the startups. Vijay Anand, founder and CEO of Chennai-based accelerator The Startup Centre, in a recent LinkedIn post, called Indian startups Practo, Zoho, Freshdesk overstaffed. He gave examples of companies like Skype, Instagram or Whatsapp built by a small set of engineers (max 100) in contrast to Indian companies where it goes over 1000. Girish Mathrubootham, Freshdesk’s founder and CEO termed this comparison unfair in another LinkedIn post and also highlighted several reasons for hiring more people.

Next up, the ecommerce giants have lined up for battle with sale events. Flipkart has kicked off its 10th anniversary celebrations by bringing in what’s claimed to be the biggest sales of the year – The Big 10 sale. Around the same time, global retail giant Amazon has also announced its ‘Amazon Great Indian Sale.’ The sale will be carried out between May 11 to May 14, 2017.

Important Developments Of The Week

Bengaluru Is The Most Affordable Tech City

India’s mecca of startups Bengaluru has topped the list of 22 tech cities across the world in affordable living, as per the Savills Tech Cities Index. Overall, Bengaluru ranks a low 20 among tech cities in the world.

Xiaomi Launches First Mi Home Store In India

The owner of the widely-sold Mi-series of smartphones has opened its first Mi Home Store in Bengaluru. The store will open to the public on May 20, 2017. Xiaomi further plans to launch more stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad in the coming months, with a target to launch 100 stores in the next two years.

Vodafone Now Bids On B2B Segment

The company recently launched a high-speed WiFi network SuperWifi, under the name – SuperWifi Go, with a slew of features and benefits for enterprises. It is said to be a fully managed WiFi network solution, that provides unified, high-speed, a wireless network (Internet and/or VPN) access to employees, guests and customers across all offices, branches and stores.

Amazon’s Canadian Unit In Hot Water Again

After facing Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj ire upon insulting the National Flag,  Amazon Canadian Unit has been again found guilty of selling distorted Indian National Flag. The map does not show correct boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir. The product is retailed by DIY thinker for CDN $25.35 (approx. INR 1,195).

Cybersecurity Startup Lucideus Launches Risk Management Platform – SAFE

Delhi-based cyber security startup Lucideus has launched an enterprise cyber risk management platform – SAFE. It is a dynamic and self-evolving platform, aimed to transform the way the C-suite, boardrooms, investors and regulators look at cybersecurity.

DIPP Launches Startup India Online Hub

It is an online platform for all stakeholders of the entrepreneurial ecosystem to discover, connect and engage with each other. It is developed by Invest India and is expected to go live soon. The portal will host startups, investors, funds, mentors, academia, incubators, accelerators, corporates, government bodies, etc.

Government Provides 80% Rebate In Fees

Startups are provided with an 80% rebate in the filing of patents vis-a-vis other companies. This was aimed to help them pare down costs in the crucial formative years. The scheme was launched initially on a pilot basis for one year, however, it has now been extended for three years up to the year 2020.

Other Developments Of The Week

Foodpanda New India App Launched

Foodpanda’s new mobile app for Indian users creates a personalised customer experience with several new features. The users can now view multiple banners for filters, restaurants and live discounts & deals right on the home screen. Last year,  Foodpanda was acquired by Berlin-based online food takeaway service Delivery Hero, one of Europe’s biggest startups.

Zeotap Expands To India

zeotap, a premium, mobile data collective providing high-quality customer insights for digital marketers announced the expansion of its India operations. Last year, zeotap entered into a joint venture (JV) for the Indian market with Mogae Media for programmatic advertising on smartphones.

Tectotron Partners With Carnot

Under this strategic partnership, Tectotron will facilitate marketing and sales for Carnot’s security solution on its ecommerce platform. The security solution comes in with a built-in GPS and allows users to manage their vehicles remotely as well.

Hotels Around You Shuts Down

Mumbai-based last minute hotel booking platform HotelsAroundYou has closed down its operations. Although the timeline is not clear, it’s said to have been in defunct mode since mid-2016. The shutdown reason is said to be severe cash crunch and inability to raise funds.

OYO Launches First Townhouse In Hyderabad

Townhouse, ‘the friendly neighbourhood hotel,’ is a unique combination of a hotel, home, merchandise store and cafe. The company aims to launch 25 Townhouse hotels in Telangana, and expand to 60 Townhouse hotels across seven cities in Southern India by end of 2017.

Housing.com Goes Live In Ahmedabad

Housing.com, which was acquired by Elara Technologies Pte Ltd which also owns PropTiger.com and Makaan.com, has entered the Ahmedabad market to expand its presence in Western India. For now, the portal lists around 1,000+ properties from renowned developers such as Iscon Developers, Ganesh Housing, Arvind Group, Savvy, Adani and Pacifica to name a few. With Ahmedabad, Housing.com’s presence has now increased to 10 cities.

YES Bank Partners With CashKaro

With this deal, YES BANK and CashKaro claim to become the first providers of card linked offers in India. The partnership will enable retailers to target relevant deals to cardholders and significantly ease the cashback implementation process for both consumers and merchants.

Ola Open Sources ‘Jackhammer’

It is a first of its kind comprehensive vulnerability analysis and management tool launched by Ola to find security vulnerabilities with all kinds of applications – including web app, mobile app, network, and source code, giving companies a streamlined view of their organisations’ security posture. This helps security teams to manage the complex continuous integration and multiple deployments required for secure product development.

In another development, Ola also joined hands with Airte. The companies will leverage their ecosystems to build innovative solutions that enhance customer convenience and add to the service experience. As part of the deal, Airtel Payments Bank will integrate with Ola app; while  Ola Money will integrate with Airtel digital properties along with other digital services provided to the customers.

Goibibo Launches ‘One View’ On Its Mobile App

The Goibibo app now begins with a simple default question: “Where do you want to Go?” Based on the choice of the traveller’s destination, the app delivers a single consolidated view of: multiple transportation forms ranging from air, bus, cabs & shared Cars with real-time prices and bookable inventories, accommodation options ranging from hotels to home stays, trending question and answers about the destination that are generated by travelers, user’s “goContacts” that have travelled to that destination, backed with the ability for the user to ask questions to their contacts.

Indus OS And Delta ID Launch First-Ever Aadhaar-Authenticated OS

It uses IRIS-biometric technology for the most secure identification and authentication modality and supports 12 Indian languages. The OS will be released to their smartphone brand partners and the team foresee 100 Mn users to be using the Aadhaar-authenticated OS by 2020.

Uniphore Launches Advanced Version Of Speech Analytics Software

Known as auMina version 2.5, Uniphore’s new advanced version will enable the analyst to effectively address business outcomes using a patented rating engine. ­­­­This release introduces a Business Process Management layer and advanced machine learning capability to aid the configuration of the business outcomes and a completely redesigned user experience.